General Notes

from Cray Bauxmont-Flynn tree at Ancestry.com:
Committed suicide in Alexandria.MARK ANTONY II. He was the son of Mark Antony and Julia, daughter of Lucius Julius III. He was born in BC 83. He committed suicide in BC 30 by falling on his sword. (Wurts, 1945)
He married FADIA. (Wurts, 1945)
He married ANTONIA. (Wurts, 1945)
Child: Antonia II of Rome
He married FULVIA. (Wurts, 1945)
He married OCTAVIA THE ELDER. (Wurts, 1945)
Children: Antonia Minor of Rome, Antonia Major of Rome
He married CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt. (Wurts, 1945)
Children: Alexander I Helios King of Armenia and Parthia, Ptolemy Philadelphus Prince of Egypt, Cleopatra Selene Princess of Egypt, Juba II King of Numidia and Mauretania
He was the second Triumvirate of Rome, the other two being Lepidus and Augustus Octavius. He's known for his military successes, his affair with Cleopatra of Egypt, and for stabilizing Rome after the murder of Julius Caesar in BC 44. (Wurts, 1945)
Early in 40 BC, Antony received news that his brother Lucius Antonius and his own wife Fulvia had revolted against Octavian, setting off the Perusine War. He also received news that the Parthians, the eastern neighbors of the empire, had invaded Rome Syria. Antony went to Italy where he became reconciled to Octavian at Brundusium (Brindsis) and since Fulvia had died in the meantime, he married Octavian's sister, Octavia. Accompanied by Octavia, Antony went to Athens and was greeted as the New Dionysus. In 38 BC differences between Antony and Octavian arose and they settled then by the Treaty of Tarentum (which prolonged the triumvirate for a further five years).
When Antony's invasion of Parthia failed, Octavian sent Octavia to Antony along with troops and provisions. The soldiers fell far short of the numbers Antony expected and he ordered Octavia back to Rome.
In 32 BC the trimvirate ended. Antony officially divorced Octavia. Her brother declared war against Cleopatra. It was a war Antony continually lost ground and morale; Cleopatra insisted on being with him and Agrippa was winning battles. On September 2, 31 BC, Antony and Cleopatra retreated to Egypt. Octavian reached them a year later and in August 30 BC, Antony died by falling on his sword and Cleopatra by poisoning herself with an asp.

The Aftermath of Caesar's Death (44 B.C.). Caesar's assassins claimed to be striking a blow for freedom in the name of the Old Republic; instead of dancing in streets, however, the initial reaction to the news of Caesar's murder was intense uncertainty, particularly among the ruling elite, as everyone waited to see who would make the next move. The conspirators themselves went into hiding. *M. Aemilius Lepidus (one Caesar's lieutenants, who had a legion of recruits ready to take to Gaul) imposed order, but Mark Antony (who had long been Caesar's right-hand man and was consul along with Caesar in 44) soon took charge of matters, leaving Lepidus to depart for Gaul. Antony was in nominal control of state affairs, but virtually everyone was on eggshells. Antony wielded a good deal of power as consul and as Caesar's second in command, but enjoyed little personal authority and dared not assert himself too strongly, lest he meet a fate similar to that of Caesar. The Senate, on the other hand, was concerned about popular reaction to Caesar's death, particularly on the part of Caesar's veterans. Most importantly, the official constitutional Machinery, although it had continued to operate during the turbulent years 49-44, had been a virtual dead letter under Caesar's rule: his death created a vacuum in which no one quite knew how to behave. An uneasy truce was arrived at. An official amnesty was granted to the conspirators, but Antony's speech at Caesar's funeral -- along with the generous gifts to the plebs included in the terms of Caesar's will -- so stirred the urban mob that a riot ensued and the conspirators fled Rome in fear for their safety. [Caesar's funeral is the occasion for the famous speech in Shakespeare's play: "I
have come to bury Caesar, not to praise him...."] Antony then quickly retrieved Caesar's private papers from his widow and employed them to govern in Caesar's name, claiming to find there Caesar's plans for Rome's future. This charade soon wore thin with the Senate, all the more so due to Antony's high-handed manner and his wanton extravagance.

Mark Antony (who had long been Caesar's right-hand man and was consul along with Caesar in 44) soon took charge of matters, leaving Lepidus to depart for Gaul. Antony was in nominal control of state affairs, but virtually everyone was on eggshells. Antony wielded a good deal of power as consul and as Caesar's second in command, but enjoyed little personal authority and dared not assert himself too strongly, lest he meet a fate similar to that of Caesar. The Senate, on the other hand, was concerned about popular reaction to Caesar's death, particularly on the part of Caesar's veterans. Most importantly, the official constitutional Machinery, although it had continued to operate during the turbulent years 49-44, had been a virtual dead letter under Caesar's rule: his death created a vacuum in which no one quite knew how to behave. An uneasy truce was arrived at. An official amnesty was granted to the conspirators, but Antony's speech at Caesar's funeral -- along with the generous gifts to the plebs included in the terms of Caesar's will -- so stirred the urban mob that a riot ensued and the conspirators fled Rome in fear for their safety. [Caesar's funeral is the occasion for the famous speech in Shakespeare's play: "I have come to bury Caesar, not to praise him...."] Antony then quickly retrieved Caesar's private papers from his widow and employed them to govern in Caesar's name, claiming to find there Caesar's plans for Rome's future. This charade soon wore thin with the Senate, all the more so due to Antony's high-handed manner and his wanton extravagance.

Octavian and Antony. When Caesar's will was read, however, Antony received a nasty shock. In it Caesar named as his chief heir a virtual unknown by the name of *C. Octavius, adopting him (posthumously) as his son. Octavius was Caesar's grand-nephew on his sister's side, a rather sickly 18-year-old with only limited political and military experience. Upon his adoption, Octavius became *C. Julius Caesar Octavianus (or, in English, simply Octavian). Antony might well have expected little trouble in dealing with a youth of so little experience, few political connections, and virtually no personal authority. Unfortunately, Antony failed to recognize that in Octavian he was dealing with a
natural born politician. Octavian never was an imposing figure physically, and he owed his military victories largely to the skill of his able lieutenants. In the political realm, however, he was without peer, rising from a virtual unknown in 44 B.C. to become the first of the Julio-Claudian emperors by 27 AD. Tensions immediately arose between Octavian and Antony, as each vied for the right to employ Caesar's substantial financial resources, to call upon the loyalty of his troops, and, above all, to invoke the authority of Caesar's name. On the one hand was Antony, Caesar's second in command who had served him so ably since the 50s, who had been named magister equitum under Caesar, and who had been appointed priest (flamen) in Caesar's honor; on the other was Octavian, who could claim to be Caesar's son and heir. Tensions between the two soon reached the boiling point, only to be checked by senior officers in command of Caesar's troops, who were united by their common loyalty to the dead Caesar and were unwilling to fight against one another in the name of Caesar's bickering heirs. By the middle of 44 B.C. an uneasy truce was established between Antony, Octavian, the Senate, and those involved in Caesar's assassination.

Unfortunately Antony, while an able commander, was no Caesar when it came to the delicate art of politics. In 44-43 he soon alienated virtually all of the other factions listed above, uniting them against him. He began by foolishly attacking the orator and statesman Cicero, a leader of the senatorial faction (the optimates). These personal attacks led Cicero to denounce Antony in a series of damning speeches, known as the *Philippics.

Not content with alienating Cicero and the Senate, Antony renewed his attacks against Octavian, charging him with plots against his (Antony's) life. Octavian saw that his position in Rome was far from secure and withdrew to central Italy, where he began to raise troops on his authority as Caesar's son and heir.

At the end of 44, Antony stepped over the line altogether. As consul in 44 he had been assigned the province of Macedonia for 43. Antony realized, however, that departing from Rome at this particular juncture would be political suicide and so passed a law that awarded him a five-year command in Cisalpine Gaul and Gallia Comata (Gaul proper) instead.

This would allow him to keep tabs on affairs in Rome and had the added advantage of providing him with an army camped just north of Italy. (Clearly Antony had the precedent of Caesar's own career in mind.) The threat now posed by Octavian led Antony to speed up his plans: he decided to proceed to Cisalpine Gaul and assume command of his new provinces early. At this point the Senate was still unwilling to defy Antony too openly, but it did direct the current governor of Cisalpine Gaul, D. Junius Brutus Albinus (who had been involved in the conspiracy against Caesar), to maintain his position. When matters reached a crisis the Senate, at Cicero's urging, turned to Octavian for help. Octavian had his own forces; more importantly, he could invoke the name of Caesar, thus undercutting Antony's claims to represent Caesar's legacy. Cicero hoped that the young Octavian would be malleable -- a tool that the Senate could employ and then discard at its will. The plan was to have Octavian support the consuls for 43 (A. Hirtius and C. Vibius Pansa) in driving Antony off, then to have Octavian surrender his troops to Brutus, the lawful governor of the region. The first part of the plan worked: Antony was compelled to retire further into Gaul, where he joined up with Lepidus (see above). Unfortunately for Cicero and the Senate, however, Octavian was neither malleable nor stupid. He realized that, were he to surrender his troops to Brutus, he would not only lose an important bargaining chip but, given Brutus' association with Caesar's murder, would fatally undermine his claims to be Caesar's loyal son. As it happened, through one of those twists of fate that seem to occur so often in Roman history, the two consuls Hirtius and Pansa had been killed in the battle against Antony: Octavian saw a vacuum and marched south with his forces, determined to fill it. Confronted with Octavian's troops, the Senate was compelled to allow him to run for the office of consul, to which he was duly elected for the year 42. His adoption by Caesar was officially ratified and Caesar's assassins outlawed: thus Octavian could assume the role of the loyal son attempting to avenge his father's murder and continue his father's work in "reforming" the state. (The leaders of the opposition to Caesar, M. Junius Brutus and C. Cassius Longinus, had already fled to the East, planning, like Pompey earlier, to raise troops and challenge Antony and Octavian.)

The Second Triumvirate. Suddenly Octavian was no longer a youthful outsider but a major force with which to reckon. He realized, however, that his own position vis a vis the Senate was far from secure and decided to make common cause with his former enemy, Antony. Thus, in 43, Octavian,
Antony, and Lepidus were officially appointed as a panel of three (a triumvirate) to govern Rome with consular authority for a period of five years for the purpose of restoring constitutional order. This alliance is known as the *Second Triumvirate. Through a curious twist of fate, Caesar -- who originally had been viewed as a dangerous, power-seeking popularis and a traitor -- now became the beloved leader whose legacy was being threatened and in whose name Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus must seize control of state affairs.

Despite its official standing, the Second Triumvirate was in reality a military junta. Following the precedent of Sulla, its first order of business was to pay back its political enemies and raise some much-needed cash (necessary if the junta's troops were to be kept happy). Proscriptions were held in which some 300 senators and 2000 equites were dispatched, as much for their property as for their political sympathies. The most famous victim was Cicero, whose head and hands were cut off and hung from the speaker's platform (the Rostra) in the forum. [The Triumvirate also raised taxes, aiming first (as was the Romans' wont) at wealthy and "extravagant" women. This policy led to a woman named Hortensia presenting a public speech in the forum in which, we are told, she sounded the now familiar theme of no taxation without representation (i.e., without granting women the franchise).]

The next order of business, once matters had been settled in Rome, was to deal with the forces of Brutus and Cassius in the East. The official line was that these forces were traitors to Rome, led by Caesar's assassins. Viewed objectively, however, they represented one of the last hopes of the Roman Republic, fighting a cause that was utterly unrealistic -- the days when the traditional constitutional Machinery could cope with the economic, social, and political realities in Rome were long past -- but noble nonetheless. The final confrontation occurred in 42 at *Philippi in Macedonia (see Map 3 in Dudley), where Brutus' and Cassius' forces were quickly defeated in a series of battles by the combined forces of Antony and Octavian. The victory led to an immediate rise in Antony's fortunes: never much of a general, Octavian had presented a poor showing at Philippi, losing one important battle and spending a good deal of the time sick in his tent. For the moment, at least, Antony was very much the senior partner among the triumvirs.

With their enemies subdued both at Rome and abroad, the two leading members of the Triumvirate soon returned to their old personal rivalries. Lepidus was quickly gotten out of the way: accused of treason, he was deprived of his provinces and allowed to remain a member of the Triumvirate only on sufferance. The other two triumvirs divided Rome's holdings between them: Octavian got Spain, Antony Gaul. Antony, however, had larger ambitions. Encouraged by his success at Philippi, he revived Caesar's plans for a grand military campaign in the East. His intentions clearly were to follow the precedent set by Sulla, Pompey, and Caesar himself: to win power, fame, and money through a series of military triumphs abroad and then return to Rome and oust his political rivals once and for all. In 41, therefore, he set out for the East, where he soon became entangled with the Egyptian Cleopatra.

Cleopatra VII left three children by Marcus Antonius: the twins Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, born in 40 B.C. and Ptolemy Philadelphus, born in 36 B.C. In 33 B.C. Antonius designated Alexander to be king of Armenia and overlord of Parthia and Media. He designated Ptolemy to be ruler of all Egyptian possessions in Syria and Cilicia and overlord of all client-kings and dynasts west of the Euphrates, as far as the Hellespont. After the death of Antonius, both boys were taken in by Augustus's sister Octavia to be raised with her own children. They appear soon after in Augustus's Triumph in Rome and thereafter disappear from history. Speculation is that both died in childhood. Cleopatra Selene was married in 29 B.C. to Juba II, a Roman client-king who ruled over Numidia c30-25 B.C. and over Mauretania 25 B.C.-cA.D. 23 when he died in his mid-70s. Cleopatra had long before predeceased him, though the date is not known. They had two (known) children: Ptolemy succeeded his father as king of Mauretania in A.D. 23. In 40, he was called to Rome to appear before the Emperor Caligula. Tacitus reports he had the misfortune of presenting himself wearing such a sumptious purple robe that in envy Caligula had him put to death. One simply did not appear before Caligula wearing better duds than the boss. Although Ptolemy was certainly of a marriageable age, no wife or children are known, and none succeeded him as king. Ptolemy's sister Drusilla was married to Marcus Antonius Felix. Nothing has survived in recorded history to point to any issue of this marriage.

Octavian, by contrast, was given the thankless task of dealing with affairs in Italy, particularly the necessity of finding land for his and Antony's veterans. Antony clearly hoped that Octavian would become embroiled in Italian politics, squandering both his time and, more important, his popularity with the masses. In the end, this was a poor strategy on Antony's part. Not only did his own military ventures not fare well, but, by leaving Octavian in Rome, he allowed his rival to ply his considerable political skills in waging a propaganda war against Antony.

At first, however, Antony's plan appeared to succeed. Octavian's problem was to find land for his and Antony's veterans; his solution was to confiscate land throughout Italy. The Italian cities were outraged, and this sense of outrage was encouraged by Antony's wife Fulvia and his brother L. Antonius, who incited a civil war. The rebels were suppressed through a combination of Antony's delay in supporting them and the brutality of Octavian's reprisals (particularly against the city of Perusia, in the so-called Perusine War). Antony eventually returned to Italy in 40, landing at Brundisium, but by then Octavian had not only secured Italy but had seized Gaul. War nearly broke out between Antony and Octavian, but their troops refused to fight against one another. At last a deal was cut: Antony was to pursue his ambitions in the East, while Octavian was granted the western half of Rome's empire. To cement the deal, Antony married Octavian's sister *Octavia (Fulvia having died of natural causes in the meantime).

Antony accordingly returned east, where from 40-35 he was engaged in a series of largely unsuccessful campaigns against the Parthians. His desperate need for financial and military support drove him into the arms of Cleopatra (literally and figuratively) and he became her official consort. Antony had 3 children by Cleopatra. In 36, despite their age (6, 6, and 2, respectively), he granted each of these children, as well as Cleopatra herself, territories in the East as their official realms; he also lent his support to the claims of Caesarion (then 13 years old) to be Caesar's true son and heir. To Roman eyes these moves were troubling, suggesting that Antony was becoming a champion of
Egypt and its oriental queen.

Meanwhile, Octavian was busy in the West fighting *Sextus Pompeius, a son of Pompey the Great. Sextus had gathered the last of the Republican opposition about him in Spain and by 42 controlled Sicily. With his fleet, Sextus was able to harass Roman shipping, nearly cutting off Rome's
grain supplies. To the degree that Sextus could claim to be fighting for the cause of his father, Pompey, he represented the last forces of the old Republic; in reality, he was as much a military overlord/adventurer as Antony and Octavian. Octavian once again showed his lack of military experience, suffering a series of humiliating defeats, and, in 38, was forced to meet with Antony in order to ask for reinforcements. (At the same time the term of the Triumvirate, originally slated to expire in 38, was extended for another five years.) In 36 Octavian -- or, rather, his general *M. Vipsanius Agrippa, working in tande M with Lepidus -- finally defeated Sextus at the battle of Naulochus. Lepidus made an attempt to seize Sicily for himself, but was soon deserted by his supporters and captured. As pontifex maximus Lepidus could not be killed (as we shall see, Octavian was beginning to develop scruples!), so he was merely stripped of his official powers and placed under permanent house arrest in Rome.

Actium. The year 36 marks something of a turning point in Octavian's career. From this point on he began to doff the role of ruthless military warlord and instead present himself as a defender of the Republic (such as it was!). This strategy was to stand him in good stead in the propaganda war against Antony. Antony, Octavian could claim, had become the thrall of a depraved eastern
monarch: he had "gone native" and (Octavian claimed) planned to reduce Rome to a mere subject state, transferring the capital of the empire to Egypt. The Romans would be slaves to a mongrel horde of oriental eunuchs and their lascivious queen, compelled to worship Egypt's decadent, bestial gods and to adopt the perverse religious practices of a land whose rulers regularly married their own siblings.

Tensions between Antony and Octavian began to reach a head in 35, when Antony formally repudiated Octavia, who had remained loyal to him despite the repeated humiliation to which he had subjected her. In 33, when the Triumvirate officially expired, Octavian held the consulship: he was then able to present Antony as a private Roman citizen acting without the authority of the state and to contrast his own position as loyal servant of the Republic. There followed, in 32, the public reading of Antony's will (which, according to custom, had been deposited in Rome for safe keeping): the provisions it contained were not outrageous -- for example, Antony asked to be buried with Cleopatra and requested official recognition for his children by Cleopatra and for Caesarion -- but they furthered the impression that Antony now regarded himself as an Egyptian.

n the end war was inevitable. The issue was decided in 31 at the naval battle of *Actium (in northwest Greece). Antony had established camp in the bay of Actium in late 32, hoping to use it as a base of operations against Octavian. He became mired there, however, his lines of supply cut off and his forces steadily shrinking due to disease and desertion. As time wore on, his troops became ever more de Moralized, in part due to the presence of Cleopatra in their camp: Roman soldiers did not like the idea of being the servants of a foreign queen (think of Livy's portrayal of Tanaquil). Moreover, Antony's Egyptian fleet was outnumbered and out-generaled by Octavian's fleet, led by Agrippa. By September of 31 Antony had realized that his position was untenable and attempted to slip away with his fleet to Asia Minor. His plans were poorly executed by his de Moralized troops, however, and only Cleopatra's ships managed to escape, followed by Antony with a few Roman stragglers. The remainder of Antony's forces surrendered after only token resistance. The battle of Actium was, then, something of a fiasco: a failed tactical retreat. Octavian and his supporters, however, presented it as a glorious triumph, spreading the story that Antony, accompanied by Cleopatra, had intended a full-scale naval battle but had turned tail and deserted his troops when he saw Cleopatra's ship fleeing in fear. In this version, Antony is betrayed by his besotted obsession with the cowardly and depraved Egyptian queen.

Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt, where they committed suicide. Octavian, however, hailed his triumph as belonging to the Roman Senate and people -- a victory for Rome's political and religious traditions over a nefarious threat from the decadent East. (Notice that once again Octavian held the consulship -- his third -- in this crucial year, allowing him once more to present himself as the servant of the Roman people fighting in defense of the Republic, rather than as a military despot intent on wiping out a hated rival.) He claimed to have been supported in this victory by the god *Apollo, who had a small temple on a nearby promontory. Apollo, the god of Actium, became a prominent figure in Octavian/Augustus' reign. A god of poetry, music, and culture, he provided a fitting contrast to the "degenerate" Egyptian culture championed by Antony. He also embodied two contrary features that Octavian found useful, for Apollo was both a powerful god of retribution, smiting those who strayed beyond the proper bounds set for mortal ambitions, and a gentle god of refinement and culture. (These two contrasting features are symbolized by two of Apollo's attributes: the bow and the lyre.) As we shall see, the poets and artists who celebrated Octavian/Augustus' achievements presented his career as displaying these same two contrasting features, with Actium as the turning point. Before Actium, we find the stern triumvir who employs violence to punish his father's murderers, restore "order" to Italy, and check the wild ambitions of Antony and Cleopatra; after Actium, we find the benign ruler who oversees a political, moral, and cultural renaissance at Rome.
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THE ANCESTRY OF MARK ANTONY

Mark Antony was the son of Antonius Creticus and Julia. Julia was the daughter of Lucius Julius Caesar, who was the son of another Lucius Julius Caesar, who was the son of Sextus Julius Caesar, who was the son of Sextus Julius Caesar, who was the son of Lucius Julius Caesar, who was the son of Numerius Julius Caesar, who was the son of Lucius Julius Libo, who was the son of Lucius Julius Libo. There was a gap of three generations separating him from Lucius Julius Julus, who was the son of Lucius Julius Julus, who was the son of Caius Julius Julus, who was the son of Caius Julius Julus, who was the son of Lucius Julius Julus, who was the son of Numerius Julius Julus. There is then another gap of about 560 years separating him from Julus, who was the son of Ascanius, who was the son of Aeneas, famous hero of The Iliad and The Aenead.

As was stated earlier, it is the opinion of this researcher that some myth has a basis in historical fact. And again, for whatever it may be worth, I offer the mythological genealogy of Aeneas for your consideration.

According to the myth, Aenaes was married to Creusa, the daughter of King Priam of Troy. Priam was the son of Laomedon, who was the son of Ilus, for whom Ilium was named. Ilium was another name for Troy. Ilus was a son of Tros, for whom Troy was named.

Aenaes was the son of the mortal Anchises and the goddess Venus, who sprang from Zeus' forehead.. Anchises was the son of Capys, who was the son of Assaracus, who was the son of Tros, for whom the city of Troy was named. Tros was the son of Ericthonius, who was the son of Dardanus and Batieia. Batieia was the daughter of Teucer, who was the son of Scamander. Dardanus was a son of Zeus. Zeus was a son of the titans Cronus and Rhea. Cronus was the son of Uranus. Uranus was supposed to have been the beginning of all things. This is certainly not Christian theology. It is offered only as a mythological genealogy and nothing more.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~fosterfamily/foster4.html
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Mark Antony
born 82/81 BC
died August, 30 BC, Alexandria

also spelled Marc Anthony , Latin Marcus Antonius Roman general under Julius Caesar and later triumvir (43–30 BC), who, with Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, was defeated by Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) in the last of the civil wars that destroyed the Roman Republic.

Early life and career

Mark Antony was the son and grandson of men of the same name. His father was called Creticus because of his military operations in Crete, and his grandfather, one of the leading orators of his day, was vividly portrayed as a speaker in Cicero's De oratore. After a somewhat dissipated youth, the future triumvir served with distinction in 57–54 as a cavalry commander under Aulus Gabinius in Judaea and Egypt. He then joined the staff of Julius Caesar, to whom he was related on his mother's side, and served with him for much of the concluding phase of Caesar's conquest of central and northern Gaul and its aftermath (54–53, 52–50). In 51 Antony held the minor office of quaestor, an office of financial administration that gave him a place in the Senate, and he was subsequently elected to the politically influential priesthood of the augurs.

Civil war and triumvirate

In 49, the year in which the Civil War broke out between Pompey and Caesar, Antony became tribune of the people (an official with the traditional function of protecting the plebeians from arbitrary actions of the magistrates) and vigorously supported Caesar in the Senate. He fled from Rome to his patron's headquarters after receiving threats of violence. After Antony had fought in the brief Italian campaign in which Pompey was forced to evacuate the Italian peninsula, Caesar left him in charge of Italy, a post he again occupied in 48–47 as Master of the Horse (the dictator's assistant) after the decisive battle at Pharsalus (in Thessaly) in which he had commanded Caesar's left wing. Thereafter, because his methods as regent of Italy had displeased Caesar, he was removed from the post and was without employment until 44 when he became consul as the dictator's colleague. After Caesar's murder, he used a variety of methods, including the falsification of the dead man's papers, to control events and to arouse the people against Caesar's assassins, Marcus Brutus and Cassius. In June, Antony was granted a five-year governorship of northern and central Transalpine Gaul (Gallia Comata) and Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy). Despite his growing power and popularity among the people, the orator Cicero attacked him fiercely in a series of speeches from September 44 to April 43 BC (he never tired of saying that Antony should have been murdered also), and the 19-year-old 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 (another of the former conspirators against Caesar) 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 Caesar's Master of the Horse. In early November Octavian met Antony and Lepidus in Bononia (Bologna), and the three entered into an official five-year autocratic pact, the second triumvirate (November 43). The enemies of the triumvirs, including the orator Cicero, were proscribed and executed, and in the following year Marcus Brutus and Cassius killed themselves after their defeat at the Battle of Philippi, in which Antony greatly distinguished himself as a commander. The republican cause was now dead.

The triumvirs had agreed to divide the empire; so Antony proceeded to take up the administration of the eastern provinces. He first summoned Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, to Tarsus (southeastern Asia Minor) to answer reports that she had assisted their enemies. She successfully exonerated herself, and Antony spent the winter of 41–40 as her lover at Alexandria. In spite of the romantic accounts of ancient authors, however, she did not at this stage establish a permanent dominance over him, since he made no move to see her again for more than three years.

Early in 40 he received two pieces of bad news: that his brother Lucius Antonius and his third wife, Fulvia, on their own initiative and without success, had revolted against Octavian, thus setting off the Perusine War (after the central point of the rising, Perusia, the modern Perugia); and that the Parthians, the eastern neighbours of the empire, had invaded Roman Syria. In spite of the latter information, Antony first proceeded to Italy, where he became reconciled to Octavian at Brundusium (Brindisi), and, since Fulvia had died in the meantime, he married Octavian's sister Octavia. The two triumvirs agreed that Herod, who had fled from Judaea to escape the Parthians and their Jewish allies, should be encouraged to retake the country and become its king. In the following year they concluded the short-lived Treaty of Misenum with Pompey's son Sextus Pompeius, who because of his control of wide areas of the Mediterranean had been pirating Roman ships.

Accompanied by Octavia, Antony then proceeded to Athens, where he was enthusiastically greeted and hailed as the New Dionysus, mystic god not only of wine but also of happiness and immortality. In 38 Antony's lieutenant Publius Ventidius won a decisive victory over the Parthians, and, in the following year, Herod was able to reestablish himself at Jerusalem. Meanwhile, however, further differences had arisen between Antony and Octavian, and, although these were ostensibly settled by the Treaty of Tarentum, which prolonged the triumvirate for a further five years, Antony sent Octavia back to Italy from Corcyra (modern Corfu, or Kérkira) when he left again for the east and arranged for Cleopatra to join him in Syria. Henceforward, apart from his absences on land campaigns, they lived together for the remaining seven years of their lives.

Alliance with Cleopatra

Religious propaganda declared Cleopatra the New Isis, or Aphrodite, to his New Dionysus, and it is possible (but unlikely) that they contracted an Egyptian marriage: it would not have been valid in Roman law since Romans could not marry foreigners. Apart from their undoubted mutual affection, Cleopatra needed Antony in order to revive the old boundaries of the Ptolemaic kingdom (though her efforts to convince him to give her Herod's Judaea failed), and Antony needed Egypt as a source of supplies and funds for his planned attack on Parthia. His invasion, however, of Parthia's ally Media Atropatene (southwest of the Caspian) in 36 BC ended in a retreat involving heavy losses. On his return to Syria, Cleopatra met him with money and supplies. Octavian, exploiting the occasion and the contrast of Antony's failure with the decisive victory he himself—or rather his admiral Agrippa—had won against Sextus Pompeius, sent Octavia to Antony along with troops and provisions. But the soldiers fell far short of the numbers Antony expected (and were owed by his fellow-triumvir), and he then made a future breach between the two leaders almost inevitable by ordering Octavia to return to Rome.

The break was accelerated in 34, when he celebrated a successful expedition to Armenia by appearing in a triumphal procession through the streets of Alexandria, a proceeding regarded by Romans as an impious parody of their traditional Triumph. A few days later he staged a ceremony at which Cleopatra was pronounced Queen of Kings, her son and joint monarch Ptolemy XV Caesar, or Caesarion (for Cleopatra, and now Antony, claimed that Julius Caesar had fathered the boy), was declared King of Kings, and the two sons and a daughter that Cleopatra had borne to Antony were also given imposing royal titles. The exact significance and substantiality of these Donations are disputable, but critics interpreted them as involving the transfer of Roman territories into alien, Greek, hands. In the next year, 33, the Roman leaders launched unprecedented, savage propaganda attacks upon one another, including the production by Octavian of a document (of dubious though possible authenticity) that purported to be a will of Antony favouring the children of Cleopatra and providing for his own burial at Alexandria. In 32 the triumvirate had officially ended, although Antony continued to call himself triumvir on his coins. Both consuls at Rome, however, happened to support Antony, and now, threatened by Octavian, they left for his headquarters, bringing numerous, probably more than 200, Roman senators with them. After Antony had officially divorced Octavia, her brother formally broke off the ties of personal friendship with him and declared war, not against him but against Cleopatra. Antony successively established his headquarters at Ephesus (Selçuk), Athens, and Patras (Pátrai) and marshalled his principal fleet in the gulf of Ambracia (northwestern Greece). More naval detachments occupied a long line of posts along the west coast of 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.

As Antony lost more ground, the morale of his advisers and fighting forces deteriorated, a process aided by Cleopatra's insistence on being present at his headquarters against the wishes of many of his leading Roman supporters, thus providing Octavian with fresh propaganda fuel. Because of this 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 Sept. 2, 31 BC. Antony suffered the inevitable defeat, but Cleopatra, by prearranged plan rather than treachery, broke through the enemy line with her 60 ships (carrying her and Antony's treasury) and, joined by her lover, made for Egypt. It was nearly a year before Octavian reached them there, but soon after his arrival, when resistance proved impossible, first Antony and then Cleopatra committed suicide (August 30 BC).

Personality

Antony was a man of considerable ability and impressive appearance, far more genial than his adversary but not quite equal to Octavian's exceptional efficiency and energy and, in particular, unfit or unwilling to grasp the moment for action. Nevertheless, he was an outstanding leader of men and a competent general, though, in the end, not such a successful admiral as the experienced Agrippa. As a politician, he was astute enough—aided by a talent for florid oratory—but gradually lost touch with Roman feeling and fatally lacked the cold deliberateness of Octavian. Since the latter proved victorious in his struggle for power, it is his interpretation of events, rather than Antony's, that has remained lodged in the history books. Cicero had earlier depicted Antony as a drunken, lustful debauchee—though his adulteries may have been less extensive than Octavian's. More significantly for history, the outcome of the battle off Actium made certain that Octavian's Roman-Italian policy prevailed throughout the empire, and the Antonian theme of Greco-Roman collaboration was not given a trial until the emperor Constantine captured Byzantium three centuries later. [Encyclopædia Britannica, online <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-365>]