Essay on Marc Antony Rome’s Transformation from Republic to Empire
Conversion of the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire was an event of great historical significance and a period of radical, social and political upheaval caused by the restructuring of the traditional social, economic, and political institutions. Marc Antony has played a significant role in this conversion, portraying himself as a skillful politician and a great leader in Rome’s transformation. However, insurmountable discrepancies between Antony and Octavian, in the end, resulted in a civil war known as the final war of the Roman Republic. Marc Antony’s career and defeat in the war are significant in the final transformation from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire.
Thus, this paper is aimed at exploring Rome’s transformation (conversion of the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire) and discussing Marc Antony’s career and role in that transformation.
Marc Antony was born in 86 B.C. and came from a noble Roman family. His grandfather, a Roman consul, was killed by Marius’s supporters during civil wars in Rome. His mother was Julia, a daughter of Lucius Caesar, who also was a Roman consul and was also killed by Marius.
Marc Antony is considered to be one of the most prominent military commanders and statesmen of ancient Rome. As a skillful politician and general, he was a dedicated supporter and loyal friend of Gaius Julius Caesar.
“Antony was born at a time when no Roman except the very obscure could feel sure that he would survive the next change of government: there was always the danger of finding himself upon the defeated side, and in that case the chance of his being put to death was by no means negligible” (Weigall 11).
Wanted by creditors, Marc Antony fled to Greece, where he listened to the philosophers and rhetoricians. Soon Aulus Gabinius, proconsul of Syria, appointed him Chief of Cavalry. Antony distinguished himself as a skillful leader in the campaign against Aristobulus II in Judea, as well as in Egypt, where he played a significant role in Ptolemy’s enthronement. In 54 B.C., Antony came to Caesar in Gaul, where he became a staff officer in Caesar’s armies. In 49 B.C., Antony, being a tribune, in turn, along with Cassius Longinus supported Caesar in the Senate. However, this proved to be futile and they as Caesar’s supporters were forced to flee the city. Since the war, Caesar gave Antony the troops remaining in Italy, which joined in Illyria. In the Battle of Pharsalus, Antony commanded the left flank. After those events, Marc Antony turned his thoughts to marriage and made a decision to choose Fulvia, the widow of Clodius, as a wife. After Caesar’s return from Spain, Antony unsuccessfully agitated for the proclamation of Caesar as King.
With the death of Caesar, Antony, during his funeral oration, stirred up the mob. The two main conspirators Brutus and Cassius Longinus decided to leave Rome. Taking advantage of disturbances following the death of his idol, Antony quickly took over Caesar’s archives and treasury. When Lepidus’s troops entered the city, Antony defected to their side. When Octavian took control of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul, Antony, who saw himself as the only successor to Caesar, began to openly compete with him for the future government. However, neglect of Octavian, numerous intrigues, attempts to take away Gaul from the former procurator Brutus provoked hostility to Antony among the people. Meanwhile, the Senate, inspired by Cicero, has charged the consuls, Panza and Geertz, to support Octavian.
On April 14, 43 B.C., Marc Antony’s forces collided with the legions of the Roman Republic in the village of Forum Gallorum. Republic troops fought under the command of Pansa Caetronianus and won, but he was mortally wounded and died a few days after the battle. Together with Geertz, Octavian defeated Antony’s troops, and he was forced to flee across the Apennines to Etruria. However, Antony managed to gather 23 legions, 17 of which moved to Italy under his command. Octavian did not receive the desired recognition from the Senate in the negotiations near Bononia (now Bologna) and was forced to negotiate with Antony and Lepidus. In Rome, after their return, the people had to approve a five-year triumvirate.
After Antony’s campaign in Greece, he arrived in Asia, where sent Egyptian queen Cleopatra an offer to enter into an alliance with the new triumvirs. After all, Antony fell in love with her and followed to Alexandria. “He had two children by the Queen of Egypt, who were named Alexander and Cleopatra, but whom the mother likewise distinguished by the pompous appellations of the Sun and the Moon” (Ferguson 8).
At this time, the Parthians invaded Syria, and Octavian and Mark Antony’s brother Lucius began a new civil war in Italy. Fortunately, in 40 B.C., Octavian and Marc Antony demonstratively resigned at Brundisium. The reconciliation was accompanied by the consummation of a dynastic marriage (Antony married to Octavian’s sister Octavia). Additionally, Antony gave Octavian ships for the war against Sextus Pompey, and in turn, received legions for war with the Parthians. As a result, their powers in provinces were extended. Meanwhile, Antony’s opponents accused him of embezzlement of state property.
As a result, Antony was declared an enemy of the people, and deprived of all his posts.
After this turning point, everything was not in his favor. The combined forces of Antony and Cleopatra were defeated in the battle of Actium. Soon, Antony’s remaining troops left him; he could hardly restrain himself from committing suicide. Despairing of the best turn of events, he returned to Egypt, where he, Cleopatra and her entourage organized society, who is “willing to die together”. In 31 B.C., Octavian invaded Egypt and rejected all Antony’s requests for the piece. When Octavian appeared at the gates of Alexandria, Antony repulsed the first attack. However, after the defeat of infantry and betrayal of cavalry and the Egyptian fleet, he refused to fight and locked himself in the city. Receiving false news that Cleopatra committed suicide, Antony stabbed himself with a sword. “When Antony lay dead, so too did the Roman Republic. Antony was only a final agent in the decline which had begun decades, even centuries, earlier” (Huzar 3).
The main reason for the fall of the republic is the contradiction between the political form of the republic and its social and class content. The wide Mediterranean markets, new groups of provincial slave owners, complex relationships between Italy and the provinces, citizens and “non-citizens” have insistently demanded for the new control system. It was impossible to manage the world power with the help of methods and apparatus suitable for a small community on the Tiber. The Republic’s economy also was in distress. The overbearing people concentrated in their hands huge money capitals, which led to greater stratification of society.
By the end of the 1st century B.C., old classes, whose interests were reflected by the Roman, disappeared or degraded. Italian peasantry almost completely disappeared, and the majority of nobility was killed in civil wars or came to ruin. The nobility were replaced by the new social groups, such as the new rich, the lumpen proletariat, and military colonists. These social groups did not relate to the old republic. Their existence was closely linked to the military empire and victorious generals of the late republic. The professional army, which grew out of the civil wars, became the direct support of the military leaders and the main instrument of the military coup. It seems certain that the division of society into rich and poor, large and small landowners, sharp differences between the proletarian classes could lead to republican equality.
Thus, taking the above-mentioned information into consideration, it is possible to draw a conclusion that the fall of the republic was inevitable due to the numerous reasons. Octavian gained a victory over Marc Anthony because he was supported by Italy and could use a single unit of the Roman state. In addition, he was more cunning and careful than Antony; he was an adopted son of Caesar. Octavian gained a victory over Marc Antony, finally, because his political will was united and purposeful, he did not experience the struggle between the two parties, the Roman and Eastern, the party of the Roman emigrants and the party of Cleopatra, which weakened and paralyzed Anthony’s will.
