A Biography Of Mark Antony Essay, Research Paper
Mark Antony was a Roman statesman and general who defeated the assassins of Julius Caesar and with Gaius Octavius and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate, which lead to the end of the Roman Republic. Antony was born in Rome and educated in Greece. From 58 to 56 BC he served as a leader of cavalry in Roman campaigns in Palestine and Egypt and from 54 to 50 BC he served in Gaul under Julius Caesar. With Caesar’s help he made it into the offices of quaestor, augur, and tribune of the people. During the civil war between Caesar and the Roman soldier and statesman Pompey the Great Antony was appointed Caesar’s commander in chief in Italy. He lead the left wing of Caesar’s army at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC and in 44 BC he shared as the consul with Caesar. After the assassination of Caesar in 44 BC Antony turned the Roman people against the conspirators leaving Antony with almost all of the power in Rome. A struggle for power was started when Antony, Octavius, and the Roman general Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. They then formed the Second Triumvirate and agreed to divide the Roman Empire between themselves. In 42 BC at Philippi the triumvirate beat the army led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus who wanted to restore the Roman Republic. Later that year Antony asked the Egyptian queen Cleopatra to meet him in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia and explain why she refused to aid the triumvirate in the war. Instead of punishing Cleopatra Antony fell in love with her and went with her to Egypt in 41 BC. In 40 BC he went to meetings of the triumvirate in Italy where a new division of the Roman world was agreed on. Antony got the eastern portion from the Adriatic Sea to the Euphrates River. In the same year he tried to stay close to Octavius by marrying his sister Octavia. Antony then went back to Egypt and continued his life with Cleopatra. In 36 BC Antony was defeated in a military expedition against the Parthians disapproval of his action spread in Rome and a new civil war had started. In 31 BC the forces of Antony and Cleopatra were defeated by those of Octavius in a naval battle next to Actium. They then went back to Egypt. The Egyptian fleet and most of Antony’s army deserted him. The next year Antony was fooled by a false report of Cleopatra’s suicide and he killed himself by falling on his sword.