Sextus Pompey
The situation changed with the assassination of Caesar (44 BC). In 42 BC, Sextus Pompey, son of Pompey Magnus, was appointed commander of the Roman fleet gathered at Massalia by the Senate. He came into conflict with the Second Triumvirate, consisting of Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus and was proscribed under the "lex Pedia" for collecting other proscribed individuals and slaves from Epirus and carrying out various acts of piracy. He therefore took control Mylae, Tyndaris and then Messana. After this, all of Sicily had to submit to him. First he killed the praetor, Aulus Pompeius Bithynicus and then he defeated Octavian's legatus, Quintus Salvidienus Rufus in a naval battle off Rhegium (40 BC). Sextus Pompey was able to prevent the supply of grain to Rome from Sicily. Initially, Octavian could do little about this, but then the people at Rome forced a compromise. Thus in 39 BC, Sextus Pompey and the Second Triumvirate signed the Pact of Misenum, which recognised Sextus Pompey's control of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica and granted freedom to the slaves in his custody. In exchange, Sextus Pompey promised to end the blockade of Rome, resume the Sicilian grain supply to Rome and not to gather any more slaves. The agreement did not hold and triumvirs turned their attention on Sicily. The conflict involved perhaps 200,000 men and 1,000 warships and wrecked great devastation on Sicily. The territory of Tyndaris and Messina was the most damaged.