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So in the weeks leading up to the Treaty of Brundisium, in the aftermath of Fulvia's Rebellion, Mark Antony was raising troops to move against the young Caesar; apparently, he intended to make his peace with Sextus Pompey and (AIUI) give him the new spot in the Triumvir. What ended up saving Octavian was that the soldiers, essentially, refused to fight, and from the bottom up insisted that Antony and Caesar's heir work out their differences.

So here's my question -- what happens if Octavian dies (by illness, poison, suicide, what have you) before this deal can be struck?

CONSOLIDATION: Here's a possibly crazy thought -- maybe this means a potential return to the Republic? Hear me out:

Sextus Pompey has by this point given refuge to a number of fleeing republicans following the formation of the Second Triumvirate, plus his father fought with the Optimates; he's more than likely to be sympathetic. And who, aside from Mark Antony, would the anti-republican Caesarians follow to oppose him? Lepidus? That guy couldn't lead his way out of a small sack. Cleopatra's son? Pretty extreme, even for Caesar's loyalest followers, without someone like Antony propping the lad up.

So that just leaves Mark Antony himself, and he didn't seem to take ideological issue with the republican form of government the way Octavian did. To start with, the boy was from the provinces, while Antony had made his bones in the bustle of Roman politics; Antony was always more ready to negotiate with Sextus Pompey than Octavian was; and he, of the three Triumvirs, was the one most concerned with achieving Caesar's vision of a War with Parthia. Plus in later decades OTL, Octavian (then Augustus) would appropriate the moralism of republican sentiment to shore up his own regime, something I can't see Antony trying or pulling off. (And of course, it goes without saying that Antony had not really tied himself to Cleopatra by this point as he would later OTL.)

So we might have a new "lead citizen" of the Roman Empire who has very little interest in managing state affairs, perfectly content to let the republican traditions that governed the state until recently reassert themselves. What do you guys think?
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