General Notes

31 BCE- Antony and Cleopatra are defeated by Octavian, ensuring the prosperity of Greek ideals without threat from the eastern principles of despotism. His victory begins a new Roman era, called the Principate or Early Empire. The Senate and army bestow the name of Augustus and emperor ("victorious general") upon Octavian, and he is commonly referred to as Augustus. Having gained more land for Rome than any other ruler before him, Augustus dies in 14 CE with his rule having lasted 44 years.



In 49, the year in which the Civil War broke out between Pompey and Caesar, Marcus Antonius became tribune of the people and vigorously supported Caesar in the Senate. Caesar left him in charge of Italy, a post he again occupied in 48-47. After Caesar's murder, he controlled events and aroused the people against Caesar's assassins, Marcus Brutus and Cassius.



Octavian, Caesar's great-nephew and adopted son, gradually emerged as a rival. In April 43 a coalition of Octavian, the two consuls of the year, and Decimus Brutus defeated Antony at Mutina (Modena) and compelled him to withdraw into the southern part (Narbonensis) of Transalpine Gaul. There, however, he was joined by a number of leading commanders including Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who, after Antony, had been in charge of Italy. In early November Octavian met Antony and Lepidus in Bononia (Bologna), and the three entered into an official five-year pact, the second triumvirate (November 43). In 42 Marcus Brutus and Cassius killed themselves after their defeat at the Battle of Philippi, in which Antony greatly distinguished himself as a commander.



The triumvirs had agreed to divide the empire; so Antony proceeded to take up the administration of the eastern provinces. He spent the winter of 41-40 at Alexandria, as the lover of Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt.



Late in 40 he married Octavian's sister Octavia. In 38, however, differences had arisen between Antony and Octavian, and Antony sent Octavia back to Italy from Greece when he left again for the east and arranged for Cleopatra to join him in Syria. From then on, they lived together for the remaining seven years of their lives.



Cleopatra needed Antony in order to revive the Ptolemaic kingdom, and Antony needed Egypt as a source of supplies and funds. Octavian, who had won against Sextus Pompeius, sent Octavia to Antony in Syria, along with troops and provisions. But the soldiers fell far short of the numbers Antony expected and he then made a future breach between the two leaders almost inevitable by ordering Octavia to return to Rome.



In 32 the triumvirate had officially ended. After Antony had divorced Octavia, her brother broke off the ties of personal friendship with him and declared war. Antony marshalled his principal fleet in the gulf of Ambracia (northwestern Greece). But Octavian's admiral Agrippa, and then Octavian himself, succeeded in sailing from Italy across the Ionian Sea and effecting landings, and Agrippa captured decisive points all along the line.



Because of a lack of unity and the inexperience of Antony's crews, the decisive battle was lost before it ever began. It took place off Actium, outside the Ambracian Gulf, on September 2, 31 BC. Antony suffered the inevitable defeat, but Cleopatra broke through the enemy line with her 60 ships and, joined by her lover, made for Egypt. It was nearly a year before Octavian reached them there, but soon after his arrival, in August 30 BC, when resistance proved impossible, first Antony and then Cleopatra committed suicide.