Roman Empire: New Wars Old Enemies Part Six

Sextus made plans to starve the city. He was helped by the republican admirals Ahenobarbus and Murcus who stengthened the blockade by putting ships off Brundisium and the Ionian Gulf. Real pirates saw an opportunity in this confusion and raided southern Italy. Sextus was hoping to make the move for a return to Rome and take back his family's confiscated property. There is more than enough reason to think that Sextus hoped he could easily come to an agreement with Mark Antony, who would no doubt be happy for any help getting rid of this young interloper and maddening colleague-Octavian. Antony also decided that he could play the god game as well as Octavian. The god Antony presented himself to Asia as could even be argued to be a much more exciting and mysterious one than simply being the son of a god. The New Dionysus, also widely known as Bacchus, was a multidimensional god. He was the patron of wine, agriculture and the abundance of nature. He was a god of mystery cults, whose rituals induced ecstatic, transcendent states and an uplifting of the soul from the mundane world through physical or spiritual intoxication. Dionysus provided a fascinating way of representing a euphoric, mystical eastern irrationalism that was countered by the western clarity and unambiguity of Apollo, god of reason and light.

Many eastern gods have both good and dark aspects. Antony in using everything he could come up with to milk the remaining wealth out of the eastern provinces, who had already financed their overlord's civil wars caused Plutarch to write acerbicly: "To most people, [Antony] came as Dionysus the Cruel and Eater of the Flesh, for he stripped many noble families of their property and gave it away to rogues and flatterers. In other cases, men were allowed to steal fortunes from owners who were still living by making out that they were dead." Now Antony showed a bit of foresight-he knew he had overstepped. He reduced his demand for nine years worth of taxes to two. Where else might he look for cash? Maybe it was at this time that the New Dionysus, also equivalent to the Egyptian god Osiris, thought of his divine sister, the New Isis-AKA Cleopatra VII, queen of Egypt. Mark Antony would have met her in Rome when she was Caesar's mistress. He would have been aware of Egypt's immense wealth. In due course Antony invited Cleopatra politely, but firmly to make part of Egypt's wealth available to Rome. Antony sent one of his aides, Quintus Dellius from Tarsus in Cilicia (in modern southern Turkey) to procure Cleopatra. Dellius was another figure from the ancient Rome who had quite a past.

He was said to have been a sexual pet as a boy. He also had a reputation in these most dangerous times for turncoating at precisely the right moment. One of the more memorable insults has Dellius as a "circus-rider of the civil wars," vaunting with ease from horse to horse. Dellius was quite taken with Cleopatra's charm when he arrived in Alexandria and rightly guessed that Antony would be taken with her charms also. He advised Cleopatra to wear her sexiest garments in Antony's prescence. Antony was quite a womanizer but Dellius told her he always treated his women in a gentlemanly manner and never forced himself on them. Cleopatra was impressed by Dellius, to her he must have seemed like a knowledgeable adjutant and took his advice. She sailed to Tarsus on a magnficent barge. Plutarch painted the scene beautifully: " [She] was in a barge with a poop of gold, its purple sails billowing in the wind, while her rowers carressed the waters with oars of silver which dipped in time to the music of the flute, accompanied by pipes and lutes. Cleopatra herself reclined beneath a canopy of cloth of gold, dressed in the character of Aphrodite." There was an intricate play of goals here. Cleopatra was well aware of the role religion had in self-promotion. By offering herself to Antony as Aphrodite (whom many equated with the goddess Isis) she was not only making a sexual overture but also legitimizing Antony as the New Dionysus.

Cleopatra was very skillful in her relations with Mark Antony. She knew he was easygoing and belonged more to "the soldier than the courtier" as Plutarch remarked. These qualities were not quite what Cleopatra would have been used to growing up in the sophisticated court of the Ptolemies. In Antony's prescence, however, she appeared to enjoy his earthy sense of humor and taste for practical jokes. Cleopatra was to have dined at Antony's place first. She countered his invitation with one of her own. Antony always good with the ladies gave in and dined with her on her barge first. The next day the queen dined with Antony. The gastronomic pleasures lasted four days. The two then talked business. Antony requested financial support for the upcoming invasion of Parthia. Cleopatra was happy to oblige but with certain conditions. She wanted a few people making her life difficult executed-most of all her half-sister Arsinoe, who had stolen her throne for a short time and had been given sanctuary at the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Antony agreed. Cleopatra then invited Antony to spend the winter with her at cosmopolitan Alexandria. The "divine" couple happily set sail for Egypt where Antony donned an informal tunic in the Greek manner instead of the clothing of a Roman official. The couple formed a bacchanalian dining club called the Inimitable Livers and passed much of their days in revelry.

Then in February or March of 40 BC news reached Egypt that the Parthians were not going to sit around and wait for Antony to attack them, so they launched a preemptive invasion of Syria. Antony quickly left for Asia Minor. Critics of Antony said he lost himself in his adventures with Cleopatra to eastern decadence. The way he actually behaved was pretty much the same as he had all his life. The two had sex but were not in love, however, they did probably enjoy each other's company and maybe love blossomed later. Cleopatra gave birth to twins of Antony's-Alexander Helios (the Sun) and Cleopatra Selene (the Moon) later that year. At this time Mark Antony left Egypt without regret to do his duty as a Roman general. The couple would not see each other again for three and a half years. For Antony he had had a splendid holiday and little more, although the financial backing he received from his lover was crucial. However, there were major events taking place in the makeup of Antony's personality at this time. He was losing his sense of focus. There is a Greek word for what was happening to him-eklusis, the word for the unstringing of a bow-kind of a 'coming undone' although gradually.

The image is of the ruins of the temple to Venus at the remains of Emperor Hadrian's Villa Adriana. I hope to have the next article here soon. Thanks again to anyone reading or commenting on this blog!