Following Julius Caesar's assassination, his adoptive son Caesar Octavian and former generals Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus united in 43 BC to defeat the assassins of Caesar and to assume power over the Republic. The "Triumvirate" was legally established as the "Triumviri Rei Publicae Constituendae Consulari Potestate" ("Board of Three Men with Consular Power for Restoring the Republic") with the enactment of the "Lex Titia".