Another embassy at once advanced to meet Octavian.There they saw each other surrounded by their friends and conspicuous by the standards and military equipment of generals on either side.Then Lucius went forward with two lictors only,showing his state of mind by his outward appearance.Octavian understood and imitated his example,showing his intended good-will toward Lucius.When he saw the latter hastening to pass inside his fortification,indicating thereby that he had already surrendered,Octavian anticipated him and went outside the fortification in order that Lucius might still be free to consult and decide concerning his own interests.Thus as they moved forward they foreshadowed their intentions to each other
in advance,by their retinue and their outward appearance.When they came to the ditch they saluted each other,and Lucius said:" I purposely left my friends behind so that I might not seem,by using these words in their presence, to be securing favor for myself in an underhand way."
Octavian said: " When I saw you, Lucius, approaching without any guarantee I hastened to meet you while you were still outside my entrenchments,so that you might even now be master of your own counsels and be able to do whatever you should think best for your own interests.Since you deliver yourself to me(as is customary to those who acknowledge that they are in the wrong),it is not necessary that I should discuss the false accusations
that you have brought against me with so much art. You began by injuring me and you continue to do so. If you were here negotiating a treaty, you would be dealing with a victor whom you had wronged. Now that you surrender yourself and your friends and your army without conditions, you take away not only all resentment, but also the power which, under negotiations for a treaty, you would necessarily have given me. There is involved in this question not only what you ought to suffer, but what it is becoming in me, as a just man, to do. I shall make the latter my chief consideration on account of the gods, on my account, and on yours, Lucius, and I shall not disappoint the expectation with which you came to me."