Augustus_ The Life of Rome's First Emperor - Anthony Everitt [92]
To add injury to insult, Octavian sent his sister, who had been living in Rome since last seeing Antony in Greece, to join her husband. She brought with her large stores of clothing for his troops, money, presents for Antony’s staff, and two thousand picked men, splendidly equipped with full armor, to serve as his Praetorian Guard (that is, the ex officio bodyguard of a general). She was also accompanied by seventy warships, the survivors of those Antony had lent to her brother. This apparently kind and thoughtful gesture was, in fact, multiply wounding.
First of all, the provision of help for Antony’s troops betrayed Octavian’s knowledge of the real outcome of the Parthian campaign. Second, the dispatch of two thousand soldiers rather than the twenty thousand promised was an almost laughable insult. Third, it was widely known that Antony was living with Cleopatra, and sending his wife to him was mischievously tactless.
Charitable historians have conjectured that Octavian wanted to apply pressure on his colleague with a view to detaching him from Cleopatra. But Octavian knew his Antony by now. He probably guessed that Antony would react intemperately, and show himself in a bad light.
When Octavia reached Athens, she received a curt message from her husband, instructing her to send on the legionaries and supplies and then return to Rome. Her brother advised her to move out of Antony’s palatial residence and set up her own independent household. Octavia obeyed her husband’s order but declined her brother’s advice: she came back to the capital, but refused to move house.
Plutarch presents the rejection from a romantic perspective, giving a highly colored account of Cleopatra staging a nervous breakdown to persuade Antony to send Octavia away. No such explanation is necessary; the decision was political and intended as a firm response to Octavian’s hostile, or at least unfriendly, actions.
The literary sources regard Octavia as a saintly figure, characterized by a “truly noble devotion and generosity of spirit.” One may detect here the hand of her brother’s propagandists. However, factual claims about matters familiar to contemporaries—and so not worth lying about—suggest that she did everything she could to save her marriage. She went on looking after the large brood of Antonian children, entertaining Antony’s friends in Rome on business, and doing everything she could to obtain what those friends wanted from Octavian.
It was beginning to be clear to all but the most determined optimists that the triumvirs were approaching a parting of the ways. Their personalities had always been diametrically opposed. Octavian suffered from frequent bouts of ill health; Antony was strong and gloriously fit. Octavian was dutiful and self-disciplined; Antony was prone to binge drinking and worked hard only when he had to. Octavian planned and schemed; Antony reacted more spontaneously to events. Octavian was fiercely loyal to those who put their confidence in him; Antony easily betrayed them. Octavian often broke his agreements; Antony fulfilled his promises.
At issue was not only a dysfunctional personal relationship but also opposing political philosophies, or at least casts of mind. Antony was an old-fashioned kind of politician, who was happy with things as they were provided that he could maintain a leading role in public life. Octavian was a revolutionary, who meant to transform the Roman world.
For the time being, though, the triumvirs silently agreed to forget about each other and concentrate on their own projects. There was room enough in the empire not to trip over each other.
XII
EAST IS EAST AND WEST IS WEST
35–34 B.C.
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Everywhere the land was covered by thick and tangled forests and there were few tilled fields. Occasional small clearings could be found where spelt and millet, the staple grains of the population, were grown. Here and there hills were crowned with fortress towns, to which people could retreat in