Intermezzo Part Three

One of Mark Antony's bodyguards brought Octavian the dead man's bloodied sword, and it is reported that he withdrew into his tent and wept. Normally, Octavian kept his feelings under wraps-as Roman men were very much expected to do, and there is only one other report of him crying tears: when he received an account of Julius Caesar's funeral. If he had indeed wept at this point it was probably from the build-up of the stresses and tensions over the years and their sudden release. It is very unlikely (although not unheard of in history of one enemy weeping at the death of another) that Octavian wept with any empathy whatsoever toward Antony. He had never gotten along with his former brother-in-law and fellow triumvir.

Octavian had pursued with an utter single-mindedness to have this man out of his way on his climb up to ultimate power. Perhaps this whole event was invented, and simply was an illustration of Octavian and his camp's skillful use of propaganda.

Although Octavian ruled the Roman world, he had never seen a great Hellenistic megalopolis before. He was only familiar with cities like Rome and Athens that had grown unplanned and unkempt over many centuries. The type of city Octavian was used to were crowded, ugly, clamorous contrivances, devoid of charm, wide avenues and splendid vistas. Thus, Alexandria made a great impression on Octavian.

The city was founded in 331 BC by Alexander the Great, the 25-year-old Macedonian king who conquered the Persian empire. The city was built on a narrow bar of land with the Meditteranean on one side and a shallow lake on the other.

A little way offshore lay an island, Pharos, with its celebrated lighthouse, which was three miles long and protected the lighthouse from storms. The street plan was based on a grid pattern, like a modern American city. A mile-long dike was built between the shore and the island of Pharos, thus creating two harbors, the Great harbor on the east side and the Eunostus (or Happy Return) harbor to the west. A canal from Lake Maraeotis in the south connected the city to the Nile and so to Egypt both as a center for making goods and a market. The city was a great success and in the first centurt B.C., the total population may have equalled Rome's.

Alexandria's magnificent look made it a center for culture and fashion throughout the eastern Meditteranean. Strabo described it as the "greatest emporium of the inhabited world." Now Octavian had the run of the city, and on foot he led his men through the Gate of the Sun, not far from the hippodrome outside the walls, and along one of the city's main thoroughfares, the Canopic Way. Anxious crowds had begun to gather around this audacious newcomer and conqueror. Octavian made a point of being accompanied by Aerius, an Alexandrian citizen and a well-known philosopher and rhetorician. This friendly move was probably to alleviate the fears of the people, as it was very common after a city's conquest that it would be given over to be pillaged and ransacked by the victors.

Octavian and his men made their way to the Gymnasium. This was the same place where Antony and Cleopatra probably held the ceremony of the Donations of Alexandria. The place was full of a very nervous people, and when Octavian came to the speaker's dais, the audience was so engulfed by their terror that they all fell on their faces. Octavian told them he had no intention of holding the city responsible for the conduct of its leaders. At Areius' request he granted a number of pardons. The Octavian went to the Royal Palace, which was to the north of the Canopic Way; here he would find Cleopatra.

He sent ahead an eques named Gaius Proculeius, a close friend of his whom, it so happened, Antony in his last moments had recommended to the queen. Proculeius had instructions to do whatever it took to capture her alive. The palace took up a whole fifth of the city, along with the quayside of the Great Harbor. The complex was almost completely buried under later buildings and there aren't any ruins to visit; however some of it sank into the sea after an earthquake and subsequent tidal wave in the fourth century B.C., and is now being explored. The main palace building stood on Cape Lochias, a promontory at the harbor mouth.

Somewhere near here, Cleopatra sat beyond despair in her mausoleum, awaiting Alexandria's conqueror-her conqueror. She had gathered gold, silver, emeralds, pearls, ebony, ivory and cinnamon (a very pricey spice in that era and regarded as a present fit for royalty) in this place. She had also brought a great deal of firewood and tinder. This implied a threat to Octavian that if he didn't treat her well, she would set everything afire.

Ancient sources tell us that Octavian's debate on what to do about Cleopatra centered around these precious items in her possession at the time, but as Anthony Everitt states in his book Augustus on page 193: "...this consideration weighed heavily with him, although it cannot have been decisive: the queen can hardly have had personal possession of the kingdom's entire reserves of precious metals-and, even if she had, they would survive a fire. The loss of the jewelry and other precious items would be a pity, but it was not a matter of high importance."

Proculeius arrived at the mausoleum and gained entry by a trick. He had noticed that the upper window through which the dying Antony had been pulled through was still open. So, while someone distracted Cleopatra by engaging her in conversation through the door of the mausoleum, Proculeius climbed through the window with two servants using a ladder. He captured Cleopatra and placed her under guard. Cleopatra was allowed to preside at Mark Antony's funeral, but not before Octavian inspected the corpse. The formerly proud queen was now a broken woman-in spirit and physically. She became ill and remained a prisoner inside the mausoleum.

The long dreamed of addition of Egypt to the Roman Empire solved Octavian's financial troubles with a flourish. Over time, after the kingdom's bullion reserves were transported to Rome, the standard rate of interest instantly dropped from 12 percent to 4 percent. There was now enough money to not only settle his account with the veterans and to buy all the land they required-it was without any surprise that land values doubled-but there was enough money to invest in yet more public works, and the weary (from the civil strife and political upheavals over the last 50 to 100 years depending on where one wants to say the collapse of the Republic began) people of Rome received munificent individual money grants.

Soon after her arrest, Ocatavian paid a visit to Cleopatra. We can assume he must have known her (or at least heard much juicy gossip and seen her) from her stay in Rome as Julius Caesar's lover nearly fifteen years previously. Her appearance now must have been so hugely different that she must have been almost unrecognizable from the proud, luxurious-and the much despised by most Romans-queen who had visited Julius Caesar then. Plutarch tells us: "She had abandoned her luxurious style of living, and was lying on a pallet bed dressed only in a tunic, but, as he entered, she sprang up and threw herself at his feet. Her hair was unkempt and her expression wild, while her eyes were shrunken and her voice trembled uncontrollably."

Octavian asked her to lie down again and sat beside her. Cleopatra-rather pathetically we can imagine (but what would we do ourselves if we were in her shoes-or tunic;-) so to speak?) then tried to justify her part in the war, saying that she had been forced to act as she did and had been in fear of Antony. Octavian must have been happy with her pleading tone, for it suggested she didn't intend to kill herself. Then he undertook to destroy excuses point by point, and she begged for pity as if desperate to save her life. The ancient commentators claim that he did indeed want her to live because she would make a praiseworthy display in the triumph he intended to hold in Rome. There is some argument later over this as we shall see.

I tried to type as long as I could taking breaks and such for my back standing up down, up down-and I just gotta quit for the eve! My back is too sore and my hands are tired. And I still want to visit the blogs my friends have-at least as many as I can. I am still ahead of the game, so to speak and have more written out ready to go. Tonight I was going to attempt just to do it all-that I had done anyway to close the "Antony/Cleopatra Chapter" -although as with Hadrian/Antinous at MFM I am sad in a way to see them go-it has been a very long time since I had originally intended to be through not only this part of Roman history-but through all of the rule of Augustus too. I would still like to go fairly slow with the rest of Augustus-using Anthony Everitt's wonderful book as my guide-although not near as slow as I have been going-lately it has been pretty much page by page-rarely even skipping a paragraphs worth for every three pages. I really need to learn to be better at condensing information!

There are so many other areas of history-even Roman history-and questions of history (btw the reason I like using Anthony Everitt's Augustus -well one of the many-is that I feel he answers a lot of questions I have had about history when I started this blog-just in this post there were some economic questions answered-and I think in past articles using Augustus there have been many other questions answered-at least for the timeframe and people we are talking about-and I am on page 197 of a 327 page book-but like I say-I need to condense better!) I would even like to talk about "What If?" questions about history in this blog-and have two "What If?" books that talk about these alternate routes history could have taken.

The image is lame for what I was looking for-although still part of the story. It is a representation of Cleopatra VII (our Cleopatra) and her son by Julius Caesar-Caesarion. We will find out soon what happens to the children involved here also. I just checked out wikipedia-and they seem to have questions about the 2 youngest males that Everitt's book doesn't-so that might be interesting to think about. I was looking for a model-painting-heck-any type of likeness of Alexandria in the first century B.C. I will keep searching and put it in this post or a future one. I do hope to post again here in a matter of days. Thanks again Jon and anyone else who has commented in the past for your fantastic and intelligent comments! I really appreciate getting comments on this blog-it gives me that much more enjoyment for doing a blog about a subject I love and am always learning new viewpoints etcetera about. All the best to anyone stopping by!

Intermezzo Part Two

Today's installment will determine if I can type with an angry cat after me! My cat has the run of the place-my heart-my home -everything-I just can't type with her in my lap-so she isn't very happy to be set down like just now!

Cleopatra still had plenty of money and her people were loyal to her. An army and a fleet were put together. To help the mood in Alexandria, a great ceremony-almost as magnificent as the Donations of Alexandria-was held, at which the sixteen-year-old King of Kings, Ptolemy XV Caesar (aka Caesarion), and Antony's son by Fulvia, the fourteen-year-old Antyllus, officially came of age.

Octavian received a succession of envoys from Alexandria. He listened to their proposals, but conceded nothing. Octavian didn't make his own stand clear, but it was obvious that he wanted to win the great and wonderfully wealthy prize of Egypt. Egypt had attracted the covetous gaze of powerful Romans for more than a century. Octavian wanted to win Egypt for himself, not just for the greater glory of Rome.

Octavian planned to use another pincer movement for the invasion. Four Antonian legions that had switched loyalties would invade from Cyrenaica-the land directly to the west of Egypt. In a show of favor, Octavian appointed the command of these men to the 30-year-old Gaius Cornelius Gallus, although he was only an eques and previously best known as a fine lyric poet. For once, the indispensable Agrippa was left back in Rome. This was because the Egyptian campaign was unlikely to cause problems that would require his strategic services. Octavian marched through Syria at the head of a large army towards the Egyptian frontier. Mark Antony was finally able to get out of his funk for a bit because he thought he could win his legions back if he went to Paretonium where Gallus had installed himself.

But poor Antony-his attempts to win back his legionaires and take the town failed. His ships were trapped in the harbor and burned or sunk. The remainder of Antony and Cleopatra's forces were stationed at Pelesium, a port on the easternmost edge of the Nile delta. It straddled the coastal route that edged the Sinai desert, and being the only way of entry by land into Egypt from the east, was strategically important.

Pharaohs throughout the millenia had always made sure it was well protected by a strong garrison. Pelesium fell with minimal resistance. It could have been quickly stormed without being able to put up much of a fight-or more intriguingly surrendered by Cleopatra. If this were the case, she was trying to break her ties to Mark Antony. Cleopatra's first loyalty had always been to her kingdom and maintaining her power-no matter what bonds were said to be forged in the 'societies' or 'orders' she and Antony created. This scenario and other accounts of her actions during this time could have been taken straight from Octavian's propaganda machine, which proclaimed the queen's eastern deviousness and Antony's embarrassing role as her dupe.

Octavian also seems to have encountered little or no defiance at Alexandria. He passed the upscale suburb of Canopus and set up a camp near the hippodrome, just outside the city walls. When Antony got news that Pelesium had fallen, he quickly made his way back to Alexandria and, on the outskirts of the city, took on an advance guard of enemy cavalry and wiped them out. Antony was ecstatic by this victory and returned to the palace and embraced Cleopatra while still in full armor. After that, he introduced her to a soldier who had displayed great bravery during the battle. As a reward, the queen gave him a golden helmet and breastplate. The soldier took them, and that night promptly deserted to Octavian.

Antony challenged his onetime fellow triumvir to single combat with hopeless bravado. Antony couldn't possibly have been anticipating an agreement and Octavian responded derisively: "There are many different ways by which Antony can die." On 31 July, Antony decided to launch an all-out attack by both land and sea the next day. At dinner that night he ate and drank heartily and told the people around him that he didn't expect to survive the battle. Supposedly this is what transpired later that evening: "about the hour of midnight, when all was hushed and a mood of dejection and fear of its impending fate brooded over the whole city, suddenly a marvellous sound of music was heard...as if a troop of revellers were leaving the city, shouting and singing as they went...Those who tried to discover a meaning for the prodigy concluded that the god Dionysus, with whom Antony claimed kinship and whom he sought above all to imitate was now abandoning him."

Indeed, gods in those days were often imagined to leave besieged cities before they fell, Troy, Athens and Jerusalem being some examples. However, if this story has a basis in fact, the Alexandrians could have been hearing Octavian, backed up by a soldiers' chorus, performing an evocatio, in this ceremony, a Roman general would call on the gods of an enemy city to change sides and go over to Rome. On 1 August, as dawn broke, Antony sent his fleet eastward to meet Octavian's ships, and he positioned his land forces on rising ground between the city walls and the hippodrome.

What happened next was a fiasco of mind-boggling proportions. It would have been a comedy for everyone except Antony and Cleopatra and those close to them. The ships raised their oars and surrendered without a fight; the fleets immediately combined and set a new course for Alexandria. The cavalry deserted and the foot soldiers made good on their "name" and used their feet to run away! Antony went into a rage when he got back inside the walls of Alexandria. He is reported to have shouted out that Cleopatra had indeed betrayed him (as some suggested earlier-I will talk more about this later-something just came to me involving this) to the enemies that he was fighting on her behalf. Terrified, she had a message sent that she was dead.

Now there was just one thing to do-go honorably the Roman way. Antony asked his body servant to run him through, but was failed again by "his" staff as the man turned on his own sword and committed suicide himself! Antony then stabbed himself in the stomach and lay on the bed. However, not only did the wound fail to kill him but soon stopped bleeding. He was still in pain and begged bystanders to put him out of his misery, but they too ran away from him.

Cleopatra heard what had happened and sent word for Antony to be brought to her. She was hiding in a large mausoleum she had commissioned, which stood-still only part finished in the palace grounds near a Temple of Isis-the goddess that Cleopatra claimed kinship with. Cleopatra was scared of any surprises and refused to unseal the doors, and she and two women servants painstakingly pulled the dying man with ropes up to a high window. Plutarch writes: "clinging with both hands to the rope and with the muscles of her face distorted by the strain." Cleopatra beat and scratched her breasts in the traditional manner of a grieving widow, and smeared her face with the blood from Antony's wound. Antony tried to calm her, and true to his reputation to the end called for and drank a cup of wine before dying.

My ever so brilliant deduction (joke:-) I just had-and maybe had the first glimmerings for several days ago when I wrote this-is this: By taking the dying Antony into her hiding place at the mausoleum -and it seems using quite a bit of stress to do it-haven't we exonerated-just maybe-the idea that Cleopatra had already turned her back on him and was even cooperating with the enemy? Or is it me-whose deductions are foolish? She may indeed have known how hopeless their cause was -even long before this as she was a very intelligent, learned woman. But as we shall see later (hopefully within a matter of days-I am trying to keep on top of this) she seemed to want to save her life later-as maybe her courage had left her by then. But with that in mind why do this with Antony now? Why not leave him out to die on his own? She had to have known that this would be used against her by Octavian I would think anyway.

I would love to hear anyone else's thoughts on this or anything else here on this blog. Thanks again so very much to Jon and others who have commented here and anyone reading or following this blog-I really appreciate hearing your thoughts and ideas! I hope to have the next part here soon and already have more written down, for some reason I have found it has helped me with this blog to stay several steps ahead. When I get everything I have posted it seems like such a large climb up the hill to get more done. I hope no one feels "gypped" no pun intended-by me doing it this way-especially as we are into such a fascinating timeframe-like I say I do intend to go as fast as I can barring problems with this blog for awhile. The image is a painting of Cleopatra by John William Waterhouse. The source used for this article was once again Anthony Everitt's excellent book Augustus, pages 189 to 191.

Intermezzo Part One

At this point many more soldiers were active than needed-or could be afforded. Octavian sent Italian veterans older than a certain age back to Italy for their formal discharge, but gave these men no land or money, because at the time Octavian had none to give! Agrippa was sent to deal with these men who had become resentful-and rightfully so. This was not the only sign that Octavian's regime was unpopular.

Maecenas discovered a plot to assassinate Octavian upon his return to Italy. This plot had been clumsily hatched by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, son of the former deposed triumvir and a nephew of Marcus Brutus. This young man was put to death. Dio writes that Antony and Cleopatra planned to "actually kill [Octavian] by treachery." We can wonder if they were ever in touch with the younger Lepidus? Here we can see another aspect of Octavian's personality that helped him enormously in his rule over the Roman empire-and it's a quality that some other ancient and modern dictators lack or lacked completely. Octavian was more than happy to delegate powers to Agrippa and Maecenas. Of course these were two of the men who had been with him since his childhood and he had no reason not to trust them completely-so Octavian was certainly no fool in who he put his faith in. Octavian allowed both men to read his communiques to the Senate, and correct them if they saw a need for it. He had duplicates made of his seal ring-the image of a sphinx-so that they could seal up his letters again.

The Donations of Alexandria were immeditately canceled. Octavian did depose many minor royal figures-but Octavian confirmed on their thrones the major client kings-Amyntas of Galatia, who had defected to him before Actium; Polemo of Pontus, who had stayed put in his kingdom; and Archelaus of Cappodocia. These men were able rulers, and they knew very well that it was their best interest to stay loyal to whoever ruled Rome. In the case of these men and others, Mark Antony had been a very good judge of character and Octavian didn't see any reason to change the arrangements he had made in this part of the world. For Antony's sake it is only too bad-and a bit strange-that he wasn't a better judge of Octavian's character-or could at least deciphered his ultimate goal!

As to the directly ruled provinces of the empire, reliable and safe colleagues were appointed eventually as proconsuls. For example, Cicero's son Marcus, although drunk quite often, but reliable was given Syria. For the time being, the newly minted province of Armenia was lost. The deposed king of that nation had taken advantage of the distraction of Actium to reclaim his realm. Octavian had no choice but to ignore this slap in the face to Roman power and interests. The decision about what was to be done about the eastern frontier-the Armenians, the Medes, and east of them the untamed Parthians, who still held the lost standards of Crassus from 53 BC-would have to be put on the back-burner for now. Octavian was simply too busy.

Agrippa wrote a disturbing letter to Octavian in January of 30 BC. Octavian was still on Samos when he received it. The letter said that Agrippa wasn't able to handle the Italian veterans who had become openly mutinous and that his prescence was needed immediately. This was a terrible time of year to take a long sea journey because of dangerous storms, but it had to be done. When Octavian disembarked at Brundisium, something happened that let him know that people realized Rome was being ruled be one unchallenged man now. He was met by the entire Senate (except for a couple of praetors and the tribunes), many equites, and great numbers of regular citizens. Octavian received an enthusiastic welcome. This was a singular honor as it was normal for senators to meet a returning ruler outside the gates of Rome, but to get to Brundisium they had travelled 300 miles to do so!

The angry veterans met Octavian at Brundisium too, and he quickly met their demands, although he didn't have enough "liquid" cash to pay them all on the spot. He had to issue promises postdated to the expected fall of Alexandria. This satisified the veterans-for now. But Octavian knew he could not trifle with these promises, and after a month back on Italian soil Octavain returned to Samos, where he made plans for the long-awaited invasion of Egypt.

Unfortunately for Antony and Cleopatra the "theory" of political power ran up against "realpolitik." In theory they should haven't had reason to be unhappy, because they still ruled half the Roman empire. The complete financial and human wealth and reserves should have been theirs to use as they saw fit. However, since Actium, important people in the eastern provinces were unwilling to supply more aid and soldiers to support what they considered a lost cause.

Upon Antony's eventual arrival in Alexandria from Paratonium, he abandoned the palace and his friends. In his emotional despair he chose to live by himself in a quayside house that sat beside Alexandria's great lighthouse, more than 300 feet high, on the island of Pharos. Mark Antony turned 54 on 14 January 30 BC. Cleopatra got him out of his self-pity and misery by throwing a spectacular birthday bash for him. Plutarch wrote: "Cleopatra and Antony now dissolved their celebrated Society of Inimitable Livers and instituted another, which was at least its equal in elegance, luxury and extravagance, and which they called the Order of the Inseperable in Death. Their friends joined it on the understanding that they would end their lives together, and they set themselves to charm away the days with a succession of exquisite supper parties."

The couple knew Octavian would arrive with the coming of spring and march against them. They had no realistic opportunity to escape to some other part of the world, although they had briefly considered Spain and Cleopatra had tried to organize an expedition to Arabia but failed. The lovers were cornered. They had but two options left: negotiate and if that failed, to prepare for a final and futile last stand.

I still have some information written-probably two or three posts worth. I think 3 new posts -although the two below had been done mostly and saved to drafts is enough for now-and I still have one more post at my writing blog to do -that is if the power doesn't go out! The lights began to flicker a bit ago and it is actually stormy and rainy here in the desert tonight, which is weather I love-I would just love it more if I felt better. There is actually a question about the image I used-but I will post this bit first-just in case the power fails-and then if it doesn't come back with a link and my question about it. Thanks again so very much to anyone commenting or reading this blog!

OK-I hope this link works-if it doesn't I won't mess with it anymore. I think I answered my own question anyway. I was trying to see if any images of frescoes or anything had been unearthed at Augutus' house on the Palatine Hill. He was supposed to have had an appreciation for how life was kind of a farce -not to be taken too seriously. There was supposed to have been a frescoe of the tragic and comic masks actors wore in his bedroom. That is what I started to look for image-wise. I found the above image instead and thought it was from his place, but apparently it is from a cave-the Lupercal-very near to where his home was on the Palatine Hill and recently unearthed. So the image is from the cave and not Augustus' place. If the link works scroll down a bit to a November 21, 2007 entry and it tells about it. Again I couldn't be doing this series without Anthony Everitt's excellent book Augustus. I hope to post again very soon. Here is the link. http://chem11.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=UFO&action=print&thread=398

Battle Of Actium Part Two

Also interesting in the story of this fascinating event in Roman history is the fact that Octavian and Agrippa could not know for sure they had won. Octavian probably suspected he was the victor, but he couldn't be 100 percent certain. The night was starting to come and it wasn't always easy to tell and enemy ship from a friendly one at the best of times. Octavian would have received reports from a battle front that was probably over four miles long, but he could not rely on the accuracy of the reports.

Octavian's position would have been somewhere toward the center of his line, and he would have seen Cleopatra's getaway under full sail, but he wouldn't have any knowledge or reason, necessarily, to think that Mark Antony had fled the scene with her. One thing Octavian did see was a retreat by some enemy ships. He had learned, during the war with Sextus Pompeius that admirals often felt they had to spend a sleepless night at sea after a battle.

He and Agrippa knew they had probably achieved victory in corraling what remained of Antony's fleet, and they wanted to avoid the risk of it escaping under the cloak of night or at first light. To prevent this, as uncomfortable (especially as they were no doubt exhausted-just from the adrenaline coursing through their veins during the day and finally stopping would have left them drained and weary) and dangerous as it was, they kept their ships at sea throughout the night.

With the arrival of morning, Octavian now back on land could assess the battle. He saw that he had definitely achieved a partial victory at least. Between 30 and 40 enemy galleys had been sunk and about 5,000 of Antony's troops killed. The commanders of the 130 to 140 residual ships considered the hopelessness of their cause and surrendered. However, the large army of 50,000 men was still together under the leadership of Publius Canidius Crassus. Crassus had begun to lead these men towards the Pindos mountains and the relative safety of Macedonia. If this army could not be dealt with in some way, the battle of Actium would just be one engagement of the war and not its decisive encounter, so Octavian marched after Antony's legions.

As events conspired, Octavian had no need to worry. These men had no idea that their commander had abandoned them, until the day after the battle. For a time, they were certain Antony would appear from somewhere. However, the days and nights passed with no sight or word of him and these soldiers' confidence was lost. Instead they chose to deal with the victor, Octavian. After a week of difficult negotiations in which the soldiers demanded to be treated as if they had been on the winning side, Octavian caved in and agreed to keep the legions intact instead of disbanding them and more importantly he promised to give them the same rewards as the victorious army.

Canidius and other senior officers didn't want any involvement in this deal, and one night they left camp and made they sad and lonely way to Mark Antony. Mark Antony and Cleopatra's activities and location took awhile after Actium to get to Octavian. Antony had caught up to Cleopatra and they went to the beautiful port of Paraetonium, located just inside Egypt's western frontier and 180 miles from Alexandria.

Antony sent Cleopatra ahead to Alexandria with her ships bedecked in the garlands of victory. Before the truth could become known she had any potential rabblerousers killed. Antony had hoped to communicate with four of his legions in Cyrene, but they had already went over to Octavian and refused to meet him. Now Mark Antony fell into a dark and deep depression. Octavian sent a message of victory to Rome. Here in the aftermath of his victory at Actium another aspect of his personality came out that was so typical of the way he had methodically rose to power. Patient as ever, he was in no hurry to deal with the defeated queen and general. Octavian decided to spend the oncoming winter on the island of Samos.

The image is of a marble bust of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Thanks again for your fantastic and insightful comments! I always learn to look at things in a new light or perhaps change my whole perspective with the comments some people have left so I very much appreciate them! This post and the previous were saved to drafts and just required a slight bit of work to post. I hope to do one more for the night that will need to be typed up from the start. All the best to anyone stopping by!

PS-the next series name "Intermezzo" is not one I am sure I like -or that even properly describes this time frame -I was trying to think of a new post series name -short - and remembered a book I had read a long time ago about Soviet history-and it had a chapter called "An Itermezzo With Konstantin Chernenko" so that is where the name came from-I don't know Italian or any other languages but wish I did-especially French, Spanish and Italian.

Battle Of Actium Part One

Agrippa waited for Antony to realize he was not going to move, and start on his own again. This, eventually Antony did, putting himself with the squadron on the right. The command of Antony's left flank was given to the competent and able Sosius. Here the "fog of war" takes over and history can give only the widest and most nebulous account of what happened next.

Plutarch tells us: "The fighting took on much of the character of a land battle, or to be more exact, of an attack on a fortified town. Three or four of Octavian's ships clustered around each one of Antony's and the fighting was carried on with wicker shields, spears, poles, and flaming missiles, while Antony's soldiers also shot with catapults from wooden towers."

We can imagine that with his greater number of warships, that Agrippa could move his fleet into two lines and most likely did so, while Antony would have only been able to have one line of ships. Early into the battle, Agrippa began to test Antony's northern flank. Antony's ships responded by moving northward, maybe swinging around from a north/south to a west/east axis. This would have had the effect of weakening both parties center lines.

After a couple of hours into the fight, Agrippa must have started to feel more confident as there hadn't been an enemy line he couldn't break through. Antony's ships were fighting as best they could, they were simply outnumbered. In the early afternoon, the wind changed direction, as it did every day allowing a stunning event to occur.

Cleopatra's squadron, which hadn't been engaging in any of the fighting suddenly sailed through the weakened center, where there was room enough to maneuever between groups of battling vessels. Her ship was easy to spot because it had a royal purple sail. With the change in wind direction, once Cleopatra's squadron had bypassed Leucas, it could speed south with a breeze billowing in their sails and make their getaway outrunning Octavian's sailless ships with ease. Antony immediately took some ships from his position in the north. His own flagship was too involved in fighting, so he transferred to another vessel and took after Cleopatra with a small armada.

Here is a fascinating small digression about where the ancient commentators were wrong about this event. They incorrectly imagined that Cleopatra lost her courage and fled out of cowardice, and that Mark Antony followed her because he was enraptured with passion and love for Cleopatra. Looking back over 2,000 years we can tell this was very much not the situation. Here is why: 1) The stowing of the sails for use later on to escape. 2) The order of battle (with Cleopatra's ships kept towards the rear with no intention of fighting. 3) The timing of the escape to catch the afternoon wind change.

These facts-not theories or suppositions tell us that the couple was proceeding according to a well thought-out and executed plan. The traitor Dellius had made Agrippa aware that a general breakout was planned-but he hadn't known the specifics, so Agrippa was caught entirely unawares that Cleopatra would try to make her escape while the rest of Antony's fleet tried to keep him occupied. Agrippa had played right into their plan by sailing north to outflank Antony's right and this thinning his center-allowing for Cleopatra's escape.

We can imagine that Antony hoped that other ships of his would also be able to escape, but these vessels were completely engaged trying to fight off Octavian's larger fleet. The wind grew stronger after another hour and some of Antony's ships began to surrender. They had nothing to be ashamed of. The fight had been one of unequal strength from the beginning. Other ships of his withdrew into the Actium strait.

The image is an artist's rendering of the famous Alexandria lighthouse of the island of Pharos. I hope to be back soon with another post. All the best to anyone stopping by!

War Drums Part Eight

The defection of Amyntas was like a snowball rolling downhill, everywhere he looked Antony was losing client kings, Roman senators and others. The most stinging betrayal was the of Domitius Ahenobarbus. He was suffering from a fever that most likely had its source from whatever illness it was that had swept theough Actium earlier in the summer. Ahenobarbus sailed on a small boat to the bay of Comaros. Plutarch tells us: "Antony, although he was deeply grieved by his friend's desertion, sent not only his baggage but all his friends and servants after him, whereupon Domitius died almost immediately, as if he longed to repent as soon as his treachery and disloyalty became public knowledge."

This charitable side of Mark Antony was short-lived, however. He was a man who could be almost as cruel as Octavian when he became agitated. More than a few important defectors were executed in some harsh and imaginative ways after the defection of Ahenobarbus. One senator met his end by being tied to horses and pulled apart. Antony did very much understand, however, that some course of action must be decided on and made at haste. Things could not be allowed to fall apart much longer, so he withdrew his troops back to Actium and called a council of war.

One day Octavian noticed smoke coming from the area where Antony's fleet was based. He knew what was going on: Antony did not have enough oarsmen to man his whole fleet, so he was burning extra ships so they didn't come into his possession. From this it was easy to conclude that the final conflict was coming up fast. The man who had advised Cleopatra about the best method to attract Antony-Dellius-who was one of the defectors from Antony's camp-gave a full report to Octavian about Antony's intentions. He told Octavian that Antony was planning to try to break the blockade at sea.

This was the kind of decision an intelligent man in the matters of war would make under the circumstances. It would have been a very arduous task taking a demoralized army through the steep passes of the Pindos mountains, whereas it was reasonable to assume that a good portion of the fleet would escape manned with Antony's best legionaires. They could then meet up with the 11 or 12 legions in Egypt and Cyrenaica, and try to fight another day-at least that was the plan. The way Octavian's or more precisely Agrippa's response would be framed was the question now. In a very large sense, whatever type of battle was to come, for Octavian's camp-and many onlookers-this deluge of high level defections from Antony recently-the issue of who had won this conflict had already been decided.

To many important people, whether Antony and Cleopatra could break the blockade and escape mattered very little. If the pair could be caught and executed quickly it would simply abbreviate the coming war a great deal. Octavian and Agrippa had decided that if Antony tried to engage at or close to the mouth of the Actium Strait, they would hold back. This was for the obvious reason that they would lose the advantage of greater numbers if they fought in confined waters. Octavian and Agrippa did agree that they would not let Antony's fleet run through the blockade without a fight. If Antony made a clean break it would give him the initiative and also have a detrimental impact on opinion among the military and in Italy. But if Octavian's side waited on open seas, at some point Antony would be forced to emerge and fight on waters of their own choice.

If it happened that way they would try to outflank him in the north (the island that Agrippa had taken over-Leucas-would prevent that maneuver towards the south). Octavian's side would then encircle Antony's smaller fleet, or force him to lengthen his line of ships, which would make it easier for their ships to surround single ships and eliminate them one at a time. Due to the loss of manpower on Antony's side, the balance of naval force was in Octavian's favor. When Antony had first arrived at Ephesus, he had around 500 ships. Now he only had enough men to use 230-possibly less.

Octavian had about 400 ships available. Antony's ships were larger than Octavian's and had more oarsmen so at least this factor was in Antony's favor as they were just as maneuverable as Octavian's vessels. Stormy weather had forced Antony to delay his plans for four days-from 29 August to 2 September. The morning of 2 September was clear and sunny and the fleets headed out to confront each other. Octavian-definitely knowing who was best for the job ahead-smartly gave tactical command to Agrippa. Agrippa put about forty thousand men on the ships (approximately 90 per galley), and deployed them about one mile off the headlands Parginosuela and Scylla, marked the entry into the Actium narrows. With his fleet "parked" in this area, Agrippa waited to see what Antony would do. Mark Antony divided his fleet into four squadrons. On his galleys were about 20,000 legionaires and some archers.

One of the squadrons was Cleopatra's with sixty ships in all. Cleopatra herself was on her flaghip, the Antonias which carried enormous amounts of gold, silver coins, ingots and other items of great worth. Not only was the safety of the queen important, but it was absolutely essential that her war chest didn't fall into Octavian's hands or to the bottom of the sea. 50,000 men in Antony's army remained under the command of Publius Canidus Crassus, who was a long-time ally of Antony's. He had campaigned with great success in Armenia. If the fleet made its escape, he was to march to Macedonia, if possible, and then east.

Before leaving, Antony gave his ships' captains an odd order that may have demoralized them further if they could see how little sense it made in one context and how much in another context. Antony told them to take their sails with them so that not a single enemy ship escaped capture. In this era, sails were seldom if ever used in battle. They took up too much room when stowed and curtailed maneuverability when used. These men were probably wise enough to see through Antony's proclaimed reason and that he wanted the sails stored because he anticipated defeat and flight.

The defector, Dellius had told Agrippa about Antony's plans and he even knew about the decision to load the sails. The men who were not on the ships were watching from the shoreline to see how the battle would go. Octavian's soldiers had such a good view of Antony's ships that they could see exactly what he was doing in the strait and may have been able to keep their commanders updated by using small boats or a type of signaling. There was no surprises when the ships emerged from the strait, and deployed in two lines that stretched between the headlands and stopped. Cleopatra's squadron stayed behind the lines, and did not appear as if it were going to take an active role in the battle. Antony moved first and sailed towards the opening of the strait, hoping Agrippa would take the bait and start fighting. This plan failed because Agrippa judiciously refused to move. Thus a very long wait ensued that lasted through the morning. The two fleets, maybe a mile apart rested on their oars.

The first image is a painting done by Lorenzo Castro in 1672 called The Battle of Actium. I am going to try to put a second image here of the Anbracian Gulf with the location of Octavian's camp and Antony's first and second camps marked on it. I hope it comes out clear. I scanned the page directly from Anthony Everitt's Augustus. The information in this particular post is from his book from pages 180 to 183. I will try to go backwards through all of my posts here and put -if I can locate it-exactly what source and page the data is from sometime soon.

This blog kind of had a "near-death experience". This is because I wasn't sure how many people-if any -at times were reading it and it is too much work to do if no one was reading it. I think I have gone 10 or more posts here without a comment. But recently Jon and other great readers have commented on posts here-so that makes it all worth it. I also put the "sitemeter" thing on to see how many-if any -other readers were stopping by. It has only been on here since the 24th of November so it is probably too early to say I have exact data on it yet-but I was pleasantly surprised to see that out of the first 100 visitors 3 of them spent between 8 minutes and an hour with the blog.

To many 3 out of a hundred may not seem like much-especially as the other 97 stopping by were here zero seconds and it was obviously a net search that didn't pan out for them. But 3 out of a hundred is enough for me to keep going with it-especially if great comments come in here and there. At my "main" blog-My Favorite Monsters-8 to 9 people out of 100 spend any kind of time there-averaging 8 and a half minutes per visit. This is by averaging-the 8 and a half minutes comes from averaging a great many visits-and most are 1 to 4 minutes of the ones that stay-but the eight and a half comes in from averaging the ones that stay 25 minutes and more-with the "record" haha being 72 minutes.

Sorry for the "nerdmania" about visit statistics-I don't know why stuff like that interests me-maybe I should have been a bean-counter when I was able to go to school and work! By the way-I don't look or care about seeing the IP addresses and trying to match or guess who the hometowns are of people commenting. I only know the hometown of an Arizona "blogpal" because she mentioned it in a post-much less the out of state and country visits. I do have to give a "shout-out" to whichever reader of My Favorite Monsters and Dev's Questions hails from the town of Gliwece, Poland in the Katowice area of that nation. Thank you for having been at both of these blogs from the start!

Actually I would like to work more on this blog and my writing blog than My Favorite Monsters for awhile. My writing attempts may be beyond help-but I am going to try. A wonderful woman who I consider more like a sister than a friend has helped with this by recently sending me a Christmas gift of a book that should be easy and interesting to use for posts at My Favorite Monsters while I try hard to work on this and the other blog. You know who you are and you are "on my list" along with your son and father should I win my case-thanks again! OK-sorry -sheesh my internal-well hopefully external too "dialogue" about things unrelated to history is almost longer than the post I just did probably. One last thing related to this blog is that either when I am done with the "Cleopatra/Antony" portion-or maybe all the way through Augustus' rule itself-I would like to add other historical topics in between the Roman history-because I want to go through all eleven other "Caesars" and do a bit about the history of the "5 Good Emperors"-and I don't want others to get bored with Rome or me myself get bored with it. I tried to do this already with the "KAL" posts and a few about the Gorbachev era back in August and September. Thanks again for the fantastic comments and peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

War Drums Part Seven

The next step would be for Octavian to move his legions from Brundisium to a place near the Via Egnatia in the north. At that point his forces would need to march south immediately moving as fast as they possibly could to corner Antony and keep him from moving his army out of the confined area of Actium into central Greece, where he would have elbow-room to make trouble and maybe even outmaneuver Octavian.

This was an enormously daring plan to say the least. A single stroke of bad luck-a Meditteranean storm could have laid waste to the whole thing. The plan involved moving a fleet across open seas (we would assume if it wasn't to be detected the ships could not have hugged the coastline) and risking the calamity of a Meditteranean squall. However, the mission was crowned with complete success. History has not left us details of the exact sequence of events, but we do know that Methone fell and Octavian, immediately, without any harrassment from the weather or the enemy forces, transferred the main part of his army across the Adriatic Sea, landing somewhere between the Via Egnatia and Corcyra-maybe at Panormus (modern Palermo in Albania).

The first news of Octavian and Agrippa's daring move to reach the headquarters of Antony and Cleopatra was that the enemy had taken over a small town some miles north of Actium called Toryne, the Greek word for ladle. It was a sign of the general anxiety at their headquarters at Patrae that Cleopatra made a terrible joke to try to obscure the nervousness the news provoked: "What is so terrible about Caesar Octavian having got hold of a ladle?" Once Octavian arrived at Actium he found an excellent spot, a hill that is now known as Mikhalitzi today. It was about five miles north of the channel into the Ambracian Gulf, and at 400 feet in height, it had great views all around of the surrounding areas. Right next to it in the south, there was an area that was flat enough to stage a battle, should that become necessary.

Shortly after his arrival, Octavian put his fleet in open water and offered battle, but the other side, short of men and not performing well, smartly declined to come out of safe harbor. Antony was having trouble recruiting oarsmen and keeping them. According to Plutarch, Antony was so short of men that the captain of his warships were "press-ganging travellers, muledrivers, reapers, and boys not yet of military age from the exhausted provinces of Greece."

Antony and Cleopatra came from Patrae in a few days. He moved his army from Actium to the northern peninsula. This may have been at the last part of April. He built a new camp that faced Octavian's. Antony was now ready and restless for battle. However, now Octavian was no longer so eager to fight. There was a very strong reason for this: the amazing and tireless Agrippa had captured the island of Leucas. This gave Octavian's men a safe harbor right on Antony's doorstep, and would make it terribly difficult for supply ships from Egypt to make it to Actium. This was an awful move for Antony's and Cleopatra's camp. Supplies started to run very low and Antony had to break the stranglehold.

There wasn't anything to be gained by waiting to do this, Octavian would simply become stronger because he had secure logistical support coming from Italy. Antony tried to prevent Octavian's camp from access to water by taking control of the springs in the plain beneath Mikahlitzi. He also sent another force of cavalry on a long journey around the Ambracian Gulf to establish itself above Octavian's camp and with that cut off their access to the Louros. However, once again, Lady Luck favored Octavian. His general Titus Statilius Taurus, launched a sudden counterattack and drove off Antony's men. At this juncture one of the eastern client kings deserted Antony's cause.

With the passage of time the health of Antony's men began to disintegrate. There were hardly any tides produced by the Meditteranean to wash away the garbage generated by a large army and naval fleet occupying such a crowded space. During the hot months of summer a plague of either dysentery or malaria wreaked havoc on Antony's camp. Men died and morale fell severely.

Most likely in early August, Antony led a vigorous attempt to break out by land. At the same time, Sosius commanded his fleet to sail under cover of a thick fog or mist and demolished the small enemy squadron that was blockading the exit from the straits of Actium. Most likely, the plan was for Sosius to join forces with Antony at some convenient point on the coast. Again, however, Lady Luck was on the side of Octavian and his forces. Agrippa, by pure chance, arrived in the area with the rest of his fleet and made Sosius flee back into harbor. Antony then tried another cavalry engagement-maybe by trying to cut off Octavian's water supply again-but was repelled. This led to the defection of King Amyntas of Galatia from Antony's forces with 2,000 cavalry.

The image is of a silver tetradrachm, Greco-Roman, minted in the Eastern Meditteranean c. 36 B.C. It shows both Antony on one side and Cleopatra on the other. I like using images of coinage from this period in history because the coins themselves-in certain cases-tell a huge story of what was going on at the time. I need to get caught up again with having material ready to post. It may be a week before anything is here again, but I doubt it will be that long. I wanted to give an outside time limit just in case. Thanks again to Jon, Cioara, Autumnforest and anyone who is commenting, reading or following this blog! We are coming up on a fascinating time with our story here and I am anxious to get to it and the aftermath.