Power struggle Flashcards
Following the defeat of Caesar’s assassins, what did the Triumvirs do?
Draw up an agreement, known as the Treaty of the Brundisium
What did the Treaty of Brundisium entail?
- It gave each man a portion of the Empire to govern
- Octavian controlled the Western provinces, Antony the Eastern and Lepidus the African
At the time the Treaty of Brundisium was drawn up, what did Sextus Pompeius do?
- He took control of Sicily for himself, and was using this stronghold to blockade Rome’s trade routes
Who was Sextus Pompeius?
The son of Pompey the Great
What did Sextus Pompeius nearly cause, and when?
- He made it very difficult for grain to get into the city
- By 39BC, he had almost caused a famine
How was Sextus Pompeius dealt with?
Octavian worked with Agrippa to plan a naval campaign against him
Who was Agrippa?
63-12BC
- Octavian’s right-hand man, his best friend and his most trusted advisor in military concerns.
- Agrippa was the general in charge of almost all of Octavian’s wars
What did Octavian add to his title in 38BC?
‘Imperator’
- This meant commander
- It strengthened his link to Julius Caesar, who had also been called Imperator
- It also encouraged the idea that Octavian was a great military leader (even though at this point his career as a general hadn’t been that illustrious)
What happened with Agrippa and Octavian’s naval campaign against Sextus Pompeius?
- By July of 36BC, Agrippa had gathered and trained an impressive fleet
- He led this fleet in an invasion of Sicily, and totally destroyed Pompeius’ navy
How did Octavain later refer to his campaign against Pompeius?
- Mentioned in Section 25 of the Res Gestae, but Sextus Pompeius is never mentioned by name, nor is there any indication he was a Roman citizen
- This attempted to make it not seem like a civil war
How did Octavain celebrate his campaign against Pompeius?
- As a great personal victory
- He erected a rostral column, decorated with the prows of defeated ships and topped with a golden statue of himseld
How did the Second Triumvirate start to fall apart?
- In 36BC, Octavian bribed some of Lepidus’ legions to turn on him, effectively ending Lepidus’ political career
- Lepidus was exiled to his country estate in Italy until his death in 13/12BC
Like Julius Caesar, how did Octavian position himself to the public?
As the generous benefactor of the Roman people and of the city itself
What was one of Octavian’s key strategies for winning public support in Rome?
- Having his followers make gifts to the people and to the city
What did Octavian start work on in 42BC?
A new temple in honour of his father
- Known as the Temple of the Deified Julius Caesar
What did one of Octavian’s allies commission in 34BC, and who was it?
- A General called Statilius Taurus
- He commissioned a new stone amphitheatre that would be used to hold gladiatorial and animal games
What did Agrippa oversee in the city?
- A programme of urban renewal
- Repairing dilapidated streets and sewer systems, as well as a range of public buildings
Why was Octavian and his follower’s renewal of Rome significant?
All of their projects were highly visible, and all of them were designed to improve the quality of life of the Roman people
What did Octavian’s followers do for the poor?
- Made one-off gifts to them
- Agrippa threw tokens (which could be exchanged for money or clothing) to crowds at the theatre, and he also arranged for free admission to the public baths and made gifts of salt and oil to the urban poor
Who were Antony and Octavian’s patron Gods?
Antony aligned himself with Dionysus
- God of wine and theatre, and conqueror of the East
Octavian chose Apollo
- A god whose influence included the sun, prophecy, archery, music, medicine and civilisation
- Apollo also stood for discipline, moderation and morality
Why was having a patron God useful for conveying a politician’s ‘personal brand’
- The personalities and powers of the Gods would have been well known to all Romans
- They featured in many popular myths and were worshipped in a variety of public festivals
What rumour connected to Apollo did Octavian allow to spread?
- That he was Apollo’s son
- People believed that Octavian’s mother, Attia, had been visited in the night by Apollo in the form of a snake, and this was how Octavain was conceived
How did the rumour of Octavian being Apollo’s son boost his image?
- It strengthened his association with his patron God
- It made his role as ‘divi filius’ seem even more godly by being ‘descended’ from two divine fathers
- It invited people to link Octavian with the great Macedonian King Alexander the Great, whose mother Olympias was said to have conceived her son in the same way
What way of encouraging Romans to view Octavian as Apollo’s favourite backfired?
- Feast of the Twelve Gods, mentioned by Suetonius
- Octavain has given a feast for his friends in which each guest took the role of a major Roman deity
- The party was the subject of scandalous gossip because of the adulterous behaviour of the guests and because the feast occurred during a city-wide famine
Who had Octavian been married to before Livia?
- Clodia
- Scribonia
- both marriages were made and broken for political reasons
Did Octavian have any children with his previous wives?
- Scribonia gave birth to his only child, a girl named Julia
- On the same day she was born, Octavian divorced Scribonia to marry Livia
Why was Livia an ideal partner for Octavian?
- She came from the Claudii family, which was one of the oldest noble families in Rome.
- Octavian was able to take advantage of her excellent family connections
What was Livia like?
- Famously beautiful and highly intelligent, which reflected well on Octavian
- She reportedly spun and wove all of Octavian’s clothes herself
- She had two sons from a previous marriage- Tiberius and Drusus
What was a common way to damage someones reputation in Rome?
- To accuse your opponent of effeminacy
- This is because Roman men were expected to conform to a very narrow idea of masculinity.
What would a Roman man’s lover normally be like?
- Of a lower status to the man
- Possibly a slave, prostitute, or a foreigner
- That ensured they wouldn’t have any legitimate children, so they couldn’t inherit property or enter politics
How was Cleopatra different from any other mistress?
- She was a foreigner, but she was also Antony’s social equal- if not his better.
- Any of their children would be Egyptian royalty
Did Antony and Cleopatra have any children?
- In 40 BC, she had twins named Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene
- She had another child in 36BC, Ptolemy Philadelphus
Did Cleopatra have any children from previous relationships?
- She had a child with Julius Caesar, Caesarion.
What did Antony do in 36BC?
- Moved to Alexandria to live with Cleopatra full-time
- He married her, despite him being still married to Octavia
How did Octavian’s supporters react to his relationship and interactions with Cleopatra?
- Claimed he’d been bewitched by Cleopatra and robbed of his senses and masculinity
How did Antony’s behaviour play into the idea he’d been bewitched by Cleopatra?
He minted coins that depicted himself alongside Cleopatra
- It was unfit for a foreign woman to appear on a coin as though she were an important Roman
He spent his time in Alexandria feasting and enjoying lavish entertainment
- Octavian’s supporters claimed that Cleo had corrupted Antony’s traditional Roman austerity
What did Antony do in 34BC?
- He used Cleopatra’s money to launch a campaign into Armenia.
- He wanted to publicise his victory to the masses, but didnt’ celebrate a triumph- instead he held the ‘Donations of Alexandria’.
Where did the Donations of Alexandria take place and why was this significant?
- Spoils of war were paraded throguh Alexandria
- Octavian’s supporters interpreted this as Antony wanting to reduce the power of Rome and maybe even make Alexandria the centre of the Empire
What significant events happened in the Donations of Alexandria?
- Antony gave away large areas of Roman-controlled land to Cleopatra and her family
- Antony and Cleopatra were dresses as Dionysus/Osiris and Aphrodite/Isis throughout the ceremony
- Cleopatra was proclaimed ‘Queen of Kings’, and her children called Kings as well
When did the Donations of Alexandria take place?
34BC
When did Octavian steal Antony’s will from the Temple of Vesta?
32BC
What did Antony’s will state?
- Antony wanted to be buried alongside Cleopatra in Alexandria
- This was seen as the ultimate sign of Antony’s disloyalty to Rome
What did Octavian cause after he read Antony’s will to the Senate?
- He convinced the Senate to declare war on Cleopatra and Egypt
- This ensured it wouldn’t be seen as a civil war, but a campaign against a dangerous foreign power
What did Octavian start working on in 32BC?
A mausoleum for himself- this reinforced to the senate and to all of Rome that he was a dedicated Roman and intended to spend eternity in the city
How did Octavian present the Senate’s war against Egypt?
- As a campaign to bring peace to the Empire by putting down a dangerous foreign monarch
What was the decisive conflict of the civil war, and when did it occur?
The Battle of Actium
- 2nd September 31BC
Where was the Battle of Actium held?
Off the coast of Greece
Describe the events of the Battle of Actium:
- Octavian, with the help of Agrippa, led his forces to victory.
- Antony and Cleopatra fled to Alexandria.
- The following year, Octavian arrived at Alexandria.
- Antony killed himself on 1st August 30BC.
- Cleopatra first tried to negotiate with Octavian, but it didn’t succeed, and she chose death over humiliation and a life of imprisonment.
- She committed suicide on 12th August 30BC
What happened after Egypt’s defeat?
- Octavian took Egypt as a province for Rome.
How was Octavian’s victory at Actium celebrated?
- In 29BC, the Senate awarded him a triple triumph to celebrate his victories at Actium, Alexandria and Dalmatia
What occured during Octavian’s triple triumph?
- He paraded through the streets in a chariot over three consecutive days.
What happened on the day of the triumph celebrating the victory over Cleopatra?
- His chariot was followed by the spoils of battle, a statue of Cleopatra on her deathbed, and with Cleopatra’s surviving children locked in chains
What was the central and most symbolic act of the triple triumph?
The closing of the Temple of Janus Quirinus.
What was the Temple of Janus Quirinus?
- Janus was the double-faced God of transitions and in-betweens.
- His temple in Rome had gates that could only ever be closes if there was peace in Rome and throughout the Empire.
- Before Octavian, the gates had only ever been closed on two occasions in Rome’s history
How else was the triple triumph celebrated?
- A triumphal arch was built in the forum
- The Temple of the Deified Julius caesar was decorated with prows of ships and weapons
- He founded a new city in Greece, where his army had camped before the battle, calling it Nikopolis.
Who was Octavian’s second wife?
Scribonia
- Her most famous relative was Sextus Pompeius, and the marriage was intended to solidify a political alliance between Octavian and Pompeius
- In 38BCE they had their only child, Julia
When did Octavian marry his second wife?
39BCE
When did Octavian marry his third wife?
- In 38BCE, very shortly after he left Scribonia.
- He divorced Scribonia on the day she gave birth to Julia
- He married his final wife, Livia Drusilla
