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- Antony was able to turn public sentiment against the assassins. In particular, his vivid rhetoric and the display of Caesar’s bloodied toga intensified the people's anger, and sparked riots. In the immediate aftermath, Antony sought to consolidate his authority by negotiating with the Senate and attempting to neutralize the conspirators.
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Mark Antony has ‘read the room’ and knows the mood among the crowd: they still support the assassination of Julius Caesar and so side with Brutus and the other conspirators.
- Overview
- Early life and career
- Civil war and triumvirate
Mark Antony was a Roman general under Julius Caesar and later triumvir who ruled Rome’s eastern provinces (43–30 BCE). He was the lover of Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, and was defeated by Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) in the last of the civil wars that destroyed the Roman Republic.
What was Mark Antony’s family like?
Mark Antony was the son and grandson of men of the same name. His father was called Creticus because of his military operations in Crete. His grandfather, one of the leading orators of his day, was a consul and censor who was vividly portrayed as a speaker in Cicero’s De oratore (55).
How did Mark Antony come to power?
Mark Antony served with distinction as a cavalry commander in Judaea and Egypt. He then joined the staff of Julius Caesar. When the Civil War broke out between Pompey and Caesar, Antony was tribune of the plebs and supported Caesar. After Caesar’s assassination, he became a triumvir and gained control of Rome’s eastern provinces.
What was Mark Antony’s relationship to Cleopatra?
Mark Antony was the son and grandson of men of the same name. His father was called Creticus because of his military operations in Crete; his grandfather, one of the leading orators of his day, was a consul and censor who was vividly portrayed as a speaker in Cicero’s De oratore (55). After a somewhat dissipated youth, the future triumvir served wi...
In 49, the year the Civil War broke out between Pompey and Caesar, Antony was tribune of the plebs and vigorously supported Caesar. He fled from Rome to Caesar’s headquarters after receiving threats of violence. Antony fought in the brief Italian campaign that forced Pompey to evacuate the Italian peninsula. After this Caesar left him in charge of Italy during the Spanish campaign. He then joined Caesar in Greece, commanded his left wing in the Battle of Pharsalus, and was sent back as master of the horse (a dictator’s second-in-command) in 48 to keep order in Italy. He failed to do this and was probably removed from his post in 47; he was without employment until 44, when he became consul as colleague and later priest (flamen) of Caesar. As consul and lupercus, one of the celebrants of the festival of the Lupercalia (a fertility festival early in the year), he offered Caesar a diadem—a ribbon signifying royalty—which Caesar, pressured by the citizens’ open distaste for monarchy, refused to accept.
After Caesar’s murder, Antony gained possession of the treasury and of Caesar’s papers, which he used (and perhaps supplemented) to his own advantage. For a time he pursued a moderate policy, but when challenged by the 19-year-old Octavian (later the emperor Augustus), Caesar’s adopted son and heir, he turned against Caesar’s assassins. In June 44 the Senate granted him north and central Gaul and northern Italy as his province for five years. Cicero, however, fiercely attacked him in the Philippic orations between September 44 and April 43, and Octavian joined forces with the consuls in 43. Their combined forces twice defeated Antony, who was besieging Brutus Albinus at Mutina (present-day Modena). Antony managed to withdraw into southern Gaul. The opposing armies broke up after the deaths of both consuls, and Antony was joined by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Lucius Munatius Plancus with their armies. In early November, Octavian—at this point leading the consular armies—met Antony and Lepidus in Bononia (present-day Bologna). The three entered into a five-year pact, soon ratified by a law, conferring on them a joint autocracy, the triumvirate. More than 200 men were proscribed and (when captured) killed (Cicero was one of them), either because they were enemies of the triumvirs or in order to confiscate their wealth. In 42 Gaius Cassius and Marcus Brutus, defeated in two battles at Philippi (Macedonia) in which Antony distinguished himself as commander, killed themselves and, with these acts, the republican cause.
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The Roman Empire
The triumvirs had agreed to divide the empire, so Antony proceeded to take up the administration of the eastern provinces. He first summoned Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, to Tarsus (southeastern Asia Minor) to answer reports that she had assisted their enemies. She successfully exonerated herself, and Antony spent the winter of 41–40 as her lover at Alexandria, Egypt. In spite of the romantic accounts of ancient authors, however, he made no move to see her again for more than three years, although he greatly increased her territorial possessions during that interval.
Early in 40 Antony’s brother, the consul Lucius Antonius, supported by Antony’s wife, Fulvia, rebelled against Octavian in Italy. Octavian defeated the rebellion, capturing and destroying Perusia (present-day Perugia). Antony had to return to Italy, leaving his general Ventidius to deal with a Parthian invasion of Asia Minor and Syria. After initial skirmishes, Antony and Octavian were reconciled at Brundisium (present-day Brindisi) and, since Fulvia had died in the meantime, Antony married Octavian’s sister, Octavia. The two men divided the empire between them, Octavian taking everything west of Scodra (present-day Shkodër, Alb.) and Antony everything east. Lepidus, who had earlier been confined to Africa, was allowed to keep it. In 39 Antony and Octavian concluded a treaty with Sextus Pompeius (see Pompeius Magnus Pius, Sextus), who controlled the seas and had been blockading Italy.
Mark Antony’s noble lineage influenced his rise in Rome’s political and military arenas. His involvement with Julius Caesar and the Second Triumvirate were pivotal in Rome’s history. Antony’s alliance with Cleopatra and subsequent conflict with Octavian marked the end of his political career.
Antony delivered the funeral oration for Caesar and what he said inflamed the crowd. In a masterstroke of public speaking, Antony was able to turn public sentiment against the assassins.
- Joshua J. Mark
- Youth and Rise to Power. Antony was born 14 January, 83 BCE to Marcus Antonius Creticus and Julia of the Caesars (l. 104-c.39 BCE), Julius Caesar's cousin.
- Antony as Tribune. In the senate, Antony was a fierce supporter of Caesar's policies. Antony's long-time friend, Curio, had moved away from the aristocratic party and aligned himself with Caesar's populist party, using his eloquence in oratory to convince others to do the same.
- Antony and Octavian. In 44 BCE, after Caesar's assassination, Antony took the opportunity as speaker at the dictator's funeral to turn the tide of popular opinion against the conspirators and drive them from Rome.
- Antony and Cleopatra. After defeating the armies of Brutus (l.23-42 BCE) and Cassius (l.c.85-42 BCE) at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BCE, Octavian returned to Rome and Antony went east where, at Tarsus in 41 BCE, he summoned the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII to appear before him.
Nov 3, 2020 · In the speech, Antony says "I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him," and uses emotionally charged rhetoric to turn the crowd of onlookers against the men who conspired to murder his friend. It's likely that Shakespeare modeled this speech in his play from the writings of Appian of Alexandria, a Greek historian .
Antony then seized the blood-stained toga from Caesar's body and presented it to the crowd. Worked into a fury by the bloody spectacle, the assembly turned into a riot . Several buildings in the Forum and some houses of the conspirators were burned to the ground.
