Marcus Antonius (Latin: M·ANTONIVS·M·F·M·N¹) (ca. 83 BC – August 30 BC), known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. He was an crucial supporter of Julius Caesar as a military commander and administrator. When Caesar's assassination, Antony allied with Octavian and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus to form the second triumvirate. A triumvirate broke higher within 33 BC and the disagreement turned to civil war inside 31 BC, in which Antony was thwarted by Octavian at a Battle of Actium and then at Alexandria. Antony committed suicide with Cleopatra in 30 BC. Early life
Antony was innate inside Rome around 83 BC. His father was his namesake, Marcus Antonius Creticus, the boy of the neat rhetorician Marcus Antonius Orator executed by Gaius Marius' supporters in 86 BC. Across his mother Julia Caesaris, he was a distant full cousin of Julius Caesar. His father died at the immature age, allowing him & his brothers, Lucius and Gaius, to the care of his mother. Julia Antonia (known around sources by her married title, to distinguish her from either a more Julias) so married Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, a politician included inside & executed when you took a Catiline conspiracy of 63 BC.

Antony's early life was characterized by the deficiency of parental counsel. Based on data from historiographer rather Plutarch, he spent his teenage years roaming across Rome by having his brothers & friends (Publius Clodius Pulcher among them - probably away from hostility to Cicero, who experienced driven Lentulus Surthe to become kill as a Catilinarian; a connexion was severed by a disagreement arising from either his relations sustaining Clodius's married woman, Fulvia). Together, it start up the like untamed rather life, frequenting gambling houses, drinking bay, & involving themselves inside disgraceful romance. Plutarch mentions a rumor that prior to Antony reached twenty years aged, he was already indebted a total of 250 talents (equivalent to several million dollars).

Fallowing this period of rashness, Antony fled to Greece to escape his creditors and to learn rhetoric. Fallowing the short period spent attending 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 inside trend lines of Ptolemy Auletes in Egypt. In the following campaign, he demonstrated his talents as a cavalry commander & distinguished himself by owning bravery & braveness. It was when you took this campaign that he 1st visited Egypt and Alexandria.

Supporter of Caesar
Around 54 BC, Antony became a member of the staff of Caesar's armies in Gaul. He once more proved to become the competent military machine leader in the Gallic wars, but his personality driven instability wherever he went. Caesar himself was said to exist as oft irritated by his behaviour.

Even so, raised by Caesar's influence to the agents of quaestor, augur, and tribune of the plebs (50 BC), he supported the drive of his patron by owning awesome energy. Caesar's ii proconsular commands, in a period of the period of tenner years, were expiring, & the general wanted to go to to Rome for the consular elections. However trend lines from either a conservative faction of the Roman Senate, led by Pompey, demanded that Caesar resign his proconsulship & a command of his armies prior to existence allowed to search re-election to the consulship. This he may not launder, per se an work would leave him a personal citizen--& so open to prosecution for his acts when proconsul--in the lag between his proconsulate & his 2nd consulship; it would too leave him at the mercy of Pompey's armies. Antony proposed that each generals lay down their commands. A idea was rejected, & Antony resorted to violence, ending higher expelled from either a Senate. He left Rome, joining Caesar, world health organization got led his armies to the banks of the Rubicon, a flow of any stream that marked the southern set boundaries of his proconsular authority. By using tons hopes of a peaceful guide for the conflict using Pompey never again, Caesar led his armies through the flow of any stream into Italy and marched on Rome, starting a endure Republican civil war. When you took a civil war, Antony was Caesar's 2nd within command. All told battles against the Pompeians, Antony led a left wing of the army, a proof of Caesar's confidence within him.

While Caesar became dictator, Antony was made master of the horse, the dictator's best h& human, and around that capacity remained in Italy when a peninsula's administrator in 47 BC, while Caesar was fighting a go Pompeians, world health organization got taken refuge in the African provinces. However Antony's skills when administrator were a unfortunate match to victims when general, & he seized the chance of indulging in the virtually all extravagant excesses, depicted by Cicero in the Broadside. Inside 46 BC he seems to have taken offence because Caesar insisted within payment for the property of Pompey which Antony professedly got purchased, however experienced in fact just seized. Conflict before long arose, &, when in more occasions, Antony resorted to violence. Hundreds of citizens were killed & Rome herself descended into the state of anarchy. Caesar was virtually wholly displeased using a all affair & flushed Antony from either all political responsibilities. Them men did non watch both more for deuce years. A estrangement was non of hanker continuance; for i personally locate Antony meeting a dictator at Narbo (45 BC), and rejecting a guide of Trebonius that he should join in the conspiracy that was already in foot. Reconciliation arrived inside 44 BC, when Antony wwhen chosen as partner for Caesar's fifth consulship.

Whatever conflicts existed between them men, Antony remained close to Caesar in the least days. Around February of 44 BC, during a Lupercalia festival (February 15), Antony publicly offered Caesar a diadem. This was an event fraught by having meaning: the crown was the symbol of the king, and around refusing it, Caesar demonstrated that he did non intend to look at a potty.

In March 15 44 BC (the Ides of March), Julius Caesar was assassinated by a class action of Senators, led by Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus. In a turmoil that surrounded the event, Antony escaped Rome dressed as a slave, fearing that the dictator's assassination would be the run of a bloodshed among his supporters. Once this did non occur, he shortly returned to Rome, discussing a armistice sustaining the assassins' faction. Awhile, Antony, when consul of a month, seemed to pursue peace & the prevent of the political tension. Charted the speech by Marcus Tullius Cicero in the Senate, an amnesty was agreed for the assassins. So come a day of Caesar's funeral. When Caesar's ever-present 2nd withinside comm&, partner in consulship and full cousin, Antony was a natural guide to produce a funeral eulogy. Around his speech, he sprang his accusations of murder and ensured a lasting breach using a conspirators. Showing the talent for rhetoric and dramatic interpretation, Antony snatched a toga from Caesar's body to show a crowd a scars from either his wounds. That nighttime, a Roman world attacked a assassins' houses, forcing the babies to flee for their spends.

Antony surrounded himself using the bodyguard of Caesar's veterans, & forced a senate to transport to him a province of Cisalpine Gaul, which was then administered by Decimus Junius Brutus, one of the plotter. Brutus refused to surrender a province, & Antony placed intent on attack him inside October 44 BC.

The second triumvirate

A dying of Caesar experienced left an open space around Rome's politics. A Republic was anxious, & eventually a second civil war was starting. It was so that Octavian, Caesar's great-grandnephew & adoptive boy, arrived from either Illyria, and claimed a inheritance of his "father." Octavian found a trend lines of a senate & of Cicero; & the seasoned troops of the dictator flocked to his standard. He was likewise super uncoerced to fight for power by owning a more deuce independent contestants: Antony himself & Lepidus.

Antony was denounced as a public enemy, & Octavian was entrusted by owning a command of the war against him. Antony was defeated at Mutina (43 BC) where he was besieging Brutus. A consuls Aulus Hirtius & C. Vibius Pansa, nonetheless, fell in a battle, & a senate became suspicious of Octavian, world health organization, nettled at a refusal of a triumph & a appointment of Brutus to a comm& across his head, entered Rome at the head of his troops, and forced the senate to bestow the consulship upon him (August 19). Meanwhile, Antony escaped to Cisalpine Gaul, effected the junction by having Lepidus & marched towards Rome sustaining the big inflict of foot & cavalry. Octavian betrayed his person, & come to terms by owning Antony & Lepidus. A trine leaders met at Bononia & adopted a title of Triumviri reipublicae constituendae as joint rulers. Gaul was to belong to Antony, Spain to Lepidus, & Africa, Sardinia & Sicily to Octavian.

A Triumvirs for the Organization of the Population gained official recognition per Lex Titia, a law passed by the Assembly around 43 BC, which granted them most powers for the period of 5 years. To solidify a alliance, Octavian married Clodia, Antony's step-daughter. A triumvirs so placed to pursue a assassins' faction, world health organization experienced fled to a East, & to murder the machinator' supporters world health organization remained within Rome. The reign of terror followed; proscriptions, arrogation, & executions became general; occasionally of the noblest citizens were kill. Cicero was a best known victim one violent times; caring that Antony experienced a grievance against him, the writer committed suicide prior to it can defeat him. (Livy, however, writes that he simply refused to resist a public executioner). Antony & his married woman Fulvia did not spare a person: Cicero's head & mitts were posted in the Rostra, with his tongue punctured by Fulvia's golden hairpins. When a twin battles at Philippi & a suicides of Brutus & Cassius, a senatorial and gop got been annihilated; there is no of these else would defy the triumvirate's power.

By using a political & military situations resolved, a triumvirs divided a Roman globe among themselves. Lepidus took control of a American provinces, & Octavian remained within Italy by owning the responsibility of securing lands for the veteran—an significant project, since a loyalty of the legions depended heavy on this promise. When for Antony, he went to the Eastern provinces, to pacify eventually an additional rebellion inside Judaea and attempt to conquer the Parthian Empire. In the period of this hike, he met Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt in Tarsus, in 41 BC, and became her lover, spending a wintertime within her company at Alexandria.

Meanwhile, inside Italy, a situation was non pacified. Octavian's administration was non appeasing, & the uprising was astir to occur. What is more, he divorced Clodithe, giving a curious explanation: she was galling. A leader of this rising was Fulvia, the married woman of Antony, the woman known to history for her political ambition & tempestuous character. She despised for her hubby's political position & was non lament to view her girl put aside. Aided by Lucius Antonius, her brother-in-law, Fulvia raised eight legions by having her have money. Her army invaded Rome, & awhile managed to produce problems for Octavian. Yet, in the wintertime of 41–40 BC, Fulvia was besieged in Perusia and forced to surrender by starvation. Fulvia was exiled to Sicyon, where she died when waiting for Antony's arrival.

Fulvia's demise was providential. a reconciliation was effected between the triumvirs, & cemented per marriage of Antony using Octavia, Octavian's beloved sister. a newly section of a Roman globe was manufactured, Lepidus getting Africa, Octavian the west, & Antony the east. This peace, referred to as a Treaty of Brundisium, reinforced a triumvirate & allowed Antony to eventually develop his long-awaited campaign against the Parthians.

Antony and Cleopatra
Sustaining this military purpose in his mind, Antony sailed to Greece with his new married woman, inside which he behaved in a virtually all extravagant manner, assuming the attributes of the god Dionysus (39 BC). However a rebellion inside Sicily of Sextus Pompeius, a survive of the Pompeians, saved the army promised to Antony around Italy. By having his plans once more severed, Antony & Octavian quarreled over again. This instance by having the serve of Octavia, a newly pact was check in Tarentum in 38 BC. the triumvirate was renewed for a period of some other 5 years (ending within 33 BC) and Octavian promised over again to send legions to the East.

However by currently, Antony was sceptical of Octavian's avowedly trend lines of his Parthian induced. Allowing Octavia pregnant of her second Antonia inside Rome, he sailed to Alexandria, where he required funding from either Cleopatra, a mother of his twins. the queen of Egypt loaned him a money he required for a army, however the campaign proved a disaster. Fallowing the series of defeats within battle, Antony misused virtually all of his Egyptian army when you took the retreat across Armenia in the peak of winter.

Meanwhile inside Rome, a triumvirate was those days are gone. Lepidus was forced to resign fallowing an ill-ill-considered political move. Today inside resole power, Octavian was occupied within wooing a traditional Republican aristocracy to his side. He married Livia and started to attack Antony sequentially to raise himself to power. He argued that Antony was the human of moo morals to have left his close married woman abandoned around Rome by owning them to become by using a promiscuous queen of Egypt. Antony was accused of 100% about, however virtually all of all, of "becoming native", an inexcusable crime to the gallant Romans. Many days Antony was summoned to Rome, however remained around Alexandria by having Cleopatra & her funds.

Over again by using Egyptian money, Antony invaded Armenia, this period with success. In the link to, the 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 crucial political statement. Encircled by Cleopatra & her tikes, Antony was astir to put an prevent to his alliance by owning Octavian. He distributed kingdoms between his tykes: Alexander Helios was named king of Armenia & Parthia (non conquered eventually), his twin Cleopatra Selene got Cyrenaica and Libya, and a immature Ptolemy Philadelphus was awarded Syria and Cilicia. When for Cleopatra, she was announced Queen of Kings & Queen of Egypt, to rule by using Caesarion (Ptolemy Caesar, son of Julius Caesar), King of Kings & King of Egypt. First of everthing, Caesarion was stated legitimate boy & heir of Julius Caesar. These proclamations were referred to as a Donations of Alexandria and caused a disastrous breach inside Antony's relations by using Rome.

Distributing unimportant lands among them of Cleopatrthe was non the peace move, however it was non a good condition either. What did seriously threaten Octavian's political position, yet, wwhen a acknowledgement of Caesarion as legitimate & heir to Julius Caesar's title. Octavian's base of power was his hyperlink using Caesar across adoption, which granted him much-required popularity & loyalty of the legions. To view this ready to hand situation attacked per tike sired by the richest woman in the globe was something Octavian may not assume. A triumvirate expired on the last judgment of 33 BC and was not renewed. An additional civil war was beginning.

When you took 33 & 32 BC, a propaganda war was fought in the political arena of Rome, with accusations flying between sides. Antony (around Egypt) divorced Octavia & accused Octavian of existence a social upstart, of usurping power, & of forging the adoption papers by Julius Caesar. Octavian responded using treason charges: of illegally keeping provinces that should become given to more men by lots, as was Rome's tradition, & of starting wars against foreign nations (Armenia & Parthia) forswearing a consent of the Senate. Antony was likewise held responsible Sextus Pompeius' execution with there is no test. Inside 32 BC, the senate deprived him of his powers & declared war against Cleopatra. Two consuls (Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Sosius) & the third of the Senate abandoned Rome to meet Antony and Cleopatra within Greece.

Around 31 BC, the war began. Octavian's fast & gifted general Agrippa captured the Greek city & naval port of Methone, loyal to Antony. A tremendous popularity of Octavian by owning a legions secured a defection of the provinces of Cyrenaica & Greece to his side. In September 2, the naval Battle of Actium took place. Antony & Cleopatra's navy was destroyed, & it were forced to escape to Egypt by having lx ships.

Octavian, at present or so absolute power, did non intend to give the two rest. Within August 30 BC, assisted by Agrippa, he invaded Egypt. By using there are no more refuge to escape to, Antony committed suicide in the mistaken belief that Cleopatra experienced already done therefore (30 BC). Two or three years late, Cleopatra herself followed his case.

Antony got been married within succession to Fadithe, Antonia, Fulvia & Octavia, & left behind him a total of toddlers.

Aftermath
Sustaining a demise of Antony, Octavian became uncontested ruler of Rome: there is no a single else attempted to require power from either him. In the below years, Octavian, referred to as Augustus Caesar when 27 BC, managed to accumulate in his human altogether administrative, political, & military agents. In a period of his life, the Roman Republic did not officially prevent. Numerous date prevent of a Republic, & the beginning of the Roman Empire, to a battle of Actium; however, a Empire can likewise exist as considered to date from either the demise of Augustus inside 14 AD, with a succession of Tiberius.

Antony's marriages and descendants