Mark Antony: Marriages vs. CareersAuthor(s): Eleanor G. HuzarReviewed work(s):Source: The Classical Journal, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Dec., 1985 - Jan., 1986), pp. 97-111Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and SouthStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3296739 .Accessed: 09/09/2012 00:29

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MARK ANTONY: MARRIAGES VS. CAREERS *

"A man with a taste for marriages and public executions"-so said Disraeli of Lord George Bentinck. But the characterization seems equally appropriate for Mark Antony, politically tough and prone to matrimony. His age was certainly a time of multiple marriages, and his social class the most married. Still, Antony was unique as well as typical. No one else married five wives who ranged from the daughter of a freedman to a queen. And no one more clearly showed the close interaction of his marriages with the shifts of his military and political careers. His political fortunes helped to determine his choice of wives. But his wives also helped to determine how his fortunes fared.

Antony was a marrying man. Hearty, boisterous, physically powerful and attractive, he liked women in or out of wedlock. (Easy Mark!) Cicero complains that Antony blatantly travelled in an open sedan with the most popular actress and courtesan of the day.1 And to please an Eastern mistress Glaphyra, he made her son the king of Cappadocia. Still, among his many amours, some he married. One asks Why? The answers reveal five different aspects of the life of Antony, and also of the radically changing lives of women in the last century of the Roman Republic. This study will focus on the influence of Antony's wives and pass rapidly over other powerful influences. But I hope that the inevitable disproportion is justified by bringing to the fore a neglected element in the history of the man and his age.

The wife of his youth was Fadia, the daughter of a rich freedman, Quintus Fadius Gallus. The Antonii had been plebeian nobiles for generations, and Antony's mother was a Julian, the third cousin of Caesar. Thus, the union of Antony and Fadia was unorthodox. Cicero is our only source. Three times in the Philippics and once in a letter to Atticus,2 Cicero censures Antony for being a freedman's son-in-law and for acknowledging the children of Fadia as his own. Admittedly, scholars question the marriage3 because it is improba- ble. Concubinage would have been the common extra-legal settlement for a nobleman and a freedman's daughter. But a simple marriage of cohabitation without manus was quite possible. Even granting the extravagant denuncia- tions of the Philippics, no evidence denies Cicero's repeated charge.

Fadia remains a shadow, and the marriage can be traced only through the

* Delivered as Presidential Address to the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 12, 1985.

'Cicero, Philippic 2.58. 2Cicero, Philippics 2.3; 3.17; 13.12; Ad Atticum 16.11.1. 3E.g. Charles L. Babcock, "The Early Career of Fulvia, " American Journal of Philology 86

(1965) 13.

97

98 ELEANOR G. HUZAR

life of Antony. Although Antony's lineage was distinguished, he and his two brothers were reared in a home beset by debts. His father died young, leaving debts so heavy that Antony refused to inherit the estate. His stepfather was even less provident. Antony's mother, Julia, was the center of the family, strong, competent, but beset by poverty, feckless husbands, and three sons to educate and launch into the careers their family traditions expected. Nor was son Mark easy to control. While in their teens, he and his friend Curio got into debts of 250 talents which Curio's father had to pay. Even then, the young men flouted his orders and continued to live wildly.4

It was at this stage of debt and youthful rebellion that Antony probably married Fadia. Perhaps a rich dowry, or a challenge to aristocratic social mores, probably warm-hearted affection led to Antony's first marriage. Fadia and their children whom Antony acknowledged must have provided what Antony then needed: a dowry to quiet his creditors and time to pass from his tumultuous teens into manhood. But it was an incongruous marriage for a young noble, an impediment to a career; and in an age of easy divorce, Fadia faded from Antony's life. Cicero's account indicates that Fadia and the children were all dead at the latest by 44 B.C.5

When Antony was 25, he left Rome to study oratory in Greece. Before the year was out, Aulus Gabinius, the proconsul of Syria, easily persuaded Antony to become his commander of cavalry. Antony proved a splendid fighter and an excellent lieutenant to Gabinius. He was thus starting well on the traditional military career for his class. When Ptolemy of Egypt bribed Gabinius to make an unauthorized intervention in Egypt, Gabinius was charged with dereliction in his duties in Syria and was exiled. Antony, as lieutenant, escaped charges of responsibility, but still avoided Rome and went directly from Syria to Gaul to serve as legate to Caesar in 55 B.C.6

Sometime during these years of military service in Syria and Gaul, Antony married his second wife, Antonia. This marriage bears the marks of a traditional, family-arranged, wholly respectable union. Antonia was his first cousin; but marriages of that close kinship had become acceptable in the late

Republic.7 Antony, in his late twenties and gaining a military reputation, was being included in family responsibilities and fortunes. Like most Roman wives, Antonia would have stayed in Rome while her husband was away in state service. Antony's absences and perhaps his indifference in this family- arranged marriage augured ill for even a traditional marriage advantageous to Antony's developing career.

Between 54 and 49 B.C., Antony alternated between Gaul and Rome, where Caesar had him elected to the Quaestorship, Tribunate, and Augurate as Caesar's man in the party of the Populares. With Caesar he crossed the

4Cicero, Philippic 2.45 is the original hostile source for tales of Antony's wild youth. Cf. Plutarch, Antony 2.3- 4.

SCicero, Ad Atticum 16.11.1. J. D. Denniston, M. Tulli Ciceronis: "Orationes Philippicae" 1, 93, notes that Cicero's Latin permits the meaning that it was Fadia's father who was now dead.

6Cicero, Philippic 2.48; Cassius Dio 45.40.2. See especially Richard S. Williams, "Aulus Gabinius: a Political Biography. " Dissertation, Michigan State University, 1973.

7Plutarch, Antonv 9.1- 2. See John P. V. D. Balsdon, Roman Women (London 1974) 175.

MARK ANTONY'S WIVES 99

Rubicon, swept through Italy, and crossed the Adriatic to fight Pompey at Pharsalus. By late 48 B.C., Antony returned to Rome, charged with responsibility for Italy, while Caesar fought the Pompeians in Egypt, North Africa, and Spain.

Antony's one-year rule of Italy mingled competence and recklessness. Most of the problems of rebellious troops, Pompeian senators, debt legislation he settled well. But some he fumbled; and his own expropriations of property and his wild revelries with actors and courtesans made him too often an object of ridicule or scandal. Caesar was obliged to hurry back to Italy to resolve the problems and to suppress the riots that had grown under Antony. Caesar also censured Antony's wild living and deposed him from his position of authority. Antony was chastened. While Caesar fought to victory over the Pompeians and while Lepidus ruled Italy, we hear of Antony only as a bridegroom.

Antonia had been his wife for about eight years, and she had borne him a daughter. But Antony was absent on long tours of duty and was a notorious libertine. Like too many other aristocratic wives, Antonia was neglected, restless, and tempted in Rome's lax society. In 47 B.C., Antony divorced Antonia on a charge of adultery with Publius Cornelius Dolabella, the husband of Cicero's daughter Tullia, and a notorious rake. Dolabella was a Caesarian tribune and had been an ally of Antony on many campaigns. But their cooperation and friendship broke over the charge of adultery, and an awkward rift was created in the Caesarian ranks. Divorce of a wife for adultery was expected, and Antonia was promptly discarded. As usual, Antony was in debt. Probably he kept the one-third of Antonia's dowry which the husband and child of an adulteress could claim. Antony, too, had been flagrantly unfaithful, recently with a notorious actress, Volumnia Cytheris; but custom accepted a husband's philandering. Only a wife must be above suspicion.8

Antony's marriage to his third wife, Fulvia, followed his divorce so swiftly that one suspects that he noticed Antonia's adultery only when the divorce was useful to free him for his next bride. Perhaps Fulvia prompted him to notice it. Fulvia was to be a dominant force in Antony's political life until her death in 40 B.C. Fulvia was a manager, and Antony was manageable. She had already been married to two close friends of Antony: Publius Clodius, then Gaius Scribonius Curio. Yet, from 58 B.C., she may have had a liaison with Antony. After Curio's death, her association with Antony was renewed, and they married in 47 or 46 B.C. This marriage represented Antony's new adherence to duty after the censure by Caesar. By late Republican standards, the marriage was suitable. Now 37 or 38, Fulvia appears handsome in her portraits. Her substantial wealth could help to relieve Antony 's constant debts. Her family, like Antony's, was of plebeian nobility. And Antony loved his new wife so well that he even gave up the actress Cytheris for her. Fulvia bore Antony two sons, his first known legitimate male heirs.9

8Cicero, Ad Atticum 10.10-13; 11.2.4; 12.28; 14.21.3; Philippic 2.58; 2.99; Plutarch, Antony 9.1- 2; 9.4; Balsdon (above, n. 7) 188; Sarah B. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity (New York 1975) 158.

9Cicero, Philippic 3.16; Plutarch, Antony 9-10; 57.3; 81; 87.1; Cassius Dio 51.2-5; 51.15; 54.26; Velleius Paterculus 2.74; 2.100.4; Babcock (above, n. 3) 1- 32.

100 ELEANOR G. HUZAR

Fulvia's dominant characteristic seems her drive for and manipulation of political power. She had encouraged the active political careers of both her previous husbands. Antony's career, although temporarily shadowed by Caesar's criticisms, could still rise to great prominence. Fulvia had always supported pro-Caesarian men, and she acutely appraised the Republic's need of powerful leaders. Later Cicero labeled her cruel and greedy, and she appeared a relentless virago. But, early, she seemed only unduly sober, so that Antony sportively sought to make her laugh. During the years of their marriage Antony was at his peak of political astuteness and ambition. Throughout his career he reached his finest under strong leadership, and the leadership could come from a woman as well as a man. Living with Fulvia, he almost won control of the Roman world.' 0

Once marriage had reformed his personal life and rallied his ambitions for office, Antony urgently needed to recapture the goodwill of Caesar. Both men made overtures, and the reconciliation must have been complete. Antony was Consul with Caesar in 44 B.C.

In the chaotic struggle for power after Caesar's murder, Antony was at his most statesmanlike and effective: winning allies, compromising with en- emies, stabilizing the state, and always drawing more real power into his own hand. The sources do not describe Fulvia's role; but they show Servilia and Porcia dominating the conferences of the assassins; and Fulvia must have been

equally active among the Caesarians. Antony had intelligence, courage, and readiness to act under fire. But political manipulation, guile, complex planning, and insatiable ambition were not his natural skills. Now he

displayed them as never before and rarely later. One senses Fulvia as the Grey Eminence.

Antony and Fulvia met more than their match in Octavian, who arrived in Rome to claim Caesar's name, inheritance, and political power. Fulvia showed herself less trusting of Octavian than did Antony, although equally tough and determined. When Octavian's bribes made Antony's rebellious

troops demand higher pay, it was Fulvia who urged Antony on in executing the seditious ringleaders.'1 Political flexibility was required too, as Octavian shifted his allies, made appeals to the troops, announced goals whenever

advantageous to his plans, and initiated fresh propaganda offensives which left his opponents struggling to assume new defensive positions.

For a time Octavian cultivated Cicero with hollow promises to restore the

Republic under the old Consular's leadership. Cicero trusted the flatterer and launched his vitriolic attacks in the Philippics. Antony's marriage to the low- born Fadia was ridiculed. Far worse were his attacks on Fulvia. Five times he condemned her: for savagery, licentiousness, greed, but particularly for being the driving force behind Antony's decisions.12 "There was a lively traffic in every interest of the state in the inner part of the house; his wife was putting up to auction provinces and kingdoms; exiles were being restored in the guise of

'oCicero, Philippics 2.11; 2.113; 5.11; 6.4; 13.18; Plutarch, Antony 10.3-4; Appian, Bella Civilia 4.29.

1"Cicero, Philippics 3.4; 5.22; 13.18; Cassius Dio 45.13.2; 45.35.3. 12Cicero, Philippics 2.11; 2.48; 2.113; 5.11; 6.4.

MARK ANTONY'S WIVES 101

law but without law ... "'3 Fulvia's reputation is still grimy from the mud

thrown so effectively by Cicero. When Antony left Rome in December 44 B.C., to take over his province of

Cisalpine Gaul from the Republican Decimus Brutus, and war broke out at Mutina between the rival factions, Fulvia was in Rome, participating in the capital's party strife and appealing to various senators for Antony's cause. As the campaign in Mutina went against Antony, and the vacillating senators took courage formally to pronounce Antony and his followers enemies of the state, Fulvia, with Antony's mother and son, spent the night of the decree going from house to house of the leading senators, begging for help. In the morning, in the garb of suppliants, they sought help from those going to the Senate house. By their ostentatious misery and pleas, they won some critical support for Antony. Fulvia then found sanctuary with Cicero's apolitical friend Atticus, who supported her in legal problems and loaned her interest-free money to settle Antony's debts.14

After a negotiated settlement of the war and the reconciliation of the Caesarians at Bononia, Octavian, Lepidus, and Antony formed the Second Triumvirate, on January 1, 42 B.C. It was an unconstitutional alliance to run the state for five years and to settle scores with the Republicans. As part of the agreements, the young Octavian was formally betrothed to Claudia, Antony's stepdaughter by Fulvia. The ambitious Fulvia may well have manipulated so valuable a family tie. Is

The brutal proscriptions followed, killing over two thousand political and economic leaders of the state. Cicero, the verbal scourge of Antony and of Fulvia, was a prime victim. His head and right hand were ordered delivered to Antony and Fulvia, who abused them horribly, then had them nailed to the Rostra in the Forum from which Cicero had delivered his Philippics. 16

Atticus, the protector of Fulvia and a calculated neutral, survived. Money was exacted as well as lives. The property of fourteen hundred rich

women was taken. The victims appealed to the women of the Triumvirs. Octavian's sister and Antony's mother received them sympathetically, but Fulvia expelled them roughly from her home. Hortensia, another strong woman who had been trained in eloquence by her orator father, boldly condemned Fulvia's hostility, and pleaded the women's case to the Triumvirs in the Forum so publicly that the Triumvirs had to reduce the number of victims to four hundred.17

With enemies eliminated and money secured, the Caesarians mobilized their armies against the Republicans and won overwhelmingly at Philippi in 42 B.C. Antony was clearly the victorious general and was now the dominant man in the Empire. Caesar would not have shared power with an equal. Nor

13Cicero, Philippic 5.11. The translation is that of Walter C. A. Ker, Cicero, Philippics, Loeb Classical Library, 1963.

14Cicero, Ad Familiares 12.10.1; Cornelius Nepos, Atticus 8-11; Appian, Bella Civilia 3.51; 3.58.

'5Livy, Epitomae 119; Plutarch, Antony 20.1; Suetonius, Augustus 62.1. '6Plutarch, Antony 19- 20; Cicero 46-49; Appian, Bella Civilia 4.19-20. '7Appian, Bella Civilia 4.3; 4.5; 4.11; 4.32- 34; 4.96; Plutarch, Antony 21; Valerius Maximus

8.3.3; Cassius Dio 47.14-17.

102 ELEANOR G. HUZAR

would Fulvia. But Fulvia was in Rome. Antony suffered from the critical weakness of being content with half the Empire. He trusted Octavian with major control of the Western provinces. While Antony turned East to resolve the multiple problems of the Eastern provinces and to face the military threat of the Parthians, Octavian sailed to Italy. He was to settle the veterans of twenty-eight legions on confiscated lands and to quiet the grave disorders within Italy.

With extraordinary talent and determination, Octavian established his primacy and steadily increased his strengths. His propaganda machine persuaded many of the veterans that Octavian, not Antony in the remote East, was their special benefactor. Antony's family and followers recognized the threat in Octavian's successes and protested his actions. Lucius Antonius, loyal to his older brother, was consul for 41 B.C. But Fulvia appears the driving force in the events of 41-40 B.C. She was essentially if not nominally the commander-in-chief of a military force, and even wore armor on occasion. These were unprecedented invasions of the male sphere, as was her portrait on the coinage, the first living Roman woman to be so honored. She and Lucius worked to discredit Octavian and to cultivate good will widely among the government officials, the propertied classes, and the army and veterans. Civil war threatened. Fulvia was bribing Octavian's army to mutiny; then, early in 41 B.C., Fulvia, backed by her children and Lucius Antonius, came before the troops to remind them that Antony as well as Octavian had provided land grants to the veterans and to urge them not to forget that Antony was their dominant patron.'8

Antony's officers and men hesitated to act. Both sides had written to Antony, and he had replied with broad claims for his dignity; but he had not ordered a campaign. Fulvia had previously raised three legions; now Fulvia and Lucius raised six more legions and supplemented them with two won over from Octavian's legions in Rome. In Africa, Fulvia ordered the pro-Antonian general Sextius to regain control of the province for Antony. Spain, too, saw fighting. Eight Antonian legions captured Rome from Lepidus, who had been left in charge of the city. 19

The fighting was still desultory and widespread, but the main front was north of Rome. Octavian finally forced Fulvia and Lucius into the hill town of Perusia and skillfully blockaded the city. Lucius had not supplied the town for a siege, but counted on rescue by the other Antonian generals marching from south Italy and from Gaul. They encamped so nearby that their watchfires could be seen by the besieged; but, without orders from Antony, they never committed their troops to relieve the siege. Sling pellets survive, inscribed with insults for the opposing troops. Fulvia bears her share of scorn and ribaldry -particularly as a woman. By early spring, 40 B.C., fruitless efforts to break out and appalling starvation forced the capitulation of the city.20

'8Livy, Epitomae 125; Appian, Bella Civilia 5.14; 5.19; Cassius Dio 48.11.

'gLivy, Epitomae 125; Appian, Bella Civilia 5.24; 5.29; 5.31; Velleius Paterculus 2.74.3; Cassius Dio 48.10; 48.13; 48.22.

20Emilio Gabba, "The Perusine War and Triumviral Italy," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 75 (1971) 139-60; Judith Hallett, "Perusinae Glandes and the Changing Image of Augustus," American Journal of Ancient History 2 (1977) 151- 71.

MARK ANTONY'S WIVES 103

Antony later claimed that because of the distance he had been unaware of the crises. But apparently he was avoiding intervention. Lucius and Fulvia, not he, had launched the campaign and were alienating veterans whose support he needed. He still hoped to cooperate with Octavian. Yet, he could not openly repudiate his wife and brother, though they had never called him responsible for their actions. So he feigned ignorance, though this meant defeat for Fulvia and Lucius.21

Shrewdly, Octavian set terms after the surrender for his own advantage. Civilian residents of Perusia were slaughtered and robbed, and the ancient city was destroyed. The Antonian legions were incorporated into Octavian's army. But to maintain the appearances of cooperation Octavian treated Antony's family honorably, although he did divorce Fulvia's daughter Claudia. Lucius Antonius suffered no reprisals and was made governor of Spain. Fulvia and three thousand troops escaped to Greece.22

The report of Perusia's fall reached Antony in Asia Minor, where he was preparing for a campaign against the Parthians. Reluctantly he turned West instead of East, and at Athens he met Fulvia and her supporters in flight from Perusia. Bitter about their defeat, they were scheming for an alliance with Sextus Pompey against Octavian. Agents of Sextus, too, were at Athens to argue that Octavian had proven a treacherous ally and that Antony must now join the Republicans who had gathered around Sextus. Antony saw the perils on both sides. But he determined to keep his trust with Octavian.

Fulvia and Antony quarreled bitterly over their differing political stands. Antony departed in anger; and, already ill, Fulvia soon died in Sicyon.23 The reports circulated that she died of a spirit broken by Antony's indifference. And he did repent that he had contributed to her death. She had been a powerful woman, passionately dedicated to her political and even military activities. And Antony dominated Octavian only under Fulvia's tutelage. Since 47 B.C., much of Antony's ambition, some of his brutality, and even part of his steel had been drawn from the strength of his wife.24 The sources, led by Octavian's spokesmen, have damned her memory. Thus Plutarch charges Fulvia with starting the deterioration of Antony and preparing him to be dominated by Cleopatra; for Fulvia wished to rule a ruler and command a commander, and she schooled Antony to obey women. But Shakespeare has Antony remember her so: "There's a great spirit gone. .... As for my wife, I wish I had her spirit in such another. "25

Within weeks of Fulvia's death, Antony was married again. He had deserted the sick Fulvia in Greece to face disordered affairs in the West. In South Italy and Sicily, Sextus Pompey ruled as his father's heir and leader of the Republican exiles. His naval force dominated the Western Mediterranean

21Plutarch, Antony 28; 30. 22Livy, Epitomae 126; Plutarch, Antony 30.1; Appian, Bella Civilia 5.40- 54. 23Plutarch, Antony 30.3, states that Fulvia died without seeing Antony. 24Velleius Paterculus 2.74.2; 2.76.2; Plutarch, Antony 10.3; Appian, Bella Civilia 5.50; 5.52;

5.55; 5.59; 5.62; Cassius Dio 48.27- 28; 48.31.4; Judith Hallett, "The Role of Women in Roman Elegy," Women in the Ancient World (The Arethusa Papers, 1984) 241- 52.

25Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra I 2.

104 ELEANOR G. HUZAR

and even blocked the grain routes to Italy. He had to be dealt with. But so did Octavian, who had taken control of powerful Gaul and its eleven legions which had been loyal to Antony. When Antony arrived in Italy and found the port of Brundisium locked against him, he prepared for yet another civil war against Octavian. Fortunately, their men had more sense than the generals and arranged peace negotiations. Even the report of Fulvia's death made con- cessions easier. The outcome was the Pact of Brundisium of 40 B.C.

The Pact settled many scores and defined responsibilities for the Triumvirs. Antony would fight against the Parthians, Octavian against Sextus Pompey. Lepidus kept Africa. What Octavian won at Antony's expense were the Western provinces of Transalpine and Narbonese Gaul and Dalmatia to add to his holding of Spain. That Antony agreed at all to the diminution of the Western lands under his control showed his concern about returning East to wage the Parthian War, and to his naive willingness to cooperate with Octavian. Fulvia would have negotiated a far different pact.

Ambition now led Octavian to offer his own sister as wife to the recent widower. Antony recognized the advantages of the match. Octavia, about twenty-nine, six years older than her brother, was modestly beautiful, well educated, and virtuous in traditional Roman ways. She was recently wid- owed-so recently that a dispensation was demanded from the compliant Senate to marry within the ten-month mourning period established for widows. Widowers like Antony faced no such regulation.26

Octavia was again under the legal guardianship of her brother, and filled the expected role of aristocratic women-serving as pawns in their families' political and economic chess games. Octavian was counting on her loyalty to him and hoped that he had placed an agent in Antony's home. He was to be only partially served. Octavia was capable of loves and loyalties to both brother and husband. Like the Sabine women, she undertook the role of mediatrix between the rivals.

In November, 40 B.C., Antony and Octavian with their followers travelled to Rome to announce the terms of the Pact and to consummate the marriage with Octavia. The people, rejoicing in peace, erected statues to Concord and issued coins imprinted with clasped hands. Vergil wrote the Fourth Eclogue celebrating the world at peace and-perhaps--hailing the child of unity to be born to Antony and Octavia.27

Growing crises checked the wedding celebrations. Sextus Pompey grew more threatening, raiding the Italian coast, reducing food supplies to near- famine levels, and forcing harsh financial measures. The Triumvirs had to come to terms with Sextus. In the spring of 39 B.C., the three leaders with

26Livy, Epitomae 127; Plutarch, Antony 31; 57.3; Velleius Paterculus 2.78.1; Tacitus, Annales 1.10; Appian, Bella Civilia 5.64; Cassius Dio 48.28.3--31.3.

27This interpretation of the child of the Fourth Eclogue is admittedly only one of many proffered explanations of this much-argued question. For recent bibliographies see: Stephen Benko, "Virgil's Fourth Eclogue in Christian Interpretation," Aufstieg und Niedergang der

Rimischen Welt II 31.1, 646-705; Walther Kraus, "Vergils vierte Ekloge: Ein kritisches Hypomnema," ANRW II 31.1, 604- 45; W. W. Briggs, Jr., "A Bibliography of Virgil's Eclogues (1927-77), " ANRW II 31.2, 1265- 1357. Appian, Bella Civilia 5.66; Cassius Dio 48.30- 33.

MARK ANTONY'S WIVES 105

their forces met at Misenum. Antony patched together a motley array of terms. Sextus was acknowledged a respected Roman official instead of a renegade, and he continued to hold Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and Achaia. The refugees who had joined his camp received pardon and part of their confiscated property. The food supply was secure, and public hopes ran high.

In 39 B.C., Octavia bore Antony the first of their two daughters, and the family settled into Athens for two years. Here Antony set up his headquarters for reorganizing the East and preparing for war against the Parthians. Antony could relish living on different planes. His new wife, Octavia, unique in her husband's experience, brought him the satisfactions of unwonted domesticity. He enjoyed the leisure and learning of the university city and the pose, if not the genuine intellectual sophistication, of the philhellene. The Athenians even gave him the trappings of the god Dionysus. Octavia, far more restrained in role playing, was hailed as Athena Polias. The good days were marked by the birth of a second daughter. 28

But problems both East and West were intruding. Sextus Pompey judged that the terms of the Treaty of Misenum were being scouted, and he again cut off the grain supplies and built up his forces. Other affairs needed settling too. Antony therefore agreed to meet Octavian at Brundisium with naval aid. But Octavian was not at Brundisium to meet Antony. Rather, he was readying for war. Octavia's mediation prevented the open break that would have disrupted the Triumvirate. In her quiet style, she was as resolute as Fulvia. In the spring of 37 B.C. she persuaded her husband and brother to meet at Tarentum and helped them to compromise in drafting the Pact of Tarentum. The agreement renewed the Triumvirate for five years. It also provided that Antony send Octavian 120 warships from his navy and Octavian send Antony four legions for Parthia, plus a bodyguard for Octavia of a thousand picked men.29

The Pact arranged by Octavia was a final, uneasy attempt at peace. Antony sent the promised 120 ships, but the four legions never came from Octavian. Yet, with eager hopes, the people hailed the Pact, and coins were issued to mark the harmony of Antony, Octavia, and Octavian.30

While Octavian prepared for his final, triumphant battles against Sextus, Antony returned East for campaigns against the Parthians. Octavia parted from Antony at Corcyra to return to Rome under Octavian's protection. It was the last time that Octavia saw Antony, although they remained legally married for another five years.31

The wedding had been a calculated political move by Octavian when he needed a stronger alliance with Antony. With Octavian's victory over Sextus Pompey and his firmer domination of the West, Octavia's marriage was as irrelevant as many another political marriage. Antony, too, can be blamed. The

28Plutarch, Antony 33.3-4; 60.3; 87.3; Velleius Paterculus 2.77.2; 2.82.4; Cassius Dio 48.37- 39; 48.46.1; Appian, Bella Civilia 5.76.

29Plutarch, Antony 35.1- 4; Appian, Bella Civilia 5.92- 95; Cassius Dio 48.54.3- 4. 30Appian, Belia Civilia 5.134- 35; Cassius Dio 48.54.2 states that Octavian did give Antony

the legions, but Dio is regularly pro-Augustus. For coins, see Edward A. Sydenham, Coinage of the Roman Republic (London 1952) pages 197- 99, numbers 1255- 70; Herbert A. Grueber, Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum II (London 1970) pages 502- 19, numbers 133- 64.

31Plutarch, Antony 35.5; Appian, Bella Civilia 5.95; Cassius Dio 48.54.5.

106 ELEANOR G. HUZAR

mild domestic happiness he had enjoyed with Octavia now seemed tame. Shakespeare32 catches his irritation at being "chastis'd with the sober eye of dull Octavia. " Eastern campaigns claimed his attention. But so did Eastern pleasures.

Octavia's loyalty to her husband remained firm. In the summer of 35 B.C., after Antony's defeat in Parthia, Octavia sailed to Greece with a token two thousand troops from Octavian, plus her own money, cattle, even gifts for Antony and his staff. She planned to meet Antony in Athens; but Antony, who had already left Alexandria, turned back to Egypt when he learned of Octavia's coming. He instructed her to send on the men and supplies, but to return to her brother in Rome. The distressed but dutiful Octavia set sail for Italy.33

In the face of Antony's overt infidelities in the East and Octavian's outspoken disapproval, Octavia steadfastly maintained that she was still Antony's wife. Only in 32 B.C., as the Actium war appeared inevitable, did Antony formally divorce Octavia. Then she left Antony's house, taking with her Antony's several children, whom she continued to care for in later years. Octavia's plight provided her brother with a much used propaganda weapon; for her unquestioned and uncomplaining virtue won the sympathy of the people. The popular censure for Antony reached even to his own Roman officers and friends, whose increasing desertions weakened his cause in Egypt and Rome.34

And finally to wife five. As my learned readers know, we have been by- passing her for some years. As a penalty, we must retrace our steps, back even to the time of Fadia; for there is legend, though not proof, that Antony first saw the fourteen-year-old princess Cleopatra when he invaded Egypt with Gabinius in 56 B.C. But it was while married to Fulvia that Antony became actively entangled with Queen Cleopatra VII.

Certainly he knew Cleopatra in Rome in 45-44 B.C. when she lived in Caesar's villa. In 42 B.C. Antony and Octavian had tried to buy Egypt's support in the war against Brutus and Cassius by publicly acknowledging Cleopatra's child Caesarion as Caesar's son and King of Egypt. Despite the bribe, Cleopatra remained aloof from Philippi, and Antony now demanded to know why. It was at Tarsus that Cleopatra, in response to Antony's summons, appeared on her ornamented barge, magnificently playing the role of Aphrodite to Antony's Dionysus. From their first meeting, Cleopatra asserted her dominance, and Antony genially acquiesced. In return, she became his mistress. Antony must have been flattered to be the lover of the fascinating queen.

Cleopatra had important rewards to win from the Triumvirs. Antony accepted her explanations for failure to help at Philippi. He arranged the murder of her sister and other enemies in Egypt. And when she returned to Alexandria in the winter of 41- 40 B.C., he followed her, as a private citizen.

32Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra V 2.54. 33Plutarch, Antony 53- 54. 1; Appian, Bella Civilia 5.138; Cassius Dio 49.33.3- 4. 34Plutarch, Antony 54.1- 2; 57.3; Demetrius and Antony 4.1; Livy, Epitomae 13.2; Cassius Dio

50.3.2.

MARK ANTONY'S WIVES 107

Cleopatra's role was that of an independent queen, welcoming her Roman guest as equal. She even refused him the money that he sought for his campaigns. But, combining political dexterity with female attractions, she studied to make herself indispensable to Antony, politically and emotionally. Twins, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, were born in 40 B.C.35

Yet, it remains a question whether Antony really loved the queen he so enjoyed. He had taken and left many mistresses. While Cleopatra calculated ways for Antony to strengthen Egypt, Antony was appraising the military uses of Egypt for his own command. He even let the remoteness of Egypt provide the excuse for his not helping Fulvia in the Perusine war against Octavian. His winter stay in Egypt, then, was utilitarian if also pleasant.

In the spring of 40 B.C., the Parthian cavalry raided the provinces of Syria and Asia; and Antony went north from Alexandria. He did not see Cleopatra again for almost four years, indeed made no effort to, although each kept spies active informing about the other. Antony was calculating that, politically and militarily, he needed Octavian now more than Cleopatra; and, despite the tales of desperate passion told by his detractors, Antony was ruled by his head, not his heart.

Antony's role as Triumvir in the East was multifaceted. He established boundaries, rulers, taxes, administrative practices for the provinces and client states disrupted by the civil wars. For the most part, his settlements endured well into the Empire. The Parthian campaigns, however, proved almost as catastrophic for him as they had for Crassus. The Parthian state was huge, rich, and well defended. Antony, who was not receiving the men and materiel promised by Octavian, had to draw his resources from the East. In 37 B.C., Antony summoned Cleopatra to his lively court in Antioch. He had recruited an army of one hundred thousand men, and he needed money and supplies. At a risk to romanticism, one must conclude that the need to finance the army and to secure his southern flank led Antony to marry Cleopatra according to Egyptian customs, in this spring of 36 B.C., and to acknowledge Cleopatra's twin children as his own.

The marriage involved a host of important considerations, but, most prominently, Antony and Cleopatra were basing their whole plan of control- ling the East on victory in Parthia. Cleopatra went part way when Antony led his army East, then she returned to Egypt. It is unknown how much Egyptian money and supply Antony actually secured. Cleopatra never sacrificed the well-being of Egypt, even for Antony.36

The Alexandrian marriage was reported in Rome, but not acknowledged. No Roman could legally marry a foreigner; and Octavia, in Antony's home, minding his children, was assured that she was legally his only wife. The direct insult to Octavia must offend the Roman sense of decency; but Antony trusted that Parthian victories would put his reputation above reproaches.

3SAppian, Bella Civilia 5.8-9; 5.11; Plutarch, Antony 25- 29; Cassius Dio 48.24; Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae 14.13.1.

36The date of the marriage of Antony and Cleopatra is not sure. 36 B.C. seems most probable, but 32 B.C., when Antony divorced Octavia, is a possible date. Plutarch, Antony 36.3; 37.3; Cassius Dio 49.32.4- 5; Josephus, Bellum Judaicum 1.18.5; Eutropius 7.6.

108 ELEANOR G. HUZAR

In 36 B.C., Antony's army crossed the Euphrates to begin a disastrous campaign. His advice had been bad, his allies untrustworthy, the land formidable. Only his gallant leadership on a desperately hard retreat saved two-thirds of his forces. Cleopatra met him in Syria, bringing his army clothing and food, but not the money which Antony had requested. Again she judged the Parthian campaign a struggle unimportant for Egypt. As the troops settled into winter quarters, Antony and Cleopatra returned to Alexandria. In the luxury of Cleopatra's court, Antony's winter must have been bitter.37

Antony badly needed a Parthian victory to ensure his supremacy over Octavian, who kept gaining strength in the West. He tried once more to rebuild his army and attack Eastward. It was for these preparations that Octavia brought men and supplies to Athens, but failed to see Antony. He was desperate for more support, and Octavia may well have secured more from Octavian; but Antony had deserted Octavia for Cleopatra, whose aid was calculated to the minimum.

In 35 B.C. Antony did succeed in taking Armenia and made it a client state. But its government was unstable, and within two years Antony's only territorial acquisition broke from Rome. In the autumn of 34 B.C., Antony returned to Egypt to celebrate a kind of "triumph" for his hollow victories-- the first time the traditional "triumph" of a victorious general was held outside of Rome. To the indignant Romans, it seemed more of a Dionysiac revel led by an eastern harlot.38

A few days after the "triumph," in a still more brilliant ceremony, Antony announced the startling "Donations of Alexandria. " Acting as Consul and Triumvir, he apportioned the eastern states among Cleopatra and her children. Antony himself received no land. But Cleopatra triumphantly received almost all the lands which Egypt had controlled at its greatest extent under Ptolemy II. Cyprus, Coele-Syria, Libya, and parts of Cilicia were restored to Cleopatra as Queen of Kings. Caesarion and the three young children of Antony and Cleopatra were each proclaimed ruler of a part of the East-lands of client kings, eastern provinces, or even territories not yet conquered. Cleopatra was

portrayed on the reverse of Roman coins issued in the East. Fulvia, then Octavia, while they were the wives of Antony, had been the only living women ever portrayed on Roman coins. Now Cleopatra was the first foreign woman.39

The "Donations," at least in the Augustan propaganda, seem a startlingly arbitrary, untraditional partition of the lands of Rome and Rome's client kings. Antony appears to subordinate Roman interests and power to the imperial claims of Cleopatra. The eastern provinces seem irretrievably broken off from the West. But Antony's actions were not highly irregular. Roman generals and

37Plutarch, Antony 37- 51; Livy, Epitomae 130; Cassius Dio 49.24.2- 32.1. 38Cassius Dio 49.39.4-40.4. 39Plutarch, Antony 54.4; Cassius Dio 49.41.1-2; Strabo 14.5.3-6; 14.6.6. British Museum

Coins of the Roman Republic II page 394, number 40; pages 502- 3, numbers 133- 37; pages 507- 9, numbers 144- 47; pages 510- 19, numbers 150- 71; BMC Roman Empire 15; 60; 92; BMC Phoenicia CXVIII; BMC Ptolemies LXXXIV; Sydenham (above, n. 30) page 194, numbers 1206- 7.

MARK ANTONY'S WIVES 109

proconsuls throughout the empire for two centuries had been enthroning and deposing client kings, using trustworthy local rulers to govern remote areas. Now Antony was strengthening the dependable house of Ptolemy to make the land economically secure and strong enough to act as a buffer for the eastern provinces of Rome against Parthia. Where Antony erred was less in his granting land to the Ptolemies than in his failing to realize the hostility that Octavian's steady propaganda had been building against Cleopatra during the five years when Antony had been absent from Rome. Octavian was accusing Antony of throwing away Rome's glory for the eastern harlot queen. Ancient Roman xenophobia and fears of the East were played on to break down Antony's heroic record.40

Cleopatra destroyed Antony's reputation more than any other aspect of his career. Whether or not Cleopatra controlled Antony, people believed that she did, and that Antony was letting a woman take precedence over his duty to Rome. This Hellenistic queen was the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Imperious, courageous, ambitious, intensely alive, Cleopatra had the "infinite variety" that "age cannot wither . . nor custom stale. "41 Yet her prime goal was Egypt's welfare.42

For generations the Ptolemaic rule had been declining, and the land suffering both economically and politically. For a century Rome had been assuming ever more control of Egypt's affairs, without actually making it a province. Now this imperious queen worked for a Mediterranean-wide state ruled from Alexandria, but her rule needed Roman help. Cleopatra astutely calculated the probable victor in the power struggle of the Roman generals, and sought his backing for Egypt. Many another hard-beset monarch of a weak state was making the same calculations and buying Roman support. Cleopatra made her company one of the rewards for which Roman leaders would pay.

Of the various Romans who might have dominated the East, Antony was probably the one most susceptible to Cleopatra's policies. He understood Cleopatra's unscrupulous ambition, her courageous determination to do and have what she wanted, whatever the means or the cost. Cleopatra was of the same mold of dominance as Fulvia; and her intellect and imagination were her ultimate appeal beyond romantic love. There was passion between Antony and Cleopatra for a decade. There was a lavish court life attuned to Antony's bluff tastes. But both were playing a mortal game for control of the Roman world, and ultimately they were together because each deemed the other useful.

Initially, Cleopatra was the more dependent since she could rule only through Antony. But Antony's dependence increased as he came to love the elegant queen, so passionately that he was willing to marry her at the cost of

40Augustus, Res Gestae 27; Horace, Epode 9.11-16; Carmina 1.37.21; Plutarch, Antony 54.3- 55.1; Cassius Dio 49.41; 50.1.5.

41Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra II 2. 42Plutarch, Antony 27; Suetonius, Divus Julius 52.1. Among a number of biographies of

Cleopatra two of the most recent are: Michael Grant, Cleopatra (London 1972) and Ernle Bradford, Cleopatra (London 1971).

110 ELEANOR G. HUZAR

his Roman family and friends. But not so deeply that he was willing to lose the world for her. He planned to have the supreme rule and have Cleopatra as his wife too. His grave error was in letting her sway his policies about Rome when she did not know Rome well enough to judge Roman policies and prejudices accurately. Fearing that Antony would concentrate his interests in the West, she intrigued to keep him from returning to Italy when he needed Italian associates. She won grants of land which the Romans resented. Antony, too, lost touch with the hatred being generated in Rome. Ultimately, Antony had to adjust his policies to Cleopatra's because he had broken Roman ties and had no other place to go. Hate must have mingled with love increasingly as both realized that their crossed purposes would bring mutual destruction. The world power they craved was slipping from their grasp.43

The propaganda against Antony now revealed (or created) a will in which Antony left most of his property to Cleopatra and her children and which asked that Antony be buried beside Cleopatra. Although the reality of the will is highly suspect- non-Romans could not inherit most Roman properties- Octavian publicized it well. Widely reported also was the divorce which Antony now demanded from the long-suffering Octavia. His marital disorders were costing Antony the popularity with which the Roman public had long viewed their military hero. Even after the full onslaught of propaganda, when Octavian declared war, it was against Cleopatra, not against Antony, who could still mobilize wide loyalties in the West. But in the East as well, Antony was losing power. His legions had diminished with wars and time, and no recruits had been added from the West. Even his loyal friends resented Cleopatra's presence and influence in the military councils. Again she was misreading the Roman attitudes. Her naval involvement at Actium caused defections from the Antonian troops. The retreat of her flagship from the battleline and Antony's following her to Egypt may have been misunderstood; but the apparent desertion of his troops broke all remaining morale; and Antony's fleet surrendered. Octavian was the undisputed ruler of the Roman world.

At age fifty-two, Antony's life was done. Cleopatra was thirty-nine. A few months of despair, bitterness, then wild revelry in Egypt as they waited for Octavian's inevitable invasion were all that remained of their ambitions and their loves. Only death could redeem the faded honor for them both. According to their expressed wish, Cleopatra was buried beside Antony in their royal tomb.44

In almost every way Antony was the quintessential Roman aristocrat of the first century B.C. Yet in areas in which he determined to excel, he had the special genius and passion to carry him beyond his contemporaries. He could revel in boisterous excess; but he could also discipline himself to duty at will. Even his frank sensual attraction to women was tempered by prudent judgment, especially in marriage contracts. The shadowy freedwoman Fadia

43Horace, Carmina 1.37; Plutarch, Antony 58.5- 6; Cassius Dio 50.5.4- 6.1; Josephus, Bellum Judaicum 1.18.4.

44Suetonius, Augustus 17; Plutarch, Antony 58.2-4. A valuable study of this critical battle is: John Carter, The Battle of Actium (New York 1970).

MARK ANTONY'S WIVES 111

may have been a wife of youthful love, of social rebellion, or of financial gain. Antonia was taken in a typically Roman family alliance to help him launch his career. Fulvia brought a dowry of valuable political allies as well as astute political judgment and unbridled ambition. Octavia provided a necessary political tie and served for a time to compromise the conflicting ambitions of world leaders. Cleopatra matched Antony in playing for the highest stakes of control of Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean, and the Roman Empire. It was an extraordinary series of marriages. Antony chose strong women, and used them, but also let them develop their own strengths. Three of his wives can be counted as among the most powerful leaders of the age.

Even Cleopatra, who fulfilled his passion with "infinite variety," endan- gered Antony's political judgment only at the end. Throughout triumphs and failures, even in excesses, Antony remained sane and pragmatic, with the ironic perspective of a sense of humor. The final words that Plutarch gave him ring true. He bade Cleopatra "not to lament him for his last reverses, but to count him happy for the good things that had been his.

.... "45 Among his

"good things" Antony could count his wives who, though many, had shared his careers to the full.

ELEANOR G. HUZAR Michigan State University

45Plutarch, Antony 77.4. The translation is that of Bernadotte Perrin, Plutarch's Lives, Loeb Classical Library, 1968.