http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Antony -------------------- Marcus Antonius, General of Rome, was born January 14, 83 BC, Roma, Italia; died August 1, 30 BC, Alexandria, Egypt (suicide). -------------------- ID: I62047 Name: MARC @ ANTHONY OF ROME Given Name: MARC @ ANTHONY Surname: OF ROME Name: Marcus Antonius Consul of Rome Given Name: Marcus Antonius Surname: Consul of Rome Sex: M _UID: F2AC705FFA61E4429B329FEE385BEA23E8C2 Change Date: 26 Nov 2005 Note: Antony, Mark (Latin Marcus Antonius) (83?-30 bc), Roman statesman and general, who defeated the assassins of Julius Caesar and, with Gaius Octavius and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, formed the Second Triumvirate, which ultimately secured the end of the Roman Republic.

Antony was born in Rome and educated for a short time in Greece. From 58 to 56 bc he served as a leader of cavalry in Roman campaigns in Palestine and Egypt, and from 54 to 50 bc he served in Gaul under Julius Caesar. Subsequently, with Caesar's aid, he attained the offices of quaestor, augur, and tribune of the people. At the outbreak of the civil war between Caesar and the Roman soldier and statesman Pompey the Great, Antony was appointed Caesar's commander in chief in Italy. He commanded the left wing of Caesar's army at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 bc, and in 44 bc he shared the consulship with Caesar.

After the assassination of Caesar in 44 bc, Antony's skillful oratory, immortalized by Shakespeare in the play Julius Caesar, turned the Roman people against the conspirators, leaving Antony for a time with almost absolute power in Rome. A rival soon appeared, however, in the person of Gaius Octavius, later the Roman emperor Augustus, who was grandnephew of Caesar and Caesar's designated heir. A struggle for power broke out when Antony, Octavius, and a third contender for the throne, the Roman general Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, formed the Second Triumvirate and agreed to divide the Roman Empire among themselves.

In 42 bc, at Philippi, the triumvirate crushed the forces led by two assassins of Caesar, the Roman statesmen Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, who sought to restore the Roman Republic. Later in the same year, Antony summoned the Egyptian queen Cleopatra to attend him in the city of Tarsus, in Cilicia (now in Turkey), and explain her refusal to aid the triumvirate in the civil war. Instead of punishing Cleopatra, however, Antony fell in love with her and returned with her to Egypt in 41 bc. In 40 bc he attended meetings of the triumvirate in Italy, at which a new division of the Roman world was arranged, with Antony receiving the eastern portion, from the Adriatic Sea to the Euphrates River; in the same year he attempted to cement his relations with Octavius by marrying the latter's sister Octavia. Nevertheless, Antony soon returned to Egypt and resumed his life with Cleopatra. Octavius made use of this fact to excite the indignation of the Roman people against Antony. When, in 36 bc, Antony was defeated in a military expedition against the Parthians, popular disapproval of his conduct deepened in Rome, and a new civil war became inevitable. In 31 bc the forces of Antony and Cleopatra were decisively defeated by those of Octavius in a naval engagement near Actium. The couple returned to Egypt, deserted by the Egyptian fleet and by most of Antony's own army. In the following year, besieged by the troops of Octavius in Alexandria and deceived by a false report of Cleopatra's suicide, Antony killed himself by falling on his sword.

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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 tandem 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 demoralized, 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 demoralized 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.

1 2 3 Birth: 83 BC Death: 30 BC

Father: Marcus Antonius Creticus of Rome b: 100 BC Mother: Julia of Rome b: 103 BC

Marriage 1 Octavia of Rome Married: Children

Antonio Minor of Rome b: 36 BC
Antonia Augusta
Major Antonia b: in 39 British Columbia
Antonia of Rome

Marriage 2 CLEOPATRA @ VII OF EGYPT b: 69 BC Married: Children

Cleopatra Selene b: 40 BC

Marriage 3 Fulvia Fulvius b: 77 BC Married:

Sources: Abbrev: Ancestry of Richard Plantagenet & Cecily de Nevill Title: Ernst-Friedrich Kraentzler, Ancestry of Richard Plantagenet & Cecily de Neville (published by author 1978)evilleeville. published by author 1978. Note: Call number:

J.H. Garner Page: Chart 1826, p 393 Abbrev: Merriam Webster's Biographical Dictionary Title: Merriam Webster's Biographical Dictionary (Merriam Webster Inc., Springfield, Massachusetts , 1995)field, Massachusetts , 1995. Note: Call number: Text: no parents Abbrev: Pullen010502.FTW Title: Pullen010502.FTW Note: Call number: Text: Date of Import: Jan 5, 2002

Forrás / Source: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jdp-fam&id=I62047

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (in Latin: M·ANTONIVS·M·F·M·N[1]) (c. January 14, 83 BC–August 1, 30 BC) His father was his namesake, Marcus Antonius Creticus, the son of the great rhetorician Marcus Antonius Orator who had been murdered and decapitated by order of Gaius Marius at the end of 87 B.C. His mother Julia was a daughter of Lucius Caesar (consul 90, censor 89), another Marian victim slain with Antonius the orator. His father (praetor 74) died in 71 B.C. during his command against Mediterranean piracy, and Julia soon remarried to Publius Cornelius Lentulus (Sura) (consul 71), an eminent patrician politician and co-leader of the infamous Conspiracy of Catiline named after the latter.

Marriages and descendants

Antony had been married in succession to Fadia, Antonia, Fulvia, Octavia and Cleopatra, and left behind him a number of children. Through his daughters by Octavia, he would be ancestor to the Roman Emperors Caligula, Claudius and Nero. Marriage to Fadia, a daughter of a freedman. According to Cicero, Fadia bore Antony several children. Nothing is known about Fadia or their children. Cicero is the only Roman source that mentions Antony’s first wife.

Marriage to first paternal cousin Antonia Hybrida Minor. According to Plutarch, Antony threw her out of his house in Rome, because she slept with his friend, the tribune Publius Cornelius Dolabella. This occurred by 47 BC and Antony divorced her. By Antonia, he had a daughter: Antonia, married the wealthy Greek Pythodoros of Tralles.

Marriage to Fulvia, by whom he had two sons: Marcus Antonius Antyllus, executed by Octavian in 30 BC. Iullus Antonius, married Claudia Marcella Major, daughter of Octavia.

Marriage to Octavia Minor, sister of Octavian, later Augustus; they had two daughters: Antonia Major, married Domitius; grandmother of the Empress Valeria Messalina and the emperor Nero. Antonia Minor, married Drusus, the son of Livia; mother of the Emperor Claudius, grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, great-grandmother of the emperor Nero.

Children with the queen Cleopatra of Egypt, the former lover of Julius Caesar: The twins Alexander Helios & Cleopatra Selene II. Selene married King Juba II of Numidia and later Mauretania; the queen of Syria, Zenobia of Palmyra, is descended from Selene and Juba II. Ptolemy Philadelphus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Antony

-------------------- Fez uma brilhante carreira militar em campanhas na Palestina e no Egito, entre 57 e 54 a.C. Tornou-se depois um dos principais auxiliares de Júlio César, com quem era aparentado pelo lado materno, e ajudou-o na conquista da Gália. Em 51 a.C. foi designado questor, cargo de administração financeira que lhe garantiu um lugar no Senado. Em 49 a.C., ano em que se deflagrou a guerra civil entre os partidários de Pompeu e César, António tornou-se tribuno do povo, com a função de defender os plebeus da ação arbitrária dos magistrados.

Casou-se com Fúlvia, de quem teve dois filhos, mas esta se meteu em conflitos políticos e acabou sendo exilada, morrendo no ano 40 a.C..

Marco António ficou famoso na sua oratória perante o corpo de Júlio César - assassinado em 44 a.C., quando tratou de atrair a ira popular contra os assassinos, Bruto e Cássio, mas teve de enfrentar a oposição do grande orador Cícero, que pedia sua condenação à morte.

Seu principal rival foi Octávio (posteriormente chamado de Augusto), sobrinho-neto e filho adotivo de César, que o derrotou em Modena, marchou sobre Roma e assumiu o poder. Reconciliados em 43 a.C., António casou-se com Otávia, irmã de Octávio. Junto com Lépido, formaram o segundo triunvirato Romano no qual Octávio ficou com o Ocidente, Marco António ficou com Oriente e Lépido com a África. O triunvirato teve pouca duração: Octávio neutralizou o poder de Lépido transformando-o em apenas pontifex maximus.

Marco António, como administrador das províncias orientais, intimou Cleópatra VII do Egipto a encontrá-lo em Tarso para prestar esclarecimentos sobre denúncias de que teria ajudado seus inimigos. Marco António era um homem com vícios vulgares, beberrão e mulherengo,[carece de fontes?] e ao saber disso Cleópatra preparou um magnífico banquete no seu navio, para recebê-lo. Seduziu-o e os dois se tornaram amantes. Logo Marco António teve que voltar a Roma, e Octávio propôs um casamento político entre Marco António e Octávia, sua irmã. Quatro anos depois, ele voltou ao Egipto onde repudiou a mulher e se casou com Cleópatra nos rituais egípcios, com quem já tinha três filhos: Cleópatra Selene, Alexandre Hélios e Ptolomeu. Na ocasião, Antônio dividiu as províncias orientais do império entre a rainha e seus filhos. Também se falava que pretendia o reconhecimento de Cesarion, filho de Cleópatra e César, como seu legítimo herdeiro, no lugar de Octávio. Após tornar público o testamento de António, onde este declarava que queria ser sepultado no Egito, declarou guerra aos dois, vencendo-os na batalha naval de Áccio, na costa da Grécia; um ano depois ele derrotou os dois amantes numa batalha em terra firme, e tomou Alexandria, onde logo após Marco António e Cleópatra se suicidaram.

Seus filhos foram criados por sua ex-mulher, Octávia. -------------------- Marcus Antonius (c. 83 BC -30 BC ), known in English as Mark Antony or "Marc" and/or "Anthony", was a Roman politician and general. He was an important supporter of Julius Caesar as a military commander and adminstrator. He served as Caesar's colleague as consul in 44 BC .

His relationship with Cleopatra , the Queen of Egypt , was legendary and the subject of a play by Shakespeare titled Antony and Cleopatra .

Along with Lepidus and Octavian (later Augustus), he formed the Second Triumvirate . To seal the alliance Antony married Octavian's sister, Octavia (see Julio-Claudian Family Tree ). After the triumvirate came to an end, he was decisively defeated by Octavian in the naval battle of Actium .

He committed suicide prior to Octavian's entry into Alexandria in 30 BC.

Mark Antony and Octavia had two daughters, both named "Antonia." The older one, Antonia Major , married Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus ("red beard" in Latin), and the emperor Nero ("black") was their grandson. The younger one, Antonia Minor , married Drusus , and the emperor Claudius was their son.

Mark Antony and Cleopatra had three children: twins Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene , born in 40 B.C., and Ptolemy Philadelphus , born in 36 B.C. The older boy was killed by the Romans when his parents died in 30 B.C. The other two children were taken back to Rome and reared by Antony's wife Octavia . The boy died in 12 B.C., but the girl married Juba II of Numidia and became queen of Numidia and Mauretania . -------------------- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Antony -------------------- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Antony -------------------- Born : 83 BC - - Died : 30 aug BC ---------------- Committed suicide -------------------- Born : 83 BC - - Died : 30 aug BC ------------------------ Committed suicide -------------------- Born : 83 BC - - Died : 30 aug BC ----------------------- Committed suicide -------------------- Born : 83 BC - - Died : 30 aug BC Alexandria -

Free 1 : : Committed suicide

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ID: I67878 Name: Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony) Suffix: Triumver Title: Triumver Sex: M Birth: in 83 B.C. Death: in 30 B.C. Note: Sources: Pfafman; Kraentzler 1771, 1826. K: Marcus Antonius, Triumver. Pfafman: Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius), Triumvir of Asia, 43 B.C. Born 83 B.C., died 39 B.C. Octavia Major was his second wife. Change Date: 12 JUL 2000 at 21:32:52 -------------------- Mark Antony From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For his relatives, see Marcus Antonius (disambiguation). For other people with similar names, see Mark Anthony. Marcus Antonius 83–30 BC (aged 53)

Bust of Marc Antony (Vatican Museums) Place of birth Rome, Roman Republic Place of death Alexandria, Ptolemaic Kingdom Allegiance Roman Republic Years of service 54–30 BC Rank General Commands held Roman army Battles/wars Gallic Wars Caesar's civil war Antony's war on Parthia Battle of Mutina Battle of Philippi Battle of Actium

Marcus Antonius (in Latin: M·ANTONIVS·M·F·M·N[1]) (c. January 14, 83 BC–August 1, 30 BC), known in English as Marc Antony, was a Roman politician and General. He was an important supporter and the best friend of Gaius Julius Caesar as a military commander and administrator, being Caesar's second cousin, once removed, by his mother Julia Antonia. After Caesar's assassination, Antony formed an official political alliance with Octavian (Augustus) and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, known to historians today as the Second Triumvirate.

The triumvirate broke up in 33 BC. Disagreement between Octavian and Antony erupted into civil war, the Final War of the Roman Republic, in 31 BC. Antony was defeated by Octavian at the naval Battle of Actium, and in a brief land battle at Alexandria. He committed suicide, and his lover, the Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, killed herself shortly thereafter. Contents [hide] [hide]

   * 1 Early life
   * 2 Supporter of Caesar
   * 3 Enemy of the state and triumvirate
   * 4 Antony and Cleopatra
   * 5 Aftermath and legacy
   * 6 Antony's marriages and descendants
   * 7 Fictional portrayals
   * 8 See also
   * 9 Notes
   * 10 References
         o 10.1 Primary sources
         o 10.2 Secondary sources
   * 11 External links

[edit] Early life

A member of the Antonia gens, Antony was born in Rome, around 83 BC. His father was his namesake, Marcus Antonius Creticus, the son of the great rhetorician Marcus Antonius Orator executed by Gaius Marius' supporters in 86 BC. His mother, Julia Antonia, was the first cousin of Julius Caesar. His father died at a young age, leaving him and his brothers, Gaius Antonius and Lucius Antonius in the care of his mother, who married Publius Cornelius Lentulus (Sura), a politician involved in and executed during the Catiline conspiracy of 63 BC.

Antony's early life was characterized by a lack of parental guidance. According to historians like Plutarch, he spent his teenage years wandering the streets of Rome with his brothers and friends, Publius Clodius Pulcher among them. The connection was eventually severed by a disagreement arising from his relations with Clodius' wife, Fulvia. While they were friends, they embarked on a rather wild life, frequenting gambling houses, drinking too much, and involving themselves in scandalous love affairs. Plutarch mentions the rumor that before Antony reached 20 years of age, he was already indebted to the sum of 250 talents.

After this period of recklessness, Antony fled to Greece to escape his creditors and to study rhetoric. After a short time spent in attendance on the philosophers at Athens, he was summoned by Aulus Gabinius, proconsul of Syria, to take part in the campaigns against Aristobulus in Judea, and in support of King Ptolemy XII Auletes in Egypt. In the ensuing campaign, he demonstrated his talents as a cavalry commander and distinguished himself with bravery and courage.

[edit] Supporter of Caesar

In 54 BC, Antony became a member of the staff of Caesar's armies in Gaul and early Germany. He again proved to be a competent military leader in the Gallic Wars, but his personality caused instability wherever he went. Antony and Caesar were said to be best of friends as well as being relatively close relatives. Antony made himself ever available to assist Caesar in carrying out his military campaigns.

Raised by Caesar's influence to the offices of quaestor, augur, and tribune of the plebians (50 BC), he supported the cause of his patron with great energy. Caesar's two proconsular commands, during a period of ten years, were expiring in 50 BC, and he wanted to return to Rome for the consular elections. But resistance from the conservative faction of the Roman Senate, led by Pompey, demanded that Caesar resign his proconsulship and the command of his armies before being allowed to seek re-election to the consulship.

This Caesar would not do, as such an act would at least temporarily render him a private citizen and thereby leave him open to prosecution for his acts while proconsul. It would also place him at the mercy of Pompey's armies. To prevent this occurrence Caesar bribed the plebian tribune Curio to use his veto to prevent a senatorial decree which would deprive Caesar of his armies and provincial command, and then made sure Antony was elected tribune for the next term of office. Antony exercised his tribunician veto, with the aim of preventing a senatorial decree declaring martial law against the veto, and was violently expelled from the senate with another Caesar adherent, Cassius, who was also a tribune of the plebs. Caesar crossed the river Rubicon upon hearing of these affairs which began the Republican civil war. Antony left Rome and joined Caesar and his armies at Ariminium, where he was presented to Caesar's soldiers still bloody and bruised as an example of the illegalities that his political opponents were perpetrating, and as a casus belli. Tribunes of the Plebs were meant to be untouchable and their veto inalienable according to the Roman mos maiorum (although there was a grey line as to what extent this existed in the declaration of and during martial law). Antony commanded Italy whilst Caesar destroyed Pompey's legions in Spain, and led the reinforcements to Greece, before commanding the right wing of Caesar's armies at Pharsalus.

When Caesar became dictator for a second time, Antony was made Master of the Horse, the dictator's right hand man, and in this capacity he remained in Italy as the peninsula's administrator in 47 BC, while Caesar was fighting the last Pompeians, who had taken refuge in the province of Africa. But Antony's skills as an administrator were a poor match for his generalship, and he seized the opportunity of indulging in the most extravagant excesses, depicted by Cicero in the Philippics. In 46 BC he seems to have taken offense because Caesar insisted on payment for the property of Pompey which Antony professedly had purchased, but had in fact simply appropriated. Conflict soon arose, and, as on other occasions, Antony resorted to violence. Hundreds of citizens were killed and Rome itself descended into a state of anarchy. Caesar was most displeased with the whole affair and removed Antony from all political responsibilities. The two men did not see each other for two years. The estrangement was not of long continuance, with Antony meeting the dictator at Narbo (45 BC) and rejecting the suggestion of Trebonius that he should join in the conspiracy that was already afoot. Reconciliation arrived in 44 BC, when Antony was chosen as partner for Caesar's fifth consulship.

Whatever conflicts existed between the two men, Antony remained faithful to Caesar at all times. On February 15, 44 BC, during the Lupercalia festival, Antony publicly offered Caesar a diadem. This was an event fraught with meaning: a diadem was a symbol of a king, and in refusing it, Caesar demonstrated that he did not intend to assume the throne.

On March 14, 44 BC, Antony was alarmed when a Senator named Casca told him the Gods would strike down Caesar. The following day, the Ides of March, he went down to warn the dictator but the Liberatores reached Caesar first and he was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC. In the turmoil that surrounded the event, Antony escaped Rome dressed as a slave; fearing that the dictator's assassination would be the start of a bloodbath among his supporters. When this did not occur, he soon returned to Rome, discussing a truce with the assassins' faction. For a while, Antony, as consul, seemed to pursue peace and an end to the political tension. Following a speech by Cicero in the Senate, an amnesty was agreed for the assassins.

Then came the day of Caesar's funeral. As Caesar's ever-present second in command, junior consul and cousin, Antony was the natural choice to give the eulogy. In his speech, he made accusations of murder and ensured a permanent breach with the conspirators. Showing a talent for rhetoric and dramatic interpretation, Antony snatched the toga from Caesar's body to show the crowd the stab wounds, pointing at each and naming the authors, publicly shaming them. During the eulogy he also read Caesar's will, which left most of his property to the people of Rome, demonstrating that, contrary to the conspirator's assertions, Caesar had no intention of forming a royal dynasty. Public opinion turned, and that night, the Roman populace attacked the assassins' houses, forcing them to flee for their lives.

[edit] Enemy of the state and triumvirate Roman aureus bearing the portraits of Mark Antony (left) and Octavian (right). Struck in 41 BC, this coin was issued to celebrate the establishment of the Second Triumvirate by Octavian, Antony and Marcus Lepidus in 43 BC. Both sides bear the inscription "III VIR R P C", meaning "One of Three Men for the Regulation of the Republic".[2]

Antony surrounded himself with a bodyguard of Caesar's veterans and forced the senate to transfer to him the province of Cisalpine Gaul, which was then administered by Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, one of the conspirators. Brutus refused to surrender the province and Antony set out to attack him in October 44 BC, besieging him at Mutina. Encouraged by Cicero, the Senate granted Octavian imperium (commanding power), which made his command of troops legal and sent him to relieve the siege, along with Hirtius and Pansa, the consuls for 43 BC. In April 43, Antony's forces were defeated at the Battles of Forum Gallorum and Mutina, forcing Antony to retreat to Transalpine Gaul. However, both consuls were killed, leaving Octavian in sole command of their armies.

When they knew that Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius had assembled an army in Greece in order to march on Rome, Antony, Octavian and Lepidus allied together to stop Caesar's assassins. After the battle, a new arrangement was made between the members of the Second Triumvirate: while Octavian returned to Rome, Antony went to Egypt where he allied himself with the Queen Cleopatra, the former lover of Julius Caesar and mother of Caesar's infant son, Caesarion. Lepidus went on to govern Hispania and the province of Africa. The triumvirate's enemies were subjected to proscription including Mark Antony's archenemy Cicero who was killed shortly after.

[edit] Antony and Cleopatra Antony and Cleopatra, by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1883)

The Parthian Empire had supported Brutus and Cassius in the civil war, sending forces which fought with them at Philippi; following Antony and Octavian's victory, the Parthians invaded Roman territory, occupying Syria, advancing into Asia Minor and installing Antigonus as puppet king in Judaea to replace the pro-Roman Hyrcanus. Antony sent his general Ventidius to oppose this invasion. Ventidius won a series of victories against the Parthians, killing the crown prince Pacorus and expelling them from the Roman territories they had seized. Antony now planned to retaliate by invading Parthia, and secured an agreement from Octavian to supply him with extra troops for his campaign. With this military purpose on his mind, Antony sailed to Greece with Octavia Minor, his new wife (Octavian's sister), where he behaved in a most extravagant manner, assuming the attributes of the Greek god Dionysus (39 BC). But the rebellion in Sicily of Sextus Pompeius, the last of the Pompeians, kept the army promised to Antony in Italy. With his plans again disrupted, Antony and Octavian quarreled once more. This time with the help of Octavia, a new treaty was signed in Tarentum in 38 BC. The triumvirate was renewed for a period of another five years (ending in 33 BC) and Octavian promised again to send legions to the East.

But by now, Antony was skeptical of Octavian's true support of his Parthian cause. Leaving Octavia pregnant with her second child Antonia in Rome, he sailed to Alexandria, where he expected funding from Cleopatra, the mother of his twins. The queen of Egypt lent him the money he needed for the army, and after capturing Jerusalem and surrounding areas in 37 BC, he installed Herod as puppet king of Judaea, replacing the Parthian appointee Antigonus. Antony then invaded Parthian territory with an army of about 100,000 Roman and allied troops but the campaign proved a disaster. After defeats in battle, the desertion of his Armenian allies and his failure to capture Parthian strongholds convinced Antony to retreat, his army was further depleted by the hardships of its retreat through Armenia in the depths of winter, losing more than a quarter of its strength in the course of the campaign.

Meanwhile, in Rome, the triumvirate was no more. Lepidus was forced to resign after an ill-judged political move. Now in sole power, Octavian was occupied in wooing the traditional Republican aristocracy to his side. He married Livia and started to attack Antony in order to raise himself to power. He argued that Antony was a man of low morals to have left his faithful wife abandoned in Rome with the children to be with the promiscuous queen of Egypt. Antony was accused of everything, but most of all, of "becoming native", an unforgivable crime to the proud Romans. Several times Antony was summoned to Rome, but remained in Alexandria with Cleopatra. A map of the Donations of Alexandria (by Mark Antony to Cleopatra and her children) in 34 BC

Again with Egyptian money, Antony invaded Armenia, this time successfully. In the return, a mock Roman Triumph was celebrated in the streets of Alexandria. The parade through the city was a pastiche of Rome's most important military celebration. For the finale, the whole city was summoned to hear a very important political statement. Surrounded by Cleopatra and her children, Antony was about to put an end to his alliance with Octavian. He distributed kingdoms between his children: Alexander Helios was named king of Armenia, Media and Parthia (which were never conquered by Rome), his twin Selene got Cyrenaica and Libya, and the young Ptolemy Philadelphus was awarded Syria and Cilicia. As for Cleopatra, she was proclaimed Queen of Kings and Queen of Egypt, to rule with Caesarion (Ptolemy XV Caesar, son of Julius Caesar), King of Kings and King of Egypt. Most important of all, Caesarion was declared legitimate son and heir of Caesar. These proclamations were known as the Donations of Alexandria and caused a fatal breach in Antony's relations with Rome.

Distributing insignificant[citation needed] lands among the children of Cleopatra was not a peace move, but it was not a serious problem either.[citation needed] What did seriously threaten Octavian's political position, however, was the acknowledgment of Caesarion as legitimate and heir to Caesar's name. Octavian's base of power was his link with Caesar through adoption, which granted him much-needed popularity and loyalty of the legions. To see this convenient situation attacked by a child borne by the richest woman in the world was something Octavian could not accept. The triumvirate expired on the last day of 33 BC and was not renewed. Another civil war was beginning. The Battle of Actium, by Lorenzo Castro, 1672, National Maritime Museum, London

During 33 and 32 BC, a propaganda war was fought in the political arena of Rome, with accusations flying between sides. Antony (in Egypt) divorced Octavia and accused Octavian of being a social upstart, of usurping power, and of forging the adoption papers by Caesar. Octavian responded with treason charges: of illegally keeping provinces that should be given to other men by lots, as was Rome's tradition, and of starting wars against foreign nations (Armenia and Parthia) without the consent of the Senate. Antony was also held responsible for Sextus Pompeius' execution with no trial. In 32 BC, the Senate deprived him of his powers and declared war against Cleopatra. Both consuls (Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Sosius) and a third of the Senate abandoned Rome to meet Antony and Cleopatra in Greece.

In 31 BC, the war started. Octavian's loyal and talented general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa captured the Greek city and naval port of Methone, loyal to Antony. The enormous popularity of Octavian with the legions secured the defection of the provinces of Cyrenaica and Greece to his side. On September 2, the naval battle of Actium took place. Antony and Cleopatra's navy was destroyed, and they were forced to escape to Egypt with 60 ships.

Octavian, now close to absolute power, did not intend to give them rest. In August 30 BC, assisted by Agrippa, he invaded Egypt. With no other refuge to escape to, Antony committed suicide by stabbing himself with his sword in the mistaken belief that Cleopatra had already done so (30 BC). When he found out that Cleopatra was still alive, his friends brought him to Cleopatra's monument in which she was hiding in, and he died in her arms.(However, some sources claim that he did not commit suicide, but was killed by an Egyptian priest who was in favour of Octavian). Probably within two weeks following his death, Cleopatra committed suicide by letting a poisonous snake bite her. Her servants, Iras and Charmion, also killed themselves, and Caesarion was murdered. Antony's daughters by Octavia were spared, as was his son, Iullus Antonius. But his elder son, Marcus Antonius Antyllus, was killed by Octavian's men while pleading for his life in the Caesarium.

[edit] Aftermath and legacy

When Antony died, Octavian became uncontested ruler of Rome. In the following years, Octavian, who was known as Augustus after 27 BC, managed to accumulate in his person all administrative, political, and military offices. When Augustus died in 14 AD, his political powers passed to his adopted son Tiberius; the Roman Principate had begun.

The rise of Caesar and the subsequent civil war between his two most powerful adherents effectively ended the credibility of the Roman oligarchy as a governing power and ensured that all future power struggles would centre upon which of two (or more) individuals would achieve supreme control of the government, rather than upon an individual in conflict with the Senate. Thus Antony, as Caesar's key adherent and one of the two men around whom power coalesced following his assassination, was one of the three men chiefly responsible for the fall of the Roman Republic.

[edit] Antony's marriages and descendants

Antony had been married in succession to Fadia, Antonia, Fulvia, Octavia and Cleopatra, and left behind him a number of children. Through his daughters by Octavia, he would be ancestor to the Roman Emperors Caligula, Claudius and Nero.

  1. Marriage to Fadia, a daughter of a freedman. According to Cicero, Fadia bore Antony several children. Nothing is known about Fadia or their children. Cicero is the only Roman source that mentions Antony’s first wife.
  2. Marriage to first paternal cousin Antonia Hybrida Minor. According to Plutarch, Antony threw her out of his house in Rome, because she slept with his friend, the tribune Publius Cornelius Dolabella. This occurred by 47 BC and Antony divorced her. By Antonia, he had a daughter:
         * Antonia, married the wealthy Greek Pythodoros of Tralles.
  3. Marriage to Fulvia, by whom he had two sons:
         * Marcus Antonius Antyllus, executed by Octavian in 30 BC.
         * Iullus Antonius, married Claudia Marcella Major, daughter of Octavia.
  4. Marriage to Octavia Minor, sister of Octavian, later Augustus; they had two daughters:
         * Antonia Major, married Domitius; grandmother of the Empress Valeria Messalina and the emperor Nero.
         * Antonia Minor, married Drusus, the son of Livia; mother of the Emperor Claudius, grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, great-grandmother of the emperor Nero.

  1. Children with the queen Cleopatra of Egypt, the former lover of Julius Caesar:
         * The twins Alexander Helios & Cleopatra Selene II. Selene married King Juba II of Numidia and later Mauretania; the queen of Syria, Zenobia of Palmyra, is descended from Selene and Juba II.
         * Ptolemy Philadelphus.

-------------------- Marcus Antonius (in Latin: M·ANTONIVS·M·F·M·N[1]) (c. January 14, 83 BC–August 1, 30 BC), known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and General. He was an important supporter and the loyal friend of Gaius Julius Caesar as a military commander and administrator, being Caesar's second cousin, once removed, by his mother Julia Antonia. After Caesar's assassination, Antony formed an official political alliance with Octavian (Augustus) and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, known to historians today as the Second Triumvirate.

The triumvirate broke up in 33 BC. Disagreement between Octavian and Antony erupted into civil war, the Final War of the Roman Republic, in 31 BC. Antony was defeated by Octavian at the naval Battle of Actium, and in a brief land battle at Alexandria. He committed suicide, and his lover, Cleopatra, killed herself shortly thereafter.

A member of the Antonia gens, Antony was born in winter 87-6 BC, probably in Sulla's army besieging Athens during the Mithridatic War. His father was his namesake, Marcus Antonius Creticus, the son of the great rhetorician Marcus Antonius Orator who had been murdered and decapitated by order of Gaius Marius at the end of 87 B.C. His mother Julia was a daughter of Lucius Caesar (consul 90, censor 89), another Marian victim slain with Antonius the orator. His father (praetor 74) died in 71 B.C. during his command against Mediterranean piracy, and Julia soon remarried to Publius Cornelius Lentulus (Sura) (consul 71), an eminent patrician politician and co-leader of the infamous Conspiracy of Catiline named after the latter.

According to authorities like Plutarch, he spent his teenage years wandering the streets of Rome with his brothers and friends, most notably Gaius Curio (the later tribune 50 B.C.), with whom he is said to have had a long term homosexual liaison. Plutarch writes that before Antony reached 20 years of age, he was already indebted to the sum of 250 talents. (About $5 million in today's money.)

After this period of recklessness, Antony fled to Greece to escape his creditors and to study rhetoric. After a short time spent in attendance on the philosophers at Athens, he was summoned by Aulus Gabinius, proconsul of Syria, to take part in the campaigns against Aristobulus II in Judea, and in support of King Ptolemy XII Auletes in Egypt. In the ensuing campaign, he demonstrated his talents as a cavalry commander and distinguished himself with bravery and courage.

Indeed, Antony's life was a mixture, often simultaneous, of astounding military honor along with equally astounding debauchery. In a similar vein, Plutarch noted that while his generosity helped raise him to the heights of power, he was equally hindered by his countless faults.

In 54 BC, Antony became a member of the staff of Caesar's armies in Gaul and early Germany. He again proved to be a competent military leader in the Gallic Wars, but his personality caused instability wherever he went. Antony and Caesar were said to be best of friends as well as being relatively close relatives. Antony made himself ever available to assist Caesar in carrying out his military campaigns.

Raised by Caesar's influence to the offices of quaestor, augur, and tribune of the plebeians (50 BC), he supported the cause of his patron with great energy. Caesar's two proconsular commands, during a period of ten years, were expiring in 50 BC, and he wanted to return to Rome for the consular elections. But resistance from the conservative faction of the Roman Senate, led by Pompey, demanded that Caesar resign his proconsulship and the command of his armies before being allowed to seek re-election to the consulship.

This Caesar would not do, as such an act would at least temporarily render him a private citizen and thereby leave him open to prosecution for his acts while proconsul. It would also place him at the mercy of Pompey's armies. To prevent this occurrence Caesar bribed the plebian tribune Curio to use his veto to prevent a senatorial decree which would deprive Caesar of his armies and provincial command, and then made sure Antony was elected tribune for the next term of office. Antony exercised his tribunician veto, with the aim of preventing a senatorial decree declaring martial law against the veto, and was violently expelled from the senate with another Caesar adherent, Cassius, who was also a tribune of the plebs. Caesar crossed the river Rubicon upon hearing of these affairs which began the Republican civil war. Antony left Rome and joined Caesar and his armies at Ariminium, where he was presented to Caesar's soldiers still bloody and bruised as an example of the illegalities that his political opponents were perpetrating, and as a casus belli. Tribunes of the Plebs were meant to be untouchable and their veto inalienable according to the Roman mos maiorum (although there was a grey line as to what extent this existed in the declaration of and during martial law). Antony commanded Italy whilst Caesar destroyed Pompey's legions in Spain, and led the reinforcements to Greece, before commanding the right wing of Caesar's armies at Pharsalus.

When Caesar became dictator for a second time, Antony was made Master of the Horse, the dictator's right hand man, and in this capacity he remained in Italy as the peninsula's administrator in 47 BC, while Caesar was fighting the last Pompeians, who had taken refuge in the province of Africa. But Antony's skills as an administrator were a poor match for his generalship, and he seized the opportunity of indulging in the most extravagant excesses, depicted by Cicero in the Philippics. In 46 BC he seems to have taken offense because Caesar insisted on payment for the property of Pompey which Antony professedly had purchased, but had in fact simply appropriated. Conflict soon arose, and, as on other occasions, Antony resorted to violence. Hundreds of citizens were killed and Rome itself descended into a state of anarchy. Caesar was most displeased with the whole affair and removed Antony from all political responsibilities. The two men did not see each other for two years. The estrangement was not of long continuance, with Antony meeting the dictator at Narbo (45 BC) and rejecting the suggestion of Trebonius that he should join in the conspiracy that was already afoot. Reconciliation arrived in 44 BC, when Antony was chosen as partner for Caesar's fifth consulship.

Whatever conflicts existed between the two men, Antony remained faithful to Caesar at all times. On February 15, 44 BC, during the Lupercalia festival, Antony publicly offered Caesar a diadem. This was an event fraught with meaning: a diadem was a symbol of a king, and in refusing it, Caesar demonstrated that he did not intend to assume the throne.

On March 14, 44 BC, Antony was alarmed when a Senator named Casca told him the gods would strike down Caesar. The following day, the Ides of March, he went down to warn the dictator but the Liberatores reached Caesar first and he was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC. In the turmoil that surrounded the event, Antony escaped Rome dressed as a slave; fearing that the dictator's assassination would be the start of a bloodbath among his supporters. When this did not occur, he soon returned to Rome, discussing a truce with the assassins' faction. For a while, Antony, as consul, seemed to pursue peace and an end to the political tension. Following a speech by Cicero in the Senate, an amnesty was agreed for the assassins.

Then came the day of Caesar's funeral. As Caesar's ever-present second in command, co-consul and cousin, Antony was the natural choice to give the eulogy. In his speech, he made accusations of murder and ensured a permanent breach with the conspirators. Showing a talent for rhetoric and dramatic interpretation, Antony snatched the toga from Caesar's body to show the crowd the stab wounds, pointing at each and naming the authors, publicly shaming them. During the eulogy he also read Caesar's will, which left most of his property to the people of Rome, demonstrating that, contrary to the conspirator's assertions, Caesar had no intention of forming a royal dynasty. Public opinion turned, and that night, the Roman populace attacked the assassins' houses, forcing them to flee for their lives.

-------------------- http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Antonius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Antony -------------------- Drottning Kleopatra av Egypten och Markus Antonius fick tre barn tillsammans och den romerska generalen vistades oftare i Alexandria än i Rom. För att kunna ingå äktenskap med Kleopatra lät Antonius till sist förskjuta sin hustru Octavia, vilken han gift sig med för att bibehålla sämjan med den andre romerska imperatorn, Octavianus.Men Antonius hade, genom sin hängivenhet till Kleopatra och det österländska, minskat sitt intresse för romarna, på samma gång som Octavianus samlade allt mer makt i Rom. Till slut kom en brytning (32 f.Kr.) mellan de båda imperatorerna och krig uppstod mellan Västra Romarriket med Octavianus på den ena sidan och det Östra Romarriket med Antonius och Kleopatra på den andra. I det avgörande sjöslaget vid Aktion (latin Actium) 2 september 31 f.Kr. förlorade Antonius och Kleopatra sin flotta och på våren 30 f.Kr. kunde segraren Octavianus komma till Egypten. Kleopatra påbörjade i hemlighet förhandlingar med Octavianus, beredd att offra Markus Antonius.Enligt myten ska Markus Antonius falskeligen ha underrättats om att Kleopatra tagit sitt liv. Han ska därefter ha bestämt sig för att ta sitt eget. Vid sitt sista andetag ska han dock ha fått visshet om att underrättelsen om Kleopatras självmord var falsk. Kleopatra försökte få hjälp hos Octavianus, men misslyckades och tilläts inte heller medverka vid hans triumfatoriska intåg i Rom. Fem dagar efter Antonius död begick Kleopatra själv självmord. Enligt två olika legender ska hon antingen ha använt en giftfylld hårnål eller låtit sig bli biten av en giftorm. Hennes bägge söner Caesarion (från förhållandet med Caesar) och Antyllus (från förhållandet med Markus Antonius) blev dödade på Octavianus befallning

-------------------- Info from http://www.genealogy4u.com/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I52722&tree=western2007

   * This descent is speculative and taken from trees shown on various web sites. The dates are suspect when descending to Clodmir IV, King of the Franks , as some will be before BC but I will try to clarify them by further research.

     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.

     Antony, Mark

     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.

     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.

     GIVEN_NAMES: Also shown as Marcus Antonius III

     DEATH: Also shown as Died suicide.

     DEATH: Also shown as Died 0030 BC

-------------------- 16870305536220234. Ruler Of Rome Mark Anthony III ROMAN EMPIRE,1746 son of Marcus Antonius II "Creticus" Praetor ROMAN EMPIRE and Julia Caesonia ROMAN EMPIRE, was born in 83 B.C. in Rome, Italy, died in 30 B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt at age 53, and was buried in , , Rome, Italy. The cause of his death was Suicide.

General Notes:

Early life

Antonius was born in Rome around 83 BC. His father was his namesake, Marcus Antonius Creticus, the son of the great rhetorician Marcus Antonius Orator executed by Gaius Marius' supporters in 86 BC. Through his mother Julia Caesaris, he was a distant cousin and relative of Julius Caesar. His father died at a young age, leaving him and his brothers, Lucius and Gaius, to the care of his mother. Julia Antonia (known in sources by her married name, to distinguish from the other Julias) then married Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, a politician involved in and executed during the Catiline of 63 BC.

Antonius' early life was characterized by a lack of parental guidance. According to historians like Plutarch, he spent his teenage years roaming through Rome with his brothers and friends (Publius Clodius Pulcher among them). Together, they embarked on a rather wild sort of life, frequenting gambling houses, drinking too much, and involving themselves in scandalous love affairs. Plutarch mentions the rumour that before Antonius reached 20 years of age, he was already indebted the sum of 250 talents (equivalent to several million euros).

After this period of recklessness, Antonius went to Greece to study rhetoric. During this visit, he joined the cavalry in the Roman legions of the proconsul Aulus Gabinius en route to Syria. In this campaign, he demonstrated his talents as a cavalry commander and distinguished himself with bravery and courage. It was during this campaign that he first visited Egypt and Alexandria.

Supporter of Caesar

In 54 BC, Antonius became a member of the staff of Julius Caesar's armies in Gaul. He again proved to be a competent military leader in the Gallic wars, but his personality caused instability wherever he went. Caesar himself was said to be frequently irritated by his behaviour.

Nevertheless, Antonius became a wholehearted Julius Caesar supporter, and he dedicated his year as tribune of the plebians in 50 BC to his cause. Caesar's two proconsular commands, during a period of 10 years, were expiring, and the general wanted to return to Rome for the consular elections. But resistance from the conservative faction of the Roman senate, led by Pompey, demanded that Caesar resign his proconsulship and the command of his armies before he be allowed to seek re-election to the consulship. This he could not do, as such an act would leave him a private citizen--and therefore open to prosecution for his acts while proconsul--in the interim between his proconsulship and his second consulship; it would also leave him at the mercy of Pompey's armies. Antonius proposed that both generals lay down their commands. The idea was rejected, and Antonius resorted to violence, ending up expelled from the senate. He travelled in full to meet Caesar, then stationed in northern Italy. With all hopes of a peaceful solution for the conflict with Pompey gone, Caesar crossed the Rubicon, starting the last Republican civil war. During the civil war, Antonius was Caesar's second in command. In all battles against the Pompeians, Antonius led the left wing of the army, a proof of Caesar's confidence in him.

When Caesar became dictator, Antonius was made master of the horse—the second most important political office—and in this condition he remained in Italy in 47 BC, while Caesar was fighting the last Pompeians, hidden in the African provinces. But Antonius' skills as administrator were a poor match to his military ones. Conflict soon arrived, and, as on other occasions, Antonius used violence. Hundreds of citizens were killed and Rome herself was in a state of war. Caesar was most displeased with the whole affair and removed all political responsibilities from Antonius. He was also removed from Caesar's presence for two years. Reconciliation arrived in 44 BC, when Antonius was chosen as partner of Caesar's fifth consulship.

Whatever conflicts existed between the two men, Antonius remained faithful to Caesar at all times. In February of that fateful year, during the Lupercalia festival, Antonius publicly offered Caesar a diadem. This was an event fraught with meaning: a diadem was a symbol of a king, and in refusing it, Caesar demonstrated that he did not intend to abolish the Republic.

On March 15, 44 BC (the Ides of March), Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of senators, led by Cassius and Marcus Junius Brutus. In the turmoil that surrounded the event, Antonius escaped Rome dressed as a slave, fearing that the dictator's assassination would be the start of a bloodbath among his supporters. That did not occur, and Antonius soon returned to Rome, discussing a truce with the assassins' faction. For a while, Antonius, as consul of the year, seemed to pursue peace and the end of the political tension. Following a speech by Marcus Tullius Cicero in the senate, an amnesty was agreed for the assassins. Then came the day of Caesar's funeral. As Caesar's eternal second in command, partner in consulship and cousin, Antonius was the natural choice to make the funeral eulogy. In his speech, he sprang his accusations of murder and sealed the fates of the conspirators. Showing a talent for rhetoric and dramatic interpretation, Antonius snatched the toga from Caesar's body to show the crowd the scars of the stabs. That night, the Roman populace attacked the assassins' houses, forcing them to flee for their lives.

The second triumvirate

The death of Caesar had left an open space in Rome's politics. The Republic was dying, and yet another civil war was starting. It was then that Octavianus, Caesar's great nephew and adopted son, emerged on the political scene. As heir of Caesar's name and estate, he had great political potential due to the esteem of the population and the loyalty of the legions. He was also very willing to fight for power with the other two main contestants: Antonius himself and Lepidus. After a few months of difficult negotiations, the three men agreed to share the power as the second triumvirate. The Triumvirs for the Organization of the People gained official recognition by the Lex Titia, a law passed by the Assembly in 43 BC, which granted them virtually all powers for a period of five years. To solidify the alliance, Octavianus married Clodia, Antonius' step-daughter. The triumvirs then set to pursue the assassins' faction, who had fled to the East, and to murder the conspirators' supporters who remained in Rome. Cicero was the most famous victim of these violent days; knowing that Antonius had a grudge against him, the writer committed suicide before they could kill him. (Livy, however, writes that he merely refused to resist the executioners.) Antonius and his wife Fulvia did not spare the body: Cicero's head and hands were posted in the rostra, with his tongue pierced by Fulvia's golden hairpins. After the twin battles at Philippi and the suicides of Brutus and Cassius, no one else would defy the triumvirate's power.

With the political and military situations dealt with, the triumvirs divided the Roman world among themselves. Lepidus took control of the western provinces, and Octavianus remained in Italy with the responsibility of securing lands for the veteran soldiers—an important task, since the loyalty of the legions depended heavily on this promise. As for Antonius, he went to the Eastern provinces, to pacify yet another rebellion in Judaea and attempt to conquer the Parthian Empire. During this trip, he met Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt in Tarsus, in 41 BC, and became her lover.

Meanwhile, in Italy, the situation was not pacified. Octavianus' administration was not appeasing, and a revolt was about to occur. Moreover, he divorced Clodia, giving a curious explanation: she was annoying. The leader of this revolt was Fulvia, the wife of Antonius, a woman known to history for her political ambition and tempestuous character. She feared for her husband's political position and was not keen to see her daughter put aside. Assisted by Lucius Antonius, her brother-in-law, Fulvia raised eight legions with her own money. Her army invaded Rome, and for a while managed to create problems for Octavianus. However, in the winter of 41–40 BC, Fulvia was besieged in Perusia and forced to surrender by starvation. Fulvia was exiled to Sicyon, where she died while waiting for Antonius' arrival.

Fulvia's death was providential. A truce with Octavianus was negotiated and reinforced by Antonius' marriage to Octavia, Octavianus' beloved half-sister. This peace, known as the Treaty of Brundisium, reinforced the triumvirate and allowed Antonius to finally prepare his long awaited campaign against the Parthians.

Antonius and Cleopatra

With this military purpose on his mind, Antonius sailed to Greece with his new wife. But the rebellion in Sicily of Sextus Pompeius, the last of the Pompeians, kept the army promised to Antonius in Italy. With his plans again severed, Antonius and Octavianus quarreled again. This time with the help of Octavia, a new treaty was signed in Tarentum in 38 BC. The triumvirate was renewed for a period of another five years (ending in 33 BC) and Octavianus promised again to send legions to the East.

But by now, Antonius was skeptical of Octavianus' true support of his Parthian cause. Leaving Octavia pregnant of her second Antonia in Rome, he sailed to Alexandria, where he expected funding from Cleopatra, the mother of his twins. The queen of Egypt loaned him the money he needed for the army, but the campaign proved a disaster. After a series of defeats in battle, Antonius lost most of his Egyptian army during a retreat through Armenia in the peak of winter.

Meanwhile in Rome, the triumvirate was no more. Lepidus was forced to resign after an ill-judged political move. Now in sole power, Octavianus was occupied in wooing the traditional Republican aristocracy to his side. He married Livia and started to attack Antonius in order to raise himself to power. He argued that Antonius was a man of low morals to have left his faithful wife abandoned in Rome with the children to be with the promiscuous queen of Egypt. Antonius was accused of everything, but most of all, of "becoming native", an unforgivable crime to the proud Romans. Several times Antonius was summoned to Rome, but remained in Alexandria with Cleopatra and her funds.

Again with Egyptian money, Antonius invaded Armenia, this time successfully. In the return, a mock Roman triumph was celebrated in the streets of Alexandria. The parade through the city was a pastiche of Rome's most important military celebration. For the finale, the whole city was summoned to hear a very important political statement. Surrounded by Cleopatra and her children, Antonius was about to put an end to his alliance with Octavianus. He distributed kingdoms between his children: Alexander Helios was named king of Armenia and Parthia (not conquered yet), his twin Cleopatra Selene got Cyrenaica and Libya, and the young Ptolemy Philadelphus was awarded with Syria and Cilicia. As for Cleopatra, she was proclaimed Queen of Kings and Queen of Egypt, to rule with Caesarion (Ptolemy Caesar, son of Julius Caesar), King of Kings and King of Egypt. Most important of all, Caesarion was declared legitimate son and heir of Julius Caesar. These proclamations were known as the Donations of Alexandria and caused a fatal breach in Antonius' relations with Rome.

Distributing insignificant lands among the children of Cleopatra was not a peace move, but it was not a serious problem either. What did seriously threaten Octavianus' political position, however, was the acknowledgment of Caesarion as legitimate and heir to Julius Caesar's name. Octavianus' base of power was his link with Caesar through adoption, which granted him much-needed popularity and loyalty of the legions. To see this convenient situation attacked by a child sired by the richest woman in the world was something Octavianus could not accept. The triumvirate expired in the last day of 33 BC and was not renewed. Another civil war was beginning.

During 33 and 32 BC, a propaganda war was fought in the political arena of Rome, with accusations flying between sides. Antonius (in Egypt) divorced Octavia and accused Octavianus of being an social upstart, of usurping power, and of forging the adoption papers by Julius Caesar. Octavianus responded with treason charges: of illegally keeping provinces that should be given to other men by lots, as was Rome's tradition, and of starting wars against foreign nations (Armenia and Parthia) without the consent of the senate. Antonius was also held responsible for Sextus Pompeius execution with no trial. In 32 BC, both consuls (Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Sosius) and a third of the senate abandoned Rome to meet Antonius and Cleopatra in Greece.

In 31 BC, the war started. Octavianus' loyal and talented general Agrippa captured the Greek city and naval port of Methone, loyal to Antonius. The enormous popularity of Octavianus with the legions secured the defection of the provinces of Cyrenaica and Greece to his side. On September 2, the naval battle of Actium took place. Antonius and Cleopatra's navy was destroyed, and they were forced to escape to Egypt.

Octavianus, now close to absolute power, did not intend to give them rest. In August 30 BC, assisted by Agrippa, he invaded Egypt. With no other refuge to escape to, Antonius committed suicide. A few days later, Cleopatra herself followed his example. 3470

Medical Notes:

In 32 B.C., Octavian and Antony went to war. Cleopatra spread a report that she had committed suicide. Antony heard the report and stabbed himself out of grief. Before he died, Antony learned that Cleopatra was alive. His followers carried him to Cleopatra, and he died in her arms.

Mark Anthony III was justly famous for military successes and for stabilizing the Roman Republic after the murder, in B.C. 44, of Julius Ceasar the dictator.

Mark married Pharaoh Of Ancient Egypt Cleopatra VII Philopator EGYPT 1601 in Alexandria, Egypt. Cleopatra was born in December 70 B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt, died 12 August 30 B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt, and was buried in Alexandria, Egypt. The cause of her death was Suicide.

Children from this marriage were:

                     i.  Alexander Helious of EGYPT was born in 40 B.C. 3470 and died in 30 B.C. 3470 at age 10. 

                   ii.  Cleopatra Selene of EGYPT was born in 40 B.C. in Egypt 3470 and died in 6 3470 at age 46. Another name for Cleopatra was Cleopatra VIII of EGYPT.3470 

                   iii.  Ptolemy Philadelphus of EGYPY was born in 36 B.C. in Egypt 3470 and died in 12 B.C. 3470 at age 24. 

Mark next married Fadia ROMAN EMPIRE 1601 in <, , Rome, Italy>. Fadia was born in <, , Rome, Italy> and died in Y.

Mark next married Antonia Hybrida ROMAN EMPIRE 1601 in <, , Rome, Italy>. Antonia was born in Rome, Italy.

Mark next married Fulvia ROMAN EMPIRE 1601 in <, , Rome, Italy>. Fulvia was born in <, , Rome, Italy> and died in Y.

Mark next married Octavia Thurina Minor ROMAN EMPIRE 1601 in Rome, , Lazio, Italy. Octavia was born in 69 B.C. in Rome, , Lazio, Italy and died in 11 B.C. in Rome, , Lazio, Italy at age 58.

Children from this marriage were:

                     i.  Augusta Antonia "The Elder" ROMAN EMPIRE was born before 30 B.C. in Rome, , Lazio, Italy. 

8435152768110117 ii. Augusta Antonia "The Younger" ROMAN EMPIRE (born in 35 B.C. in Rome, , Lazio, Italy - died in 37) -------------------- He was Consul of Rome (44 BCE), and Triumvir (43-33 BCE, with Lepidus and Octavianus Caesar). He is famous for his love affair with Cleopatra.