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Mark Antony (83? - 30 BC), Roman statesman and general, who defeated the assassins of Julius Caesar and, with Gaius Octavius and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, formed the Second Triumvirate, which ultimately secured the end of the Roman Republic. Antony was born in Rome and educated for a short time 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. Subsequently, with Caesars aid, he attained the offices of questo, augur, and tribune of the people.
At the outbreak of the civil war between Caesar and the Roman soldier and statesman Pompey the Great, Antony was appointed Caesars commander in chief in Italy. He commanded the left wing of Caesars army at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, and in 44 BC he shared the consulship with Caesar. After the assassination of Caesar in 44 BC, Antony's skillful speech, redone by Shakespeare in the play Julius Caesar, turned the Roman people against the conspirators, leaving Antony for a time with almost absolute power in Rome. A rival soon appeared, however, in the person of Gaius Octavius, later the Roman emperor Augustus, who was grandnephew of Caesar and Caesars designated heir.
A struggle for power broke out when Antony, Octavius, and a third contender for the throne, the Roman general Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, formed the Second Triumvirate and agreed to divide the Roman Empire among them. In 42 BC, at Philippi, the triumvirate crushed the forces led by two assassins of Caesar, the Roman statesmen Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, who sought to restore the Roman Republic. Later in the same year, Antony summoned the Egyptian queen Cleopatra to attend him in the city of Tarsus, in Cilicia (now in Turkey), and explain her refusal to aid the triumvirate in the civil war. Instead of punishing Cleopatra, however, Antony fell in love with her and returned with her to Egypt in 41 BC. In 40 BC he attended meetings of the triumvirate in Italy. At which a new division of the Roman world was arranged, with Antony receiving the eastern portion, from the Adriatic Sea to the Euphrates River.
In the same year he attempted to cement his relations with Octavius by marrying the latter's sister Octavia. Nevertheless, Antony soon returned to Egypt and resumed his life with Cleopatra. Octavius made use of this fact to excite the indignation of the Roman people against Antony. When, in 36 BC, Antony was defeated in a military expedition against the Parthians, popular disapproval of his conduct deepened in Rome, and a new civil war became inevitable. In 31 BC the forces of Antony and Cleopatra were decisively defeated by those of Octavius in a naval engagement near Actium. The couple returned to Egypt, deserted by the Egyptian fleet and by most of Antony's own army.
In the following year, besieged by the troops of Octavius in Alexandria and deceived by a false report of Cleopatra's suicide, Antony killed himself by falling on his sword. Cleopatra (circa 69 - 30 BC) Queen of Egypt (51 - 30 BC), known for her love affairs with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Cleopatra, or more precisely, Cleopatra VII, was the daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes, king of Egypt. On her fathers death in 51 BC Cleopatra, then about 17 years old, and her brother, Ptolemy XIII, a child of about 12 years, succeeded jointly to the throne of Egypt with the provision that they should marry.
In the third year of their reign Ptolemy, encouraged by his advisers, assumed sole control of the government and drove Cleopatra into exile. She promptly gathered an army in Syria but was unable to assert her claim until the arrival at Alexandria of Julius Caesar, who became her lover and espoused her cause. He was for a time hard pressed by the Egyptians but ultimately triumphed, and in 47 BC Ptolemy XIII was killed. Caesar proclaimed Cleopatra queen of Egypt. Cleopatra was then forced by custom to marry her younger brother, Ptolemy XIV, then about 11 years old. After settling their joint government on a secure basis, Cleopatra went to Rome, where she lived as Caesars mistress.
She gave birth to a son, Caesarion, later Ptolemy XV; it is believed that Caesar was his father. After Caesars assassination in 44 BC, Cleopatra is said to have poisoned Ptolemy XIV. She then returned to Egypt and made Caesarion her choice. Because Cleopatra hesitated to take sides in the civil war following Caesars death, Mark Antony summoned her to meet him to explain her conduct. He fell in love with her and returned with her to Egypt. After living with her for some time, Antony was compelled to return to Rome, where he married Octavia, a sister of Caesars heir Octavian, later Roman emperor as Augustus.
After Antony's departure Cleopatra bore him twins. In 36 BC Antony went to the East as commander of an expedition against the Parthians. He sent for Cleopatra, who joined him at Antioch. They were married, and a third child was born. In 34 BC, after a successful campaign against the Parthians, he celebrated his triumph at Alexandria. He continued to reside in Egypt.
In 32 BC, when Octavian declared war against Cleopatra and Antony, Antony divorced Octavia. Cleopatra insisted on taking part in the campaign. At the naval engagement at Actium in 31 BC, believing Antony's defeat to be inevitable, she withdrew her fleet from action, and she and Antony fled to Alexandria. On the approach of Octavian, Antony, deceived by a false report of the death of the queen, committed suicide.
Hearing that Octavian intended to exhibit her in his triumph at Rome, Cleopatra killed herself, probably by poison, or, according to an old tradition, by the bite of an asp. Octavian put Caesarion, the last member of the Ptolemy dynasty, to death, and Egypt subsequently became a Roman province.
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Research essay sample on Fell In Love Queen Of Egypt
