As they arrived, the city was speedily filled with arms and military standards, disposed in the most advantageous places. A public assembly was forthwith convened in the midst of these armed men, and a tribune, Publius Titius, proposed a law providing for a new magistracy for settling the present disorders, to consist of three men to hold office for five years, namely, Lepidus, Antony, and Octavian, with the same power as consuls. (Among the Greeks these would be called harmosts, which is the name the Lacedaemonians gave to those whom they appointed over their subject states.) No time was given for scrutiny of this measure, nor was a fixed day appointed for voting on it, but it was passed forthwith.
That same night, the proscription of 130 men in addition to the seventeen was proclaimed in various parts of the city, and a little later 150 more, and additions to the lists were constantly made of those who were condemned later or previously killed by mistake, so that they might seem to have perished justly. It was ordered that the heads of all the victims should be brought to the triumvirs at a fixed reward, which to a free person was payable in money and to a slave in both money and freedom. All were required to afford opportunity for searching their houses. Those who received fugitives, or concealed them, or refused to allow search to be made, were liable to the same penalties as the proscribed,
and those who informed against concealers were allowed the same rewards as those who killed the proscribed.When the lists were published, the gates and all the other exits from the city, the harbor, and every other place that was suspected as adapted to flight or concealment, were occupied by soldiers; the centurions were charged to scour the surrounding country. All these things took place simultaneously.Straightway, throughout city and country, wherever each one happened to be found, there were sudden arrests and murder in various forms, decapitations for the sake of the rewards when the head should be shown, and undignified flights in disguises which strangely contrasted with former splendour.