destroying Octavian's flagship, and the victory belonged to Sextus. The Greek historian Appian narrates the battle at dramatic length. Demonstrations against Octavian and the war broke out in Rome in response. In 37, Calvisius was held responsible and replaced as admiral when his subordinate Menas defected with a half-dozen ships to Sextus Pompeius. After Pompeius was defeated, Octavian gave Calvisius the promagisterial assignment of policing and restoring order to Italy in 36–35 BC, at which task he was at least temporarily successful. Calvisius's loyalties lay firmly on the side of Octavian during the final war of the Roman Republic; Plutarch says Calvisius's tales of how Antonius deferred to Cleopatra were so extravagant they were largely disbelieved. In 31, he was one of the septemviri epulones and held the office of curio maximus, whose duty was to collect religious contributions from the curiae. Calvisius was proconsul in Spain from as early as 31. An inscription in Spain records a Calvisius Sabinus, flamen of Roma and the Divine Augustus, who donated grain to the people of Clunia when the market had driven up prices to unaffordable levels. Although this benefactor was probably a local man who had been granted Roman citizenship by the proconsul, he may have been the proconsul himself. Calvisius returned to Rome in 28, and on May 26 celebrated a triumph, one of three awarded out of Octavian's triumviral provinces in 28. He was a likely candidate for a second consulship for 25 BC, but no further office is known for him. He may be the Sabinus named in Catalepton 10. See also Calvisia gens#Calvisii Sabini, for others with a similar name Selected bibliography Unless otherwise noted, dates, offices, and citations of ancient sources from T.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (American Philological Association, 1952), vol. 2, pp. 280, 295, 308, 327, 392, 397, 401, 421, 428; vol. 3 (1986), pp. 48–49. Syme, Ronald. The Roman Revolution. Oxford University Press, 1939, reissued 2002. Syme, Ronald. Sallust. University of California Press, 1964. Syme, Ronald. "Senators, Tribes and Towns." Historia 13 (1964) 105–125. Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986. References 1st-century BC Roman consuls 1st-century BC Roman praetors Sabinus, Gaius consul 715 AUC Roman governors of Africa