 Unlike the earlier First Triumvirate (between Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus), the Second Triumvirate was an official, legally established institution, whose overwhelming power in the Roman state was given full legal sanction and whose "imperium maius" outranked that of all other magistrates, including the consuls.Octavian, despite his youth (20 years old), extorted from the Senate the post of suffect consul ("consul suffectus") for 43 BC.He had been warring with Antony and Lepidus in upper Italia, but in October 43 BC the three agreed to unite and seize power and so met near Bononia (now Bologna).