v34_0408 - MARCUS ANTONIUS Denier

MARCUS ANTONIUS

(83-30 BC)

Antoine, born in 83 BC. -VS. , is a loyal supporter of Caesar. He served under his orders in Gaul, was one of his lieutenants during the civil war (49-45 BC).. -VS. ) and assumed his first consulship with him (44 BC. -VS. ). Upon his death, Antoine receives an "Imperium maius" for the Gauls (Cisalpine and Transalpine). After the siege of Mutina and the murder of the two consuls (Pansa and Hirtius), he formed the second triumvirate with Octave and Lepidus and favored the proscriptions (death of Cicero, 43 BC. -VS. ). He had Caesar deified in 42 BC. -VS. and participates in the battle of Philippi, where Cassius and Brutus are killed. Anthony, in 41 BC. -VS. , traveled to Asia Minor after the previous year's Parthian invasion of Syria. Antony meets Cleopatra for the first time in Alexandria. After the war of Perugia, where his brother is disavowed, he is reconciled with Octave and marries his sister Octavie. The Peace of Misenum consecrates a status quo with Sextus Pompey (39 BC. -VS. ). The pact of Taranto, in 37 BC. -VS. , renews the triumvirate. Antoine would have married Cleopatra in 37 or 36 BC. -VS. In 34, he celebrated a triumph in Alexandria after his brilliant Armenian campaign, followed by the famous "donation of Alexandria". Octavia divorced from Antoine in 32 BC. -VS. and Octave publishes Antony's will in Rome. This marks the start of open hostilities between the two men, hostilities ending in the Battle of Actium (31 BC. -VS. ) and the suicides, the following year, of Marc Antoine and Cleopatra. Egypt becomes a Roman province.