Cleopatra the Great (32 page)

Women certainly began to make their presence felt in the political crisis. Antonius' mother Julia protected her brother Lucius when the soldiers came to take him, bravely challenging them to first kill her ‘who gave your general his birth', which inevitably they refused to do. Emboldened by such events, and no doubt remembering the power and influence wielded by Cleopatra during her recent residence in their city, an indignant deputation of women even marched on the Forum to protest against the triumvirs' decision to tax fourteen hundred of Rome's wealthiest women. Although objections from Antonius' mother and Octavian's sister Octavia were rebuffed by Fulvia, the delegation's leader, Hortensia, gave a rousing speech, pointing out that women had no say in government and so should be exempt from tax.

Under normal circumstances, such outspoken behaviour would have caused the same scandal as had Gaia Afrania, whose insistence on defending herself in court back in Caesar's day had made her name a byword for a woman of easy virtue. Yet Hortensia's father had been a famous orator who now ‘lived again in his female offspring and inspired his daughter's words', making her role as pliant mouthpiece just about acceptable. The women's unprecedented stand did the trick and, although the demonstrators were removed by force, the number taxed was immediately reduced by a thousand.

The triumvirs' female relatives once again proved useful when it came to cementing their menfolk's alliances, and with Lepidus' son already engaged to Antonius' eldest child, Antonia, Octavian broke off his own existing engagement and agreed to marry Antonius' step-daughter Claudia, Fulvia's daughter by a previous marriage. Having effectively tied his two colleagues to him by marriage, Antonius pondered other forms of alliance. With his fellow triumvirs he now rebuilt the Isis temple, the Iseum Campense, on the Campus Martius. Dedicated ‘in honour of Julius Caesar' as one of the schemes planned by Caesar and Cleopatra, and now completed to honour Caesar's memory, it would also be a means of gaining favour with Cleopatra whose support would be needed in the East in the forthcoming war against Brutus and Cassius.

In tacit acceptance of Cleopatra's removal of her younger brother Ptolemy XIV, the triumvirs recognised Caesarion's kingly status and Cleopatra concluded an alliance with Caesar's old colleague Dolabella as he fought against Cassius for control of Syria. When the Roman legions left in Alexandria by Caesar back in 47
BC
were requested by Dolabella as reinforcements, Cleopatra agreed and sent them north; unfortunately they were intercepted en route and went over to Cassius' side. Dolabella then attacked the province of Asia Minor, whose governor, Trebonius, happened to be the conspirator who had so fatally waylaid Antonius at the entrance to the Senate just prior to Caesar's murder. Dolabella captured Trebonius, decapitated him and let his troops use his head as a football.

Needing to counter Dolabella's power at sea, and unable to obtain Sextus Pompeius' fleet, Cassius requested ships from various places around the Mediterranean. Although Rhodes and Lycia would not comply, he managed to get his hands on part of the Egyptian fleet when Serapion, Cleopatra's governor of Cyprus, apparently colluding with Cyprus' former queen Arsinoe holed up in Ephesus, gave him the Egyptian ships which were stationed on the island. This gave Cassius a tremendous military advantage at sea to match the one he had on land. Although some believe that Cleopatra had unofficially ordered Serapion to do this while feigning ignorance, perhaps backing both sides so as to keep Egypt independent whoever the victors, one ancient account reveals that ‘Serapion, not waiting to consult Cleopatra, sent Cassius what ships they had'.

Playing for time, Cleopatra refused Cassius' request for ships, telling him Egypt was suffering acute famine and plague and did not have the extra resources — while all the while building new warships in Alexandria's dockyards. She was also maintaining a seaborne trade with India, evidenced by an inscription from Koptos dated to 43
BC
which refers to her official responsible ‘for the Red and Indian Seas'. Nor could it be likely that she felt any enthusiasm for helping the man who had stabbed to death her child's father only a year before. Yet she now faced a very bleak future as Cassius' forces began to close in.

Having overpowered Dolabella, who committed suicide in July 43
BC
, Brutus removed another of the triumvirs' allies by installing Hortensius Hortalus, brother of the outspoken female orator Hortensia, as governor of Macedonia, and allowed him to execute the former governor, Antonius' brother Gaius. So by 42
BC
, Cassius and Brutus were in peace talks with the Parthians and controlled all the East except Egypt.

With no legions to defend a country already weakened by famine, Cleopatra did all she could to prevent Cassius' imminent invasion from just over the border in Syria until the Triumvirs finally made their move. Leaving Lepidus in control of Rome, Antonius and Octavian set out east to tackle the assassins, so Brutus summoned Cassius north to join forces at the Hellespont.

By September 42
BC
both sides were ready — as was Cleopatra, who intended to join up with the Triumvirs and provide them with the ships they needed, making amends for Serapion's apparent betrayal but also wishing to play her part against those who had murdered Caesar. Just as she had led her army from Syria into Egypt back in 48
BC
, she now prepared to command her troops and, taking up Caesarion's cause as ‘Avenger of his Father', sailed out of Alexandria ‘with a powerful fleet to assist them, in defiance of Cassius'. Although Cassius received intelligence of her plan and sent sixty warships with archers to lie in wait for her around the Peloponnese, rough autumn seas proved her undoing, and caught up in a violent storm off the coast of Libya, she was struck by severe sea sickness and much of her new fleet was wrecked. Although she managed to struggle back to Alexandria and immediately began work on sixty new vessels, news of her attempt reached the conspirators who sent out ships to destroy any of hers that remained and report sightings of wreckage. Yet with part of the enemy fleet drawn away on this task Antonius gained enough time to ferry his legions across to Macedonia where they were eventually joined by Octavian, carried in a litter since he had already started to feel unwell at the thought of the approaching battle.

They drew up their combined forces at Philippi, named after Alexander's father Philip II. Here there was an established temple of Isis, which explains how one man was able to switch sides and reach Brutus' camp. Disguised as an Isis priest, in the long robes and mask of the jackal god Anubis, he did not attract any undue attention. The fighting began on 23 October 42
BC
. Brutus soundly beat Octavian's forces and seized his camp, but when he began to look for him Octavian was nowhere to be found. Having sent out his men to do battle, Caesar's nervous great-nephew had hidden out in nearby marshland after receiving a dream warning him to avoid the fight. Or at least that was his story.

Fortunately Antonius had meanwhile broken Cassius' line and beaten him back to a rocky outcrop. Although Brutus had then sent his cavalry to assist, Cassius' poor eyesight mistook the approaching troops for those of Antonius and he hastily committed suicide. As the conflict dragged on Brutus led out his own forces again on 16 November, but this time was routed by Antonius. So many of the defeated conspirator's soldiers deserted, including the poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, better known as Horace, that no hope was left. Brutus therefore had a friend help him commit suicide.

Although Brutus had been responsible for the deaths of both Caesar and Antonius' brother Gaius, Antonius, as a former friend of his, covered his body with his own purple cloak and ordered him a noble funeral. But Octavian was having none of it. Suddenly appearing from his marshy hideaway after a sudden recovery, he ordered Brutus' head to be cut off, sent to Rome and thrown at the feet of Caesar's statue. He then sat back to watch the execution of those conspirators who had been taken prisoner, ‘his conduct so disgusting to the remainder of the prisoners they courteously saluted Antony as their conqueror, but abused [Octavian] to his face with the most obscene epithets'.

With the victory completely his, the legions saluted Antonius as ‘Imperator', general, while Octavian decided to keep a low profile. Yet in his rewriting of history Octavian would claim to have won a glorious victory, his biographer adding that he had defeated Brutus and Cassius even ‘though in ill-health at the time'. To avenge his brother Gaius' death, Antonius ordered Hortensius to be executed at Gaius' tomb. Then, all necessary action taken, the conspirators punished and Caesar avenged, Antonius shaved off the beard he had worn for the last two years. He also ensured that suitable thanksgivings would be made at Philippi's temple of Isis, ordering the installation of ‘columns entrusting the city entirely to the goddess' guardianship as its Queen and Saviour'. This endeared him to the peoples of the East and Isis' most important representative, Cleopatra. Further acknowledgement of the Egyptian ruler's bravery at sea in the recent war may explain the origins of a mysterious marble head found in Rome. The hair is set in the familiar melon coiffure topped by a curious triangular crown, and ‘the unusual arrangement of hair or head-ornament may reflect the subject's involvement in a religious cult or suggest that she should be compared to a goddess'. Although not previously identified, the headgear's incredible similarity to the ship's-prow crown worn by Berenike II and the wreath of ship's beaks awarded by the Senate for distinction in naval combat may well constitute an image of Cleopatra as Isis Pharia, patron goddess of Alexandria and Mistress of the Seas, honoured for her military achievements when avenging Caesar.

As the war against Caesar's assassins drew to an end the triumvirs carved up the empire among them, their particular characters very much reflecting the territories they chose. For although Octavian returned west and retained his control of Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily, taking Spain from Lepidus but ceding him the province of Africa, Antonius took the lion's share. Placing Gaul under his own governors, he claimed the entire East as his own, his resounding victory at Philippi legitimising him as ruler in the eyes of its Hellenised peoples. The five provinces of Macedonia, Asia Minor, Bithynia-Pontus, Cilicia and Syria, plus a host of client kingdoms, would need serious reorganisation before he could access the taxes required for his projected campaign against the Parthians. But in the meantime he spent the winter of 42-41
BC
in Athens, where he had lived in his student days.

Dressed in his favourite Greek attire, he went about the cultured city attending lectures, banquets, games and the theatre, where he ‘erected a scaffold in plain sight above the theatre, and roofed with green boughs, like the ‘caves' built for Bacchic revels; on this he hung tambourines, fawnskins and other Dionysiac trinkets of all sorts, where he reclined in company with his friends and drank from early morning, being entertained by artists summoned from Italy, while Greeks from all parts assembled to see the spectacle'. For that extra-spectacular
son et lumiere
touch ‘he even shifted the place of his revels to the top of the Acropolis, while the entire city of Athens was illuminated with torches hung from the roofs. And he gave orders that he should be recognised as Dionysus throughout all the cities.'

When spring came it was time to start work in the East, rewarding those rulers who had supported the triumvirs and punishing those who had not. Crossing into Asia, he visited Pergamon, home of the impressive library of the Attalids dominated by a huge statue of Athena, and summoned representatives from the various regions to meet with him. Following his demand for a massive ten years' worth of tax to be paid in a single year, negotiations had resulted in it being spread over two, since he would need to retain the support of the states bordering Parthia. After Antonius met with the Judaeans Hyrcanus II was reinstated as high priest in recognition of his support for Caesar in the earlier Alexandrian War, but following the death of Hyrcanus' minister Antipatros, an Edomite Arab and nominal Jew, he was replaced by his capable son Herod who Antonius made a viceroy and awarded regal status. Antonius was also called on to arbitrate between two rival kings in Cappadocia, and, despite a brief affair with the beautiful Queen Glaphyra, mother of one candidate, Antonius gave the throne to his rival before Glaphyra ultimately got her way.

Yet he was still a married man, his interests back in Rome represented by his formidable wife Fulvia, ‘a woman of restless spirit and very bold' and said to be female only in body. Antonius acknowledged his wife's admirable contribution to his government by issuing coins in Gaul and Phoenicia with their joint profiles, and in some cases with Fulvia's portrait alone, the first Roman woman to be so portrayed. She worked closely alongside Antonius' remaining brother, Lucius, then consul, and the pair began to formulate plans to oust Octavian, currently facing the tricky problem of settling one hundred thousand veteran troops demanding land in Italy.

At the other side of the empire Antonius moved on to Ephesus, home of the great goddess Artemis, where the citizens who had hailed Caesar as divine and managed to keep hold of their temple treasury had also heard of Antonius' desire to be hailed as Dionysos. They sent out women ‘dressed up like bacchantes and the men andboys like satyrs and fauns, and throughout the town nothing was to be seen but spears wreathed about with ivy, harps, flutes and psalteries, while Antony in their songs was Dionysus the Giver of Joy'. Such recognition provided an all-important link to Alexander, most useful propaganda if Antonius was to follow in his footsteps and take on Parthia. Like his old master Auletes, he was proclaimed ‘New Dionysus', a title repeated throughout the Near East as a useful counter to Octavian's own claims to deity in the West.