When Decimus was delivered from the siege he began to be afraid of Octavian, whom, after the removal of the two consuls, he feared as an enemy. So he broke down the bridge over the river before daybreak and sent certain persons to Octavian in a boat, as if to return thanks for rescuing him, and asked that Octavian would come to the opposite bank of the river to hold a conversation with him in the presence of the citizens as witnesses, because he could convince Octavian, he said, that an evil spirit had deceived him and that he had been led into the conspiracy against Caesar by others. Octavian answered the messengers in a tone of anger, declining the thanks that Decimus gave him, saying:
"I am here not to rescue Decimus, but to fight Antony, with whom I may properly come to terms some time, but nature forbids that I should even look at Decimus or hold any conversation with him. Let him have safety, however, as long as the authorities at Rome please." When Decimus heard this he stood on the river bank and, calling Octavian by name, read with a loud voice the letters of the Senate giving him command of the Gallic province, and forbade Octavian to cross the river without consular authority into the government belonging to another, and not to follow Antony further, for that he himself would be quite capable of pursuing him. Octavian knew that he was prompted to this audacious course by the Senate,
and although able to seize him by giving an order, he spared him for the present and withdrew to Pansa at Bononia, where he wrote a full report to the Senate, and Pansa did likewise.In Rome Cicero read to the people the report of the consul, and to the Senate alone that of Octavian. For the victory over Antony, he caused them to vote a thanksgiving of fifty days, — a longer festivity than the Romans had ever decreed even after the Gallic or any other war. He induced them to give the army of the consuls to Decimus, although Pansa was still alive (for his life was now despaired of), and to appoint Decimus the sole commander against Antony. Public prayers were offered that Decimus might prevail over him.