14th January: Mark Antony

On this date in 83 BC Mark Antony, Roman politician and general was born. Here are some things you may not know about Mark Antony.

1. Antony was born in Rome on January 14, 83 BC. His father was Marcus Antonius Creticus, son of the noted orator by the same name who was murdered during the Marian Terror of 87–86 BC. His mother was Julia Antonia. She was a distant cousin of Julius Caesar.
2. Antony was somewhat of a rogue as a young man. According to the historian Plutarch, he spent his teenage years wandering around Rome with his brothers and friends gambling, drinking, and becoming involved in scandalous love affairs. By the time he was twenty, he was so deeply in debt that he had to flee to Greece to escape the people he owed money to.
3. Seems as if he calmed down a bit after this - he studied philosophy and rhetoric in Athens, and a year later joined the military staff of Aulus Gabinius, the Proconsul of Syria, as chief of the cavalry.
4. Antony was a supporter of Julius Caesar, and served as one of his generals during the conquest of Gaul and the Civil War. Antony was appointed administrator of Italy while Caesar eliminated political opponents in Greece, North Africa, and Spain. He was the second most powerful man in the empire, apart from Caesar himself.
5. One of his duties for Caesar was to act as an Augur, which meant he was responsible for interpreting the will of the Roman gods by studying the flight of birds.
6. On that fateful Ides of March, Antony tried to stop Caesar from going to the meeting where the Senators planned to kill him. However, before he could get to Caesar, the Senators had already got to him and escorted him to the meeting. As Caesar's supporter, Antony's life was in danger once the assassination had been carried out - so he fled from Rome disguised as a slave.
7. Later, Antony joined forces with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, another of Caesar's generals, and Octavian, Caesar's nephew and adopted son, forming a three-man dictatorship known to historians as the Second Triumvirate. They defeated Caesar's murderers, the Liberatores, at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, and divided the government of the Republic between themselves. Antony got the eastern provinces, which included Egypt, then ruled by Cleopatra VII Philopator.
8. Lepidus, Octavian and Antony didn't get on all that well. They were always competing with each other to try and get more power. Octavian and Antony nearly started a civil war in 40BC, but it was averted when Antony married Octavian's sister, Octavia. Octavian still wasn't entirely happy with him, though, as he was carrying on a love affair with Cleopatra as well.
9. Eventually, in 32 B.C. Antony divorced Octavia. Octavian declared war on Cleopatra and proclaimed Antony a traitor. After being defeated by Octavian, Antony committed suicide by stabbing himself with his sword thinking Cleopatra had already killed herself. She hadn't. He was taken to her and died in her arms. Cleopatra committed suicide soon after.
10. As well as Octavia and Cleopatra, Antony had three other wives, Fadia, Antonia and Fulvia, and lots of children. Through Octavia's children, he became ancestor to the Roman Emperors Caligula, Claudius and Nero. Through his daughter by Cleopatra, Antony is an ancestor of the royal family of Mauritania.

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