![]() In all battles against the Pompeians, Antony led the left wing of the army, a proof of Caesar's confidence in him. During the civil war, Antony was Caesar's second in command. With all hopes of a peaceful solution for the conflict with Pompey gone, Caesar led his armies across the river into Italy and marched on Rome, starting the last Republican civil war. He left Rome, joining Caesar, who had led his armies to the banks of the Rubicon, the river that marked the southern limit of his proconsular authority. The idea was rejected, and Antony resorted to violence, ending up being expelled from the Senate. This he could not do, as such an act would leave him a private citizen-and therefore open to prosecution for his acts while proconsul-in the interim between his proconsulship and his second consulship it would also leave him at the mercy of Pompey's armies. But resistance from the conservative faction of the Roman Senate, led by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, demanded that Caesar resign his proconsulship and the command of his armies before being allowed to seek re-election to the consulship. Caesar's two proconsular commands, during a period of ten years, were expiring, and the general wanted to return to Rome for the consular elections. Nevertheless, raised by Caesar's influence to the offices of quaestor, augur, and tribune of the plebes (50 BC), he supported the cause of his patron with great energy. Caesar himself was said to be frequently irritated by his behaviour. ![]() He again proved to be a competent military leader in the Gallic Wars, but his personality caused instability wherever he went. In 54 BC, Antony became a member of the staff of Caesar's armies in Gaul and early Germany. It was during this campaign that he first visited Alexandria and Egypt. ![]() In the ensuing campaign, he demonstrated his talents as a cavalry commander and distinguished himself with bravery and courage. After a short time spent in attendance 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 in support of Ptolemy XII in Egypt. Plutarch mentions the rumor that before Antony reached 20 years of age, he was already indebted the sum of 250 talents (equivalent to several million dollars).Īfter this period of recklessness, Antony fled to Greece to escape his creditors and to study rhetoric. Together, they embarked on a rather wild sort of life, frequenting gambling houses, drinking too much, and involving themselves in scandalous love affairs. According to historians like Plutarch, he spent his teenage years wandering through Rome with his brothers and friends ( Publius Clodius among them-probably out of hostility to Marcus Tullius Cicero, who had caused Lentulus Sura to be put to death as a Catilinarian the connection was severed by a disagreement arising from his relations with Clodius's wife, Fulvia). Julia Antonia (known in sources by her married name, to distinguish her from the other Julias) then married Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, a politician involved in and executed during the Catiline conspiracy of 63 BC.Īntony's early life was characterized by a lack of parental guidance. His father died at a young age, leaving him and his brothers, Lucius and Gaius, to the care of his mother. Through his mother Julia Antonia, he was a distant cousin of Caesar. His father was his namesake, Marcus Antonius Creticus, the son of the great rhetorician Marcus Antonius Orator executed by Gaius Marius' supporters in 86 BC. Antony committed suicide along with his lover, Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt, in 30 BC.Ī member of the Antonia gens, Antony was born in Rome, around 83 BC. The triumvirate broke up in 33 BC and the disagreement turned to civil war in 31 BC, in which Antony was defeated by Octavian at the Battle of Actium and then at Alexandria. After Caesar's assassination, Antony allied with Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus to form an official triumvirate which modern scholars have labelled the second triumvirate. He was an important supporter of Gaius Julius Caesar as a military commander and administrator. 83 BC– August 1, 30 BC), known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general.
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