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nd
2
The
Triumvirate
MEMBERS
• M. Aemilius Lepidus – He was of the
Aemilii, a long standing political family. His
father died in the Conspiracy of Catiline as
one of the Conspirators. Lepidus was part
of the triumvirate until 36 when his actions
in Sicily gave Octavian cause to call him a
usurper and have him exiled. Lepidus died
peacefully in exile in 13 BCE.
MEMBERS
• Marcus Antonius – 83 to 30 BCE – Of the
three men involved Mark Antony had the
greatest military experience and support. At a
time he was probably the most popular
politically, especially among those who had
been supporters of Caesar. In the absence of
Lepidus, the struggle between him and
Octavian intensified which led to the war that
killed Mark Antony in 30.
MEMBERS
• Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus – 63 BCE to 14 CE
– He was born as Gaius Octavius Thurinus and took
his uncle’s name when his uncle adopted him as
heir. Later he would also add Augustus to his name.
He was by far the youngest and least experienced of
the three men, only 19 when Julius Caesar was
murdered. He is also considered to be the best
politician of three supported by the fact that he did
eventually win the war.
BREAK UP
• After the expulsion of Lepidus Mark Antony
eventually planned to gain power, prestige, and
wealth the same way Julius Caesar had
planned to do so, by fighting a foreign war. Like
Caesar and Crassus, he planned to fight the
Parthians.
BREAK UP
• To fight this war he would need a local base to
operate from. He chose Egypt, the last of the
Hellenistic kingdoms still governing itself.
Cleopatra, who had a been a friend and known
lover of Caesar, was ruling there and agreed to
help.
BREAK UP
• Antony failed against the Parthians, but did escape
with his life.
• While in Egypt his relationship with Cleopatra went
far beyond a professional or political one. In the
years he spent in Egypt they had several children.
• Antony’s absence from Rome left him unable to
adeptly battle the propaganda spread by Octavian
that Antony was being unmanly, undutiful, and unRoman.
• Eventually this led to an outright civil war between
Cleopatra and Antony on one side against Octavian
and his famous general M. Agrippa on the other.
WAR
• The senate declared war against Egypt
and Mark Antony was now seen as a
traitor.
• It was easy for Octavian to paint Antony in
this light since prior to this Antony had
ceded Roman territory to Cleopatra, and it
was rumored that the two of them were
setting up their children as rulers of these
lands, some Roman and some not.
• The war came to a head at Actium in 31
BCE.
WAR
WAR
• With the battle lost Cleopatra and Antony managed to
escape with her fleet back to Egypt.
• Octavian followed and by 30 had begun a siege of
Alexandria.
• Mark Antony killed himself in that year.
• After the city had
been taken,
Cleopatra also
killed herself as we
are told with an
asp.
• We are also told
that she did this in
order to escape the
political humiliation
of being led captive
through a Roman
triumphal parade.
CONCLUSION
• After the war there was no
opposition to Octavian’s authority.
He celebrated his triumph in the
year 29 and took on the name
Augustus in 27 by unanimous
vote of the senate.
CONCLUSION
• Today we regard Octavian Augustus as the first
Roman Emperor, but it is important to note that
the Romans referred to him as the princeps.
This was the title customarily given to the oldest
member of the senate and it means first citizen,
the first among equals. When Augustus took
some authority or power, he always did so
under the republican title it had previously
belonged to. He was a popular and strong
leader, and by the time of his death in 14 CE,
he had ruled Rome peacefully for 45 years.
CONCLUSION
• When his adopted son Tiberius took
over the principate in 14 CE, someone
would have had to have been in their
sixties to remember Rome before the
death of Julius Caesar and nearly 80 to
remember Rome before the first
triumvirate. At this point there was no
question of ever returning to the
republic.