Internet History Sourcebooks Project: Ancient History

I. The grandfather of Antonius was the orator Antonius,323 who belonged to the party of Sulla and was put to death by Marius. His father was Antonius, surnamed Creticus,324 not a man of any great note or distinction in political affairs, but of good judgment and integrity, and also liberal in his donations, as one may know from a single instance. He had no large property and for this reason he was prevented by his wife from indulging his generous disposition. On one occasion when an intimate friend came to him who was in want of money, and Antonius had none, he ordered a young slave to put some water into a silver vessel and to bring it; and when it was brought, he moistened his chin as if he were going to shave himself. The slave being sent away on some other business, Antonius gave the cup to his friend and bade him make use of it; but as a strict inquiry was made among the slaves, and Antonius saw that his wife was vexed and intended to torture them one by one, he acknowledged what he had done and begged her pardon.

II. His wife was Julia of the family of the Cæsars, a 264woman who could compare with the noblest and most virtuous of that day. She brought up her son Antonius, having married after his father’s death Cornelius Lentulus,325 who was one of the conspirators with Catilina and was put to death by Cicero. This appears to be the reason and the foundation of the violent enmity between Antonius and Cicero. Now Antonius says that even the corpse of Lentulus was not given up to them until his mother begged it of the wife of Cicero. But this is manifestly false, for no one of those who were then punished by Cicero was deprived of interment. Antonius was of distinguished appearance in his youth, but his friendship and intimacy with Curio 326 fell upon him, as they say, like some pestilence, for Curio himself was intemperate in his pleasures, and he hurried Antonius, in order to make him more manageable, into drinking and the company of women and extravagant and licentious expenditure. All this brought on him a heavy debt, and out of all bounds for his age, of two hundred and fifty talents. Curio became security for all this, and when his father heard of it he banished Antonius from the house. Antonius for a short time mixed himself up with the violence of Clodius, the most daring and scandalous of the demagogues of the day, which was throwing every thing into confusion; but becoming soon satiated with that madness and being afraid of those who were combining against Clodius, he left Italy for Greece and spent some time there, exercising his body for military contests and practising oratory. He adopted what was called the Asiatic style of oratory, which flourished most at that time, and bore a great resemblance to his mode of life, which was boastful and swaggering and full of empty pride and irregular aspiration after distinction.

III. When Gabinius,327 a man of consular rank, was sailing for Syria, he endeavoured to persuade Antonius to join the expedition. Antonius said that he would not go out with 265him as a private individual, but on being appointed commander of the cavalry, he did go with him. In the first place he was sent against Aristobulus,328 who was stirring the Jews to revolt, and he was the first man to mount the largest of the fortifications; and he drove Aristobulus from all of them. He next joined battle with him and with the few men that he had put to flight the forces of Aristobulus, which were much more numerous, and killed all but a few; and Aristobulus was captured with his son. After this Ptolemæus 329 attempted to persuade Gabinius for ten thousand talents to join him in an invasion of Egypt and to recover the kingdom for him; but most of the officers opposed the proposal, and Gabinius himself was somewhat afraid of the war, though he was hugely taken with the ten thousand talents; but Antonius, who was eager after great exploits and wished to gratify the request of Ptolemæus, persuaded Gabinius and urged him to the expedition. They feared more than the war the march to Pelusium, which was through deep sand where there was no water along the Ecregma 330 and the Serbonian marsh, which the Egyptians call the blasts of Typhon 331, but which really appears to be left behind by the Red Sea 332 and to be caused by the filtration of the waters at the part where it is separated by the narrowest part of the isthmus from 266the internal sea. Antonius being sent with the cavalry not only occupied the straits, but taking Pelusium also, a large city, and the soldiers in it, he at the same time made the road safe for the army and gave the general sure hopes of victory. Even his enemies reaped advantage from his love of distinction; for when Ptolemæus entered Pelusium, and through his passion and hatred was moved to massacre the Egyptians, Antonius stood in the way and stopped him. And in the battles and the contests which were great and frequent, he displayed many deeds of daring and prudent generalship, but most signally in encircling and surrounding the enemy in the rear, whereby he secured the victory to those in front, and received the rewards of courage and fitting honours. Nor did the many fail to notice his humanity towards Archelaus 333 after his death; for Antonius, who had been his intimate and friend, fought against him during his lifetime of necessity, but when he found the body of Archelaus, who had fallen, he interred it with all honours and in kingly fashion. He thus left among the people of Alexandria the highest reputation, and was judged by the Roman soldiers to be a most illustrious man.

IV. With these advantages he possessed a noble dignity of person; and his well-grown beard, his broad forehead and hooked nose 334 appeared to express the manly character which is observed in the paintings and sculptures of Hercules. And there was an old tradition that the Antonii were Herakleidæ, being sprung from Anton, a son of Hercules. This tradition Antonius thought that he strengthened by the character of his person, as it has been observed, and by his dress. For on all occasions, when he was going to appear before a number of persons, he had his tunic girded up to his thigh, and a large sword hung by his side, and a thick cloak thrown round him. Besides, that 267which appeared to others to be offensive, his great boasting and jesting and display of his cups, and his sitting by the soldiers when they were eating, and his eating himself as he stood by the soldiers’ table—it is wonderful how much affection and attachment for him it bred in the soldiers. His amorous propensities, too, had in them something that was not without a charm, but even by these he won the favour of many, helping them in their love affairs and submitting to be joked with good humour about his own amours. His liberality and his habit of gratifying the soldiers and his friends in nothing with a stinted or sparing hand, both gave him a brilliant foundation for power, and, when he had become great, raised his power still higher, though it was in danger of being subverted by ten thousand other faults. I will relate one instance of his profusion. He ordered five-and-twenty ten thousands to be given to one of his friends; this sum the Romans express by Decies.335 But as his steward wondered thereat, and to show him how much it was, placed the money out, he asked as he was passing by, What that was. The steward replying that this was what he had ordered to be given, Antonius, who conjectured his trickery, said, “I thought a Decies was more: this is a small matter; and therefore add to it as much more.”

V. Now these things belong to a later period. But when matters at Rome came to a split, the aristocratical party joining Pompeius who was present, and the popular party inviting Cæsar from Gaul, who was in arms, Curio, the friend of Antonius,336 changing sides in favour of Cæsar, 268brought Antonius over; and as he had great influence among the many by his eloquence, and spent money lavishly, which was supplied by Cæsar, he got Antonius appointed tribune, and then one of the priests over the birds, whom the Romans call Augurs. As soon as Antonius entered on his office, he was of no small assistance to those who were directing public affairs on Cæsar’s behalf. In the first place, when Marcellus the consul attempted to give to Pompeius the troops that were already levied, and to empower him to raise others, Antonius opposed him by proposing an order, that the collected force should sail to Syria and assist Bibulus, who was warring with the Parthians, and that the troops which Pompeius was levying should not pay any regard to him: and, in the second place, when the Senate would not receive Cæsar’s letters, nor allow them to be read, Antonius, whose office gave him power, did read them, and he changed the disposition of many, who judged from Cæsar’s letters that he only asked what was just and reasonable. Finally, when two questions were proposed in the Senate, of which one was, whether Pompeius should disband his troops, and the other, whether Cæsar should do it, and there were a few in favour of Pompeius laying down his arms, and all but a few were for Cæsar doing so, Antonius arose and put the question, Whether the Senate was of opinion that Pompeius and Cæsar at the same time should lay down their arms and disband their forces. All eagerly accepted this proposal, and with shouts praising Antonius, they urged to put the question to the vote. But as the consuls would not consent, the friends of Cæsar again made other proposals, which were considered reasonable, which Cato resisted, and Lentulus, who was consul, ejected Antonius from the Senate. Antonius went out uttering many imprecations against them, and assuming the dress of a slave, and in conjunction with Cassius Quintus 337 hiring a chariot269 he hurried to Cæsar; and as soon as they were in sight, they called out that affairs at Rome were no longer in any order, since even tribunes had no liberty of speech, but every one was driven away and in danger who spoke on the side of justice.

VI. Upon this Cæsar with his army entered Italy. Accordingly Cicero, in his Philippica, said that Helen 338 was the beginning of the Trojan war, and Antonius of the civil war, wherein he is manifestly stating a falsehood. For Caius Cæsar was not such a light person, or so easy to be moved from his sound judgment by passion, if he had not long ago determined to do this, as to have made war on his country all of a sudden, because he saw Antonius in a mean dress and Cassius making their escape to him in a hired chariot; but this gave a ground and specious reason for the war to a man who had long been wanting a pretext. He was led to war against the whole world, as Alexander before him and Cyrus of old had been, by an insatiable love of power and a frantic passion to be first and greatest: and this he could not obtain, if Pompeius was not put down. He came then and got possession of Rome, and drove Pompeius out of Italy; and determining to turn first against the forces of Pompeius in Iberia, and then, when he had got ready a fleet, to cross over to attack Pompeius, he entrusted Rome to Lepidus, who was prætor, and the forces and Italy to Antonius, who was tribune. Antonius forthwith gained the favour of the soldiers by taking his exercises with them, and by generally living with them, and making them presents out of his means; but to everybody else he was odious. For owing to his carelessness he paid no attention to those who were wronged, and listened with ill-temper to those who addressed him, and had a bad repute about other men’s wives. In fine, Cæsar’s friends brought odium on Cæsar’s power, which, so far as concerned Cæsar’s acts, appeared to be anything rather than 270a tyranny: and of those friends Antonius, who had the chief power and committed the greatest excesses, had most of the blame.

VII. However, upon his return from Iberia, Cæsar 339 overlooked the charges against him, and employing him in war because of his energy, his courage, and his military skill, he was never disappointed in him. Now Cæsar, after crossing the Ionian Gulf from Brundusium with a few men, sent his ships back, with orders to Gabinius 340 and Antonius to put the troops on board and carry them over quickly to Macedonia. Gabinius was afraid of the voyage, which was hazardous in the winter season, and led his army by land a long way about; but Antonius being alarmed for Cæsar, who was hemmed in by many enemies, repulsed Libo,341 who was blockading the mouth of the harbour, by surrounding his gallies with many light boats, and embarking in his vessels eight thousand legionary soldiers he set sail. Being discovered by the enemy and pursued, he escaped all danger from them in consequence of a strong south wind bringing a great swell and tempestuous sea upon his gallies; but as he was carried in his ships towards precipices and cliffs with deep water under them, he had no hope of safety. But all at once there blew from the bay a violent south-west wind and the swell ran from the land to the sea, and Antonius getting off the land and sailing in gallant style saw the 271shore full of wrecks. For thither the wind had cast up the gallies that were in pursuit of him and no small number of them was destroyed; and Antonius made many prisoners and much booty, and he took Lissus, and he gave Cæsar great confidence by coming at a critical time with so great a force.

VIII. There were many and continuous fights, in all of which Antonius was distinguished: and twice he met and turned back the soldiers of Cæsar, who were flying in disorder, and by compelling them to stand and to fight again with their pursuers he gained the victory. There was accordingly more talk of him in the camp than of any one else after Cæsar. And Cæsar showed what opinion he had of him; for when he was going to fight the last battle and that which decided everything at Pharsalus,342 he had the right wing himself, but he gave the command of the left to Antonius as being the most skilful and bravest officer that he had. After the battle Cæsar was proclaimed dictator, and he set out in pursuit of Pompeius, but he appointed Antonius master of the horse and sent him to Rome: this is the second office in rank when the dictator is present; but if he is not, it is the first and almost the only one. For the tribuneship continues, but they put down all the other functionaries when a dictator is chosen.

IX. However Dolabella,343 who was then a tribune, a young man who aimed at change, introduced a measure for the 272annulling of debts, and he persuaded Antonius,344 who was a friend of his and always wished to please the many, to work with him and to take a part in this political measure. But Asinius and Trebellius gave him the contrary advice, and it happened that a strong suspicion came on Antonius, that he was wronged in the matter of his wife by Dolabella. And as he was much annoyed thereat, he not only drove his wife from his house, who was his cousin, for she was the daughter of Caius Antonius who was consul with Cicero, but he joined Asinius and resisted Dolabella. Dolabella occupied the Forum with the design of carrying the law by force, but Antonius, after the Senate had declared by a vote that it was needful to oppose Dolabella with arms, came upon him and joining battle killed some of the men of Dolabella and lost some of his own. This brought on Antonius the hatred of the many, and he was not liked by the honest and sober on account of his habits of life, as Cicero says, but was detested; for people were disgusted at his drunkenness at unseasonable hours, and his heavy expenditure, and his intercourse with women, and his sleeping by day, and walking about with head confused and loaded with drink, and by night his revellings and theatres and his presence at the nuptials of mimi and jesters. It is said indeed that after being present at the entertainment on the marriage of Hippias the mime, and drinking all night, when the people summoned him early in the morning to the Forum, he came there still full of food and vomited, and one of his friends placed his vest under to serve him. Sergius the mime was one of those who had the greatest influence over him, and Cytheris 345 from the same school, a woman whom he loved, and whom when he visited the cities he took round with him in a litter; and there were as many attendants to follow the litter as that of his mother. People were also vexed at the sight of golden cups carried about in his excursions as in processions, 273and fixing of tents in the ways, and the laying out of costly feasts near groves and rivers, and lions yoked to chariots, and houses of orderly men and women used as quarters for prostitutes and lute-players. For it was considered past all endurance that, while Cæsar was lodging in the open field out of Italy, clearing up the remnant of war with great labour and danger, others, through means of Cæsar’s power, were indulging in luxury and insulting the citizens.

X. These things appear also to have increased the disorder and to have given the soldiers licence to commit shameful violence and robbery. Wherefore, when Cæsar returned, he pardoned Dolabella; and being elected consul for the third time he chose not Antonius, but Lepidus for his colleague. Antonius bought the house of Pompeius when it was sold, but he was vexed when he was asked for the money; and he says himself that this was the reason why he did not join Cæsar in his Libyan expedition, having had no reward for his former successes. However Cæsar is considered to have cured him of the chief part of his folly and extravagance by not allowing his excesses to pass unnoticed. For he gave up that course of life and turned his thoughts to wedlock, taking for his wife Fulvia, who had been the wife of the demagogue Clodius, a woman who troubled herself not about domestic industry or housekeeping, nor one who aspired to rule a private man, but her wish was to rule a ruler and command a general: so that Cleopatra was indebted to Fulvia 346 for training Antonius to woman-rule, inasmuch as Cleopatra received him quite tamed and disciplined from the commencement to obey women. However Antonius attempted by sportive ways and youthful sallies to make Fulvia somewhat merrier; as for example, on the occasion when many went to meet Cæsar after his victory in Iberia,

Antonius also went; but as a report suddenly reached Italy that Cæsar was dead and the enemy were advancing, he returned to Rome, and taking a slave’s dress he came to the house by night, and saying that he brought a letter from Antonius to Fulvia, he was introduced to her wrapped up in his dress. Fulvia, who was in a state of anxiety, asked, before she took the letter, whether Antonius was alive; but without speaking a word he held out the letter to her, and when she was beginning to open and read it, he embraced and kissed her. These few out of many things I have produced by way of instance.

XI. When Cæsar was returning from Iberia 347 all the first people went several days’ journey to meet him; but Antonius was specially honoured by Cæsar. For in his passage through Italy he had Antonius in the chariot with him, and behind him Brutus Albinus and Octavianus the son of his niece, who was afterwards named Cæsar and ruled the Romans for a very long time. When Cæsar was appointed consul for the fifth time, he immediately chose Antonius for his colleague, and it was his design to abdicate the consulship and give it to Dolabella; and this he proposed to the Senate. But as Antonius violently opposed this, and vented much abuse of Dolabella and received as much in return, Cæsar, being ashamed of these unseemly proceedings, went away. Afterwards when he came to proclaim Dolabella, upon Antonius calling out that the birds were opposed to it, Cæsar yielded and gave up Dolabella, who was much annoyed. But it appeared that Cæsar abominated Dolabella as much as he did Antonius; for it is said, that when some person was endeavouring to excite his suspicions against both, Cæsar said that he was not afraid of those fat and long-haired fellows, but those pale and thin ones, meaning Brutus and Cassius, who afterwards conspired against him and slew him.

XII. And Antonius without designing it gave them a most specious pretext. It was the feast of the Lykæa 275among the Romans, which they call Lupercalia,348 and Cæsar dressed in a triumphal robe and sitting on the Rostra in the Forum viewed the runners. Now many youths of noble birth run the race, and many of the magistrates, anointed with oil, and with strips of hide they strike by way of sport those whom they meet. Antonius running among them paid no regard to the ancient usage, but wrapping a crown of bay round a diadem he ran to the Rostra, and being raised up by his companions in the race he placed it on Cæsar’s head, intimating that he ought to be King. But as Cæsar affected to refuse it and put his head aside, the people were pleased and clapped their hands; then Antonius again offered the crown, and Cæsar again rejected it. This contest went on for some time, only a few of the friends of Antonius encouraging him in his pressing the offer, but all the people shouted and clapped when Cæsar refused; which indeed was surprising, that while in reality they submitted to be ruled over with kingly power they eschewed the name of King as if it were the destruction of their freedom. Accordingly Cæsar rose from the Rostra much annoyed, and taking the robe from his neck called out that he offered his throat to any one who would have it. The crown which was placed on one of his statues certain tribunes tore off, and the people followed them with loud expressions of goodwill and clapping of hands; but Cæsar deprived them of their office.

XIII. This confirmed Brutus and Cassius, and when they were enumerating the friends whom they could trust in the undertaking, they deliberated about Antonius. The rest were for adding Antonius to their number, but Trebonius opposed it; for he said that at the time when they went to meet Cæsar on his return from Iberia, and Antonius was in the same tent with him and journeyed with him, he tried his disposition in a quiet way and with caution, and he said that Antonius understood him, though he did not respond to the proposal, nor yet did he report it to Cæsar, but faithfully kept the words secret. Upon this they again deliberated whether they should kill Antonius after they had killed Cæsar; but Brutus opposed this, urging that the act which was adventured 276in defence of the laws and of justice must be pure and free from injustice. But as they were afraid of the strength of Antonius and the credit that his office gave him, they appointed some of the conspirators to look after him in order that when Cæsar entered the Senate house and the deed was going to be done, they might detain him on the outside in conversation about some matter and on the pretence of urgent business.

XIV. This being accomplished according as it was planned and Cæsar having fallen in the Senate house, Antonius immediately put on a slave’s attire and hid himself. But when he learned that the men were not attacking any one, but were assembled in the Capitol, he persuaded them to come down after giving them his son as a hostage; and he entertained Cassius at supper, and Brutus entertained Lepidus. Antonius having summoned the Senate spoke about an amnesty and a distribution of provinces among Brutus and Cassius and their partizans, and the Senate ratified these proposals, and decreed not to alter anything that had been done by Cæsar.349 Antonius went out of the Senate the most distinguished of men, being considered to have prevented a civil war and to have managed most prudently and in a most statesmanlike manner circumstances which involved difficulties and no ordinary causes of confusion. But from such considerations as these he was soon disturbed by the opinion that he derived from the multitude, that he would certainly be the first man in Rome, if Brutus were put down. Now it happened that when Cæsar’s corpse was carried forth, as the custom was, he pronounced an oration over it in the Forum;350 and seeing that the people were powerfully led and affected, he mingled with the praises of Cæsar commiseration 277and mighty passion over the sad event, and at the close of his speech, shaking the garments of the dead, which were blood-stained and hacked with the swords, and calling those who had done these things villains and murderers, he inspired so much indignation in the men that they burnt the body of Cæsar in the Forum, heaping together the benches and the tables; and snatching burning faggots from the pile they ran to the houses of the assassins and assaulted them.

XV. For this reason Brutus and his party left the city, and the friends of Cæsar joined Antonius; and Cæsar’s wife Calpurnia trusting to him had the chief part of the treasures transferred to Antonius from her house, to the amount in all of four thousand talents. He received also the writings of Cæsar, in which there were entries made of what he had determined and decreed; and Antonius inserting entries in them, named many to offices just as he pleased, and many he named senators, and he restored some who were in exile and released others who were in prison, as if Cæsar had determined all this. Wherefore the Romans by way of mockery named all these persons Charonitæ,351 because when they were put to the proof they had to take refuge in the memoranda of the deceased. And Antonius managed everything else as if he had full power, being consul himself, and having his brothers also in office, Gaius as prætor and Lucius as tribune.

XVI. While affairs were in this state, young Cæsar 352 arrived at Rome, being the son of the niece of the deceased,278 as it has been told, and left the heir of his substance; and he was staying in Apollonia at the time of Cæsar’s assassination. He went forthwith to pay his respects to Antonius, as being his father’s friend, and reminded him of the money deposited with him; for he had to pay to every Roman seventy-five drachmæ, which Cæsar had given by his will. Antonius, at first despising his youth, said that he was not in his senses, and that being destitute of all sound reason and friends he was taking up the succession of Cæsar, which was a burden too great for him to bear; but as Cæsar did not yield to these arguments and demanded the money, Antonius went on saying and doing many things to insult him. For he opposed him in seeking a tribuneship, and when he was preparing to set up a golden chair of his father, as it had been voted by the Senate, he threatened to carry him off to prison, if he did not stop his attempts to win the popular favour. But when the youth, by giving himself up to Cicero and the rest who hated Antonius, by means of them made the Senate his friends, and he himself got the favour of the people and mustered the soldiers from the colonies,353 Antonius being alarmed came to a conference with him in the Capitol, and they were reconciled. Antonius in his sleep that night had a strange dream; he thought that his right hand was struck by lightning; and a few days after a report reached him that Cæsar was plotting against him. Cæsar indeed made an explanation, but he did not convince Antonius; and their enmity was again in full activity, and both of them roaming about Italy endeavoured to stir up by large pay the soldiers who were planted in the colonies, and to anticipate one another in gaining over those who were still under arms.

XVII. Of those in the city Cicero had the greatest influence; and by inciting everybody against Antonius he finally persuaded the Senate to vote Antonius to be an enemy, and to send Cæsar lictors and the insignia of a prætor, and to despatch Pansa and Hirtius 354 to drive Antonius out of Italy. They were consuls for that year; 279and engaging with Antonius near the city of Mutina, on which occasion Cæsar was present and fought with them, they defeated the enemy, but fell themselves. Many great difficulties befell Antonius in his flight; but the greatest was famine. But it was the nature of Antonius to show his best qualities in difficulties, and in his misfortune he was as like as may be to a good man; for it is common to those who are hard pressed by straits to perceive what virtue is, but all have not strength enough in reverses to imitate what they admire and to avoid what they do not approve; but some rather give way to their habits through weakness and let their judgment be destroyed. Now Antonius in these circumstances was a powerful pattern to the soldiers, for though he was fresh from the enjoyment of so much luxury and expense, he drank foul water without complaining, and ate wild fruits and roots. Bark too was eaten, as it was said, and in their passage over the Alps they fed on animals that had never been eaten before.

XVIII. His design was to fall in with the troops there which Lepidus 355 commanded, who was considered to be a friend of Antonius and to have derived through him much advantage from the friendship of Cæsar. Having arrived there and encamped near, he found no friendly signs, on which he resolved to try a bold stroke. Antonius had neglected his hair and he had allowed his beard to grow long immediately after his defeat; and putting on a dark garment he approached the lines of Lepidus and began to speak. As many of the soldiers were moved at the sight and affected by his words, Lepidus in alarm ordered the trumpets to sound all at once and so to prevent Antonius from being heard. But the soldiers pitied the more, and held communication with him by means of Lælius and Clodius, whom they secretly sent to him in the dress of women who followed the camp, and the messengers urged

Antonius boldly to attack the lines, for there were many, they said, would undertake even to kill Lepidus, if he wished. Antonius would not consent to their touching Lepidus, but on the next day he began to cross the river with his army. Antonius entered the river first and advanced to the opposite bank, for he saw already many of the soldiers of Lepidus stretching out their hands to him and tearing down the ramparts. When he had entered and made himself master of all, he approached Lepidus with the greatest kindness, for he embraced him and called him father; and in fact he was master of all, but he continued to preserve to Lepidus the name and honour of an Imperator. This caused also Plancus Munatius to join him, for Plancus was at no great distance with a large force. Being thus raised anew to great power he crossed the Alps into Italy at the head of seventeen legions of infantry and ten thousand cavalry; besides this he left to guard Gaul six legions with Varius, one of his intimates and boon companions, whom they called Cotylon.356

XIX. Now Cæsar no longer cared for Cicero when he saw that he clung to liberty, but he invited Antonius through the mediation of his friends to come to terms. The three met together in a small island 357 in the middle of a river and sat together for three days. All the rest was easily agreed on, and they distributed the empire 358 among them as if it were a paternal inheritance, but the discussion about the men who were destined to perish caused them most trouble, each claiming to get rid of his enemies and to save his relations. But at length surrendering to their passion against those whom they hated both the honour due to their kinsmen and their goodwill to their friends, Cæsar surrendered Cicero to Antonius, and Antonius surrendered to him Lucius Cæsar, who was his uncle on the mother’s side; Lepidus also was allowed to put to death his brother Paulus; but others say that

Lepidus gave up his brother to Cæsar and Antonius, who required his death. I think nothing could be more cruel or savage than this exchange; for by exchanging murder for murder they equally destroyed those whom they surrendered and those whom they put to death, but they acted more unjustly to their friends, whom they caused to die even without bearing them any hatred.

XX. After this settlement, the soldiers, who were around them, required that Cæsar should strengthen their friendship by marriage, and should take to wife Clodia,359 the daughter of Fulvia, the wife of Antonius. This also being agreed to, three hundred persons were by proscription put to death by them.360 When Cicero was murdered, Antonius ordered the head to be cut off and the right hand, with which Cicero wrote the speeches against him. When they were brought, Antonius looked on them with delight and broke out a laughing several times through joy; then being satiated with the sight he ordered them to be placed above the Rostra in the Forum, as if he were insulting the dead, and not showing his own arrogance in his good fortune and abusing his power. His uncle Cæsar being sought and pursued fled for refuge to his sister, who, when the assassins were standing by and trying to force their way into her chamber, fixing herself at the door and spreading out her arms, called out repeatedly, “You shall not kill Cæsar Lucius, unless you kill me first, me the mother of the Imperator.” By such her conduct she rescued and saved her brother.

XXI. The dominion of the three was in most respects hateful to the Romans; but Antonius had most of the 282blame, as he was older than Cæsar, and had more influence than Lepidus, and threw himself without restraint into his former luxurious and intemperate habits as soon as he had shaken off all trouble about affairs. There was added to his general bad repute the hatred against him on account of the house that he inhabited, which had been the house of Pompeius Magnus, a man no less admired for his temperance and his orderly and citizenlike mode of life than for his three triumphs. For they were vexed to see his house generally closed to commanders, magistrates and ambassadors, who were insolently thrust from the doors, while it was filled with mimi and jugglers and drunken flatterers, upon whom was expended most of the money which was got by the most violent and harsh means. For the three not only sold the substance of those who were murdered, bringing false charges against their kinsmen and wives, and tried all kinds of imposts; but hearing that there were deposits 361 with the Vestal Virgins made both by strangers and citizens, they went and seized them. Now as nothing was enough for Antonius, Cæsar claimed to share the money with him; and they also distributed the army between them, and both went together into Macedonia to oppose Brutus and Cassius; and they intrusted Rome to Lepidus.

XXII. Crossing over the sea they commenced the campaign and encamped by the enemy, Antonius being opposed to Cassius, and Cæsar to Brutus,362 wherein no great deed was performed on the part of Cæsar, but it was Antonius who gained all the victory and had all the success. In the first battle, Cæsar, being completely routed by Brutus, lost his camp and narrowly escaped from his pursuers; but, as he says in his Memoirs, he retired before the battle in consequence of one of his friends having had a dream. But Antonius defeated Cassius; though some have written that Antonius was not in the battle, but 283came up after the battle to join in the pursuit. Pindarus, one of the faithful freedmen of Cassius, killed him at his request and order, for Cassius did not know that Brutus was victorious. After an interval of a few days they fought a second battle, in which Brutus being defeated killed himself, and Antonius carried off the chief credit of the victory, inasmuch as Cæsar was sick. Standing over the corpse of Brutus he upbraided it gently for the death of his brother Caius,363 for Brutus had put Caius to death in Macedonia to revenge Cicero; but declaring that he blamed Hortensius more than Brutus for the murder of his brother, Antonius ordered him to be massacred on his tomb; and he threw over the body of Brutus his own purple cloak, which was of great value, and commanded one of his freedmen to look after the interment. He afterwards found out that this fellow did not burn the cloak with the corpse and that he had purloined a large part of the expenditure destined for the interment, whereon he put him to death.

XXIII. After this Cæsar went back to Rome, and it was supposed that he would not live long on account of his illness. Antonius crossed over into Greece with a large army, intending to levy money in all the eastern provinces; for as they had promised to every soldier five thousand drachmæ, they required more vigorous measures for raising money and collecting contributions. Towards the Greeks his conduct was neither unusual nor oppressive at first, but his love of amusement led him to listen to the discourses of the learned and to the sight of games and religious solemnities; and in his decisions he was equitable, and was delighted at being called a Philhellen, but still more in being addressed as Philathenæus; and he made rich gifts to the city. The people of Megara also wishing to show him something fine, by way of rivalry with Athens, and requesting him to see the Senate-house, he went up and looked at it, and on their asking what he thought of it: “Small, it is true,” he said, “and yet all in decay.” He also caused the temple of the Pythian Apollo to be surveyed, as if he intended to repair it; for he made this promise to the Senate.

XXIV.364 Leaving Lucius Censorinus 365 over the affairs of Greece he crossed to Asia; and when he had touched the wealth there, and kings used to come to his door, and wives of kings vying with one another in their presents and their beauty let themselves be corrupted in order to win his favour, and while Cæsar at Rome was worn out with civil commotions and war, he enjoying perfect leisure and tranquillity was carried back by his passions to his usual habits of life, and Anaxenor 366 a lute-player and Xuthus a piper and Metrodorus a dancer, and other such rout of Asiatic theatrical folks who surpassed in impudence and shamelessness the pests from Italy, had crept in and managed his residence—it was past all bearing, for everything was wasted on these extravagancies. For all Asia, like that city in Sophocles,367 at the same time was filled with incense burning,

“With pæans too ’twas filled and heavy groans.”

Thus, when he was entering Ephesus, women clothed like Bacchæ, and men and boys equipped like Satyrs and Pans led the way; and the city was filled with ivy and thyrsi and psalteries and pipes and flutes, the people calling him Dionysus, Giver of Joy and Beneficent. He was this, it is true, to some; but to the many Omestes 368 and Agrionius. For he took their property from well-born men and gave it to worthless men and flatterers; and certain persons got the substance of many who were still alive by asking for it as if they were dead. He gave the house of a citizen of Magnesia to a cook, who, as it is said, 285had distinguished himself by a single entertainment. Finally, when he was imposing a second contribution on the citizens, Hybreas 369 was bold enough in speaking on behalf of Asia to use these words, which were indeed such as the common folks would have in their mouths, but were not ill adapted to flatter 370 the vanity of Antonius, “If thou canst take contributions twice in one year, thou canst also make for us summer twice and harvest-time twice;” but he concluded with these practical and bold words, that Asia had given twenty ten thousands of talents; and “if thou hast not had them, demand them of those who have received the money; but if thou hast received and hast them not, we are undone.” By these words he made a strong impression on Antonius, for he was ignorant of the greater part of what was going on; and not so much because he was indolent, as because in his simplicity he trusted those about him. For there was in his character simplicity and slow perception; but when he did perceive his errors, there was strong repentance, and acknowledgment to those who had been wronged, and excess both in the restitution that he made and the punishment that he inflicted. Yet he was considered to surpass the bounds of moderation rather in conferring favours than in punishing. His rudeness in mirth and bantering carried its own remedy with it; for a man might return him as good as he gave; and he took as much pleasure in being laughed at as in laughing at others. And this did him mischief in most things; for he could not believe that those who 286spoke so freely in jest, could flatter him in earnest, and as he was easily caught by praise, not knowing that some persons by mingling freedom of expression, like a sharpish sauce, with flattery, took away from flattery its nauseating insipidity, by their boldness and babbling over their cups striving to make their yielding in matters of business and their assent appear, not the way of persons who keep about a man merely to please him, but of those who are overpowered by superior wisdom.

XXV. Such was the disposition of Antonius, upon which a crowning evil the love for Cleopatra supervening, and stirring up and maddening many of the passions that were still concealed in him and lying quiet, caused to vanish and utterly destroyed whatever of goodness and of a saving nature still made resistance in him. And he was captured in this fashion. When he was preparing for the Parthian war, he sent her orders to meet him in Cilicia to give an account of the charges made against her of supplying Cassius with much money and contributions for the war. Dellius,371 who was sent, observing her person and marking her cleverness in speaking and her versatility, soon perceived that Antonius would never even think of doing such a woman any harm, but that she would have the greatest influence with him; and he applied himself to paying his court to her, and he encouraged the Egyptian, in the words of Homer,372 to go to Cilicia bedecked in her best fashion and not to be afraid of Antonius, who was the most pleasant and kindest of generals. Being persuaded by Dellius, and collecting from the proofs of her charms upon Caius Cæsar and Cnæus the son of Pompeius, she had hopes that she should more easily win over Antonius. For they knew her when she was yet a girl and inexperienced in affairs, but she was going to visit Antonius at an age in which women have the most brilliant beauty and their understanding has attained its perfection. Accordingly she got together many presents and money and ornaments, such as one might suppose that she could bring 287from the greatness of her estate and the wealth of her kingdom, but she went to Cilicia relying chiefly on herself and the seductions and charms of her own person.

XXVI. Though Cleopatra 373 received many letters of summons both from Antonius 374 and his friends, she so despised and mocked the man, that she sailed up the Cydnus in a vessel with a gilded stern, with purple sails spread, and rowers working with silver oars to the sound of the flute in harmony with pipes and lutes. Cleopatra reclined under an awning spangled with gold, dressed as Venus is painted, and youths representing the Cupids in pictures stood on each side fanning her. In like manner the handsomest of her female slaves in the dress of Nereids and Graces, were stationed some at the rudders and others at the ropes. And odours of wondrous kind from much incense filled the banks. Some of the people accompanied her immediately from the entrance of the river on both sides, and others went down from the city to see the sight. As the crowd from the Agora also poured forth, Antonius was finally left on the tribunal sitting alone. A rumour went abroad that Venus was coming to revel with Bacchus for the good of Asia. Now Antonius sent to invite Cleopatra to supper, but she on her part said that he should rather come to her. Antonius accordingly, wishing to display some good nature and kindness, obeyed and came. He found a preparation greater than he expected, but he was most surprised at the number of the lights: for it is said that so many lights were hung down and shewn on all sides at once and arranged and put together in such inclinations and positions with respect to one another in the form of squares and circles, that of the few things that are beautiful and worthy of being seen this sight was one.

XXVII. On the following day when Antonius feasted her in turn he was ambitious to surpass her splendour and taste, but he was left behind and inferior in both, and in these very things he was the first to scoff at the coarseness and rusticity of his own entertainment. Cleopatra, observing in the jests of Antonius much of the soldier and the unpolished man, adopted the same manner towards him freely and boldly. Now her beauty, as they say, was not in itself altogether incomparable nor such as to strike those who saw her; but familiarity with her had an irresistible charm, and her form, combined with her persuasive speech and with the peculiar character which in a manner was diffused about her behaviour, produced a certain piquancy. There was a sweetness also in the sound of her voice when she spoke; and as she could easily turn her tongue, like a many-stringed instrument, to any language that she pleased, she had very seldom need of an interpreter for her communication with barbarians, but she answered most by herself, as Ethiopians,375 Troglodytes, Hebrews, Arabs, Syrians, Medes, Parthians. She is said also to have learned the language of many other peoples, though the kings her predecessors had not even taken the pains to learn the Egyptian language, and some of them had even given up the Macedonian dialect.

XXVIII. Now she so captivated Antonius, that though his wife Fulvia was carrying on war at Rome against Cæsar on behalf of the interests of Antonius, and a Parthian army was hovering about Mesopotamia, of which the king’s generals had named Labienus 376 Parthian 289governor, and they were about to enter Syria, he allowed himself to be carried off by her to Alexandria; and there staying and amusing himself like a young man who had leisure, he consumed and expended upon pleasure the most costly of all things, as Antiphon said, Time. They had a kind of company called Inimitable Livers; and they daily feasted one another, making an incredible profusion in their expenditure. Now Philotas of Amphissa,377 a physician, used to relate to my grandfather Lamprias, that he was then in Alexandria learning his profession, and having got acquainted with one of the royal cooks, he was persuaded by him, as was natural in a young man, to view the costliness and the preparation for the table. Accordingly he was introduced into the kitchen, where he saw everything in great abundance, and eight wild boars roasting, which made him wonder at the number of the guests. Hereupon the cook laughed and said, the party at supper was not large, only about twelve; but it was necessary that everything which was served up should be in perfection, which a moment of time would spoil. He said it might happen that Antonius should wish to sup immediately, and if it so happened, he might defer it by asking for a cup or by falling into some conversation; and accordingly, he continued, not one supper is prepared, but many, for the exact time is difficult to conjecture. This is what Philotas used to tell; and in the course of time, as he related, he was among those who attended on the eldest son of Antonius, whom he had by Fulvia, and he290 supped with him with the rest of his companions, as a general rule, when he did not sup with his father. On one occasion there was a physician present who was bragging greatly and much annoying the company at supper, but Philotas stopped him by a sophism of this kind: “If a man has fever in some degree, we must give him cold water; but every man who has fever has fever in some degree; we must therefore give cold water to every man who has fever.” The man was confounded and put to silence, whereat the youth being pleased, laughed and said, “All this, Philotas, I give you,” pointing to a table full of many large cups. Philotas acknowledged his intended kindness, though he was far from thinking that a boy of his age had authority to make such a present; but after awhile one of the young slaves took hold of the cups and bringing them in a vessel bade him put a seal on it. As Philotas made objections and was afraid to take the things. “Why, you fool,” said the man, “do you hesitate? Don’t you know that the giver is the son of Antonius, and that he has permission to give so many things of gold? If however you take my advice, you will exchange the whole with us for a sum of money; for perchance the youth’s father might call for some of the vessels, which are old and valued for their workmanship.” Such anecdotes as these my grandfather used to say that Philotas would occasionally tell.

XXIX. But Cleopatra, by distributing flattery not, as Plato 378 says, in four ways, but in many ways, and by always adding some new pleasure and charm to whatever was either serious or mirthful, completely ruled Antonius, never leaving him by night nor by day. For she played at dice with him, and drank with him, and hunted with him, and was a spectator when he was exercising in arms, and by night when he was standing at the doors and windows of the common people and jesting with those within, she accompanied him in his rambles and freaks, in the dress of a female slave; for Antonius also used to dress himself in this style. Accordingly he would return home always well loaded with coarse abuse and sometimes with blows. With the greater part he was in no good 291credit; however the Alexandrines took delight in his extravagances, and joined in his follies without any lack of cleverness or humour, being pleased therewith and saying that Antonius put on the tragic mask to the Romans, but the comic mask to them. Now to relate the greater part of his follies would be mere trifling. However on one occasion when he was fishing and was vexed at his bad sport, Cleopatra also being present, he ordered the fisherman to dive under the water and secretly to fasten to the hook some fishes that had been already caught; and he pulled up two or three times, but not without being detected by the Egyptian. Pretending to admire, she spoke to her friends and invited them to come as spectators on the following day. A number of them got into the fishing boats, and when Antonius had let down his line, she ordered one of her own men to anticipate him by diving to the hook and to fasten to it a Pontic salted fish.379 Antonius thinking that he had caught something pulled up, on which there was, as was natural, great laughter, whereat Cleopatra said, “Give up the fishing-rod, Imperator, to us the kings of Pharos and Canopus; your sport is cities and kings and continents.”

XXX.380 While Antonius was spending his time in such trifles and extravagances, he was surprised by intelligence from two different quarters; from Rome, that Lucius his brother and Fulvia his wife, having first been at variance with one another and then having warred with Cæsar, were completely defeated and flying from Italy; the other intelligence was in no wise more favourable, which was that Labienus at the head of the Parthians had subdued

Asia from the Euphrates and Syria as far as Lydia and Ionia. With difficulty then, like a man roused from sleep and a drunken debauch, he set out to oppose the Parthians, and advanced as far as Phœnice, but as Fulvia sent him letters full of lamentations he turned towards Italy, with two hundred ships. On this voyage he took up his friends who had fled from Italy, and learned from them that Fulvia had been the cause of the war, for she was naturally a busy and bold woman; but her hope was to draw away Antonius from Cleopatra, if their should be any disturbance in Italy. It happened that Fulvia, who was sailing to meet him, died at Sikyon of some disease, which rendered a reconciliation with Cæsar more easy. For when Antonius approached Italy, and Cæsar was evidently not intending to make any charge against him, and Antonius was ready to fix on Fulvia the blame of what he was charged with, their friends would not let them come to any explanation of these grounds, but brought them both to terms and distributed the empire, making the Ionian gulf the boundary, and giving the eastern parts to Antonius and the western to Cæsar; Lepidus was allowed to keep Libya; and it was settled that the friends of each in turns should be consuls, when it did not please themselves to be.

XXXI. This arrangement seemed to be good, but it required a stronger security, and fortune offered one. Octavia 381 was a sister of Cæsar, older than Cæsar, but not by the same mother; for she was the daughter of Ancharia, but he was born afterwards of Atia. Cæsar was very greatly attached to his sister, and it is said she was a most admirable woman. Octavia was now a widow, for her husband Caius Marcellus had not long been dead. As Fulvia was dead, Antonius also was considered to be a widower; he did not deny that he had Cleopatra, but he did not admit that he had her as a wife, and he was still struggling in his judgment on this point against his love for the Egyptian. Everybody was proposing this marriage in the hope that Octavia, who in addition to great beauty possessed dignity of character and good sense, if she were united to Antonius and were beloved by him, as it was 293reasonable to suppose that such a woman must be, would be the conservation and cause of union between them in all respects. This being arranged between them, they went up to Rome where the marriage of Octavia was celebrated, though the law did not allow a woman to marry till ten months after her husband’s decease, but the Senate in this case remitted the time by a decree.

XXXII. As Sextus 382 Pompeius was still in possession of Sicily and was ravaging Italy, and with his numerous piratical ships, of which Menas the pirate and Menekrates were commanders, had rendered the sea unsafe to vessels, and as he seemed to be in a friendly disposition towards Antonius, for he had received his mother when she had fled from Rome with Fulvia, it was resolved to come to terms with him also. They met at the promontory of Misenum and the mound, the fleet of Pompeius being anchored close by them, while the forces of Antonius and Cæsar were arranged by the side of them. Having agreed that Pompeius should have Sardinia and Sicily on condition of keeping the sea clear of pirates and sending to Rome a certain quantity of grain, they invited one another to an entertainment. They cast lots on the occasion, and it was the lot of Pompeius to feast them first. Upon Antonius asking him where they should sup, “There,” said he, pointing to the commander’s ship of six banks of oars, “for this is all the paternal residence that is left for Pompeius.” This he said to reproach Antonius, who had the house that had belonged to the father of Sextus. Fixing his ship at anchor and making a kind of bridge from the promontory, he received them with a hearty welcome. When the banquet was at its height and jokes against Cleopatra and Antonius were plentiful, Menas the pirate approaching Pompeius said to him, so that the rest could not hear, “Will 294you let me cut off the anchors of the ship and make you master not of Sicily and Sardinia, but of the Roman empire?” Pompeius, on hearing this, considered with himself for a short time, and said, “You ought to have done it, Menas, without mentioning it to me: but now let us be satisfied with things as they are; perjury is not for me.” Pompeius, after being feasted by Cæsar and Antonius in turn, sailed back to Sicily.

XXXIII. After the settlement of affairs, Antonius sent forward Ventidius 383 into Asia to prevent the Parthians from advancing further, and, in order to please Cæsar, he was appointed priest of the former Cæsar; and everything else that concerned public affairs they transacted in common and in a friendly way. But their games of amusement caused annoyance to Antonius, as he always carried off therein less than Cæsar. Now there was with Antonius a man skilled in divinations, an Egyptian, one of those who cast nativities, who, whether it was to please Cleopatra, or whether he said it in good faith, spoke freely to Antonius, saying that his fortune, though most splendid and great, was obscured by that of Cæsar, and he advised him to remove as far as possible from the young man: “For thy dæmon,” he said, “is afraid of the dæmon of Cæsar, and though it is proud and erect when it is by itself, it is humbled by his dæmon when it is near, and becomes cowed.” And indeed the things which were happening seemed to confirm the Egyptian; for it is said that when they were casting lots by way of amusement, in whatever they might happen to be engaged, and throwing dice, Antonius came off with disadvantage. They frequently 295matched cocks,384 and fighting quails, and those of Cæsar were always victorious. Whereat Antonius being annoyed, though he did not show it, and paying more regard to the Egyptian, departed from Italy, leaving the management of his affairs to Cæsar; and he took with him Octavia as far as Greece, there having been a daughter born to them. While he was spending the winter in Athens, he received intelligence of the first successes of Ventidius, who had defeated the Parthians in a battle, in which Labienus lost his life and Pharnapates, the most skilful of the generals of King Hyrodes.385 On the occasion of this victory Antonius feasted the Greeks; and he acted as gymnasiarch for the Athenians, and leaving at home the insignia of his rank, he went forth with the rods of a gymnasiarch 386 and the dress and white shoes; and he took the youths by the neck when he separated them.

XXXIV. As he was going to set out for the war, he took a crown from the sacred olive,387 and in conformity to a certain oracle, he filled a vessel with water from the Clepsydra, and carried it with him. In the mean time 296Pacorus,388 the king’s son, with a large Parthian army again advanced against Syria, but Ventidius engaged with him in Cyrrhestica and put his army to flight with great loss; Pacorus himself fell among the first. This exploit, which was one of the most celebrated, gave the Romans full satisfaction for the defeat of Crassus, and again confined the Parthians within Media and Mesopotamia, after being defeated in three successive battles. Ventidius gave up all intention of pursuing the Parthians further, because he feared the jealousy of Antonius, but he visited those who had revolted and brought them into subjection, and besieged Antiochus of Commagene 389 in the city Samosata. The king proposed to pay a thousand talents and to obey the order of Antonius, but Ventidius told him to send his proposal to Antonius; for he had now advanced near, and he would not allow Ventidius to make peace with Antiochus, because he wished that this single exploit at least should bear his name, and that everything should not be accomplished by Ventidius. As, however, the siege was protracted, and the citizens, after despairing of coming to terms, betook themselves to a vigorous defence, Antonius, who was making no progress, but was ashamed and repented of his conduct, was glad to make peace with Antiochus and to take three hundred talents; and after settling some trifling matters in Syria, he returned to Athens, and sent Ventidius to enjoy a triumph after bestowing on him the suitable decorations. Ventidius is the only Roman to the present time who has had a triumph over the Parthians; and he was a man of obscure birth, but the friendship of Antonius gave him the opportunity of doing great deeds, of which he made the best use, and so confirmed what was generally said of Antonius and Cæsar, that they were more successful as generals through 297others than of themselves. For Sossius 390 also, a legatus of Antonius, had great success in Syria; and Canidius,391 who was left by Antonius in Armenia, defeated the Armenians and the kings of the Iberians and Albanians, and advanced as far as the Caucasus. All this success increased the name and the fame of the power of Antonius among the barbarians.

XXXV. Antonius being again irritated against Cæsar by certain calumnies, sailed to Italy with three hundred vessels; but as the people of Brundusium would not receive his fleet, he sailed round and anchored at Tarentum.392 There he sent Octavia, for she accompanied him from Greece, at her request, to her brother: she was then pregnant, and had already borne him two daughters. She met Cæsar on the way, and after gaining over his friends Agrippa and Mæcenas,393 she prayed him with much urgency and much entreaty not to let her become a most wretched woman after being most happy. For now, she said, all men turned their eyes upon her, who was the wife of one Imperator and the sister of another; “but if the worse should prevail,” she continued, “and there should be war, it is uncertain which of you must be the victor and which the vanquished; but I shall be unfortunate both ways.” Cæsar, being moved by these words, came in a friendly manner to Tarentum, and those who were present saw a most noble spectacle, a large army on land tranquil, and many ships quietly holding on the shore, and the meeting and friendly salutations of the two Imperators and their friends. Antonius gave an entertainment first, which Cæsar consented to for his sister’s sake. It being agreed that Cæsar should give Antonius two legions for the Parthian war, 298and that Antonius should give Cæsar a hundred brazen-beaked vessels. Octavia, independently of what had been agreed, asked for her brother twenty light ships 394 from her husband, and for her husband a thousand soldiers from her brother. Accordingly, separating from one another, the one immediately engaged in the war against Pompeius,395 being desirous to get Sicily; and Antonius, entrusting to Cæsar Octavia and his children by her and by Fulvia, crossed over to Asia.

XXXVI. That great evil, which had long slept, the passion for Cleopatra, which appeared to be put to rest and to have been tranquillised by better considerations, blazed forth again and recovered strength as Antonius approached Syria. And finally (as Plato 396 says of the stubborn and ungovernable beast of the soul), kicking away everything that was good and wholesome, he sent Fonteius Capito to bring Cleopatra to Syria. On her arrival he gave and added to her dominions nothing small or trifling, but Phœnice, Cœle Syria, Cyprus, a large part of Cilicia, and further, that part of Judæa which produces the balsam, and all the part, of Arabia Nabathæa which was turned towards the external sea.397 These donations caused the Romans the greatest vexation; though he gave tetrarchies and kingdoms of great nations to many private persons, and took kingdoms from many, as for instance Antigonus 398 the Jew, whom he brought out and beheaded, though no king before had been punished in this way. But the 299scandal of the thing was that which gave more offence than all the honours conferred on Cleopatra. The evil report was increased by his acknowledging his twin children by Cleopatra, one of whom he called Alexander and the other Cleopatra; and he gave to one the surname of Sun, and the other of Moon. However, he had some dexterity in putting a good face on bad things, for he said that the greatness of the Roman power was shown not in what they received, but in what they gave; and that noble families were extended by a succession and progeny of many kings. Thus, for instance, he said, that his own ancestor was begotten by Hercules, who did not deposit his successors in a single womb, nor did he fear laws like Solon’s 399 and penalties for conception, but gave nature her course to leave many beginnings and foundations of families.

XXXVII. When Phraates 400 had killed his father Hyrodes and got possession of the kingdom, other Parthians fled, not few in number; and among them Monæses, a man of illustrious rank and great power, fled to Antonius, who likening the fortune of Monæses to that of Themistocles 401 and comparing his own means and magnanimity to those of the Persian kings, gave him three cities, Larissa and Arethusa and Hierapolis, which was before called Bambyce. Upon the Parthian king sending to Monæses a right hand,402 Antonius gladly despatched Monæses to him, having resolved to deceive Phraates with a pretence of peace, but claiming the restoration of the standards taken in the time of Crassus and such of the prisoners as still survived. Antonius having sent Cleopatra back to Egypt, marched through Arabia 403 and Armenia to a place where he reviewed 300his army, which had assembled there, and also the troops of the confederate kings; and they were many, but the greatest of all was Artavasdes,404 king of Armenia, who supplied six thousand horse and seven thousand foot soldiers. There were of the Romans sixty thousand foot soldiers, and the cavalry which was classed with the Romans was ten thousand Iberians 405 and Celts; and of the other nations there were thirty thousand together with cavalry and light-armed troops. Yet so great a preparation and power, which alarmed even the Indians beyond Bactria and shook all Asia, it is said, was made of no avail to him by reason of Cleopatra. For through his eagerness to spend the winter with her, he opened the campaign before the fit time and conducted everything in a disorderly way, not having the mastery over his own judgment, but through the influence of some drugs or magic always anxiously looking towards her, and thinking more of his speedy return than of conquering the enemy.

XXXVIII. Now, in the first place, though it was his business to winter there in Armenia and to give his army rest, which was worn out by a march of eight thousand stadia, and before the Parthians moved from their winter-quarters in the commencement of spring, to occupy Media, he did not wait for the time, but immediately led forward his army, leaving Armenia on the left and touching on Atropatene,406 which he ravaged. In the next place, the engines which were necessary for sieges were carried along with the army in three hundred waggons, and among them was a ram eighty feet long; and it was not possible for any one of them, if it was damaged, to be repaired when it was wanted, because the upper country only produced wood of insufficient length and hardness: accordingly in his hurry he left all the engines behind as encumbrances to his speed, after appointing a watch and Statianus as commander over the waggons; and he commenced 301the siege of Phraata,407 a large city, in which were the children and wives of the king of Media. But the difficulties soon proved what an error he had committed in leaving behind the engines; and as he wished to come to close quarters with the enemy, he commenced erecting a mound against the city, which rose slowly and with much labour. In the meantime Phraates came down with a great force, hearing of the waggons being left behind that carried the machines, and sent many horsemen against them, by whom Statianus was hemmed in and killed and ten thousand men with him. The barbarians took possession of the engines and destroyed them. They also took many prisoners, among whom was king Polemon.408

XXXIX. This misfortune greatly annoyed, as we may suppose, all the soldiers of Antonius, who at the commencement of the war had received this unexpected blow; and the Armenian Artavasdes despairing of the success of the Romans went off with his troops, though he had been the chief cause of the war. The Parthians now showed themselves to the besiegers in gallant array and insultingly threatened them, on which Antonius, not wishing to let despondency and dejection abide in his army by their being quiet and to increase, took ten legions and three prætorian cohorts of heavy-armed men and all the cavalry, and led them out to forage in the hope that the enemy would thus be drawn on, and that a regular battle would ensue. After advancing one day’s march, he saw that the Parthians were spreading themselves around him and seeking to attack him on the march, on which he hung out in the camp the sign of battle, but at the same time he ordered the tents to be taken down, as if his intention were not to fight but to lead off his troops; and he passed along the line of the barbarians, which was in the form of a crescent, having given orders, as soon as the first ranks of the enemy should be within reach of the 302heavy-armed soldiers, for the cavalry to ride at them. To the Parthians who stood opposed to the Romans, their discipline appeared to be something indescribable; and they observed the Romans as they marched past at equal intervals without disorder and in silence, brandishing their spears. But when the standard was raised and the cavalry facing about rushed upon the enemy, the Parthians received their onset and repelled it, though the Romans were all at once too close to allow them to use their arrows; but when the heavy-armed soldiers joined in the conflict at the same time with shouts and the clatter of arms, the Parthian horses were frightened and gave way and the Parthians fled before they came to close quarters. Antonius pressed on the pursuit, and had great hopes that he had finished the whole war or the chief part in that battle. But when the infantry had followed up the pursuit for fifty stadia and the cavalry for three times that distance, looking at those of the enemy who had fallen and were captured, they found only thirty captives and eighty corpses, which caused dismay and despondency in all the army, when they reflected that though victorious they had killed so few, and that when defeated they must sustain such a loss as they had near the waggons. On the following day they broke up their encampment and took the road towards Phraata and the camp. On their march they fell in at first with a few of the enemy, and then a greater number, and finally with all, who, as if they were unvanquished and fresh, challenged them and fell upon them from all sides, so that with difficulty and much labour they got safe to their camp. As the Medes made a sally against the mound and terrified those who were defending it, Antonius being enraged put in practice what is called decimation 409 against the cowards; for he divided the whole number into tens, and put to death one out of each ten who was chosen by lot; and to the rest he ordered barley to be measured out, instead of wheat.

XL. The war was attended with great hardship to both sides, and the future was still more alarming, as Antonius was expecting famine, for it was no longer possible to get forage without many of the soldiers being wounded and 303killed. Phraates knowing that the Parthians were able to bear anything rather than to endure hardship in the winter and to encamp in the open air, was afraid lest, if the Romans held out and abided there, his troops would leave him, as the atmosphere was beginning to grow heavy after the autumnal equinox. Accordingly he planned such a stratagem as this. The chiefs of the Parthians,410 both in the forages and on other occasions when they met the Romans, made less vigorous resistance, both allowing them to take some things and commending their valour in that they were most courageous men, and were justly admired by their king. After this, riding up nearer to them, and quietly placing their horses near the Romans, they would abuse Antonius, saying that though Phraates wished to come to terms and to spare so many brave men, Antonius would not give him the opportunity, but sat there awaiting those dangerous and powerful enemies, hunger and winter, from whom it would be difficult for them to escape, even under convoy of the Parthians. Many persons reported this to Antonius, and though he was softened by hope, still he did not send heralds to the Parthians until he inquired from the barbarians who assumed this friendly demeanour, whether what they said really expressed the king’s meaning. On their saying that it was so, and urging him not to fear or distrust, he sent some of his companions to demand back the standards and the captives, that it might not be supposed that he was so eager to make his escape and get away. The Parthian told him not to trouble himself about that matter, but promised him peace and security if he would depart forthwith; whereupon in a few days Antonius got his baggage together and broke up his camp. Though Antonius had great powers of persuasion before a popular assembly, and was skilled above every man of the age in leading an army by his words, he was unable through shame and depression of spirits to encourage the soldiers, and he bade Domitius Ænobarbus 411 do this. Some of the soldiers took this amiss, 304considering it as a token of contempt towards them, but the majority were affected by it, and perceived the reason, and they thought that they ought on this account the more to show their respect and obedience to the commander.

XLI. As Antonius was intending to lead the troops back by the same road, which was through a plain country without trees, a man, by nation a Mardian,412 who was well acquainted with the Parthian habits, and had already shown himself faithful to the Romans in the battle at the waggons, came up to Antonius and advised him in his flight to keep to the mountains on his right, and not to expose a force, in heavy armour and encumbered, to so numerous a cavalry and to the arrows in bare and open tracts, which was the very thing that Phraates designed when he induced him by friendly terms to raise the siege; and that he would lead them a shorter road, where he would find a better supply of necessaries. Antonius on hearing this deliberated; he did not wish to appear to distrust the Parthians after the truce, yet as he approved of the shorter road, and the line of march being along inhabited villages, he asked the Mardian for a pledge of his fidelity. The Mardian offered himself to be put in chains until he should place the army in Armenia; and he was put in chains, and he conducted them for two days without their meeting with any opposition. On the third day, when Antonius had completely ceased to think of the Parthians, and was advancing in a careless way by reason of his confidence, the Mardian observed that an embankment against the overflowing of a river had been recently305 broken, and that the stream was flowing in a great current on the road by which they had to pass, and he knew that the Parthians had done this with the intention of making the river an obstacle to the Roman march by the difficulty and delay that it would occasion; and he bade Antonius look out and be on his guard, as the enemy was near. Just while he was placing the heavy-armed men in order, and taking measures for the javelin-men and slingers to make an attack through their ranks upon the enemy, the Parthians appeared and rode round them with the design of encircling the Romans and putting them in disorder on all sides. The light-armed troops made a sally against them, and the Parthians, after inflicting some wounds with their arrows and receiving as many from the leaden bullets 413 and javelins of the Romans, retreated. The Parthians then commenced a second attack, which continued until the Celtæ in a mass drove their horses against them and dispersed them; and the Parthians showed themselves no more on that day.

XLII. From this experience Antonius, learning what he ought to do, covered not only the rear, but also both flanks with many javelin men and slingers, and led his army in the form of a quadrangle; and the cavalry received orders to repel the attack of the enemy, but when they had repulsed them, not to pursue far, in consequence of which the Parthians during the four following days sustained as much damage as they inflicted, and their ardour being dulled they thought of retiring, as an excuse for which they alleged the approach of winter. On the fifth day Flavius Gallus, a man of military talent and great activity, who held a command, came and asked Antonius for more light-armed troops for the rear,414 and for some of the cavalry from the van, in the expectation of having great success. Antonius gave him the troops, and when the enemy made his attack, he fell upon them, not as on former occasions, at the same time withdrawing towards the heavy-armed soldiers and retreating, but resisting them and engaging with the enemy in a desperate way. The commanders of 306the rear seeing that he was being separated from them, sent and called him back, but he would not listen to them. They say that Titius the quæstor, seizing the standards, turned them round and abused Gallus for throwing away the lives of many brave men. But as Gallus abused him in turn, and urged those about him to remain, Titius retreated. While Gallus was pushing forwards against the enemy in front, a large body of those in the rear got round him before he perceived it. Being now attacked on all sides he sent for aid; but the commanders of the heavy-armed troops, among whom was Canidius, a man who had the greatest influence with Antonius, are considered to have committed a great mistake. For when they ought to have moved the whole line against the enemy, they sent a few at a time to help against them; and again when these were being worsted, they sent others, and thus these came near filling the whole army with defeat and flight before they were aware of it; but Antonius himself quickly came with the heavy-armed men from the van to meet the enemy, and the third legion quickly pushing through the fugitives against the enemy stopped their further pursuit.

XLIII. There fell no fewer than three thousand; and there were carried to the tents five thousand wounded, and among them Gallus, who was pierced with five arrows in front. Gallus did not recover from his wounds; but Antonius, going about, visited the rest of the wounded, and he encouraged them with tears in his eyes and deep sympathy. The men, cheerfully grasping his right hand, begged him to go and take care of his health and not to trouble himself about them, calling him Imperator, and saying that they were all secure if he was only safe. For altogether it seems that no Imperator of that age got together an army more distinguished by courage or endurance or strength; but the respect towards the commander himself, and the obedience combined with affection, and the circumstance that all alike, those of good reputation, those of bad, commanders, private soldiers, preferred honour and favour from Antonius to their own lives and safety, left nothing even for the ancient Romans to surpass, and of this there were several reasons, as we have said before; noble birth,307 powerful eloquence, simplicity, generosity and munificence, affability in his pleasures and conversation. On that occasion, by the pains that he took and his sympathy with the wounded, and by sharing with them whatever they wanted, he made the sick and wounded more full of alacrity than those who were whole.

XLIV. However the victory so elated the enemy, who were already worn out and exhausted, and they despised the Romans so much that they even passed the night 415 close to the camp, expecting that they should soon plunder the deserted tents and the baggage of the Romans skulking away. At daybreak the enemy crowded upon them in still greater numbers, and there are said to have been not fewer than forty thousand horseman, as the king had sent even those who were always placed around himself, as to certain and secure success; for the king himself was never present in any battle. But Antonius, wishing to harangue the soldiers, asked for a dark garment that he might appear more piteous. But as his friends opposed him, he came forward in the purple dress of a general and addressed the troops, praising those who had been victorious, and upbraiding those who had fled. The former exhorted him to be of good cheer, and the others making their apology offered themselves to him either to be decimated or to be punished in any other way; only they prayed him to cease being troubled and grieved. Hereupon, raising his hands, he prayed to the gods, that if any reverse of fortune should follow on account of his former prosperity, it might come upon him, but that they would give safety and victory to the rest of the army.

XLV. On the following day they advanced under better protection; and when the Parthians made their attack, the result was very contrary to their expectations. For they expected to advance to plunder and booty, and not to battle; but as they were assailed by many missiles, and saw that the Romans were encouraged and fresh with alacrity, they were again completely wearied of the contest. However the Parthians again fell upon them as they were descending some steep hills, and galled them with arrows as they were slowly retreating, whereon the shield-bearers 416 faced about 308and placing the light-armed troops within their ranks, dropped down on one knee and held their shields before them; those behind held their shields before the front rank, and those who were behind the second rank did the same. This form, which very much resembles a roof,417 presents a theatrical appearance, and is the safest of bulwarks against the arrows, which thus glance off. But the Parthians, who thought that the Romans bending on one knee was a sign of exhaustion and fatigue, laid aside their bows, and grasping their spears by the middle, came to close quarters. But the Romans with one shout all at once sprang up, and pushing with their javelins which they held in their hands, killed the foremost and put all the rest to flight. This took place also on the following days, the Romans making only small way. Famine also attacked the army, which could get little grain and that with fighting, and they had few implements for grinding; for the greater part were left behind, owing to some of the beasts dying, and others being employed in carrying the sick and wounded. It is said that an Attic chœnix 418 of wheat was sold for fifty drachmæ; and they sold barley loaves for their weight in silver. Then they betook themselves to vegetables and roots; but they found few of the kind that they were accustomed to, and being compelled to make trial of what they had never tasted before, they ate of one herb that caused madness and then death. For he who had eaten of it recollected nothing, and understood nothing, and busied himself about nothing except one sole thing, which was to move and turn every stone, as if he were doing something of great importance. The plain was full of men stooping to the ground and digging round stones309 and moving them; and finally they vomited bile and died, for wine, which was the only remedy, failed them. As many were dying and the Parthians did not desist from their attack, they say that Antonius often cried out “O the ten thousand!”419 whereby he expressed his admiration of the ten thousand, that though they marched even a greater distance, from Babylonia, and fought with many more enemies, yet they made good their retreat.

XLVI. The Parthians, not being able to break through the Roman army nor yet to separate their ranks, and being already often defeated and put to flight, again mingled in a friendly way with those who went out for grass or corn, and pointing to the strings of their bows which were unstrung, said, that they were going back and this was the end of their attack; but that a few of the Medes would follow still one or two days’ journey without annoying them at all, and for the purpose of protecting the more distant villages. To these words were added embraces and signs of friendship, so that the Romans were again of good cheer; and Antonius hearing this resolved to keep nearer to the plains, as the road through the mountains was said to be waterless. While he was intending to do this, there came to the camp a man from the enemy, named Mithridates, a cousin of Monæses, of him who had been with Antonius and had received the three cities as a present. And he asked for some one to come near to him who could speak the Parthian or the Syrian language. Alexander of Antioch came to him, and he was an intimate friend of Antonius, whereupon Mithridates, saying who he was, and intimating that they must thank Monæses for what he was going to say, asked Alexander, if he saw in the distance a continuous range of lofty mountains. On Alexander saying that he saw them, he replied, “Under those mountains the Parthians with all their forces lie in ambush for you. For the great plains border on these mountains, and they expect that you will be deceived by them and will turn in that direction and leave the road through the mountains. The way over the mountains is attended with 310thirst and labour to which you are accustomed, but if Antonius goes by the plain, let him be assured that the fate of Crassus awaits him.”

XLVII. Having said this, he went away; and Antonius, who was troubled at these words, called together his friends and the Mardian who was their guide, and had exactly the same opinion. For even if there were no enemy, he knew that the want of roads in the plains and the mistakes in the track which they might make there were matters of hazard and difficulty; but he declared that the road over the mountains presented no other risk than the want of water for a single day. Accordingly Antonius turned aside and led his army by this route by night, having given orders to the men to take water with them. But the greater part had no vessels, and accordingly they filled their helmets with water and carried them, and others took it in skins. As soon as Antonius began to advance, the Parthians had intelligence of it, and contrary to their custom they commenced the pursuit while it was still night. Just as the sun was rising, they came up with the rear, which was in weak condition through want of sleep and fatigue: for they had accomplished two hundred and forty stadia in the night; and the enemy coming upon them so suddenly when they did not expect it, dispirited them. The contest increased their thirst, for they still advanced while they were defending themselves. Those who were in the first ranks, as they were marching onwards, came to a river,420 the water of which was cool and pellucid, but salt and of a medicinal nature; and this water, when drank of immoderately, caused pains with purging and augmentation of the thirst: and though the Mardian had warned them of this, the soldiers nevertheless forced away those who tried to hinder them and drank of the water. Antonius went round to the men and prayed them to hold out for a short time, and he said there was another river not far off, and besides this, the rest of the route was impracticable for 311horses and rough, so that the enemy must certainly turn back. At the same time he summoned those who were engaged in the fight and gave the signal for pitching the tents, that the soldiers might at least enjoy the shade a little.

XLVIII. While then the tents were being fixed and the Parthians as usual were immediately retiring, Mithridates came again, and upon Alexander going up to him, he advised him to put the army in motion after it had rested a little and to hasten to the river: for he said that the Parthians would not cross it, but would follow up the pursuit as far as the river. Alexander reported this to Antonius, and then brought out from him numerous gold cups and goblets, of which Mithridates taking as many as he could hide in his dress, rode off. As it was still daylight, they broke up their tents and advanced, without being annoyed by the enemy; but they made that night of all others the most painful and frightful to themselves. For they killed and plundered those who had silver or gold, and took the things that were carried by the beasts; and finally falling upon the baggage of Antonius, they cut in pieces and divided among them cups and costly tables, there being great disturbance and confusion through the whole army; for they thought that the enemy had fallen upon them and that flight and dispersion had ensued, Antonius called one of the freedmen, who was on his guard, named Rhamnus, and bound him by oath when he gave him the order, to push his sword through him and to cut off his head, that he might neither be taken alive by the enemy nor be recognised when dead. His friends broke out in tears, but the Mardian encouraged Antonius by telling him that the river was near; for a moist breeze blowing and a cooler air meeting them made their respiration more agreeable; and he said that the time they had been on the march confirmed his estimate of the distance, for what now remained of the night was not much. At the same time others reported that the disorder was owing to their own wrongful deeds and rapacity. Accordingly Antonius, wishing to bring the army into order from their state of disorder and confusion, commanded the signal to be given for pitching the tents.

XLIX. Day was now dawning, and as the army 312was beginning to get into certain order and tranquillity, the arrows of the Parthians fell upon the rear, and the signal for battle was given to the light-armed troops. The heavy-armed troops again covering one another in like manner as before with their shields, stood the assault of the missiles, the enemy not venturing to come near. The first ranks advancing slowly in this form, the river was seen; and Antonius drawing up his cavalry on the banks in face of the enemy, took across the weak first. Those who were fighting were now relieved from apprehension, and had the opportunity of drinking; for when the Parthians saw the river, they unstrung their bows and bade the Romans pass over in confidence, with great encomiums on their valour. Accordingly, they crossed, and recruited themselves quietly; and then they marched forwards, but yet not with full confidence in the Parthians. On the sixth day after the last battle they reached the river Araxes,421 which is the boundary between Media and Armenia. It appeared dangerous both for its depth and roughness, and a rumour went through the army that the enemy was in ambush there, and would fall on them as they were crossing. When they had safely crossed and had set foot in Armenia, as if they had just got sight of that land from the sea, they saluted it and fell to shedding of tears and embracing of one another for joy. In their progress through a fertile country, during which they used everything freely after having suffered great want, they were subject to dropsical and bowel complaints.

L. Antonius there made a review of his men, and he found that twenty thousand infantry and four thousand cavalry had perished; not all by the enemy, but above half by disease. They marched from Phraata twenty-313seven days, and they defeated the Parthians in eighteen battles; but these victories brought neither strength nor security, because their pursuits were short and ineffectual. And this mainly showed that it was Artavasdes 422 the Armenian who had deprived Antonius of the means of bringing that war to an end. For if the sixteen thousand horsemen whom he drew out of Media had been present, who were equipped like the Parthians, and were accustomed to fight against them, and if, while the Romans put to flight the fighting enemy, they had overtaken the fugitives, it would not have been in their power after a defeat to recover themselves and venture again so often. All the army accordingly in passion endeavoured to incite Antonius to punish the Armenian. But Antonius upon considerations of prudence neither reproached him for his treachery nor abated of his usual friendly behaviour and respect towards him, being weak in numbers and in want of supplies. Afterwards, however, when he again broke into Armenia, and by many promises and invitations, persuaded Artavasdes to come into his hands, he seized him and took him in chains to Alexandria, where he was led in triumph. And herein chiefly he offended the Romans, by giving to the Egyptians for the sake of Cleopatra the honourable and solemn ceremonial of his native country. This however took place later.

LI. Antonius now pressed on his march, the winter having already set in with severity, through incessant snow-storms, in which he lost eight thousand men on the route. Going down to the sea-coast with a very small body of men, he waited for Cleopatra 423 in a place between Berytus and Sidon, called “White village”; and as she was slow in coming, he became uneasy and restless, soon giving himself up to drinking and intoxication, but yet being unable to continue at table; for while his companions were drinking he would rise and often spring up to look out, till Cleopatra arrived there by sea bringing a quantify of 314clothes and supplies for the soldiers. There are some who say that Antonius received the clothes from her, but that the money was his own, though he distributed it as if it were a present to him from Cleopatra.

LII. A quarrel arose between the king of the Medes and Phraortes 424 the Parthian, which originated, as they say, about the Roman spoils, but caused the Mede to have suspicions and fear of being deprived of his dominions. For this reason he sent to invite Antonius, and proffered to join him in a war with his own forces. Antonius accordingly being put in great hope—for the only thing as he thought which had been the cause of his failing to subdue the Parthians, his having gone against them without many horsemen and bowmen, he now saw was offered to him in such way that his part was rather to do a favour by accepting than to ask for one—was preparing again to march into the upper country through Armenia, and after joining the Mede near the Araxes, then to recommence the war.

LIII. At Rome Octavia 425 was desirous of going to Antonius, and Cæsar gave her permission; as the greater part say, not with the design of pleasing her, but in order that if she were greatly insulted and neglected, he might have a specious pretext for the war. On reaching Athens she received letters from Antonius, in which he told her to stay there, and informed her of his intended expedition. Though Octavia was annoyed, and saw that this was only a pretext, she wrote to him to ask to what place he would have the things sent which she was bringing to him. And she was taking a great quantity of clothing for the army, many beasts, and money and presents for his officers and friends; and besides this, two thousand picked soldiers equipped as prætorian cohorts, with splendid armour. A certain Niger, a friend of Antonius, who was sent by Octavia, reported this to him, and he added commendation of Octavia such as she merited and was just. But Cleopatra, seeing that Octavia was entering into a contest with her, and fearing that if to the dignity of her behaviour and the power of Cæsar she added the pleasure of social 315intercourse and attention to Antonius, she would be invincible and get complete mastery over her husband, pretended to be desperately in love with Antonius, and she wasted her body by spare diet; and she put on the expression of strong passion when he approached her, and of sorrow and depression when he went away. She also contrived to be often seen in tears, which she would all at once wipe away and affect to conceal, as if she did not wish Antonius to observe it. She practised these arts while Antonius was preparing for his expedition from Syria against the Mede.426 Flatterers, too, who were busy in her behalf, abused Antonius as a hard and unfeeling man, who was causing the death of a woman who was devoted to him alone. As to Octavia, she came to meet Antonius upon business on her brother’s account, and enjoyed the name of wife of Antonius; but Cleopatra, who was the queen of so many people, was only called the beloved of Antonius, and she did not shun nor disdain this name, so long as she could see Antonius and live with him; but if she were driven away from him, she would not survive. At last they so melted and softened the man, that through fear that Cleopatra might destroy herself, he returned to Alexandria, and put off the Mede to the summer season, though the affairs of Parthia were said to be in a state of anarchy. However, he went up into the country, and brought over the king to friendly terms, and after betrothing to one of his sons by Cleopatra one of the daughters of the king, who was still a young child, he returned, being now engaged in preparing for the civil war.

LIV. When Octavia returned from Athens, as Cæsar conceived her to have been insulted, he ordered her to dwell in her own house. But she refused to leave her husband’s house, and she advised her brother, if he had not for other reasons determined to go to war with Antonius, to let her affairs alone, for it was not even decent to be said, that of the greatest Imperators, one through 316love for a woman, and the other through jealousy, brought the Romans to civil war. This she said, and she confirmed what she said by her acts; for she lived in her husband’s house, just as if he were at home, and she took care of the children, both her own and those of Fulvia, in an honourable and liberal way; she also received the friends of Antonius who were sent to Rome to get offices or on business, and assisted them in obtaining from Cæsar what they wanted. She thus unintentionally damaged Antonius, for he was hated for wronging such a woman. He was also hated for the division which he made among his children at Alexandria, which appeared to be tragical 427 and arrogant, and to show hatred of the Romans. For he filled the gymnasium with a crowd, and caused to be placed on a tribunal of silver two thrones of gold, one for himself, and the other for Cleopatra, and for the children other thrones which were lower; and first of all he declared Cleopatra Queen of Egypt and Cyprus and Libya and Cœle Syria, with Cæsarion as co-regent, who was believed to be the son of the former Cæsar, who left Cleopatra pregnant; in the next place he proclaimed his sons and Cleopatra’s to be Kings of Kings; and to Alexander he gave Armenia, and Media, and Parthia, when he should have subdued it, and to Ptolemæus he gave Phœnice and Syria and Cilicia. At the same time also he led forth Alexander, dressed in a Median vest with a tiara and cittaris 428 upright, and Ptolemæus in boots, and a chlamys, and a causia with a diadem attached to it; for this was the dress of the kings who followed Alexander, and the other was the dress of the Medes and Armenians. After the children had embraced their parents, a guard of Armenians was placed around the one, and of Macedonians around the other. Cleopatra, both on that occasion and on other occasions when she went out before the people, used to put on a 317dress sacred to Isis, different from her ordinary dress, and she was called the new Isis.

LV. By bringing these matters before the Senate, and often complaining of them before the people, Cæsar excited the multitude against Antonius. Antonius also sent and made recriminations against Cæsar. The chief charges which Antonius made against him were, in the first place, that though he had taken Sicily from Pompeius, he did not give him a part of the island; second, that Cæsar had borrowed ships from him for the war and had kept them; third, that after ejecting his colleague Lepidus from his authority and degrading him, Cæsar kept the army and territory and revenues that were assigned to Lepidus;429 and, finally, that he had distributed nearly all Italy in allotments among his own soldiers, and had left nothing for the soldiers of Antonius. To these charges Cæsar replied, that he had deprived Lepidus of his authority because he was abusing it, and as to what he had acquired in war, he would share it with Antonius, when Antonius should share Armenia with him. He further said that the soldiers of Antonius had no claim to any share of Italy, for that they had Media and Parthia, which they had added to the Roman possessions by their brave conduct in war under their Imperator.

LVI. Antonius heard of this while he was tarrying in Armenia; and he immediately gave orders to Canidius to take sixteen legions and to go down to the sea. Himself taking Cleopatra with him went to Ephesus. Here the navy collected from all quarters, eight hundred ships, including merchant vessels, of which Cleopatra furnished two hundred, and twenty thousand talents and supplies for the war for all the army. Antonius, being persuaded by Domitius and some others, told Cleopatra to sail to Egypt and there to wait the result of the war. But as Cleopatra feared that there would again be a reconciliation through Octavia, she persuaded Canidius by a large bribe 318to speak to Antonius about her, and to say, that it was neither just for a woman to be kept away from the war, who supplied so many large contributions, nor was it to the interest of Antonius to dispirit the Egyptians, who composed a large part of the naval force; and besides this, he did not see to which of the kings who joined the expedition Cleopatra was inferior in understanding, she who for a long time by herself had governed so large a kingdom, and had long enjoyed his company, and had learned to manage great affairs. These arguments prevailed, for it was fated that all the power should come into Cæsar’s hands; and after the forces had come together, they sailed to Samos and enjoyed themselves there. For as orders had been given to kings and rulers and tetrarchs and nations and all the cities between Syria and the Mæotis and Armenia and the Illyrians 430 to send and bring their supplies for the war, so all the persons who assisted at theatrical entertainments were required to meet Antonius at Samos; and while nearly all the world around was lamenting and groaning, one island for many days resounded with pipes and stringed instruments, and the theatres were filled and the chori were vying with one another. Every city also joined in the celebration by sending an ox, and kings rivalled one another in giving entertainments and presents. So that it went abroad and was said, how will persons behave in the rejoicings after a victory, who make such costly banquets to celebrate the preparations for war?

LVII. After these amusements were over, Antonius gave to the theatrical company Priene for their dwelling; and sailing to Athens he again gave himself up to pleasure and theatres. Cleopatra, who was jealous of the honours that had been paid to Octavia in the city, for Octavia was very much beloved by the Athenians, attempted to gain the popular favour by many acts of liberality. The Athenians after voting to her honorable distinctions, sent a deputation to her residence to carry the record of the vote, and Antonius was one of them, as being an Athenian citizen; and coming before her he went through an 319harangue on behalf of the city. He sent persons to Rome to eject Octavia from his house; and it is said that when she left it, she took all the children of Antonius with her except the eldest of the children by Fulvia, for he was with his father, and that she wept and lamented that she too would be considered one of the causes of the war. And the Romans pitied not her, but they pitied Antonius, and those chiefly who had seen Cleopatra, a woman who had not the advantage over Octavia either in beauty or in youth.

LVIII. Cæsar was alarmed when he heard of the rapidity and the greatness of the preparation 431 of Antonius, lest he should be compelled to come to a decisive battle during that summer. For he was deficient in many things, and the exaction of taxes vexed people; for the free men, being compelled to contribute a fourth 432 of their income, and the class of freedmen to contribute an eighth part of their property, cried out against Cæsar, and tumults arising from these causes prevailed over all Italy. Accordingly the delay in the war is reckoned among the greatest faults of Antonius; for it gave time to Cæsar to make preparation, and it put an end to the disturbances among the people; for while the money was being exacted from them they were irritated, but when it had been exacted and they had paid it they remained quiet.433 Titius and Plancus, friends of Antonius and men of consular rank, being insulted by Cleopatra, for they made the most opposition to her joining the expedition, escaped to Cæsar, and they gave him information about the will of Antonius, as they were acquainted with the contents of it. The will was placed with the Vestal Virgins,434 and when Cæsar asked for it, they would not give it to him, but they told him, if he wished to have it, to come and take it himself. And he did go and take it; and first of all he read it over by 320himself, and marked certain passages which furnished ready matter of accusation; in the next place he assembled the Senate and read the will, to the dissatisfaction of the greater part; for they considered it to be altogether unusual and a hard matter for a man to be called to account in his lifetime for what he wished to be done after his death. Cæsar dwelt most on that part of the will which related to the interment; for Antonius directed that his body, even if he should die in Rome, should be carried in procession through the Forum and sent to Alexandria to Cleopatra. Calvisius, an intimate friend of Cæsar, brought forward also these charges against Antonius in reference to Cleopatra: that he had given her the libraries 435 from Pergamum, in which there were two hundred thousand single books; and that at an entertainment in the presence of many people he stood up and rubbed her feet 436 in compliance with a certain arrangement and agreement; and that he allowed the Ephesians in his presence to salute Cleopatra as mistress; and that frequently when he was administering justice to tetrarchs and kings on his tribunal, he would receive from her love-billets written on onyx or crystal and read them. Furnius 437 also, who was a man of distinction and the most powerful orator among the Romans, said that Cleopatra was being carried in a litter through the Forum, and that Antonius when he saw her, sprung up and left the judgment-seat and accompanied her hanging on the litter.

LIX. In most of these matters Calvisius 438 was supposed to be lying. But the friends of Antonius going about in 321Rome entreated the people for his sake, and they sent Geminius, one of their body, to entreat Antonius not to be regardless about being deprived of his authority by a vote and declared an enemy of the Romans. Geminius having sailed to Greece became suspected by Cleopatra of acting on the behalf of Octavia, and, though he was continually ridiculed at supper and insulted by having unsuitable places at the feast assigned to him, he submitted to this and waited for an opportunity of an interview; and when he was told at supper to say what he had come about, he replied that all his communication was to be made when he was sober, except one thing, which he knew whether he was sober or drunk; and it was this, that all would be well if Cleopatra would go off to Egypt. Antonius was irritated at this, but Cleopatra said, “You have done well, Geminius, in having confessed the truth without tortures.” After a few days accordingly Geminius made his escape to Rome. The flatterers of Cleopatra drove away also many of the other friends of Antonius, who could not endure their excesses over wine and their coarse behaviour; and among these were Marcus Silanus and Dellius the historian. Dellius says that he was also afraid of some design from Cleopatra, of which he had been informed by Glaucus the physician. He had offended Cleopatra at supper by saying that they had to drink vinegar, while Sarmentus 439 at Rome was drinking Falernian. Now Sarmentus was a youth, one of Cæsar’s favourites, such as the Romans call Deliciæ.

LX. When Cæsar had made preparation sufficient, he got a vote passed for war against Cleopatra 440 and for depriving Antonius of the authority which he had surrendered to Cleopatra. Cæsar also said that Antonius, owing to draughts that had been administered to him, was not in his senses, and those whom the Romans had to fight against were Mardion the eunuch, and Potheinus, and Iras 322the tire-woman of Cleopatra, and Charmion, by whom all the chief matters of administration were directed. These signs, it is said, happened before the war. Pisaurum,441 a city that had been colonised by Antonius, which was situated near the Adriatic, was swallowed up by the opening of chasms in the earth. From one of the stone statues of Antonius at Alba sweat oozed for many days, and it did not cease, though there were persons who wiped it off. While he was staying at Patræ, the Herakleium was destroyed by lightning; at Athens the Dionysius, one of the figures in the Battle of the Giants,442 was blown down by the winds and carried into the theatre. Now Antonius claimed kinship with Hercules by descent and with Dionysius by imitating his manner of life, as it has been said, and he was called young Dionysius. The same tempest also fell on the colossal statues of Eumenes and Attalus, on which the name of Antonius had been inscribed, and threw them down alone out of a large number. The admiral’s ship of Cleopatra was called Antonias, and a bad omen appeared as to it: some swallows had made their nest under the stern, but other swallows attacked and drove them out and destroyed the young.

LXI. They were now coming together for the war; and the fighting ships of Antonius were not fewer than five hundred, among which were many vessels of eight and ten banks of oars fitted out in proud and pompous style; of the land forces there were one hundred thousand, and twelve thousand horsemen. There were on his side of subject kings, Bocchus the king of the Libyans, and Tarcondemus the king of Upper Cilicia, and Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and Philadelphus of Paphlagonia, and Mithridates of Commagene, and Sadalas of Thrace. These were with him. From Pontus Polemon sent a force, and Malchus from Arabia, and Herodes, the Jew; and besides these, Amyntas, the king of the Lycaonians and Galatians.443 There was also help sent from the king of the Medes. Cæsar had two hundred and fifty ships of war, and eighty 323thousand infantry, and about the same number of horsemen as the enemy. The dominion of Antonius extended over the country from the Euphrates to the Ionian sea and the Illyrians; and that of Cæsar from the Illyrians over the country that reached to the Western Ocean, and over the country from the ocean to the Tuscan and Sicilian sea. Of Libya Cæsar had the part which extended opposite to Italy and Gaul and Iberia as far as the pillars of Hercules; and Antonius had the part from Cyrene to Ethiopia.

LXII. Antonius was so mere an appendage to Cleopatra that though he had a great superiority in land forces, he wished the decision of the affair to depend on the navy, to please Cleopatra: and this, though he saw that through want of a crew, men were being seized by the trierarchs out of Greece, which had indeed suffered much, travellers, ass-drivers, reapers, youths, and that even by these means the ships were not manned, but the greater part were deficient and were ill manœuvred. Cæsar’s navy consisted of ships not built to a great height nor yet for the purpose of making a show, but adapted for easy and quick movement and well manned; and he kept his fleet together in Tarentum and Brundusium, and sent to Antonius to ask him not to waste the time, but to come with his forces, and that he would provide his armament with naval stations free from all hindrance, and harbours, and that he would retreat with his land forces a day’s journey for a horseman from the sea, until Antonius had safely landed and encamped. Antonius replied in like strain to this bragging language by challenging Cæsar to single combat, though he was older than Cæsar; and if Cæsar declined this, he proposed that they should decide the matter with their armies at Pharsalus, as Cæsar and Pompeius had done before. While Antonius was taking his station near Actium,444 where Nicopolis is now built, Cæsar contrived to 324cross the Ionian sea and to get possession of a place in Epirus, called Torune; and as the friends of Antonius were uneasy, because their land force had not yet come up, Cleopatra, jesting, said, “What is the harm if Cæsar is sitting by a torune?”445

LXIII. At daybreak the advance of the enemy’s fleet alarmed Antonius, lest they should seize the ships which were without crews, and accordingly he armed the rowers and placed them on the decks to make a show, and raising the ships’ oars and making them ready for plying, he kept his ships on each side in the channel near Actium, prow to prow, as if they were fit to be put in motion and prepared to fight. Cæsar, being frustrated by this manœuvre, retired. Antonius also by some well contrived works shut in the water and deprived his enemies of it; and the surrounding spots had only little water, and that was bad. He behaved with magnanimity to Domitius also, and contrary to the judgment of Cleopatra. Domitius, who was already suffering from fever, got into a small boat and went over to Cæsar, on which Antonius, though much annoyed, sent him all his baggage together with his friends and slaves. Domitius indeed, as if he were repenting after the discovery of his faithlessness and treachery, died immediately. There were also defections among the kings, for Amyntas and Deiotarus went over to Cæsar. Now as the navy was in all things unlucky and always too late to give any help, Antonius was again compelled to turn his thoughts to his land forces. Canidius also, who commanded the land forces, changed his opinion at the sight of the danger, and he advised Antonius to send Cleopatra away, and to retreat to Thrace or Macedonia, and then to decide the matter by a battle. For Dicomes, the king of the Getæ, promised to help him with a large force; and Canidius urged that there would be no disgrace, if they should give up the sea to Cæsar, who had been disciplined in the Sicilian war, but it would be a strange thing if Antonius, who was excellently versed in military operations, should not avail himself of his strength and his resources of so many heavy-armed soldiers, and 325should instead thereof distribute his troops among vessels and fritter them away. Notwithstanding this the advice of Cleopatra prevailed that the war should be decided by a naval battle, though she was already contemplating flight and making arrangements for her own position, not with a view to contribute to the victory, but to have the best place to retreat from if their cause should be ruined. Now there were long lines which extended from the camp to the naval station, and Antonius was accustomed to pass without suspecting any danger; and as a slave of Cæsar told him that it would be possible to seize Antonius as he went down through the lines, Cæsar sent men to lie in ambush for him. They came so near accomplishing their purpose as this, that by rising up too soon they seized the man who was advancing in front of Antonius; and Antonius escaped with difficulty by running.

LXIV. When it had been resolved to make a sea fight, Antonius burned all the Egyptian ships except sixty; but he manned the best and largest, from three to ten banks of oars, with twenty thousand heavy-armed soldiers and two thousand bowmen. Hereupon it is said that one of the centurions, who had already fought many battles for Antonius and was covered with wounds, wept as Antonius was passing by, and said; “Imperator, why do you distrust these wounds or this sword and rest your hopes in miserable logs of wood? Let Egyptians and Phœnicians fight on sea, but give us land, on which we are accustomed to stand and to die or to vanquish our enemies.” Without making any reply, but merely by a motion of his hand and the expression of his countenance encouraging the man to be of good cheer, Antonius passed by, without however having any good hopes himself, inasmuch as when the masters of the vessels were desirous to leave the sails behind, he ordered them to be put on board and taken with them, observing that not a single fugitive of the enemy should be allowed to escape.

LXV.446 Now on that day and the three following days 326the sea was agitated by a strong wind which prevented an engagement, but on the fifth, there being no wind and the sea being quite calm, they came to an engagement. Antonius and Publicola commanded the right wing, and Cœlius the left; and in the centre were Marcus Octavius and Marcus Insteius. Cæsar placed Agrippa on the left, and reserved the right wing for himself. Canidius drew up the army of Antonius, and Taurus that of Cæsar on the shore, and remained without moving. As to the two commanders-in-chief, Antonius visited all his vessels in a row-boat and exhorted his soldiers to trust to the weight of their ships and to fight as if they were on land, without changing their position, and he urged the masters of the ships to receive the shock of the enemy with their vessels as if they were quietly at anchor, and to avoid the difficult spots about the entrance of the bay: and Cæsar, it is said, while it was still dark, left his tent, and as he was going round to the ships, he met a man driving an ass, who being asked his name and knowing Cæsar, replied, “My name is Goodluck, and my ass’s name is Victor.” For this reason when Cæsar afterwards ornamented the place with the beaks of ships, he set up a bronze figure of an ass and a man. After observing the arrangement of the other part of his fleet, he went in a boat to the right wing and was surprised to see the enemy resting quietly in the straits; for the vessels had the appearance of being moored at their anchors; and as he was for a long time convinced of this, he kept his own ships at the distance of eight stadia from the enemy. It was now the sixth hour, and a wind beginning to rise from the sea, the soldiers of Antonius were impatient at the delay, and, trusting to the height and magnitude of their ships as making them unassailable, they put the left wing in motion. Cæsar, delighted to see this, ordered his right wing to row backwards with the design of drawing the enemy still further out of the gulf and the straits, and by surrounding them with his own light vessels to come to close quarters with the enemy’s ships, which, owing to their size and the insufficiency of their crews, were cumbersome and slow.

LXVI. Though the two fleets were beginning to come together, they did not drive the ships against, nor 327strive to crush one another, for the ships of Antonius, owing to their weight, were unable to move forwards with any force, which mainly gives effect to the blows of the beaks, and those of Cæsar not only avoided meeting front to front the strong and rough brass work of the enemy, but did not even venture to strike against them on the flank. For the beaks would easily have been broken off by coming in contact with the hulls 447 of the enemy’s vessels, which were protected by large square pieces of timber fastened to one another with iron. The battle therefore was like a land fight, or, to speak more exactly, like the assailing of a fortress; for three and four of Cæsar’s ships at the same time were engaged about one of the ships of Antonius, and the men fought with light shields and spears and poles and fiery missiles; the soldiers of Antonius assailed them also with catapults from wooden towers. While Agrippa was extending the left wing with a view to surround the enemy, Publicola, being compelled to advance to meet him, was separated from the centre, which fell into confusion, and was also closely engaged with Arruntius. While the sea fight was still undecided and equally favourable to both sides, all at once the sixty ships of Cleopatra were seen raising their sails for the purpose of making off, and flying through the centre of the combatants; for they were stationed behind the large vessels and they caused confusion by making their way through them. The enemy looked on with wonder, seeing them take advantage of the wind and shape their course towards the Peloponnesus. On this occasion Antonius clearly showed that he was not governed by the considerations that befit either a commander or a man, or even by his own judgment, but, as some one observed in jest, that the soul of the lover lives in another person’s body, so was he dragged along by the woman as if he had grown to her and moved together with her. For no sooner did he see her ship sailing away, than, forgetting everything, and deserting and skulking away from those who were fighting and dying in his cause, he got into a five-oared galley with only Alexas the Syrian and Skellius to attend him, and followed 328after her who had already ruined him and was destined to complete his ruin.

LXVII. Cleopatra, having recognised the vessel of Antonius, raised a signal; and Antonius accordingly, coming up to her and being taken into her ship, neither saw Cleopatra nor was seen by her, but advancing close to the prow he sat down by himself in silence holding his head with both his hands. In the meantime there were seen Liburnian ships 448 from Cæsar’s fleet in pursuit; but Antonius, by ordering his men to turn his vessel’s head towards them, kept them all in check, except the ship of Eurykles, the Lacedæmonian, who proudly pressed on, brandishing a spear on the deck, as if to hurl it at Antonius. Standing on the prow of his vessel Antonius asked who it was that was pursuing Antonius? The reply was, “I am Eurykles, the son of Lachares, and by the help of Cæsar’s fortune I am avenging my father’s death.” Now Lachares had been beheaded by Antonius in consequence of being involved in a charge of robbery. However Eurykles did not fall upon the ship of Antonius, but he dashed against the other of the admiral-ships (for there were two) with the brazen beak, and made it spin round, and as the ship fell off from its course he took it, and also another ship which contained costly vessels for table use. When this assailant had retired, Antonius, again settling down in the same posture, remained without moving, and, after spending three days at the prow by himself, either because of his passion or that he was ashamed to see Cleopatra, he put in at Tænarus.449 Here the women who were in attendance on Cleopatra first of all brought them to speak to one another, and next they persuaded them to sup and sleep together. And already not a few of the transport ships and some of their friends after the defeat began to collect around them; and they brought intelligence of the destruction of the navy, but 329they supposed that the army still kept together. Antonius sent messengers to Canidius with orders for him to retreat quickly through Macedonia with his army into Asia; and as it was his intention to cross over from Tænarus to Libya, he selected one of the store-ships which conveyed much money and many royal utensils in silver and in gold of great value, and gave them to his friends, telling them to divide the things among them and to look after their safety. As they refused and wept, he comforted them with much affection and kindness, and by his entreaties induced them to depart; and he wrote to Theophilus, his steward in Corinth, to provide for the safety of the men and to conceal them until they should be able to make their peace with Cæsar. This Theophilus was the father of Hipparchus, who had the greatest influence with Antonius, and was the first of his freedmen who went over to Cæsar, and he afterwards lived in Corinth.

LXVIII. Such was the condition of affairs with Antonius. At Actium the naval force, after resisting Cæsar a long time and being very greatly damaged by the heavy sea that set against them ahead, hardly gave up the contest at the tenth hour. The dead were said not to be more than five thousand, but there were taken three hundred ships, as Cæsar has recorded. There were not many who knew that Antonius had fled, and those who heard of it could not at first believe that he had gone and left them, when he had nineteen legions of unvanquished soldiers and twelve thousand horsemen; as if he had not often experienced fortune both ways, and were not exercised in the reverses of innumerable contests and wars. The soldiers longed and expected to see him, hoping that he would soon show himself from some quarter or other; and they displayed so much fidelity and courage that, even when his flight was well known, they kept together seven days and paid no regard to Cæsar’s messages to them. But at last, when their general Canidius had stolen away by night and left the camp, being now deserted of all and betrayed by their commanders, they went over to the conqueror. Upon this Cæsar 450 sailed to Athens, and having come to terms with the Greeks, he distributed the grain that remained over 330after the war among the cities, which were in a wretched condition and stripped of money, slaves and beasts of burden. Now my great-grandfather Nikarchus used to relate that all the citizens 451 were compelled to carry down on their shoulders a certain quantity of wheat to the sea at Antikyra, and that their speed was quickened by the whip; they had carried, he said, one supply in this manner, and had just measured out another and were about to set out, when news came that Antonius was defeated, and this saved the city; for the agents and soldiers of Antonius immediately fled, and they divided the corn among themselves.

LXIX. When Antonius had reached the coast of Libya, and had sent Cleopatra forwards to Egypt from Parætonium,452 he had his fill of solitude, wandering and rambling about with two friends, one a Greek, Aristokrates, a rhetorician, and the other a Roman, Lucilius,453 about whom I have said elsewhere that at Philippi, in order that Brutus might escape, he had surrendered to the pursuers, pretending that he was Brutus, and his life being spared by Antonius on that account, he remained faithful to him and firm to the last critical times. When the general 454 to whom he had intrusted the troops in Libya had caused their defection, Antonius made an effort to kill himself, but he was prevented by his friends and conveyed to Alexandria, where he found Cleopatra contemplating a hazardous and great undertaking. The isthmus which separates the Red Sea331 from the sea of Egypt 455 and is considered to be the boundary between Asia and Libya, in the part where it is most contracted by the sea, and the width is least, is about three hundred stadia across; and here Cleopatra undertook to raise her ships out of the water and to drag them across the neck of land, and so bringing her ships into the Arabian gulf with much money and a large force, to settle beyond the limits of Egypt and to escape from slavery and war. But as the Arabs of Petra 456 burnt the first ships which were drawn up, and Antonius thought that the army at Actium still kept together, Cleopatra desisted from her design and guarded the approaches to Egypt. Antonius now leaving the city and the company of his friends, built for himself a dwelling in the sea, near the Pharos,457 by throwing forward a mole into the water; and here he lived a fugitive from men, and he said that he was content with Timon’s life and admired it, considering himself in like plight with Timon; for he too had been wronged by his friends and had experienced their ingratitude, and that therefore he distrusted and disliked all men.

LXX. Timon 458 was an Athenian, who lived about the time of the Peloponnesian war, as we may conclude from the plays of Aristophanes and Plato; for he is brought forward in them as peevish and misanthropical. Though he avoided and rejected all intercourse with men, yet he received in a friendly manner Alkibiades, who was a young 332audacious fellow, and showed him great affection. And when Apemantus wondered at this and asked the reason, he said that he liked the young man because he knew that he would be the cause of much ill to the Athenians. Apemantus was the only person whom he sometimes allowed to approach him, because he was like himself and imitated his mode of life. On one occasion, during the festival called Choes,459 when the two were feasting together, Apemantus said, “How delightful the entertainment is, Timon;” “Yes, if you were not here,” was the reply. It is said that when the Athenians were in public assembly, Timon ascended the bema and called for silence, which raised great expectation on account of the unusual nature of the circumstance: he then said, “I have a small plot of building-ground, men of Athens, and there is a fig-tree growing on it, on which many of the citizens have already hanged themselves. Now as I intend to build on the ground, I wished to give public notice that, if any of you choose, they may hang themselves before the fig-tree is cut down.” After his death he was buried at Halæ, near the sea; but the shore in front of the place slipped down, and the sea surrounding the tomb made it inaccessible and unapproachable. The inscription on the tomb was:

Here from the load of life released I lie:

Ask not my name: but take my curse, and die.

And they say that he wrote this inscription during his lifetime; but that which is commonly circulated as the inscription is by Callimachus:

Timon misanthropist I am. Away!

Curse, an’ thou will’t, but only do not stay.

LXXI. These are a few things out of many about Timon. Canidius himself brought intelligence to Antonius of the loss of his forces at Actium, and he heard that Herodes,460 333the Jew, who had certain legions and cohorts, had gone over to Cæsar, and that the rest of the princes in like manner were revolting, and that none of his troops out of Egypt still kept together. However, none of these things disturbed him; but, as if he gladly laid aside hope as he did care, he left that dwelling on the sea, which he called Timoneium, and being taken by Cleopatra into the palace, he turned the city to feasting and drinking and distribution of money, registering the son of Cleopatra and Cæsar among the young men, and putting on Antyllus, his son by Fulvia,461 the vest without the purple hem, which marked the attainment of full age, on which occasion banquets and revellings and feasts engaged Alexandria for many days. They themselves put an end to that famed company of the Inimitable Livers, and they formed another, not at all inferior to that in refinement and luxury and expense, which they called the company of those who would die together. For the friends of Antonius registered themselves as intending to die together, and they continued enjoying themselves in a succession of banquets. Cleopatra got together all kinds of deadly poisons, and she tried the painless character of each by giving them to those who were in prison under sentence of death. When she discovered that the quick poisons brought on a speedy death with pain, and the less painful were not quick, she made trial of animals,462 which in her presence were set upon one another. And she did this daily; and among nearly all she found that the bite of the asp alone brought on without spasms and groans a sleepy numbness and drowsiness, with a gentle perspiration on the face, and dulling of the perceptive faculties, which were softly deprived of their 334power, and made resistance to all attempts to awake and arouse them, as is the case with those who are in a deep sleep.

LXXII. At the same time they sent also ambassadors to Cæsar into Asia, Cleopatra requesting the dominion of Egypt for her children, and Antonius asking to be allowed to live as a private person at Athens, if he could not be permitted to stay in Egypt. Through the want of friends and their distrust owing to the desertions, Euphronius, the instructor of the children, was sent on the embassy. For Alexas,463 of Laodiceia, who at Rome had become known to Antonius through Timagenes, and possessed most influence of all the Greeks, who also had been the most active of the instruments of Cleopatra against Antonius, and had overthrown all the reflections which rose in his mind about Octavia, had been sent to King Herodes to keep him from changing; and having stayed there and betrayed Antonius, he had the impudence to go into the presence of Cæsar, relying on Herodes. But Herodes helped him not, but being forthwith confined and carried in chains to his own country, he was put to death there by order of Cæsar. Such was the penalty for his infidelity that Alexas paid to Antonius in his lifetime.

LXXIII. Cæsar would not listen to what was said on behalf of Antonius; but as to Cleopatra, he replied that she should not fail to obtain anything that was reasonable if she would kill Antonius or drive him away. He also sent with the ambassadors of Antonius and Cleopatra one Thyrsus,464 a freedman of his, a man not devoid of judgment, nor, as coming from a young general, one who would fail in persuasive address to a haughty woman who was wonderfully proud of her beauty. This man, having longer interviews 335with Cleopatra than the rest, and being specially honoured, caused Antonius to have suspicions, and he seized and whipped him; and he then sent him back to Cæsar with a letter to the effect that Thyrsus, by giving himself airs and by his insolent behaviour, had irritated him, who was easily irritated by reason of his misfortunes. “But you,” he said, “if you do not like the thing, have my freedman Hipparchus. Hang him up and whip him, that we may be on equal terms.” Upon this Cleopatra, with the view of doing away with his cause of complaint and suspicions, paid more than usual court to Antonius: she kept her own birthday in a mean manner and a way suitable to her condition, but she celebrated the birthday of Antonius with an excess of splendour and cost, so that many of those who were invited to the feast came poor and went away rich. Agrippa 465 in the meantime called Cæsar back, frequently writing to him from Rome, and urging that affairs there required his presence.

LXXIV. Accordingly for the time the war was suspended; but when the winter was over, Cæsar advanced through Syria and his generals through Libya. Pelusium was taken, and it was said that Seleukus gave it up, not without the consent of Cleopatra. But Cleopatra surrendered to Antonius the wife and children of Seleukus to be put to death; and as she had a tomb and a monument constructed of unusual beauty and height, which she had built close to the temple of Isis, she collected there the most precious of the royal treasures, gold, silver, emeralds, pearls, ebony, ivory, and cinnamon, and also a great quantity of fire-wood and tow; so that Cæsar, being afraid about the money, lest Cleopatra becoming desperate should destroy and burn the wealth, kept continually forwarding to her hopes of friendly treatment while he was advancing with his army against the city. When Cæsar had taken his position near the hippodrome, Antonius sallied forth 336and fought gallantly, and he put Cæsar’s cavalry to flight and pursued them to the camp. Elated with his victory, he entered the palace and embraced Cleopatra in his armour, and presented to her one of the soldiers who had fought most bravely. Cleopatra gave the soldier as a reward of his courage a golden breastplate and a helmet. The man took them, and in the night deserted to Cæsar.

LXXV. Again, Antonius sent to Cæsar and challenged him to single combat. Cæsar replied that Antonius had many ways of dying, on which Antonius, reflecting that there was no better mode of death for him than in battle, determined to try a land battle and a naval battle at the same time. And at supper, it is said, he bade the slaves to pour out and feast him cheerfully, for it was uncertain whether they would do that on the morrow or would be serving other masters, while he should lie a corpse and should be a nothing. Seeing that his friends shed tears at his words, he said that he would not lead them out to a battle from which he would seek for himself a glorious death rather than safety and victory. During this night, it is said, about the middle thereof, while the city was quiet and depressed through fear and expectation of the future, all at once certain harmonious sounds from all kinds of instruments were heard, and shouts of a crowd with Evoes 466 and satyric leapings, as if some company of revellers not without noise were going out of the city; and the course of the procession seemed to be through the middle of the city to the gate leading outwards in the direction of the enemy, and at this point the tumult made its way out, being loudest there. And those who reflected on the sign were of opinion that the god to whom Antonius all along most likened himself and most claimed kinship with was deserting him.

LXXVI.467 At daybreak Antonius posted his troops on the hills in front of the city, and watched his ships, which were 337put in motion and advancing against those of the enemy; and as he expected to see something great done by them, he remained quiet. But when the men of Antonius came near, they saluted with their oars Cæsar’s men, and as they returned the salute, the men of Antonius changed sides, and the fleet becoming one by the junction of all the ships, sailed with the vessels’ heads turned against the city. As soon as Antonius saw this, he was deserted by the cavalry, who changed sides, and being defeated with his infantry he retired into the city, crying out that he was betrayed by Cleopatra to those with whom he was warring on her account. Cleopatra, fearing his anger and despair, fled to the tomb and let down the folding doors which were strengthened with bars and bolts; and she sent persons to Antonius to inform him that she was dead. Antonius, believing the intelligence, said to himself, “Why dost thou still delay, Antonius? fortune has taken away the sole remaining excuse for clinging to life.” He then entered his chamber, and loosing his body armour and taking it in pieces, he said: “Cleopatra, I am not grieved at being deprived of thee, for I shall soon come to the same place with thee; but I am grieved that I, such an Imperator, am shown to be inferior to a woman in courage.” Now Antonius had a faithful slave named Eros, whom he had long before exhorted, if the necessity should arise, to kill him; and he now claimed the performance of the promise. Eros drew his sword and held it out as if he were going to strike his master, but he turned away his face and killed himself. As Eros fell at his master’s feet Antonius said, “Well done, Eros, though you are not able to do this for me, you teach me what I ought to do;” and piercing himself through the belly he threw himself on the bed. But the wound was not immediately mortal; and accordingly, as the flow of blood ceased when he lay down, he came to himself and requested the bystanders to finish him. But they fled from the chamber while he was calling out and writhing in pain, till Diomedes the secretary came from Cleopatra with orders to convey him to her to the tomb.

LXXVII.468 When he learned that she was alive, he eagerly commanded his slaves to take him up, and he was 338carried in their arms to the doors of the chamber. Cleopatra did not open the doors, but she appeared at a window, from which she let down cords and ropes; and when the slaves below had fastened Antonius to them, she drew him up with the aid of the two women whom alone she had admitted into the tomb with her. Those who were present say that there never was a more piteous sight; for stained with blood and struggling with death he was hauled up, stretching out his hands to her, while he was suspended in the air. For the labour was not light for women, and Cleopatra with difficulty, holding with her hands and straining the muscles of her face, pulled up the rope, while those who were below encouraged her and shared in her agony. When she had thus got him in and laid him down, she rent her garments over him, and beating her breasts and scratching them with her hands, and wiping the blood off him with her face, she called him master and husband and Imperator; and she almost forgot her own misfortunes through pity for his. Antonius, stopping her lamentations, asked for wine to drink, whether it was that he was thirsty or that he expected to be released more speedily. When he had drunk it, he advised her, if it could be done with decency, to look after the preservation of her own interests, and to trust to Procleius 469 most of the companions of Cæsar; and not to lament him for his last reverses, but to think him happy for the good things that he had obtained, having become the most illustrious of men and had the greatest power, and now not ignobly a Roman by a Roman vanquished.

LXXVIII. Just as Antonius died, Procleius came from Cæsar;470 for after Antonius had wounded himself and was carried to Cleopatra, Derketæus, one of his guards, taking his dagger and concealing it, secretly made his way from the palace, and running to Cæsar, was the first to report the death of Antonius, and he showed the blood-stained dagger. When Cæsar heard the news, he retired within 339his tent and wept for a man who had been related to him by marriage, and his colleague in command, and his companion in many struggles and affairs. He then took the letters that had passed between him and Antonius, and calling his friends, read them, in order to show in what a reasonable and fair tone he had written himself, and how arrogant and insolent Antonius had always been in his answers. Upon this he sent Procleius with orders, if possible, above all things to secure Cleopatra alive; for he was afraid about the money, and he thought it a great thing for the glory of his triumph to lead her in the procession. However Cleopatra would not put herself in the hands of Procleius; but they talked together while he was standing on the outside close to the building near a door on a level with the ground, which was firmly secured, but allowed a passage for the voice. In their conversation Cleopatra entreated that her children might have the kingdom, and Procleius bade her be of good cheer and trust to Cæsar in all things.

LXXIX. After Procleius had inspected the place and reported to Cæsar, Gallus 471 was sent to have another interview with her; and having come to the door he purposely prolonged the conversation. In the meantime Procleius applied a ladder and got through the window by which the women took in Antonius; and he immediately went down with two slaves to the door at which Cleopatra stood with her attention directed to Gallus. One of the women who were shut up with Cleopatra called out, “Wretched Cleopatra, you are taken alive,” on which she turned round, and seeing Procleius, attempted to stab herself, for she happened to have by her side a dagger such as robbers wear: but Procleius, quickly running up to her and holding her with both his hands, said, “You wrong yourself, Cleopatra, and Cæsar too by attempting to deprive him of the opportunity of a noble display of magnanimity and to fix on the mildest of commanders the 340stigma of faithlessness and implacability.” At the same time he took away her dagger and shook her dress to see if she concealed any poison. There was also sent from Cæsar one of his freedmen, Epaphroditus, whose orders were to watch over her life with great care, but as to the rest to give way in all things that would make her most easy and be most agreeable to her.

LXXX. Cæsar entered the city talking with Areius the philosopher, and he had given Areius 472 his right hand, that he might forthwith be conspicuous among the citizens and be admired on account of the special respect that he received from Cæsar. Entering the gymnasium and ascending a tribunal that was made for him, the people the while being terror-struck and falling down before him, he bade them get up, and he said that he acquitted the people of all blame, first on account of the founder Alexander, second because he admired the beauty and magnitude of the city, and third, to please his friend Areius. Such honour Areius obtained from Cæsar, and he got the pardon of many others; and among them was Philostratus,473 a man of all sophists the most competent to speak on the sudden, but one who claimed to be of the Academy without just grounds. Wherefore Cæsar, who abominated his habits, would not listen to his entreaties. But Philostratus, letting his white beard grow and putting on a dark vest, followed behind Areius, continually uttering this verse:

Wise save the wise, if wise indeed they be.

Cæsar hearing of this, pardoned Philostratus, wishing rather to release Areius from odium than Philostratus from fear.

LXXXI. Of the children of Antonius, Antyllus,474 the son of Fulvia, was given up by his pædagogus Theodorus and put to death; and when the soldiers had cut off his head, 341the pædagogus took the most precious stone which he wore about his neck and sewed it in his belt; and though he denied the fact, he was convicted of it and crucified. The children of Cleopatra were guarded together with those who had charge of them, and they had a liberal treatment; but as to Cæsarion, who was said to be Cleopatra’s son by Cæsar, her mother sent him to India with much treasure by way of Ethiopia; but another pædagogus like Theodorus, named Rhodon, persuaded him to return, saying that Cæsar invited him to take the kingdom. While Cæsar was deliberating about Cæsarion, it is said that Areius observed: “Tis no good thing, a multitude of Cæsars.”475

LXXXII. Now Cæsar put Cæsarion to death after the death of Cleopatra. Though many asked for the body of Antonius to bury it, both kings and commanders, Cæsar did not take it from Cleopatra, but it was interred by her own hands sumptuously and royally, and she received for that purpose all that she wished. In consequence of so much grief and pain, for her breasts were inflamed by the blows that she had inflicted and were sore, and a fever coming on, she gladly availed herself of this pretext for abstaining from food and with the design of releasing herself from life without hindrance. There was a physician with whom she was familiar, Olympus, to whom she told the truth, and she had him for her adviser and assistant in accomplishing her death, as Olympus said in a history of these transactions which he published. Cæsar suspecting her design, plied her with threats and alarms about her children, by which Cleopatra was thrown down as by engines of war, and she gave up her body to be treated and nourished as it was wished.

LXXXIII. Cæsar himself came a few days after to see her and pacify her.476 Cleopatra happened to be lying on a 342mattress meanly dressed, and as he entered she sprang up in a single vest and fell at his feet with her head and face in the greatest disorder, her voice trembling and her eyes weakened by weeping. There were also visible many marks of the blows inflicted on her breast; and in fine her body seemed in no respect to be in better plight than her mind. Yet that charm and that saucy confidence in her beauty were not completely extinguished, but, though she was in such a condition, shone forth from within and showed themselves in the expression of her countenance. When Cæsar had bid her lie down and had seated himself near her, she began to touch upon a kind of justification, and endeavoured to turn all that had happened upon necessity and fear of Antonius; but as Cæsar on each point met her with an answer, being confuted, she all at once changed her manner to move him by pity and by prayers, as a person would do who clung most closely to life. Finally she handed to him a list of all the treasures that she had; and when Seleukus, one of her stewards, declared that she was hiding and secreting some things, she sprang up and laying hold of his hair, belaboured him with many blows on the face. As Cæsar smiled and stopped her, she said, “But is it not scandalous, Cæsar, that you have condescended to come to me and speak to me in my wretched condition, and my slaves make it a matter of charge against me if I have reserved some female ornaments, not for myself forsooth, wretch that I am, but that I may give a few things to Octavia and your wife Livia, and so through their means make you more favourable to me and more mild.” Cæsar was pleased with these words, being fully assured that she wished to live. Accordingly, after saying that he left these matters to her care and that in everything else he would behave to her better than she expected, he went away, thinking that he had deceived her; but he had deceived himself.

LXXXIV. Now there was Cornelius Dolabella,477 a343 youth of rank, and one of the companions 478 of Cæsar. He was not without a certain liking towards Cleopatra; and now, in order to gratify her request, he secretly sent and informed her that Cæsar himself was going to march with his troops through Syria, and that he had determined to send off her with her children on the third day. On hearing this, Cleopatra first entreated Cæsar to permit her to pour libations on the tomb of Antonius; and when Cæsar permitted it, she went to the tomb, and embracing the coffin in company with the women who were usually about her, said, “Dear Antonius, I buried thee recently with hands still free, but now I pour out libations as a captive and so watched that I cannot either with blows or sorrow disfigure this body of mine now made a slave and preserved to form a part in the triumph over thee. But expect not other honours or libations, for these are the last which Cleopatra brings. Living, nothing kept us asunder, but there is a risk of our changing places in death; thou a Roman, lying buried here, and I, wretched woman, in Italy, getting only as much of thy country as will make me a grave. But if indeed there is any help and power in the gods there (for the gods of this country have deserted us), do not deliver thy wife up alive, and let not thyself be triumphed over in me, but hide me here with thee and bury thee with me; for though I have ten thousand ills, not one of them is so great and grievous as this short time which I have lived apart from thee!”

LXXXV. After making this lamentation and crowning and embracing the coffin, she ordered a bath to be prepared for her. After bathing, she lay down and enjoyed a splendid banquet. And there came one from the country bringing a basket; and on the guards asking what he brought, the man opened it, and taking off the leaves showed the vessel full of figs. The soldiers admiring their beauty and size, the man smiled and told them to take some, whereon, without having any suspicion, they bade him carry them in. After feasting, Cleopatra took 344a tablet, which was already written, and sent it sealed to Cæsar, and, causing all the rest of her attendants to withdraw except those two women, she closed the door. As soon as Cæsar 479 opened the tablet and found in it the prayers and lamentations of Cleopatra, who begged him to bury her with Antonius, he saw what had taken place. At first he was for setting out himself to give help, but the next thing that he did was to send persons with all speed to inquire. But the tragedy had been speedy; for, though they ran thither and found the guards quite ignorant of everything, as soon as they opened the door they saw Cleopatra lying dead on a golden couch in royal attire. Of her two women, Eiras was dying at her feet, and Charmion, already staggering and drooping her head, was arranging the diadem on the forehead of Cleopatra. One of them saying in passion, “A good deed this, Charmion;” “Yes, most goodly,” she replied, “and befitting the descendant of so many kings.” She spake not another word, but fell there by the side of the couch.

LXXXVI. Now it is said that the asp was brought with 345those figs and leaves, and was covered with them; for that Cleopatra had so ordered, that the reptile might fasten on her body without her being aware of it. But when she had taken up some of the figs and saw it, she said, “Here then it is,” and baring her arm, she offered it to the serpent to bite. Others say that the asp was kept in a water-pitcher, and that Cleopatra drew it out with a golden distaff and irritated it till the reptile sprang upon her arm and clung to it. But the real truth nobody knows; for it was also said that she carried poison about her in a hollow comb, which she concealed in her hair; however, no spots broke out on her body, nor any other sign of poison. Nor yet was the reptile seen within the palace; but some said that they observed certain marks of its trail near the sea, in that part towards which the chamber looked and the windows were. Some also say that the arm of Cleopatra was observed to have two small indistinct punctures; and it seems that Cæsar believed this, for in the triumph a figure of Cleopatra was carried with the asp clinging to her. Such is the way in which these events are told. Though Cæsar was vexed at the death of Cleopatra, he admired her nobleness of mind, and he ordered the body to be interred with that of Antonius in splendid and royal style. The women of Cleopatra also received honourable interment by his orders. Cleopatra at the time of her death was forty years of age save one, and she had reigned as queen two-and-twenty years, and governed together with Antonius more than fourteen. Antonius, according to some, was six years, according to others, three years above fifty. Now the statues of Antonius were thrown down, but those of Cleopatra remained standing, for Archibius, one of her friends, gave Cæsar two thousand talents that they might not share the same fate as those of Antonius.

LXXXVII. Antonius by his three wives left seven children, of whom Antyllus, the eldest, was the only one[Pg 346]
[Pg 347] who was put to death by Cæsar; the rest Octavia 480 took and brought them up with her own children. Cleopatra, the daughter of Cleopatra, she married to Juba, the most accomplished of kings; and Antonius, the son of Fulvia, she raised so high that, while Agrippa held the first place in Cæsar’s estimation, and the sons of Livia the second, Antonius had and was considered to have the third. Octavia had by Marcellus two daughters, and one son, Marcellus, whom Cæsar made both his son and son-in-law, and he gave one of the daughters to Agrippa. But as Marcellus died very soon after his marriage, and it was not easy for Cæsar to choose from the rest of his friends a son-in-law whom he could trust, Octavia proposed to him that Agrippa should take Cæsar’s daughter and put away her daughter. Cæsar was first persuaded and then Agrippa, whereupon Octavia took her own daughter back and married her to Antonius; and Agrippa married Cæsar’s daughter. There were two daughters of Antonius and Octavia, of whom Domitius Ænobarbus took one to wife; and the other, who was famed for her virtues and her beauty, Antonia, was married to Drusus, the son of Livia, and step-son of Cæsar. From the marriage of Drusus and Antonia came Germanicus and Claudius, of whom Claudius afterwards ruled; and of the children of Germanicus, Caius, who ruled with distinction for no long time, was destroyed together with his child and wife; and Agrippina, who had by Ænobarbus a son, Lucius Domitius, married Claudius Cæsar; and Claudius adopting her son, named him Nero Germanicus. Nero, who ruled in my time, slew his mother, and through his violence and madness came very near subverting the supremacy of Rome, being the fifth from Antonius in the order of succession.

[324]The Antonia Gens contained both Patricians and Plebeians. The cognomen of the Patrician Antonii was Merenda. M. Antonius Creticus, a son of Antonius the orator, belonged to the Patricians. In b.c. 74 he commanded a fleet in the Mediterranean against the pirates. He attacked the Cretans on the ground of their connection with Mithridates; but he lost a large part of his fleet, and his captured men were hung on the ropes of their own vessels. He died shortly after of shame and vexation. The surname Creticus was given him by way of mockery. According to Dion Cassius (xlv. 47) he died deeply in debt. He left three sons, Marcus, Caius and Lucius. His eldest son Marcus was probably born in b.c. 83.

[325]See the Life of Cicero, c. 22.

[326]C. Scribonius Curio, the son of a father of the same name. See the Life of Cæsar, c. 58. The amount of debt is stated by Cicero (Philipp. ii. 18) at the same sum, “sestertium sexagies.”

[327]He joined Aulus Gabinius at the end of b.c. 58. Gabinius and L. Calpurnius Piso were consuls in that year.

[328]He was king and high priest of the Jews. Pompeius had taken him prisoner and sent him to Rome, whence he contrived to make his escape, b.c. 57. Gabinius again sent him prisoner to Rome (Dion Cass. xxxvi. 15; xxxix. 55).

[329]Ptolemæus Auletes was the father of Cleopatra, and now an exile at Ephesus. His visit to Rome is mentioned in the Life of the younger Cato, c. 35, and in the Life of Pompeius, c. 49. During his exile his daughter Berenice reigned, and she was put to death by her father after his restoration.

[330]This Greek word literally signifies “outbreak.” It was the narrow passage by which the Serbonian lake was connected with the Mediterranean. This lake lay on the coast and on the line of march from Syria to Pelusium, the frontier town of Egypt on the east.

[331]Typhon, a brother of Osiris and Isis, was the evil deity of the Egyptians, but his influence in the time of Herodotus must have been small, as he was then buried under the Serbonian lake (Herodotus, iii. 5).

[332]The Greek name is Erythra, which may be translated Red: the Romans called the same sea Rubrum. In Herodotus the Red Sea is called the Arabian Gulf; and the Erythræan sea is the Indian Ocean. See the Life of Pompeius, c. 38.

[333]He was the son of Archelaus, the general of Mithridates. See the Life of Sulla, c. 23. He had become the husband of Berenice and shared the regal power with her. Probably Antonius had known Archelaus in his youth, for Archelaus the father went over from Mithridates to the Romans. Dion Cassius (xxxiv. 58) says that Gabinius put Archelaus to death after the capture of Alexandria. This Egyptian campaign belongs to b.c. 55.

[334]This characteristic appears on the coins of Antonius.

[335]Decies is literally “Ten times.” The phrase is “Decies sestertium,” which is a short way of expressing “ten times a hundred thousand sesterces.” When Plutarch says “five-and-twenty thousand,” he means drachmæ, as observed in previous notes, and he considers drachmæ as equivalent to Roman Denarii. Now a Denarius is four sesterces, and 25,000 Denarii = 1,000,000 sesterces, Kaltwasser suggests that in the Greek text “sestertium” has been accidentally omitted after “decies;” but “decies” is the reading of all the MSS., and it is sufficient.

[336]Antonius, after returning from Egypt in b.c. 54, went to Cæsar in Gaul, who was then in winter-quarters after his return from the second British expedition. In b.c. 53 Antonius was again at Rome, and in b.c. 52 he was a Quæstor, and returned to Cæsar in Gaul. In b.c. 50 he was again in Rome, in which year he was made Augur, and was elected Tribunus Plebis for the following year.

Compare with this chapter the Life of Pompeius, c. 58, and the Life of Cæsar, c. 31.

[337]Quintus Cassius Longinus is called by Cicero a brother of C. Cassius; but Drumann conjectures that he may have been a cousin. After the defeat of Afranius and Petreius by Cæsar b.c. 49, he was made Proprætor of Spain.

[338]This expression of Cicero occurs in his Second Philippic, c. 22: “ut Helena Trojanis, sic iste huic reipublicæ causa belli, causa pestis atque exitii fuit.” Plutarch’s remark on Cicero’s extravagant expression is just.

As to the events mentioned in this chapter, compare the Life of Cæsar, c. 34, &c.

[339]Cæsar returned from Iberia (Spain) before the end of b.c. 49. Early in b.c. 48 he crossed over from Brundusium to the Illyrian coast, where he was joined by Antonius and Fufius Calenus.

[340]Gabinius took his troops by land, and consequently had to march northwards along the Adriatic and round the northern point of it to reach Illyricum. From Plutarch’s narrative it would appear that he set out about the same time as Antonius. Drumann (Cornificii, 3) states that the time of his leaving Italy is incorrectly stated by Plutarch, Appian, and Dion Cassius (xlii. 11), and he places it after the battle of Pharsalus (b.c. 48). Gabinius, after a hard march, reached Salonæ in Dalmatia, where he was besieged by M. Octavius and died of disease.

[341]L. Scribonius Libo commanded the ships before Brundusium with the view of preventing Antonius from crossing over to Macedonia. He was the father-in-law of Sextus Pompeius, the son of Pompeius Magnus; and Cæsar Octavianus afterwards married Libo’s sister Scribonia, as a matter of policy.

[342]See the Life of Cæsar, c. 44.

[343]P. Cornelius Dolabella, the son-in-law of Cicero, who complains of his measures (Ep. Ad Attic. xi. 12, 14, 15; xiv. 21). Dolabella was in debt himself and wished to be relieved. If he had lived in England, he could easily have got relief. The story is told by Dion Cassius (xlii. 29). The Romans occasionally proposed sweeping measures for the settlement of accounts between debtor and creditor. A modern nation has a permanent court for “the relief of insolvent debtors;” and a few years ago a statute was passed in England (7 & 8 Vict. c. 96), which had the direct effect of cancelling all debts under 20l.; the debtors for whose relief it was passed were well pleased, but the creditors grumbled loudly, and it was amended. Those who blame the Roman system of an occasional settlement of debts, should examine the operation of a permanent law which has the same object; and they will be assisted in comparing English and Roman morality on this point by J.H. Elliott’s ‘Credit the Life of Commerce,’ London, Madden and Malcolm, 1845.

[344]Fadia was the first wife of Antonius. His cousin Antonia was the second. Cicero’s chief testimony against Antonius is contained in his Second Philippic, which is full of vulgar abuse, both true and false.

[345]She was sometimes called Volumnia, because she was a favourite of Volumnius. Cicero (Ad Div. ix. 26) speaks of dining in her company at the house of Volumnius Eutrapolus.

[346]Her first husband was P. Clodius, and she was his second wife. She had two children by Clodius, a son and a daughter. The daughter married Cæsar Octavianus b.c. 43 (c. 20). After the death of Clodius she married C. Scribonius Curio, the friend of Antonius, by whom she had one son, who was put to death by Cæsar after the battle of Actium. Curio perished in Africa b.c. 49. In b.c. 46 Antonius married Fulvia, after divorcing Antonia, and he had two sons by her. Fulvia was very rich.

[347]Cæsar returned from Iberia in the autumn of b.c. 45, after gaining the battle of Munda. He was consul for the fifth time in b.c. 44 with Antonius; and also Dictator with M. Æmilius Lepidus for his Magister Equitum.

[348]See the Life of Cæsar, c. 61.

[349]Compare the Life of Cæsar, c. 67, and of Brutus, c. 16.

[350]Compare the Life of Cæsar, c. 68, and of Brutus, c. 20. Dion Cassius (xliv. 36-49) has given a long oration which Antonius made on the occasion. It is not improbable that Dion may have had before him an oration attributed to Antonius; nor is it at all improbable that the speech of Antonius was published (Cic. Ad Attic. xiv. 11). Meyer (Oratorum Romanorum Frag. p. 455) considers this speech a fiction of Dion and to be pure declamation. He thinks that which Appian has made (Civil Wars, ii. 144, &c.) tolerably well adapted to the character of Antonius. Appian, we know, often followed very closely genuine documents. Shakespere has made a speech for Antonius (Julius Cæsar) which would have suited the occasion well.

[351]Charon was the ferryman over the river in the world below, which the dead had to pass; hence the application of the term is intelligible. The Romans’ expression was Orcini, from Orcus (Sueton. August. c. 35).

[352]See the Life of Cicero, c. 43, and Dion Cassius (xlv. 5) as to the matter of the inheritance. A person who accepted a Roman inheritance (hereditas) took it with all the debts: the heir (heres), so far as concerned the deceased’s property, credits and debts, was the same person as himself. There was no risk in taking the inheritance on account of debts, for Cæsar left enormous sums of money: the risk was in taking the name and with it the wealth and odium of the deceased. Cæsar might have declined the inheritance, for he was not bound by law to take it. Cæsar had three-fourths of the Dictator’s property, and Q. Pedius, also a great-nephew of the Dictator, had the remainder.

[353]See the Life of Cicero, c. 44.

[354]Consuls in b.c. 43. See the Life of Cicero, c. 45. As to the speech of Cicero, see Dion Cassius, xlv. 18, &c.

[355]Lepidus was in Gallia Narbonensis. He advanced towards Antonius as far as Forum Vocontiorum, and posted himself on the Argenteus, now the Argens. (Appian, Civil Wars, iii. 83; Dion. Cass. xlvi. 51, &c.; Letter of Munatius Plancus to Cicero, Ad Div. x. 17; Letter of Lepidus to Cicero, Ad Div. x. 34.) Lepidus and Antonius joined their forces on the 29th of May, and Lepidus informed the Senate of the event in a letter, which is extant (Cic. Ad Div. x. 35).

[356]Cotylon is “cupman,” or any equivalent term that will express a drinker.

[357]See the Life of Cicero, c. 46.

[358]Appian (Civil Wars, iv. 2) states how they divided the empire among them; and Dion Cassius, xlvi. 55.

[359]Cæsar was already betrothed to Servilia, the daughter of P. Servilius Isauricus. When he quarrelled with Fulvia, he sent her back to her mother, still a maid. (Dion Cass. xlvi. 56.)

[360]The number that was put to death was much larger than three hundred. Appian (Civil Wars, iv. 5) states the number of those who were proscribed and whose property was confiscated at about 300 senators and 2000 equites. The object of the proscription was to get rid of troublesome enemies and to raise money. The picture which Appian gives of the massacre is as horrible as the worst events of the French Revolution. He has drawn a striking picture by giving many individual instances. Dion Cassius (xlvii. 3-8) has also described the events of the proscription.

[361]This was a crime which would shock the Romans, for the Three not only seized deposits, which the depositary was legally bound to give to the owner, but they seized them in the hands of the Vestals, where they were protected by the sanctity of religion.

[362]Compare the Life of Brutus, c. 41, &c., as to the events in this chapter.

[363]See the Life of Brutus, c. 26, &c.

[364]Antonius crossed over to Asia in b.c. 41. In the latter part of b.c. 42, Cæsar was ill at Brundusium, and in b.c. 41 he was engaged in a civil war with L. Antonius, the brother of Marcus, and Fulvia the wife of Antonius. These are the civil commotions to which Plutarch alludes. Cæsar besieged L. Antonius in Perusia in b.c. 41, and took him prisoner.

[365]He was a prætor in b.c. 43, and consul in b.c. 39.

[366]The great distinctions that he received are recorded by Strabo (xiv. p. 648, ed. Casaub.). It is not in modern times only that dancers and fiddlers have received wealth and honours.

[367]The quotation is from the King Œdipus, v. 4.

[368]Bacchus had many names, as he had various qualities. As Omestes he was the “cruel;” and as Agrionius the “wild and savage.” One of his festivals was called Agrionia.

[369]He was an orator, and also something of a soldier, for he successfully opposed Labienus, b.c. 40, when he invaded Asia (c. 28).

[370]There are many ways of flattery, as there are many ways of doing various things. Plutarch here gives a hint, which persons in high places might find useful. Open flattery can only deceive a fool, and it is seldom addressed to any but a fool, unless the flatterer himself be so great a fool as not to know a wise man from a foolish: which is sometimes the case. But there is flattery, as Plutarch intimates, which addresses itself, not in the guise of flattery, but in the guise of truth, one of the characters of which is plain speaking. It is hard for a man in an exalted station to be always proof against flattery, for it is often not easy to detect it. Nor in the intercourse of daily life is it always easy to distinguish between him who gives you his honest advice and opinion, and him who gives it merely to please you, or, what is often worse, merely to please himself.

[371]Nothing is known of him, unless he be the person mentioned in c. 59. Kaltwasser conjectures that he may be the Dellius or Delius to whom Horace has addressed an ode. (Carm. iii. 2). See c. 1, note.

[372]Plutarch alludes to the passage in Homer (Iliad, xiv. 162) where Juno bedecks herself to captivate Jupiter.

[373]She was now about twenty-eight years of age. Kaltwasser suggests that the words “and Cnæus the son of Pompeius” must be an interpolation, because nothing is known of his amours with Cleopatra. But if this be so, other words which follow in the next sentence must have been altered when the interpolation was made.

[374]Antonius was at Tarsus on the river Cydnus when Cleopatra paid him this visit, b.c. 41. Shakespere has used this passage of Plutarch in his “Antony and Cleopatra,” act ii. sc. 2—

“The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,

Burnt on the water,” &c.

[375]Plutarch has given a long list of languages which this learned queen spoke. With Arabic and all the cognate dialects, it is probable enough that she was familiar, but we can hardly believe that she took pains to learn the barbarous language of the wretched Troglodytes, who lived in holes on the west coast of the Red Sea. Diodorus (iii. 32) describes their habits after the authority of Agatharchides.

Cleopatra’s face on the coins is not handsome. On some of them she is represented on the same coin with Antonius.

[376]He was a son of T. Labienus, who served under Cæsar in Gaul and afterwards went over to Pompeius (Life of Cæsar, c. 34). The father fell in the battle of Munda, b.c. 45.

Labienus, the son, was sent by the party of Brutus and Cassius to Parthia to get assistance from king Orodes. He heard of the battle of Philippi while he was in Parthia and before he had accomplished his mission; and he stayed with the Parthians. In the campaign here alluded to Labienus and the Parthians took Apameia and Antiocheia in Syria. Labienus, after invading the south-western part of Asia Minor (b.c. 40), was forced to fly before Ventidius; and he was seized in Cilicia by a freedman of Julius Cæsar. (Dion Cass. xlviii. 40.)

[377]Amphissa was a town of the Locri Ozolæ.

Philotas studied at Alexandria, which was then a great school of medicine. We have here an anecdote about Antonius which rests on more direct testimony than many well-received stories of modern days.

The bragging physician must have been a stupid fellow to be silenced by such a syllogism. I have translated πως πυρέττων, like Kaltwasser, “Wer einigermassen das Fieber hat,” &c., which is the correct translation.

The text probably means that Philotas was appointed physician to Antyllus.

[378]The passage to which Plutarch alludes is in the Gorgias, p. 464.

[379]A great trade was carried on in those times in dried fish from the Pontic or Black Sea. See Strabo, p. 320, ed. Casaub.

[380]It was near the end of b.c. 40 that Antonius was roused from his “sleep and drunken debauch.” He sailed from Alexandria to Tyrus in Phoenicia, and thence by way of Cyprus and Rhodes to Athens, where he saw Fulvia, who had escaped thither from Brundusium. He left her sick at Sikyon, and crossed from Corcyra (Corfu) to Italy. (Appian, Civil Wars, v. 52-55.) Brundusium shut her gates against him, on which he commenced the siege of the city. The war was stopped by the reconciliation that is mentioned in the text, to which the news of the death of Fulvia greatly contributed. Antonius had left her at Sikyon without taking leave of her, and vexation and disease put an end to her turbulent life. (Appian, Civil Wars, v. 59.)

[381]See the Life of Cicero, c. 44, note.

[382]The meeting with, Sextus Pompeius was in b.c. 39, at Cape Miseno, which is the northern point of the Gulf of Naples.

Sextus was the second son of Pompeius Magnus. He was now master of a large fleet, and having the command of the sea, he cut off the supplies from Rome. The consequence was a famine and riots in the city. (Appian, Civil Wars, v. 67, &c.) Antonius slaughtered many of the rioters, and their bodies were thrown into the Tiber. This restored order; “but the famine,” says Appian, “was at its height, and the people groaned and were quiet.”

[383]P. Ventidius Bassus was what the Romans call a “novus homo,” the first of his family who distinguished himself at Rome. He had the courage of a soldier and the talents of a true general. When a child he was made prisoner with his mother in the Marsian war (Dion Cass. xliii. 51), and he appeared in the triumphal procession of Pompeius Strabo (Dion Cass. xlix. 21). The captive lived to figure as the principal person in his own triumph, b.c. 38. In his youth he supported himself by a mean occupation. Hoche, when he was a common soldier, used to embroider waistcoats. Julius Cæsar discovered the talents of Bassus, and gave him employment suited to his abilities. In b.c. 43 he was Prætor and in the same year Consul Suffectus. (Drumann, Antonii, p. 439; Gell. xv. 4.)

[384]Cockfighting pleased a Roman, as it used to do an Englishman. The Athenians used to fight quails.

[385]The name is written indifferently Hyrodes or Orodes (see the Life of Crassus, c. 18).

Plutarch, on this as on many other occasions, takes no pains to state facts with accuracy. Labienus lost his life and the Parthians were defeated; and that was enough for his purpose. The facts are stated more circumstantially by Dion Cassius (xlviii. 40, 41).

[386]The president of the gymnastic exercises. Dion Cassius (xlviii. 39) tells us something that is characteristic of Antonius. The fulsome flattery of the Athenians gave him on this occasion the title of the young Bacchus, and they betrothed the goddess Minerva to him. Antonius said he was well content with the match; and to show that he was in earnest he demanded of them a contribution of one million drachmæ as a portion with his new wife. He thus fleeced them of about 2800l. sterling. No doubt Antonius relished the joke as well as the money.

[387]The sacred olive was in the Erektheium on the Acropolis of Athens. Pausanias (i. 28) mentions a fountain on the Acropolis near the Propylæa; and this is probably what Plutarch calls Clepsydra, or a water-clock. The name Clepsydra is given to a spring in Messenia by Pausanias (iv. 31). Kaltwasser supposes the name Clepsydra to have been given because such a spring was intermittent. Such a spring the younger Pliny describes (Ep. iv. 30).

[388]The defeat of Pacorus (b.c. 38) is told by Dion Cassius (xlix. 19). The ode of Horace (Carm. iii. 6) in which he mentions Pacorus seems to have been written before this victory, and after the defeat of Decidius Saxa (b.c. 40; Dion, xlviii. 25).

[389]Commagene on the west bordered on Cilicia and Cappadocia. The capital was Samosata, on the Euphrates, afterwards the birthplace of Lucian. This Antiochus was attacked by Pompeius b.c. 65, who concluded a peace with him and extended his dominions (Appian Mithrid. 106, &c.).

[390]C. Sossius was made governor of Syria and Cilicia by Antonius. He took the island and town of Aradus on the coast of Phoenice (b.c. 38); and captured Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, in Jerusalem.

[391]P. Canidius Crassus. His campaign against the Iberi of Asia is described by Dion Cassius (xlix. 24).

[392]Antonius and Cæsar met at Tarentum (Taranto) in the spring of b.c. 37. The events of this meeting are circumstantially detailed by Appian (Civil Wars, v. 93, &c.). Dion Cassius (xlviii. 54) says that the meeting was in the winter.

[393]M. Vipsanius Agrippa, the constant friend of Cæsar, and afterwards the husband of his daughter Julia. Mæcenas, the patron of Virgil and Horace.

[394]Μυοπάρωνες are said to be light ships, such as pirates use, adapted for quick sailing.

[395]Cæsar spent this year in making preparation against Sextus Pompeius. In b.c. 36 Pompeius was defeated on the coast of Sicily. He fled into Asia, and was put to death at Miletus by M. Titius, who commanded under Antonius (Appian, Civil Wars, v. 97-121).

[396]The passage to which Plutarch alludes is in the Phædrus, p. 556.

[397]That is, the Ocean, as opposed to the Internal Sea or the Mediterranean. Kaltwasser proposes to alter the text to “internal sea,” for no sufficient reason.

[398]This was the Antigonus who fell into the hands of Sossius, when he took Jerusalem on the Sabbath, as Pompeius Magnus had done. (Life of Pompeius, 39; Dion Cassius, xlix. 22, and the notes of Reimarus.) Antigonus was tied to a stake and whipped before he was beheaded. The kingdom of Judæa was given to Herodes, the son of Antipater.

[399]Plutarch probably alludes to some laws of Solon against bastardy.

[400]A common name of the Parthian kings (see the Life of Crassus, c. 33). This Parthian war of Antonius took place in b.c. 36.

[401]See Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, c. 29. It was an eastern fashion to grant a man a country, or a town and its district, for his maintenance and to administer. Fidelity to the giver was of course expected. The gift was a kind of fief.

[402]Among the Persians, and as it here appears among the Parthians, “to send a right hand” was an offer of peace and friendship (Xenophon, Anab. ii. 4, who uses the expression “right hands”).

[403]The desert tract in the northern part of Mesopotamia is meant.

[404]There is error as to the number of cavalry of Artavasdes either here or in c. 50. See the notes of Kaltwasser and Sintenis: and as to Artavasdes, Life of Crassus, c. 19, 33, and Dion Cassius, xlix. 25.

[405]No doubt Iberians of Spain are meant.

[406]Was the most south-western part of Media, and it comprehended the chief part of the modern Azerbijan.

[407]Dion Cassius (xlix. 25) names the place Phraaspa or Praaspa, which may be the right name. The position of the place and the direction of the march of Antonius are unknown.

[408]Was a king of Pontus: he was ransomed for a large sum of money. Reimarus says in a note to Dion Cassius (xlix. 25) that Plutarch states that Polemon was killed. The learned editor must have read this chapter carelessly.

[409]See Life of Crassus, c. 10.

[410]οἱ γνωριμώτατοι, which Kaltwasser translates “those who were most acquainted with the Romans;” and his translation may be right.

[411]Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, which is the Roman mode of writing the word. He was the son of Domitius who was taken by Cæsar in Corfinium (Life of Cæsar, c. 34); and he is the Domitius who deserted Antonius just before the battle of Actium (c. 63).

[412]The Mardi inhabited a tract on the south coast of the Caspian, where there was a river Mardus or Amardus.

Plutarch has derived his narrative of the retreat from some account by an eye-witness, but though it is striking as a picture, it is quite useless as a military history. The route is not designated any further than this, that Antonius had to pass through a plain and desert country. It is certain that he advanced considerably east of the Tigris, and he experienced the same difficulties that Crassus did in the northern part of Mesopotamia. (Strabo, p. 523, ed. Casaub. as to the narrative of Adelphius, and Casaubon’s note.)

[413]These were used by the slingers (funditores) in the Roman army.

[414]ἐπ’ οὐρὰν, Sintenis: but the MS. reading is ἀπ’ οὐρᾶς, “from the rear.” See the note of Schaefer, and of Sintenis.

[415]Contrary to Parthian practice. Compare the Life of Crassus, c. 27.

[416]These are the soldiers in full armour. Sintenis refers to the Life of Crassus, c. 25. See life of Antonius, c. 49, οἱ δὲ ὁπλῖται ... τοῖς θυρεοῖς.

[417]The Romans called this mode of defence Testudo, or tortoise. It is described by Dion Cassius (xlix. 30). The testudo was also used in assaulting a city or wall. A cut of one from the Antonine column is given in Smith’s Dict. of Antiquities, art. Testudo.

[418]The forty-eighth part of a medimnus. The medimnus is estimated at 11 gal. 7·1456 pints English. The drachma (Attic) is reckoned at about 9-3/4d. (Smith’s Dict. of Antiquities.) But the scarcity is best shown by the fact that barley bread was as dear as silver. Compare Xenophon (Anab. i. 5, 6) as to the prices in the army of Cyrus, when it was marching through the desert.

[419]The allusion is to the retreat of the Greeks in the army of Cyrus from the plain of Cunaxa over the highlands of Armenia to Trapezus (Trebizond); which is the main subject of the Anabasis of Xenophon.

[420]Salt streams occur on the high lands of Asia. Mannert, quoted by Kaltwasser, supposes that the stream here spoken of is one that flows near Tabriz and then joins another river. If this were the only salt stream that Antonius could meet with on his march, the conclusion of the German geographer might be admitted.

[421]The modern Aras. The main branch of the river rises in the same mountain mass in which a branch of the Euphrates rises, about 39° 47’ N. lat., 41° 9’ E. long. It joins the Cyrus or Kur, which comes from the Caucasus, about thirty miles above the entrance of the united stream into the Caspian Sea. Mannert, quoted by Kaltwasser, conjectures that Antonius crossed the river at Julfa (38° 54’ N. lat.). It is well to call it a conjecture. Any body may make another, with as much reason. Twenty-seven days’ march (c. 50) brought the Romans from Phraata to the Araxes, but the point of departure and the point where the army crossed the Araxes are both unknown.

[422]The second expedition of Antonius into Armenia was in b.c. 34, when he advanced to the Araxes. After the triumph, Artavasdes was kept in captivity, and he was put to death by Cleopatra in Egypt after the battle of Actium, b.c. 30 (Dion Cassius xlix. 41, &c).

[423]Compare Dion Cassius, xlix. 51.

[424]The name is written both Phraates and Phrates in the MSS.

[425]She went to Athens in b.c. 35.

[426]In b.c. 34, Antonius invaded Armenia and got Artavasdes the king into his power. The Median king with whom Antonius made this marriage alliance (b.c. 33) was also named Artavasdes. Alexander, the son of Antonius by Cleopatra, was married to Jotape, a daughter of this Median king.

[427]This is Plutarch’s word. Its precise meaning is not clear, but it may be collected from the context. It was something like a piece of theatrical pomp.

[428]Or Cidaris. (See Life of Pompeius, c. 33.) The Cittaris seems to be the higher and upright part of the tiara; and sometimes to be used in the same sense as tiara. The Causia was a Macedonian hat with a broad brim. (See Smith’s Dict. of Antiquities.)

[429]After the defeat of Sextus Pompeius, Lepidus made a claim to Sicily and attempted a campaign there against Cæsar. But this feeble man was compelled to surrender. He was deprived of all power, and sent to live in Italy. He still retained his office of Pontifex Maximus (Appian, Civil Wars, v. 126; Dion Cassius, xlix. 11).

[430]This is an emendation of Amiot in place of the corrupt word Laurians.

[431]The preparation was making in b.c. 32. Antonius spent the winter of this year at Patræ in Achæa.

[432]An account of these exactions is given by Dion Cassius (l. 10). They show to what a condition a people can be reduced by tyranny.

[433]Such is the nature of the people. It is hard to rouse them; and their patience is proved by all the facts of history.

[434]It was usual with the Romans, at least with men of rank, to deposit their wills with the Vestals for safe keeping.

[435]This great library at Alexandria is said to have been destroyed during the Alexandrine war. See the Life of Cæsar, c. 49.

[436]The translators are much puzzled to explain this. Kaltwasser conjectures that Antonius in consequence of losing some wager was required to do this servile act; and accordingly he translates part of the Greek text “in consequence of a wager that had been made.”

[437]The only person of the name who is known as an active partizan at this time was C. Furnius, tribune of the plebs, b.c. 50. He was a legatus under M. Antonius in Asia in b.c. 35. Here Plutarch represents him as a partizan of Cæsar. If Plutarch’s Furnius was the tribune, he must have changed sides already. As to his eloquence, there is no further evidence of it than what we have here.

[438]C. Calvisius Sabinus, who was consul b.c. 39 with L. Marcius Censorinus.

[439]The name occurs in Horace, 1 Sat. 5; but the two may be different persons. As to the Roman Deliciæ see the note of Coraes; and Suetonius, Augustus, c. 83.

[440]Dion Cassius (1. 4) also states that war was declared only against Cleopatra, but that Antonius was deprived of all the powers that had been given to him.

[441]Now Pesaro in Umbria.

[442]See Pausanias, i. 25. 2.

[443]The text of Bryan has, “and Deiotarus, king of the Galatians:” and Schaefer follows it. But see the note of Sintenis.

[444]Actium is a promontory on the southern side of the entrance of the Ambraciot Gulf, now the gulf of Arta. It is probably the point of land now called La Punta. The width of the entrance of the gulf is about half a mile. Nicopolis, “the city of Victory,” was built by Cæsar on the northern side of the gulf, a few miles from the site of Prevesa. The battle of Actium was fought on the 2nd of September, b.c. 31. It is more minutely described by Dion Cassius (l. 31, &c.; li. 1).

[445]This word means something to stir up a pot with, a ladle or something of the kind. The joke is as dull as it could be.

[446]Sintenis observes that Plutarch has here omitted to mention the place of Arruntius, who had the centre of Cæsar’s line (c. 66). C. Sossius commanded the left of the line of Antonius. Insteius is a Roman name, as appears from inscriptions. Taurus is T. Statilius Taurus.

[447]There is some confusion in the text here, but the general meaning is probably what I have given. See the note of Sintenis.

[448]These were light vessels adapted for quick evolutions. Horace, Epod. i., alludes to them:—

“Ibis Liburnis inter alta navium,

Amice, propugnacula.”

[449]Is the most southern point of the Peloponnesus, in Laconica. The modern name of Tænarus is Matapan or “head.”

[450]Dion Cassius (li. 2) gives an account of Cæsar’s behaviour after the battle. He exacted money from the cities; but Dion does not mention any particular cities.

[451]By “all the citizens” Plutarch means the citizens of his native town Chæronea. The people had to carry their burden a considerable distance, for this Antikyra was on the Corinthian gulf, nearly south of Delphi. This anecdote, which is supported by undoubted authority, is a good example of the sufferings of the people during this contest for power between two men.

[452]This was a town on the coast in the country called Marmarica. It had a port and was fortified, and thus served as a frontier post to Egypt against attacks from the west.

[453]See the Life of Brutus, c. 50.

[454]He was L. Pinarius Carpus, who had fought under him at Philippi. Carpus gave up his troops to Cornelius Gallus, who advanced upon him from the province Africa (Dion. Cass. 1. 5, where he is called Scarpus in the text of Reimarus).

[455]Or “Sea that lies off Egypt,” that part of the Mediterranean which borders on Egypt. The width of the Isthmus is much more than 300 stadia: it is about seventy-two miles. Herodotus (ii. 158) states the width more correctly at one thousand stadia.

In this passage Plutarch calls the Red Sea both the Arabian gulf and the Erythra (Red), and in this he agrees with Herodotus. The Arabian Gulf or modern Red Sea was considered a part of the great Erythræan Sea or Indian Ocean. Herodotus (ii. 11) says that there is a gulf which runs into the land from the Erythræan sea; and this gulf he calls (ii. 11, 158) the Arabian gulf, which is now the Red Sea. See Anton, c. 3.

[456]See the Life of Pompeius, c. 41.

[457]The Pharos was an island opposite to Alexandria, and connected with it by a dike called Heptastadion, the length being seven stadia.

[458]Shakspere has made a play out of the meagre subject of Timon, and Lucian has a dialogue entitled “Timon or the Misanthropist.” (Comp. Strab. 794, ed. Cas.)

[459]This was the second day of the third Dionysiac festival, called the Anthesteria. The first day was Pithœgia (πιθοιγία) or the tapping of the jars of wine; and the second day, as the word Choes seems to import, was the cup day.

[460]This was Herodes I., son of Antipater, sometimes called the Great. He was not at the battle of Actium, but he sent aid to Antonius (c. 61).

[461]This was the toga virilis, or dress which denoted that a male was pubes, fourteen at least, and had attained full legal capacity. The prætexta, which was worn up to the time of assuming the toga virilis, had a broad purple border, by which the impubes was at once distinguished from other persons.

Cleopatra’s son, Cæsarion, was registered as an Alexandrine. The son of Antonius was treated as a Roman citizen.

[462]This seems to be the sense of the passage. The Greek for asp is aspis. Some suppose that it is the poisonous snake which the Arabs call El Haje, which measures from three to five feet in length. But this is rather too large to be put in a basket of figs.

[463]Conjectured by M. du Soul to be Alexander the Syrian, who has been mentioned before.

[464]He was a native of Alexandria, and had been carried prisoner to Rome by Gabinius. He obtained his freedom, and acquired celebrity as a rhetorician and historian. He was a favourite of Asinius Pollio and of Augustus; but he was too free-spoken for Augustus, who finally forbade him his house (Horat. 1. Ep. l, 19; and the note of Orelli). Life of Pompeius, c. 49.

Dion Cassius (li. 8), who believed every scandalous story, says that Cæsar made love to Cleopatra through the medium of Thyrsus.

[465]After the battle of Actium, Cæsar crossed over to Samos, where he spent the winter. He was recalled by the news of a mutiny among the soldiers, who had not received their promised reward. He returned to Brundusium, where he stayed twenty-seven days, and he went no further, for his appearance in Italy stopped the disturbance. He returned to Asia and marched through Syria to Egypt (Sueton. Aug. c. 17; Dion Cassius, li. 4).

[466]The shout of Bacchanals at the festivals. See the Ode of Horace (Carm. ii. 19):

Evoe, recenti mens trepidat metu.

[467]The fleet passed over to Cæsar on the 1st of August (Orosius, vi. 19). The treachery of Cleopatra is not improbable (Dion Cass. li. 10).

[468]Compare Dion Cassius, li. 10.

[469]His name was C. Proculeius. He appears to be the person to whom Horace alludes (Carm. ii. 2).

[470]Dion Cassius (li. 11) says that Cleopatra communicated to Cæsar the death of Antonius, which is not so probable as Plutarch’s narrative.

[471]C. Cornelius Gallus, a Roman Eques, who had advanced from the province Africa upon Egypt. He was afterwards governor of Egypt; but he incurred the displeasure of Augustus, and put an end to life b.c. 26. Gallus was a poet, and a friend of Virgil and Ovid. The tenth Eclogue of Virgil is addressed to Gallus.

[472]Said to have been a Stoic, and much admired by Augustus (Dion Cass. li. 16; Sueton. Aug. 89).

[473]Probably the same that is mentioned in the Life of Cato the Younger, c. 57.

[474]The circumstances of the death of Antyllus and Cæsarion are not told in the same way by Dion Cassius (li. 15). Antyllus had been betrothed to Cæsar’s daughter Julia in b.c. 36.

[475]The words are borrowed from Homer (Iliad, ii. 204):—

Οὐκ ἀγαθὸν πολυκοιρανίη.

There could be no reason for putting Cæsarion to death as a possible competitor with Cæsar at Rome, for he was not a Roman citizen. As it was Cæsar’s object to keep Egypt, Cæsarion would have been an obstacle there.

[476]There were, as usual in such matters, various versions of this interview: it was a fit subject for embellishment with the writers of spurious history. The account of Plutarch is much simpler and more natural than that of Dion Cassius (li. 12), which savours of the rhetorical.

[477]He was the son of P. Cornelius Dolabella, once the son-in-law of Cicero, and one of Cæsar’s murderers. His son P. Cornelius Dolabella was consul A.D. 10.

[478]The word “companions” represents the Roman “comites,” which has a technical meaning. Young men of rank, who were about the person of a commander, and formed a kind of staff, were his Comites. See Horat. I. Ep. 8.

[479]The story of Dion (li. 14) is that Cæsar, after he had seen the body, sent for the Psylli, serpent charmers, to suck out the poison (compare Lucan, Pharsal. ix. 925). If a person was not dead, it was supposed that the Psylli could extract the poison and save the life.

Dion Cassius also states that the true cause of Cleopatra’s death was unknown. One account was that she punctured her arm with a hair-pin (βελόνη) which was poisoned. But even as to the punctures on the arm, Plutarch does not seem to state positively that there were any. The “hollow comb” is hardly intelligible. Plutarch’s word is κνηστίς, “a scraping instrument of any kind.” One MS. has κιστίς, “a small coffer.” Strabo (p. 795, ed. Casaub.) doubts whether she perished by the bite of a serpent or by puncturing herself with a poisoned instrument. Propertius (iii. 11, 53) alludes to the image of Cleopatra, which was carried in the triumph—

Brachia spectavi sacris admorsa colubris
Et trahere occultum membra soporis iter.

An ancient marble at Rome represents Cleopatra with the asp on her arm. There was also a story of her applying it to the left breast.

Cleopatra was born in b.c. 69, and died in the latter part of b.c. 30. She was seventeen years of age when her father Ptolemæus Auletes died: and upon his death she governed jointly with her brother Ptolemæus, whose wife she was to be. Antonius first saw her when he was in Egypt with Gabinius, and he had not forgotten the impression which the young girl then made on him at the time when she visited him at Tarsus (Appian, Civil Wars, v. 8). Antonius was forty years old when he saw Cleopatra at Tarsus, b.c. 41, and he would therefore be in his fifty-second year at the time of his death (Clinton, Fasti).

[480]Octavia’s care of the children of Antonius is one of the beautiful traits of her character. She is one of those Roman women whose virtues command admiration.

Cleopatra, the daughter of Antonius and twin sister of Alexander, married Juba II., king of Numidia, by whom she had a son Ptolemæus, who succeeded his father, and a daughter Drusilla, who married Antonius Felix, the governor of Judæa. The two brothers of Cleopatra were Alexander and Ptolemæus.

Antonius, the son of Fulvia, was called Iulus Antonius. He married Marcella, one of the daughters of Octavia. In b.c. 10, Antonius was consul. He formed an adulterous intercourse with Julia, the daughter of Augustus, which cost him his life b.c. 2. Antonius was a poet, as it seems (Horat. Carm. iv. 2, and Orelli’s note).

The elder Antonia, the daughter of Octavia and Antonius, married L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, the son of Cneius, who deserted to Cæsar just before the battle of Actium. This Lucius had by Antonia a son, Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who married Agrippina, the daughter of Cæsar Germanicus. Agrippina’s son, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, was adopted by the emperor Claudius after his marriage with Agrippina, and Lucius then took the name of Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus. As the emperor Nero his infamy is imperishable.

The younger Antonia, the daughter of Octavia and Antonius, married Drusus, the second son of Tiberius Claudius Nero. Tiberius had divorced his wife Livia in order that Caesar Octavianus might become her husband. The virtues of Antonia are recorded by Plutarch and others: her beauty is testified by her handsome face on a medal.

The expression of Plutarch that Caius, by whom he means Caius Caligula, “ruled with distinction,” has caused the commentators some difficulty, and they have proposed to read ἐπιμανῶς, “like a madman” in place of ἐπιφανῶς, “with distinction.” Perhaps Plutarch’s meaning may be something like what I have given, and he may allude to the commencement of Caligula’s reign, which gave good hopes, as Suetonius shows. Some would get over the difficulty by giving to ἐπιφανῶς a different meaning from the common meaning. See Kaltwasser’s note.

A portrait of Antonius (see Notes to Brutus, c. 52) would be an idle impertinence. He is portrayed clear and distinct in this inimitable Life of Plutarch.

Here ends the Tragedy of Antonius and Cleopatra; and after it begins the Monarchy, as Plutarch would call it, or the sole rule of Augustus. See the Preface to the First Volume.

Ancient History Sourcebook

Plutarch (c.46-c.120 CE):

Life of Antony