Did mark antony betray caesar
He was the second son of Cleopatra. However, these lands were already ruled by other people at that time. Her father was Artavasdes I. Instead, he took them from Egypt to Rome. Octavia took good care of them and taught them well. The only other information we have about Alexander Helios and his brother Ptolemy Philadelphus when they arrived at Rome is from Cassius Dio books.
Contents move to sidebar hide. Despite her incredible accomplishments and legacy, historians, poets, and filmmakers have still been drawn to one thing most: her relationships with the Roman generals Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Less, however, is remembered about the four children she had with these men. The pair returned to Egypt after his assasination in 44 BCE.
Caesar had named him as heir in his will. Cleopatra appears to have sent her eldest son away with his tutor to India, fearing for his life. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Life [ edit ]. Later life [ edit ]. See also [ edit ].
Mark antony rome
References [ edit ]. Cleopatra's children. New York, Dodd, Mead. ISBN Cleopatra Famous People Story Books. Cleopatra: Ruler of Egypt World Leaders. Caesar attempted to get away, but, being drenched by blood, he tripped and fell. According to Roman historian Eutropius , around 60 or more men participated in the assassination.
Caesar was stabbed 23 times and died from the blood loss attributable to multiple stab wounds. In the turmoil surrounding the assassination, Antony escaped Rome dressed as a slave, fearing Caesar's death would be the start of a bloodbath among his supporters. When this did not occur, he soon returned to Rome. The conspirators, who styled themselves the liberatores "liberators" , had barricaded themselves on the Capitoline hill.
Although they believed Caesar's death would restore the Republic, Caesar had been immensely popular with the Roman middle and lower classes , who became enraged upon learning a small group of aristocrats had killed their champion. Antony, as the sole consul, soon took the initiative and seized the state treasury. Calpurnia , Caesar's widow, presented him with Caesar's personal papers and custody of his extensive property, clearly marking him as Caesar's heir and leader of the Caesarians.
Lepidus wanted to storm the Capitol, but Antony preferred a peaceful solution as a majority of both the liberatores and Caesar's own supporters preferred a settlement over renewed civil war. Caesar's assassins would be pardoned of their crimes and, in return, all of Caesar's actions would be ratified.
Antony also agreed to accept the appointment of his rival Dolabella as his consular colleague to replace Caesar. On 19 March, Caesar's will was opened and read. In it, Caesar posthumously adopted his great-nephew Gaius Octavius and named him his principal heir. Then only nineteen years old and stationed with Caesar's army in Macedonia, the youth became a member of Caesar's gens Julia with the name "Gaius Julius Caesar"; for clarity, it is historical convention to call him Octavian.
Though not the chief beneficiary, Antony did receive some bequests. Shortly after the compromise was reached, as a sign of good faith, Brutus, against the advice of Cassius and Cicero, agreed Caesar would be given a public funeral and his will would be validated. Caesar's funeral was held on 20 March. Antony, as Caesar's faithful lieutenant and incumbent consul, was chosen to preside over the ceremony and to recite a eulogy.
In a demagogic speech, he enumerated the deeds of Caesar and, publicly reading his will, detailed the donations Caesar had left to the Roman people. Antony then seized the blood-stained toga from Caesar's body and presented it to the crowd.
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Worked into a fury by the bloody spectacle, the assembly turned into a riot. Several buildings in the Forum and some houses of the conspirators were burned to the ground. Panicked, many of the conspirators fled Italy. Such an assignment, in addition to being unworthy of their rank, would have kept them far from Rome and shifted the balance towards Antony.
Refusing such secondary duties, the two traveled to Greece instead. Additionally, Cleopatra left Rome to return to Egypt. Despite the provisions of Caesar's will, Antony proceeded to act as leader of the Caesarians, including appropriating for himself a portion of Caesar's fortune rightfully belonging to Octavian. Antony enacted the lex Antonia , which formally abolished the dictatorship, in an attempt to consolidate his support among those who opposed Caesar's dictatorial rule.
He also enacted a number of laws he purported to have found in Caesar's papers to ensure his popularity with Caesar's veterans, particularly by providing land grants to them. Lepidus, with Antony's support, was elected pontifex maximus , succeeding Caesar. To solidify the alliance between Antony and Lepidus, Antony's daughter Antonia Prima was engaged to Lepidus' homonymous son.
Surrounding himself with a bodyguard of over six thousand of Caesar's veterans, Antony presented himself as Caesar's true successor, largely ignoring Octavian. Octavian arrived in Rome in May to claim his inheritance. Although Antony had amassed political support, Octavian still had opportunity to rival him as the leading member of the Caesarian faction.
The senate increasingly viewed Antony as a new tyrant; Antony had also lost the support of many supporters of Caesar when he opposed the motion to elevate Caesar to divine status. By summer 44 BC, Antony was in a difficult political position: he could either denounce the liberatores as murderers and alienate the senate or he could maintain his support for the compromise and risk betraying Caesar's legacy, strengthening Octavian's position.
In either case, his situation as ruler of Rome would be weakened. Roman historian Cassius Dio later recorded that while Antony, as consul, maintained the advantage in the relationship, the general affection of the Roman people was shifting to Octavian due to his status as Caesar's son. Supporting the senatorial faction against Antony, Octavian, in September 44 BC, encouraged the eminent senator Marcus Tullius Cicero to attack Antony in a series of speeches portraying him as a threat to the republic.
Octavian continued to recruit Caesar's veterans to his side, away from Antony, with two of Antony's legions defecting in November 44 BC. At that time, Octavian, only a private citizen , lacked legal authority to command the Republic's armies, making his command illegal. With popular opinion in Rome turning against him and his consular term nearing its end, Antony attempted to secure a favorable military assignment to secure an army to protect himself.
The senate, as was custom, assigned Antony and Dolabella the provinces of Macedonia and Syria , respectively, to govern in 43 BC after their consular terms expired. Antony, however, objected to the assignment, preferring to govern Cisalpine Gaul which was already controlled by Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus , one of Caesar's assassins.
Ratifying Octavian's extraordinary command on 1 January 43 BC, the senate dispatched him along with consuls Hirtius and Pansa to defeat Antony and his exhausted five legions. Both consuls were killed, however, leaving Octavian in sole command of their armies, some eight legions. With Antony defeated, the senate assigned command of the legions in northern Italy to Decimus.
Sextus Pompey , son of Caesar's old rival Pompey Magnus , was given command of the Republic's fleet from his base in Sicily while Brutus and Cassius were granted the governorships of Macedonia and Syria respectively. These appointments attempted to renew the "republican" cause. Meanwhile, Antony recovered his position by joining forces with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who had been assigned the governorship of Transalpine Gaul and Nearer Spain.
Though he was an ardent Caesarian, Lepidus had maintained friendly relations with the senate and with Sextus Pompey. His legions, however, quickly joined Antony, giving him control over seventeen legions, the largest army in the West. By mid-May, Octavian began secret negotiations to form an alliance with Antony to unify the Caesarians against the liberatores.
Remaining in Cisalpine Gaul, Octavian dispatched emissaries to Rome in July 43 BC demanding he be appointed consul to succeed Hirtius and Pansa and that the senate rescind the decree declaring Antony a public enemy. Octavian had himself irregularly elected consul with a cousin , rewarded his soldiers, and then set about prosecuting Caesar's murderers.
Under the lex Pedia , all of the conspirators and Sextus Pompey were convicted "in absentia" and declared public enemies. They shared military command of the republic's armies and provinces among themselves: Antony received Gaul, Lepidus Spain, and Octavian as the junior partner Africa. They jointly governed Italy. The triumvirate would have to conquer the rest of Rome's holdings; Brutus and Cassius held the Eastern Mediterranean , and Sextus Pompey held the Mediterranean islands.
Octavian and Antony reinforced their alliance through Octavian's marriage to Antony's stepdaughter, Claudia. The primary objective of the triumvirate was to avenge Caesar's death and to make war upon his murderers. Before marching against Brutus and Cassius in the East, the triumvirs issued proscriptions against their enemies in Rome.
The proscribed were named on public lists, stripped of citizenship, and outlawed. Their wealth and property were confiscated by the state, and rewards were offered to anyone who secured their arrest or death. With such encouragements, the proscription produced deadly results; two thousand equites were executed, and one third of the senate.
Antony forced Octavian to give up Cicero , a personal enemy of Antony and friend of Octavian, who was then killed on 7 December. The confiscations helped replenish the state treasury , which had been depleted by Caesar's civil war the decade before; when this seemed insufficient to fund the imminent war against Brutus and Cassius, the triumvirs imposed new taxes, especially on the wealthy.
By January 42 BC the proscription had ended; it had lasted two months, and though less bloody than Sulla's, it traumatized Roman society. A number of those named and outlawed had fled to either Sextus Pompey in Sicily or to the liberatores in the East. Due to the infighting within the triumvirate during 43 BC, Brutus and Cassius had assumed control of much of Rome's eastern territories, and amassed a large army.
Before the triumvirate could cross the Adriatic into Greece, the triumvirate had to address the threat posed by Sextus Pompey and his fleet. From his base in Sicily, Sextus raided the Italian coast and blockaded the triumvirs. Octavian's friend and admiral Quintus Salvidienus Rufus thwarted an attack by Sextus against the southern Italian mainland at Rhegium , but Salvidienus was then defeated in the resulting naval battle because of the inexperience of his crews.
Only when Antony arrived with his fleet was the blockade broken. Though the blockade was defeated, control of Sicily remained in Sextus' hand, but the defeat of the liberatores was the triumvirate's first priority. In the summer of 42 BC, Octavian and Antony sailed for Macedonia to face the liberatores with nineteen legions, the vast majority of their army [ 93 ] approximately , regular infantry plus supporting cavalry and irregular auxiliary units , leaving Rome under the administration of Lepidus.
Likewise, the army of the liberatores also commanded an army of nineteen legions; their legions, however, were not at full strength while the legions of Antony and Octavian were. They had spent the previous months plundering Greek cities to swell their war-chest and had gathered in Thrace with the Roman legions from the Eastern provinces and levies from Rome's client kingdoms.
Brutus and Cassius held a position on the high ground along both sides of the via Egnatia west of the city of Philippi. The south position was anchored to a supposedly impassable marsh, while the north was bordered by impervious hills. They had plenty of time to fortify their position with a rampart and a ditch. Brutus put his camp on the north while Cassius occupied the south of the via Egnatia.
Antony arrived shortly and positioned his army on the south of the via Egnatia, while Octavian put his legions north of the road. Antony offered battle several times, but the liberatores were not lured to leave their defensive stand.
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Thus, Antony tried to secretly outflank the Brutus and Cassius' position through the marshes in the south. This provoked a pitched battle on 3 October 42 BC. Antony commanded the triumvirate's army due to Octavian's sickness on the day, with Antony directly controlling the right flank opposite Cassius. Because of his health, Octavian remained in camp while his lieutenants assumed a position on the left flank opposite Brutus.
In the resulting first battle of Philippi, Antony defeated Cassius and captured his camp while Brutus overran Octavian's troops and penetrated into the Triumvirs' camp but was unable to capture the sick Octavian. The battle was a tactical draw, but due to poor communications Cassius believed the battle was a complete defeat and committed suicide to prevent being captured.
Brutus assumed sole command of the army and preferred a war of attrition over open conflict. His officers, however, were dissatisfied with these defensive tactics and his Caesarian veterans threatened to defect, forcing Brutus to give battle at the second battle of Philippi on 23 October. While the battle was initially evenly matched, Antony's leadership routed Brutus' forces.
Brutus committed suicide the day after the defeat and the remainder of his army swore allegiance to the Triumvirate. Over fifty thousand Romans died in the two battles. While Antony treated the losers mildly, Octavian dealt cruelly with his prisoners and even beheaded Brutus' corpse. The battles of Philippi ended the civil war in favor of the triumvirs.
With the defeat of Brutus and Cassius, only Sextus Pompey and his fleet remained to challenge the triumvirate's control of the Roman world. The victory at Philippi left the members of the triumvirate as masters of the republic, save Sextus Pompey in Sicily. Upon returning to Rome, the triumvirate repartitioned rule of Rome's provinces among themselves, with Antony as the clear senior partner.
He received the largest distribution, governing all of the Eastern provinces while retaining Gaul in the West. Octavian's position improved, as he received Spain, which was taken from Lepidus. Lepidus was then reduced to holding only Africa, and he assumed a clearly tertiary role in the triumvirate. Rule over Italy remained undivided, but Octavian was assigned the difficult and unpopular task of demobilizing their veterans and providing them with land distributions in Italy.
During his absence, several of his supporters held key positions in Rome to protect his interests there. The East was in need of reorganization. The Parthian threat to the triumvirate's rule was urgent due to the fact that the Parthians supported the liberatores in the recent civil war, aid which included the supply of troops at Philippi.
In 42 BC, the Roman East was composed of several directly controlled provinces and client kingdoms. Approximately half of the eastern territory was controlled by Rome's client kingdoms, nominally independent kingdoms subject to Roman direction. These kingdoms included:. Antony spent the winter of 42 BC in Athens , where he ruled generously towards the Greek cities.
A proclaimed philhellene "Friend of all things Greek" , Antony supported Greek culture to win the loyalty of the inhabitants of the Greek East. He attended religious festivals and ceremonies, including initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries , [ ] a secret cult dedicated to the worship of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone. Upon his arrival in Ephesus in Asia, Antony was worshiped as the god Dionysus born anew.
He granted pardons to all Roman nobles living in the East who had supported Pompey, except for Caesar's assassins. Ruling from Ephesus, Antony consolidated Rome's hegemony in the East, receiving envoys from Rome's client kingdoms and intervening in their dynastic affairs, extracting enormous financial "gifts" from them in the process.
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Though King Deiotarus of Galatia supported Brutus and Cassius following Caesar's assassination, Antony allowed him to retain his position. In Hasmonean Judea , several Israelite delegations complained to Antony of the harsh rule of Phasael and Herod , the sons of Rome's assassinated chief minister in the territory of Judaea , who was an Edomite called Antipater the Idumaean.
After Herod offered him a large financial gift, Antony confirmed the brothers in their positions. Antony had first met a young Cleopatra while campaigning in Egypt in 55 BC and again in 48 BC when Caesar had backed her as queen of Egypt over the claims of her half-sister Arsinoe. After Caesar's assassination, Cleopatra and Caesarion returned to Egypt, where she named the child as her co-ruler.
In 42 BC, the Triumvirate, in recognition for Cleopatra's help towards Publius Cornelius Dolabella in opposition to the Liberators, granted official recognition to Caesarion's position as king of Egypt. Arriving in Tarsus aboard her magnificent ship, Cleopatra invited Antony to a grand banquet to solidify their alliance. At Cleopatra's request, Antony ordered the execution of Arsinoe, who, though marched in Caesar's triumphal parade in 46 BC, [ ] had been granted sanctuary at the temple of Artemis in Ephesus.
Antony and Cleopatra then spent the winter of 41 BC together in Alexandria. Antony also granted formal control over Cyprus, which had been under Egyptian control since 47 BC during the turmoil of Caesar's civil war , to Cleopatra in 40 BC as a gift for her loyalty to Rome. Antony, in his first months in the East, raised money, reorganized his troops, and secured the alliance of Rome's client kingdoms.
He also promoted himself as Hellenistic ruler, which won him the affection of the Greek peoples of the East but also made him the target of Octavian's propaganda in Rome.
Singer mark antony biography: Alexander Helios (Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος Ἥλιος; late 40 BC – unknown, but possibly between 29 and 25 BC) [1] was a Ptolemaic prince and son of Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of the Ptolemaic dynasty and Roman triumvir Mark Antony.
According to some ancient authors, Antony led a carefree life of luxury in Alexandria. However, after a short stay in Tyre , he was forced to sail with his army to Italy to confront Octavian due to Octavian's war against Antony's wife and brother. Following the defeat of Brutus and Cassius, while Antony was stationed in the East, Octavian had authority over the West.
Additionally, tens of thousands of veterans who had fought for the Republican cause in the war also required land grants. This was necessary to ensure they would not support a political opponent of the triumvirate. This left Octavian with two options: alienating many Roman citizens by confiscating their land, or alienating many Roman soldiers who might back a military rebellion against the triumvirate's rule.
Octavian chose the former. Led by Fulvia , the wife of Antony, the senators grew hostile towards Octavian over the issue of the land confiscations. According to the ancient historian Cassius Dio , Fulvia was the most powerful woman in Rome at the time. As the mother-in-law of Octavian and the wife of Antony, no action was taken by the senate without her support.
With the help of Antony's brother, the consul of 41 BC Lucius Antonius , Fulvia encouraged the senate to oppose Octavian's land policies. The conflict between Octavian and Fulvia caused great political and social unrest throughout Italy. Tensions escalated into open war, however, when Octavian divorced Claudia , Fulvia's daughter from her first husband Publius Clodius Pulcher.
Outraged, Fulvia, supported by Lucius, raised an army to fight for Antony's rights against Octavian. According to the ancient historian Appian , Fulvia's chief reason for the war was her jealousy of Antony's affairs with Cleopatra in Egypt and desire to draw Antony back to Rome. However, when Octavian returned to the city with his army, the pair were forced to retreat to Perusia in Etruria.
Octavian placed the city under siege while Lucius waited for Antony's legions in Gaul to come to his aid. While Octavian pardoned Lucius for his role in the war and even granted him command in Spain as his chief lieutenant there, Fulvia was forced to flee to Greece with her children. With the war over, Octavian was left in sole control over Italy.
When Antony's governor of Gaul died, Octavian took over his legions there, further strengthening his control over the West. Despite the Parthian Empire's invasion of Rome's eastern territories, Fulvia's civil war forced Antony to leave the East and return to Rome in order to secure his position. Meeting her in Athens, Antony rebuked Fulvia for her actions before sailing on to Italy with his army to face Octavian, laying siege to Brundisium.
This new conflict proved untenable for both Octavian and Antony, however. Their centurions, who had become important figures politically, refused to fight due to their shared service under Caesar. The legions under their command followed suit. The Roman world was redivided, with Antony receiving the Eastern provinces, Octavian the Western provinces, and Lepidus retained his junior position as governor of Africa.
This agreement, known as the Treaty of Brundisium , reinforced the triumvirate and allowed Antony to begin preparing for Caesar's long-awaited campaign against the Parthian Empire. The rise of the Parthian Empire in the 3rd century BC and Rome's expansion into the Eastern Mediterranean during the 2nd century BC brought the two powers into direct contact, causing centuries of tumultuous and strained relations.
Though periods of peace developed cultural and commercial exchanges, war was a constant threat. Influence over the buffer state of the Kingdom of Armenia , located to the north-east of Roman Syria , was often a central issue in the Roman-Parthian conflict. Rome then released Artavasdes, who succeeded his father as king. Artavasdes II offered Crassus the aid of nearly forty thousand troops to assist his Parthian expedition on the condition that Crassus invade through Armenia as the safer route.
Crassus' actions proved disastrous as his army was defeated at the Battle of Carrhae by a numerically inferior Parthian force. His reasons were to punish the Parthians for assisting Pompey in the recent civil war , to avenge Crassus' defeat at Carrhae, and especially to match the glory of Alexander the Great for himself.
As part of the compromise between Antony and the Republicans to restore order following Caesar's murder, Publius Cornelius Dolabella was assigned the governorship of Syria and command over Caesar's planned Parthian campaign. The compromise did not hold, however, and the republicans were forced to flee to the East. The republicans directed Quintus Labienus to attract the Parthians to their side in the resulting war against Antony and Octavian.
After the liberatores were defeated at the Battle of Philippi , Labienus joined the Parthians. The legions, however, were composed of former Republican troops and Labienus convinced Orodes II to invade. Labienus, the Republican ally of Brutus and Cassius, accompanied him to advise him and to rally the former Republican soldiers stationed in Syria to the Parthian cause.
Labienus recruited many of the former Republican soldiers to the Parthian campaign in opposition to Antony.