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Antony or Marc Antony, Lat. Marcus Antonius, c.83 B.C.-30 B.C., Roman politician and soldier. He was of a distinguished family related to Julius CAESAR, who made him a protégé. In 49 B.C. Antony became tribune. He and Quintus Cassius Longinus (see CASSIUS, family), another tribune, vetoed the bill to deprive Caesar of his army. Caesar then crossed the Rubicon, and the civil war began. After Caesar's assassination (44 B.C.), Antony, then consul, aroused the mob against the conspirators. Octavian (later AUGUSTUS) joined forces with him, but they soon fell out. However, Octavian arranged the Second Triumvirate with Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (see LEPIDUS, family). At Philippi, in 42 B.C., Antony and Octavian crushed the republicans, and the triumvirate ruled the empire for five years. Antony met CLEOPATRA in 42 B.C., and their love affair began. When Antony's wife, Fulvia, died (40 B.C.), he married Octavian's sister, OCTAVIA. In 37 B.C., Antony settled in Alexandria as the acknowledged lover of Cleopatra. In 32 B.C. the senate deprived Antony of his powers, thus making civil war inevitable. In the following year Octavian's forces defeated Antony and Cleopatra in the naval battle at Actium, and Antony returned to Egypt. When Octavian came there (30 B.C.), Antony committed suicide, and Cleopatra killed herself soon afterward. Of the many dramas on the tragedy, the best known by far is SHAKESPEARE's Antony and Cleopatra.
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