Mark Antony the Triumvir

83 BC – 30 BC · Generation II · Triumvir of the Roman Republic

Marcus Antonius, known in English as Mark Antony, was born in Rome in 83 BC. His grandfather, a consul and one of the leading orators of his day, was killed in the purges of Marius, and his father, Marcus Antonius Creticus, died in Crete in about 71 BC after an ineffective command against the Mediterranean pirates. His mother, Julia, was a distant cousin of Julius Caesar. She later married Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, who was executed in 63 BC on Cicero’s orders for his part in Catiline’s conspiracy.

Plutarch describes a youth spent gambling and drinking, but Antony found his calling as a soldier. From 57 to 55 BC he commanded cavalry under Aulus Gabinius in Judaea and Egypt, then joined his kinsman Caesar in Gaul for the last years of the conquest. He was quaestor in 52 and was elected augur in 50. As tribune of the plebs in 49 he spoke for Caesar in Rome, was threatened with violence and fled to Caesar’s camp, which gave Caesar a pretext for invading Italy. He commanded the left wing at Pharsalus in 48 and was sent home as master of the horse to keep order in Italy. There he failed. When the tribune Dolabella tried to force through a cancellation of debts in 47, Antony turned his soldiers on the crowd in the Forum and hundreds died, and he was probably removed from his post. By 44 he was back in favour as Caesar’s fellow consul. At the Lupercalia that February he offered Caesar a royal diadem in public, and Caesar, aware of how much the crowd disliked the idea of a king, refused it.

After Caesar’s murder in March, Antony took possession of the dictator’s papers and treasury and delivered the eulogy at his funeral. His ambitions soon collided with Caesar’s nineteen-year-old heir, Octavian, and with Cicero, who attacked him in the speeches known as the Philippics. Beaten twice near Mutina in 43, he withdrew into southern Gaul, where Lepidus and Plancus brought their armies over to him, and in November he met Octavian and Lepidus at Bononia. The three formed the triumvirate, a shared autocracy soon confirmed by law, and proscribed more than 200 men, Cicero among them. At Philippi in 42 BC Antony was the outstanding commander in the two battles that broke Brutus and Cassius, both of whom killed themselves.

When the triumvirs divided the Roman world, Antony took the East. In 41 he called Cleopatra VII of Egypt to Tarsus to explain reports that she had aided the triumvirs’ enemies, accepted her defence, and spent that winter with her in Alexandria. His wife Fulvia and his brother Lucius meanwhile rose against Octavian in Italy and were defeated at Perusia. Fulvia soon died, and at Brundisium in 40 Antony was reconciled with Octavian and married his sister Octavia. Their two daughters, Antonia the Elder and Antonia the Younger, made Antony an ancestor of the emperors Caligula, Claudius and Nero. In 37 the triumvirate was renewed at Tarentum.

In 36 BC, after long preparation, he invaded Parthian territory and was driven back with heavy losses. It was his first failure as a general. He returned to Cleopatra, by then the mother of two of his children, who gave him Egypt’s money and her political backing. He made Alexandria his headquarters, held a triumphal procession there in 34 after a campaign in Armenia, and a few days later staged a ceremony at which Cleopatra was proclaimed Queen of Kings and their children were given kingdoms in the East. Octavian used all this against him in Rome and produced a document said to be Antony’s will, which left territory to Cleopatra and her children and asked for burial in Alexandria. Antony divorced Octavia, and in 32 BC Rome declared war, formally on Cleopatra alone.

The decisive battle came at sea off Actium, on the north-western coast of Greece, on 2 September 31 BC. Agrippa had already seized key points along the Greek coast, and most of Antony’s leading Roman supporters had gone over to Octavian. Antony lost. Cleopatra’s sixty ships broke through and sailed for Egypt, and he followed her. When Octavian reached Alexandria in the summer of 30, Antony stabbed himself in the mistaken belief that Cleopatra was already dead. Plutarch says he was carried to the tomb where she had taken refuge and died in her arms. Because the victor’s account prevailed, Antony is remembered largely as Octavian and Cicero painted him, a drunkard ruled by his appetites. Modern assessments are more generous: an able general and an inspiring leader of men, warmer than Octavian but without his rival’s calculation, energy or political skill.

Place in the family

Mark Antony the Triumvir married Octavia the Younger, a sister of Augustus Caesar.
The archive records 8 of his descendants, across 4 generations.

Images

Gold aureus of about 40–39 BC with the heads of Mark Antony and, on the reverse, Octavian (Classical Numismatic Group, CC BY-SA 2.5)
Silver tetradrachm of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony, probably struck at Antioch around 36 BC (Altes Museum, Berlin) (Sailko, CC BY 3.0)
The Battle of Actium, painted by Laureys a Castro in 1672 (Laureys a Castro, public domain)

Partners

Married Octavia the Younger (69 BC – 11 BC) in 40 BC; the marriage was dissolved in 33 BC — one child together

Children

Antonia Minor (36 BC – 37)

Life

83 BC — Born
40 BC — Married Octavia
33 BC — Parted from Octavia
30 BC — Died

Sources

Mark Antony · Encyclopaedia Britannica
Mark Antony · Livius.org
Mark Antony · Wikipedia