Introduction | Cleopatra and Caesar | Antony and Octavian
War of words and spectacle | The end of the affair
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Antony and Octavian

	The death of Caesar: Vincento Camuccini (1773–1844) The Bridgeman Art Library Enlarge Image

On 15 March – the 'ides of March' – 44 BC, Caesar was assassinated by a group of senators who suspected him of wanting to do away with the ideals of the republic and become king. Cleopatra returned to Egypt, where she had Ptolemy XIV killed; Caesarion took his place on the Egyptian throne. She had to use all her political skills to avoid being drawn into the civil war that was engulfing the Roman empire.

Caesar's death plunged the empire into chaos. Rome had always been fervently anti-monarchist, but it was clear that it could no longer rule itself as a republic. It was prosperous and expanding, but its political systems were designed for a small city-state, not to run an empire. A new form of government was necessary.

The contenders
Caesar had concentrated so much power in his own person that his death created a vacuum that only an individual, not an administration, could fill. Although the Senate ostensibly ruled Rome, the race to become Caesar's successor began.

There were two main contenders: Mark Antony and Octavian. Antony, one of Caesar's lieutenants, was well known. He was considered a brave fighter, but not a great tactician or an especially able politician. He was blue-blooded, fiercely ambitious, extravagant and often broke.

In contrast, nobody knew anything about Octavian. Then a student, he was only 19 and had hardly ever been to Rome. His only qualification was his position as Caesar's great-nephew and official heir. He seemed cold and reserved compared with Antony's exuberance and physicality.

The Triumvirate
In the confusion following Caesar's death, Antony made a clumsy attempt to take over. But the Senate were angered by his high-handedness and extravagance. They gave him only joint powers in a Triumvirate, sharing them with Octavian and another of Caesar's lieutenants, Lepidus. Their immediate task was to restore order and destroy the republicans. Two years of bitter civil war followed.

During this time, Octavian made many allies. He was inexperienced, but he was also clever, cunning, ruthless and a consummate politician. However, he was a poor soldier – feeling unwell, he spent most of the final campaign in his tent and lost an important battle. Antony, on the other hand, did extremely well and became very popular.

Victorious at the end of the civil war, in 42 BC, the Triumvirate divided up the Roman world among themselves. Lepidus received north Africa, Octavian got the West (which included the city of Rome) and Antony took the East. However, if Antony wanted to take over the whole empire, he needed to consolidate a power base – probably in the East. He also needed to wage successful military campaigns, which would prove him to be the obvious leader of a nation whose natural state was warfare. He chose to attack one of Rome's long-term enemies: Parthia, now modern-day Iran. This campaign would cost a lot – the kind of money only someone like Cleopatra could afford. In 41 BC, on the pretext of questioning her about her role in the civil war, Antony summoned her to see him at Tarsus in Turkey.

Enter Cleopatra
Cleopatra arrived on a gilded barge, dressed as Isis, surrounded by slaves dressed as cupids. She put all of Egypt's opulent lifestyle and, most importantly, its wealth on display. She had known Antony for years. She knew what he liked, and she probably had a fairly good idea what he wanted. It was very different from her youthful approach to Caesar, but designed to accomplish exactly the same thing.

She sailed up the river Cydnus on a golden-prowed barge, with sails of purple outspread. She herself reclined beneath a gold-embroidered canopy, adorned like a painting of Aphrodite, flanked by slave boys, each made to resemble Eros, who cooled her with her fans. The notion spread throughout the city that Aphrodite had come in revelry to Dionysus, for the good of Asia.
Plutarch

They quickly became lovers, and instead of invading Parthia, Antony spent the winter in Alexandria with her, living a life of luxury. In return for funding his campaign, Antony restored territories to Cleopatra and granted some political favours (such as executing her sister and possible rival, Arsinoe). It was a great political deal for both of them.

It may not have been such a great personal one. Antony clearly enjoyed what Cleopatra had to offer, but some historians think that, at least at that time, she found him almost unbearable – vacillating, shallow and coarse. As for Antony, she wasn't then an important part of his life.

Good Octavia
Antony returned to Rome in the spring, leaving Cleopatra pregnant (she later gave birth to twin boys). There, he found that Octavian's power had grown and was threatening his position. On the verge of starting another civil war, they were forced to make a peace when their armies refused to fight. To seal the bargain, Antony married Octavian's sister Octavia.

Cleopatra and Octavia personify two very different types of womanhood in antiquity. For Rome, Octavia represented everything that was good about women, Cleopatra everything bad.

Octavia was virtuous and loyal, devoted to her family and her country, clever but not personally ambitious, a dutiful sister and a loving wife. To the Romans, Cleopatra's actions made her an abomination – powerful, ambitious, sexual – and very dangerous. Their patriarchal society could only imagine that an alliance with such woman would be a force for evil and that her effect on Antony would undoubtedly be malignant.

Antony's marriage to Octavia was, by all accounts, a loving one – it produced two daughters. But even she could not keep the peace between him and Octavian.

Marriage to Cleopatra
Antony needed to shore up allies against the future and do something that would restore him as a hero in Rome's eyes. This meant resurrecting the Parthia campaign – which meant getting Cleopatra back on his side. In 37 BC, he summoned her to his base in the Syrian city of Antioch. It had been three years since they had seen each other.

They secured this new alliance by getting married, but exactly why is not clear. It was a political gesture on both sides, but also a strong personal commitment – and one that defied convention. Although polygamy was allowed in Egypt, it didn't go down well in Rome.

Antony did not see his alliance with Cleopatra as a split with Rome. As far as he was concerned, he was still married to Octavia, still a Roman general and still acting for the Senate. His Egyptian marriage and simmering feud with Octavian did not stop him from being a true Roman. For her part, Cleopatra was enthusiastic: she announced a new era of her reign and struck coins with her likeness on one side, Antony's on the other.

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