War Drums Part Three

A tribune who supported Octavian vetoed the censure, but Sosius' move had flushed Octavian out. In mid-February he gathered his supporters and Caesarian veterans around him and returned to Rome as their leader. This move by Octavian was his own Rubicon-emulating his adoptive father Julius Caesar's move so many years before. Octavian convened a meeting of the Senate, a move he had no right to make, but the consuls and the senators arrived. Dio tells us that he surrounded "himself with a bodyguard of soldiers and friends who carried concealed daggers. Sittiing between the consuls in his chair of state, he spoke at length and his moderate terms in his own defense, and brought many accusations against Sosius and Antony."

The consuls did not intend to allow this use of force by Octavian to stand. According to Dio: "As they did not dare to reply to [Octavian] and could not bear to be silent," they left Rome in secret and set sail for the east. They were accompanied by three to four hundred of Rome's one thousand senators-republicans or supporters of Antony. It is hard to say, looking back, if this move was a defeat or a victory for Octavian. The consuls could claim legitimate political authority, unlike Octavian, and although the senators who joined them were a minority of the total membership-they were still a quite substantial number of the ruling class. Octavian also had to wonder how many of those senators who stayed behind were completely behind him for the long haul.

There is a definite comparison to be made between the events of this time and the flight from Rome in 49 BC of Pompey the Great and most of the Senate when Julius Caesar invaded Italy and began the first of the civil wars. Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Sosius could make the point that they were taking "Rome" with them. Octavian appears to have been taken aback id not stunned by this turn of events. He had to find a way to limit the political damage from this sharp rebuff. He pretended that this is what he had counted on and claimed that he had sent the senators away voluntarily.

Now that another civil war was a 100 percent certainty minds were being focused with great precision. All throughout the Roman empire, men of any significance had to make a decision with possibly fatal consequences: which man, Octavian or Mark Antony were they to support? For the first time since Alexander the Great one man controlled the entire seapower of the east. This man was Mark Antony and he was close to ending his preparations for war with Octavian. He also commanded an army of thirty legions with 12,000 light armed infantry and 12,000 cavalry.

Most of these soldiers were from the east as Octavian had prevented Antony from recruiting in Italy. These men were not necessarily inferior to Roman legionaires, but in a crisis they might not stay loyal. By early 32 BC it had become obvious that Antony and Cleopatra had come to a very important decision. Cleopatra was going to play a full part in Antony's campaign. This had the effect of further enraging Roman opinion against her. The queen was already very unpopular among Romans because of Octavians propaganda. It was a further blemish against both her and Mark Antony to see the foreign queen acting as a co-leader of a Roman army which is exactly what she would be in effect.

When Ajenobarbus and others of Antony's supporters arrived from Rome they were highly unsettled by this turn of events. Ahenobarbus strongly advised Mark Antony in no uncertain terms to send the queen packing back to Egypt. Herod the Great of Judea, who despised Cleopatra after many years of being pushed around by her, have Antony some advice in confidence: Cleopatra's prescence among Antony's forces would greatly damage his chances for success. Herod told Antony that to realize victory, he should have Cleopatra executed and annex Egypt!

There was indeed a time when Antony sent Cleopatra back home, but in the end caved in and let her stay. In April of 31 BC, the vast military machine set off on its slow journey to Greece where his forces would make their base of operations. Miliatarily it would have been in Octavian's interest to meet Antony's forces head on in Greece, but it wasn't in his political interest to do so. This was because he in no way wanted to be seen as the instigator of the coming war, when of course the naked truth was that he was the aggressor, and the invader if his one time co-ruler's territory.

Insomnia does have its uses-back pain too! I am actually getting a little bit caught up on this blog, but of course there is a long way to go. I do not know if I will be online tomorrow at this point because it looks like a miserable night is on the way, but if I am I will have more to post. All the best to anyone stopping by! And thanks so very much to anyone who has commented or followed this blog. I will try to not get so behind again. The image is of ancient Roman ruins in Aphamia, Syria.