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WHO’S WHO in ANCIENT ROME
Using your text, locate definitions for the following vocabulary.
TERM
republic
patricians
legions
plebeians
triumvirate
barbarians
tribunes
magistrates
dioceses
divination
monotheistic
Messiah
pogroms
martyrs
DEFINITION
From Republic to Empire
Antony, Octavian, Cleopatra: The End of the Republic
March 17, 44 BCE: The Senate, unable to take a consistent stand after Caesar's
assassination, decreed that the assassins were to be immune from punishment but
that Caesar's acts as head of state, including his will, were to be ratified, and he
was to have a public funeral. At the funeral (March 20), Brutus spoke first;
however, when Antony spoke, reading the conditions of Caesar's will (leaving
300,000 sesterces to each Roman citizen and his magnificent gardens to the people
as a public park), the mob was so inflamed that Caesar's body was burned then and
there in the Forum and riots began against the conspirators. Within a month, the
conspirators had left the city for the East because of their unpopularity in Rome.
Led by Brutus and Cassius, they began to raise money and an army in Greece, allying
with Sextus Pompey, now a pirate chief.
coin minted by Octavian with head of Caesar
to emphasize his adoption
April, 44 BCE: Caesar's nineteen-year-old great-nephew, Gaius Octavius Thurinus,
entered Rome to claim his inheritance. Caesar's will had named him chief heir and
adopted him as his son, making his name now Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (so
modern historians usually call him Octavian until he received the title Augustus in
27 BCE). His claim was not well received by Antony, but after many machinations on
both sides they eventually reconciled, at least on the surface.
November, 43 BCE: Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus formed an official three-man
government, called “the second triumvirate”; in order to silence opposition and raise
money, they carried out bloody proscriptions, executing significant numbers of
senators and equestrians, including the great orator Cicero, against whom Antony
was particularly vindictive.
October, 42 BCE: Antony and Octavian, leading 19-20 legions, met the 19 legions
of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi in Greece. In the first battle, Antony's forces
defeated Cassius's troops, but Brutus's forces defeated those of Octavian.
Cassius, not knowing about Brutus's success, committed suicide. Brutus did not
follow up his advantage immediately, however, and a second battle was fought three
weeks later, with Brutus facing the combined forces of Antony and Octavian. When
Brutus was defeated, he also committed suicide, marking the ultimate end of the
Republican cause.
42 BCE: After the victory at Philippi, Octavian returned to Rome, but Antony left
on a triumphal tour through Greece and the East; he planned to organize and supply
an army to invade Parthia, the military campaign Caesar was preparing before he
was assassinated.
41 BCE: Antony ordered Cleopatra to meet him in Tarsus to answer a charge that
she had secretly aided Cassius before Philippi (probably a pretext to get Egyptian
aid for his Parthian campaign). She sailed to Tarsus on a magnificent barge, dressed
as the goddess Venus in a tableau, and utterly captivated him, especially by catering
to his taste for banquets and carousing. He soon followed her back to Alexandria,
delaying his Parthian campaign, and ignoring the fact that his wife, Fulvia, and his
brother, Lucius, were trying to maintain his influence in Italy
against the growing power of Octavian.
coin of Antony and his wife Octavia
40 BCE: The situation in Italy was deteriorating and a new civil
war seemed imminent, so Antony returned to Italy. Fulvia died
before he got back, and Octavian and Antony agreed to blame
their disagreements on her. They concluded a pact at Brundisium
in which they agreed that Octavian would be supreme in the West (Italy, Europe)
and Antony in the East (Greece, Asia, Egypt); the pact was sealed by the marriage
of Antony to Octavia, Octavian's sister, who had been recently widowed. Antony
and Octavia lived in Athens from 40-37, and she bore him two daughters, both
named Antonia. Antony issued coins that celebrated his marriage with Octavia and
his reconciliation with Octavian (though note how this coin contrasts the virility and
maturity of Antony with the boyish appearance of Octavian).
37 BCE: Antony finally departed for his Parthian campaign, but en route he met
Cleopatra in Syria, and she presented him with the twins she had borne him after
he left for Brundisium; he acknowledged the children, naming the boy Alexander
Helios and the girl Cleopatra Selene. Antony married Cleopatra according to the
Egyptian ceremony, and she conceived another child, later named Ptolemy
Philadelphus. The Parthian campaign was an unmitigated disaster, with no military
gains and the loss of an estimated 20,000 men. When Octavia returned from Rome
to Athens to meet her husband with gifts and supplies, he ostentatiously bypassed
her and Greece (which was a direct and public insult to his wife), traveling directly
to Alexandria and Cleopatra. This coin, minted under the joint authority of
Cleopatra and Antony in Alexandria, indicates that the rulers were not attempting
to idealize or romanticize their appearance but rather to stress her royal authority
and his leadership.
32 BCE: Antony made the “Donations of Alexandria,” giving away many territories
of the Roman East to Cleopatra and her children, declaring Caesarion Caesar's legal
heir, and formally divorcing Octavia, sending an official notice to Rome that she and
his children were to leave his house. These actions were very unpopular in Rome, and
the Senate, “of its own accord,” swore an extraordinary oath of
loyalty to Octavian.
coin with back-to-back heads of Agrippa and
Augustus and chained crocodile, celebrating
victory at Actium
31 BCE: The Senate outlawed Antony and declared war on
Cleopatra. The climactic battle occurred at sea, off the promontory
of Actium in Greece. Octavian's general was the shrewd Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa,
and Antony was hampered by defections among his officers and the presence of
Cleopatra on her flagship, which his Roman soldiers deeply resented. Agrippa easily
outmaneuvered Antony, and Cleopatra was the first to flee, taking her sixty
Egyptian ships with her. Antony followed her in a single ship, leaving the rest of his
fleet to be destroyed; this Wikipedia map shows the location and naval deployment
of this battle.
30 BCE: After plans to regroup their forces in Alexandria failed, since most of
Antony's remaining soldiers deserted to join Octavian, Antony committed suicide
with his own sword. The circumstances surrounding his death are not certain, but
several versions state that Cleopatra sent him a message that she had killed
herself; when he then stabbed himself, she had him raised to her in the her tower,
and he died in her arms. In any case, it is definite that she lived for some weeks
after Antony's death and met Octavian on at least one occasion. Malicious sources
report that she was trying to seduce Octavian also, but it is more probable that she
was attempting to secure the best possible situation for her children. When she
realized that Octavian was determined to parade her as his captive in his triumphal
parade in Rome, she tricked him into believing that she would do this, and then had
an asp smuggled in to her and died of its bite (or perhaps she took poison), along
with two of her serving women (see Steven J. Willett's translation of Horace's Ode
1.37, a poem whose paradoxical images of Cleopatra reveal the fear and ambivalence
she inspired among Romans).
27 BCE: Octavian formally “handed over” his power to the Senate, which then
“voluntarily” gave it back to him in a new legal form, officially declaring him the
princeps (leading citizen), instead of dictator, king, or triumvir; he was henceforth
called Augustus (“the revered one”). In effect, absolute power was in Augustus's
hands, but this was concealed by his use of the old governmental forms; although
Augustus's rule is often termed a principate, he was actually the first of the Roman
emperors, and the beginning of the Roman Empire is officially dated at 27 BCE.
(This coin celebrates Octavian's victory at Actium and another commemorates his
subsequent triumph.)
coin of Octavian with military trophy
coin of Octavian with crocodile
commemorating his victory over Egypt
Sources : Barbara F. McManus, The College of New Rochelle [email protected] revised August, 2009
Assignment:
1. Create a 1 page analysis outlining the reasons why you think Octavian was
successful in establishing the Roman Empire.
2. What happened to the assassins of Julius Caesar? (Brutus and Cassius)
3. Identify 4 significant events that led to Octavian becoming Emperor?
4. Outline the events surrounding Marc Antony and Cleopatra?
5. How did Augustus solidify his power from the Senate?
6. Create a family tree of Octavian and his Father and Octavian’s Children