the Roman Republic. As he grew to manhood and
beyond, Antony earned the reputation for being an insa-
tiable womanizer.
In58 or 57 B.C.E., he traveled to Syria, joining the
army of Gabinius, where as a cavalry commander he
served in Egypt and Palestine with distinction. He was in
Gaul in 54 B.C.E. as a staff member for Julius CAESAR. This
connection proved useful, for in 52 B.C.E., Marc Antony
became a quaestor and the most ardent and determined
member of the inner circle of Caesar. In 49 B.C.E., while
serving as Caesar’s tribune in Rome, Antony vetoed the
Senate decree stripping Caesar of his command and then
joined him in Gaul. The Senate’s actions launched the
Roman civil war. Returning to Rome, Antony watched
over Caesar’s interests during the general’s Spanish cam-
paign and then commanded the left wing of Caesar’s
forces at the famous battle of Pharsalus in 48 B.C.E. There
Caesar’s great enemy, POMPEYthe Great, was defeated and
forced to flee to what he believed to be sanctuary in
Egypt. For his courage and loyalty Antony was made
Caesar’s coconsul in 44 B.C.E.
Whatever plans Caesar had for Antony died with his
assassination at the hands of conspirators on March 15,
44 B.C.E. Antony seized the dead general’s papers, read his
will, gave the funeral oration, and occupied Caesar’s
property, representing himself to the people as Caesar’s
heir.
In the confused and highly charged days that fol-
lowed, Antony gained control of Cisalpine Gaul and
faced the forces of Brutus and Caesar’s other assassins,
who were joined by Cicero and the Roman Senate and
Octavian (the future emperor AUGUSTUS), Caesar’s heir.
Antony was defeated in April 43 B.C.E., suffering setbacks
at Forum Gallorum and especially at Mutina. He
retreated into Gallia Narbonensis and there gathered
assorted allies and supporters.
The Second Triumvirate, a coalition of political lead-
ers, was established in November of 43 B.C.E., comprising
Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus. These men and their
forces faced the Republicans (Caesar’s assassins) at
Philippi in 42 B.C.E., where the last of them fell in battle.
Antony took control of the East, with plans to carry out
Caesar’s planned campaign against Parthia. He was
delayed by a meeting with CLEOPATRA VIIofEgypt, in Tar-
sus in 41 B.C.E. The growing rift between Antony and
Octavian was furthered in the Perusine War when Fulvia,
Antony’s wife, and Lucius, his brother, also opposed
Octavian in the conflict.
Fulvia’s death ended the dispute, and peace was
made between Octavian and Antony in 40 B.C.E., at Brun-
disium. As part of the political settlement, Octavian gave
his sister OCTAVIAto Antony in marriage, receiving in
return Cisalpine Gaul.
The long-awaited Parthian Campaign of 36 B.C.E. was
intended to cement Antony’s position in the Roman
world, but it proved less than successful. Antony
repulsed King Phraates IV of Parthia around Phraaspa but
was forced to retreat because of the heat and the clever
use of cavalry by the enemy. Antony thus failed to make
himself the military equal of the murdered Caesar. He
subsequently proved inadequate in replacing Caesar in
the realm of politics as well.
Around the same time as his ill-fated campaigns, the
weakest member of the triumvirate, Marcus Lepidus, fell
from power, leaving mastery of the Roman world to only
two combatants. Octavian in effect ruled the western half
of the empire and Antony the East. The East tempted
Antony with dreams of unlimited power, and he suc-
cumbed completely.
Key to Antony’s attraction to the East was his leg-
endary affair with Cleopatra VII. She and the vast wealth
of Egypt became his principal allies, but as a result,
Antony drifted further from Rome and the base of his
political power. A final split with Octavian came in 33
B.C.E., followed by a divorce from Octavia. Sensing that
universal support would be crucial, Octavian swayed
public opinion in Rome by publishing Antony’s will,
which left large gifts to his illegitimate children by
Cleopatra. Antony was stripped of his authority by the
Senate, and war was declared upon Cleopatra.
The war climaxed at the battle of ACTIUM, off the
west coast of Greece, on September 2, 31 B.C.E. It proved
a disaster for Antony, whose personal courage and deter-
mination were not enough to overcome the precision of
Octavian’s fleet or the halfhearted support of the Romans
who served Antony’s cause. Following the battle, Antony
joined Cleopatra in ALEXANDRIA. After a brief effort to
stem the Roman advance into Egypt, Antony and Cleopa-
tra killed themselves in August of 30 B.C.E.Anubeion A shrine in SAQQARAerected to honor ANU-
BIS, a deity of Egypt. Anubis, normally depicted as a
JACKAL, was honored as well by a necropolis for canines
in the galleries of the shrine.Anubis (Anpu, Anup) The Greek rendering of the
Egyptian Anpu or Anup, called the “Opener of the Way”
for the dead, Anubis was the guide of the afterlife. From
the earliest time Anubis presided over the embalming rit-
uals of the deceased and received many pleas in the mor-
tuary prayers recited on behalf of souls making their way
to TUAT, or the Underworld.
Anubis was normally depicted as a black JACKALwith
a bushy tail or as a man with the head of a jackal or a
DOG. In the PYRAMID TEXTSAnubis was described as the
son of Ré and given a daughter, agoddess of freshness. In
time he lost both of those attributes and became part of
the Osirian cultic tradition, the son of NEPTHYS, aban-
doned by his mother, who had borne him to OSIRIS.ISIS
raised him and when he was grown he accompanied
Osiris. He aided Isis when SETslew Osiris and dismem-
bered his corpse. Anubis invented the mortuary rites at42 Anubeion