immediately gave orders to Canidius to take sixteen legions and to go
down to the sea. Himself taking Cleopatra with him went to Ephesus. Here
the navy collected from all quarters, eight hundred ships, including
merchant vessels, of which Cleopatra furnished two hundred, and twenty
thousand talents and supplies for the war for all the army. Antonius,
being persuaded by Domitius and some others, told Cleopatra to sail to
Egypt and there to wait the result of the war. But as Cleopatra feared
that there would again be a reconciliation through Octavia, she
persuaded Canidius by a large bribe to speak to Antonius about her, and
to say, that it was neither just for a woman to be kept away from the
war, who supplied so many large contributions, nor was it to the
interest of Antonius to dispirit the Egyptians, who composed a large
part of the naval force; and besides this, he did not see to which of
the kings who joined the expedition Cleopatra was inferior in
understanding, she who for a long time by herself had governed so large
a kingdom, and had long enjoyed his company, and had learned to manage
great affairs. These arguments prevailed, for it was fated that all the
power should come into Cæsar's hands; and after the forces had come
together, they sailed to Samos and enjoyed themselves there. For as
orders had been given to kings and rulers and tetrarchs and nations and
all the cities between Syria and the Mæotis and Armenia and the
Illyrians[430] to send and bring their supplies for the war, so all the
persons who assisted at theatrical entertainments were required to meet
Antonius at Samos; and while nearly all the world around was lamenting
and groaning, one island for many days resounded with pipes and stringed
instruments, and the theatres were filled and the chori were vying with
one another. Every city also joined in the celebration by sending an ox,
and kings rivalled one another in giving entertainments and presents. So
that it went abroad and was said, how will persons behave in the
rejoicings after a victory, who make such costly banquets to celebrate
the preparations for war?
LVII. After these amusements were over, Antonius gave to the theatrical
company Priene for their dwelling; and sailing to Athens he again gave
himself up to pleasure and theatres. Cleopatra, who was jealous of the
honours that had been paid to Octavia in the city, for Octavia was very
much beloved by the Athenians, attempted to gain the popular favour by
many acts of liberality. The Athenians after voting to her honorable
distinctions, sent a deputation to her residence to carry the record of
the vote, and Antonius was one of them, as being an Athenian citizen;
and coming before her he went through an harangue on behalf of the
city. He sent persons to Rome to eject Octavia from his house; and it is
said that when she left it, she took all the children of Antonius with
her except the eldest of the children by Fulvia, for he was with his
father, and that she wept and lamented that she too would be considered
one of the causes of the war. And the Romans pitied not her, but they
pitied Antonius, and those chiefly who had seen Cleopatra, a woman who
had not the advantage over Octavia either in beauty or in youth.
LVIII. Cæsar was alarmed when he heard of the rapidity and the greatness
of the preparation[431] of Antonius, lest he should be compelled to come
to a decisive battle during that summer. For he was deficient in many
things, and the exaction of taxes vexed people; for the free men, being
compelled to contribute a fourth[432] of their income, and the class of
freedmen to contribute an eighth part of their property, cried out
against Cæsar, and tumults arising from these causes prevailed over all
Italy. Accordingly the delay in the war is reckoned among the greatest
faults of Antonius; for it gave time to Cæsar to make preparation, and
it put an end to the disturbances among the people; for while the money
was being exacted from them they were irritated, but when it had been
exacted and they had paid it they remained quiet.[433] Titius and
Plancus, friends of Antonius and men of consular rank, being insulted by
Cleopatra, for they made the most opposition to her joining the
expedition, escaped to Cæsar, and they gave him information about the
will of Antonius, as they were acquainted with the contents of it. The
will was placed with the Vestal Virgins,[434] and when Cæsar asked for
it, they would not give it to him, but they told him, if he wished to
have it, to come and take it himself. And he did go and take it; and
first of all he read it over by himself, and marked certain passages
which furnished ready matter of accusation; in the next place he
assembled the Senate and read the will, to the dissatisfaction of the
greater part; for they considered it to be altogether unusual and a hard
matter for a man to be called to account in his lifetime for what he
wished to be done after his death. Cæsar dwelt most on that part of the
will which related to the interment; for Antonius directed that his
body, even if he should die in Rome, should be carried in procession
through the Forum and sent to Alexandria to Cleopatra. Calvisius, an
intimate friend of Cæsar, brought forward also these charges against
Antonius in reference to Cleopatra: that he had given her the
libraries[435] from Pergamum, in which there were two hundred thousand
single books; and that at an entertainment in the presence of many
people he stood up and rubbed her feet[436] in compliance with a certain
arrangement and agreement; and that he allowed the Ephesians in his
presence to salute Cleopatra as mistress; and that frequently when he
was administering justice to tetrarchs and kings on his tribunal, he
would receive from her love-billets written on onyx or crystal and read
them. Furnius[437] also, who was a man of distinction and the most
powerful orator among the Romans, said that Cleopatra was being carried
in a litter through the Forum, and that Antonius when he saw her, sprung
up and left the judgment-seat and accompanied her hanging on the litter.
LIX. In most of these matters Calvisius[438] was supposed to be lying.
But the friends of Antonius going about in Rome entreated the people
for his sake, and they sent Geminius, one of their body, to entreat
Antonius not to be regardless about being deprived of his authority by a
vote and declared an enemy of the Romans. Geminius having sailed to
Greece became suspected by Cleopatra of acting on the behalf of Octavia,
and, though he was continually ridiculed at supper and insulted by
having unsuitable places at the feast assigned to him, he submitted to
this and waited for an opportunity of an interview; and when he was told
at supper to say what he had come about, he replied that all his
communication was to be made when he was sober, except one thing, which
he knew whether he was sober or drunk; and it was this, that all would
be well if Cleopatra would go off to Egypt. Antonius was irritated at
this, but Cleopatra said, "You have done well, Geminius, in having
confessed the truth without tortures." After a few days accordingly
Geminius made his escape to Rome. The flatterers of Cleopatra drove away
also many of the other friends of Antonius, who could not endure their
excesses over wine and their coarse behaviour; and among these were
Marcus Silanus and Dellius the historian. Dellius says that he was also
afraid of some design from Cleopatra, of which he had been informed by
Glaucus the physician. He had offended Cleopatra at supper by saying
that they had to drink vinegar, while Sarmentus[439] at Rome was
drinking Falernian. Now Sarmentus was a youth, one of Cæsar's
favourites, such as the Romans call Deliciæ.
LX. When Cæsar had made preparation sufficient, he got a vote passed for
war against Cleopatra[440] and for depriving Antonius of the authority
which he had surrendered to Cleopatra. Cæsar also said that Antonius,
owing to draughts that had been administered to him, was not in his
senses, and those whom the Romans had to fight against were Mardion the
eunuch, and Potheinus, and Iras the tire-woman of Cleopatra, and
Charmion, by whom all the chief matters of administration were directed.
These signs, it is said, happened before the war. Pisaurum,[441] a city
that had been colonised by Antonius, which was situated near the
Adriatic, was swallowed up by the opening of chasms in the earth. From
one of the stone statues of Antonius at Alba sweat oozed for many days,
and it did not cease, though there were persons who wiped it off. While
he was staying at Patræ, the Herakleium was destroyed by lightning; at
Athens the Dionysius, one of the figures in the Battle of the
Giants,[442] was blown down by the winds and carried into the theatre.
Now Antonius claimed kinship with Hercules by descent and with Dionysius
by imitating his manner of life, as it has been said, and he was called
young Dionysius. The same tempest also fell on the colossal statues of
Eumenes and Attalus, on which the name of Antonius had been inscribed,
and threw them down alone out of a large number. The admiral's ship of
Cleopatra was called Antonias, and a bad omen appeared as to it: some
swallows had made their nest under the stern, but other swallows
attacked and drove them out and destroyed the young.
LXI. They were now coming together for the war; and the fighting ships
of Antonius were not fewer than five hundred, among which were many
vessels of eight and ten banks of oars fitted out in proud and pompous
style; of the land forces there were one hundred thousand, and twelve
thousand horsemen. There were on his side of subject kings, Bocchus the
king of the Libyans, and Tarcondemus the king of Upper Cilicia, and
Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and Philadelphus of Paphlagonia, and
Mithridates of Commagene, and Sadalas of Thrace. These were with him.
From Pontus Polemon sent a force, and Malchus from Arabia, and Herodes,
the Jew; and besides these, Amyntas, the king of the Lycaonians and
Galatians.[443] There was also help sent from the king of the Medes.
Cæsar had two hundred and fifty ships of war, and eighty thousand
infantry, and about the same number of horsemen as the enemy. The
dominion of Antonius extended over the country from the Euphrates to the
Ionian sea and the Illyrians; and that of Cæsar from the Illyrians over
the country that reached to the Western Ocean, and over the country from
the ocean to the Tuscan and Sicilian sea. Of Libya Cæsar had the part
which extended opposite to Italy and Gaul and Iberia as far as the
pillars of Hercules; and Antonius had the part from Cyrene to Ethiopia.
LXII. Antonius was so mere an appendage to Cleopatra that though he had
a great superiority in land forces, he wished the decision of the affair
to depend on the navy, to please Cleopatra: and this, though he saw that
through want of a crew, men were being seized by the trierarchs out of
Greece, which had indeed suffered much, travellers, ass-drivers,
reapers, youths, and that even by these means the ships were not manned,
but the greater part were deficient and were ill manoeuvred. Cæsar's navy
consisted of ships not built to a great height nor yet for the purpose
of making a show, but adapted for easy and quick movement and well
manned; and he kept his fleet together in Tarentum and Brundusium, and
sent to Antonius to ask him not to waste the time, but to come with his
forces, and that he would provide his armament with naval stations free
from all hindrance, and harbours, and that he would retreat with his
land forces a day's journey for a horseman from the sea, until Antonius
had safely landed and encamped. Antonius replied in like strain to this
bragging language by challenging Cæsar to single combat, though he was
older than Cæsar; and if Cæsar declined this, he proposed that they
should decide the matter with their armies at Pharsalus, as Cæsar and
Pompeius had done before. While Antonius was taking his station near
Actium,[444] where Nicopolis is now built, Cæsar contrived to cross the
Ionian sea and to get possession of a place in Epirus, called Torune;
and as the friends of Antonius were uneasy, because their land force had
not yet come up, Cleopatra, jesting, said, "What is the harm if Cæsar is
sitting by a torune?"[445]
LXIII. At daybreak the advance of the enemy's fleet alarmed Antonius,
lest they should seize the ships which were without crews, and
accordingly he armed the rowers and placed them on the decks to make a
show, and raising the ships' oars and making them ready for plying, he
kept his ships on each side in the channel near Actium, prow to prow, as
if they were fit to be put in motion and prepared to fight. Cæsar, being
frustrated by this manoeuvre, retired. Antonius also by some well
contrived works shut in the water and deprived his enemies of it; and
the surrounding spots had only little water, and that was bad. He
behaved with magnanimity to Domitius also, and contrary to the judgment
of Cleopatra. Domitius, who was already suffering from fever, got into a
small boat and went over to Cæsar, on which Antonius, though much
annoyed, sent him all his baggage together with his friends and slaves.
Domitius indeed, as if he were repenting after the discovery of his
faithlessness and treachery, died immediately. There were also
defections among the kings, for Amyntas and Deiotarus went over to
Cæsar. Now as the navy was in all things unlucky and always too late to
give any help, Antonius was again compelled to turn his thoughts to his
land forces. Canidius also, who commanded the land forces, changed his
opinion at the sight of the danger, and he advised Antonius to send
Cleopatra away, and to retreat to Thrace or Macedonia, and then to
decide the matter by a battle. For Dicomes, the king of the Getæ,
promised to help him with a large force; and Canidius urged that there
would be no disgrace, if they should give up the sea to Cæsar, who had
been disciplined in the Sicilian war, but it would be a strange thing if
Antonius, who was excellently versed in military operations, should not
avail himself of his strength and his resources of so many heavy-armed
soldiers, and should instead thereof distribute his troops among
vessels and fritter them away. Notwithstanding this the advice of
Cleopatra prevailed that the war should be decided by a naval battle,
though she was already contemplating flight and making arrangements for
her own position, not with a view to contribute to the victory, but to
have the best place to retreat from if their cause should be ruined. Now
there were long lines which extended from the camp to the naval station,
and Antonius was accustomed to pass without suspecting any danger; and
as a slave of Cæsar told him that it would be possible to seize Antonius
as he went down through the lines, Cæsar sent men to lie in ambush for
him. They came so near accomplishing their purpose as this, that by
rising up too soon they seized the man who was advancing in front of
Antonius; and Antonius escaped with difficulty by running.
LXIV. When it had been resolved to make a sea fight, Antonius burned all
the Egyptian ships except sixty; but he manned the best and largest,
from three to ten banks of oars, with twenty thousand heavy-armed
soldiers and two thousand bowmen. Hereupon it is said that one of the
centurions, who had already fought many battles for Antonius and was
covered with wounds, wept as Antonius was passing by, and said;
"Imperator, why do you distrust these wounds or this sword and rest your
hopes in miserable logs of wood? Let Egyptians and Phoenicians fight on
sea, but give us land, on which we are accustomed to stand and to die or
to vanquish our enemies." Without making any reply, but merely by a
motion of his hand and the expression of his countenance encouraging the
man to be of good cheer, Antonius passed by, without however having any
good hopes himself, inasmuch as when the masters of the vessels were
desirous to leave the sails behind, he ordered them to be put on board
and taken with them, observing that not a single fugitive of the enemy
should be allowed to escape.
LXV.[446] Now on that day and the three following days the sea was
agitated by a strong wind which prevented an engagement, but on the
fifth, there being no wind and the sea being quite calm, they came to an
engagement. Antonius and Publicola commanded the right wing, and Coelius
the left; and in the centre were Marcus Octavius and Marcus Insteius.
Cæsar placed Agrippa on the left, and reserved the right wing for
himself. Canidius drew up the army of Antonius, and Taurus that of Cæsar
on the shore, and remained without moving. As to the two
commanders-in-chief, Antonius visited all his vessels in a row-boat and
exhorted his soldiers to trust to the weight of their ships and to fight
as if they were on land, without changing their position, and he urged
the masters of the ships to receive the shock of the enemy with their
vessels as if they were quietly at anchor, and to avoid the difficult
spots about the entrance of the bay: and Cæsar, it is said, while it was
still dark, left his tent, and as he was going round to the ships, he
met a man driving an ass, who being asked his name and knowing Cæsar,
replied, "My name is Goodluck, and my ass's name is Victor." For this
reason when Cæsar afterwards ornamented the place with the beaks of
ships, he set up a bronze figure of an ass and a man. After observing
the arrangement of the other part of his fleet, he went in a boat to the
right wing and was surprised to see the enemy resting quietly in the
straits; for the vessels had the appearance of being moored at their
anchors; and as he was for a long time convinced of this, he kept his
own ships at the distance of eight stadia from the enemy. It was now the
sixth hour, and a wind beginning to rise from the sea, the soldiers of
Antonius were impatient at the delay, and, trusting to the height and
magnitude of their ships as making them unassailable, they put the left
wing in motion. Cæsar, delighted to see this, ordered his right wing to
row backwards with the design of drawing the enemy still further out of
the gulf and the straits, and by surrounding them with his own light
vessels to come to close quarters with the enemy's ships, which, owing
to their size and the insufficiency of their crews, were cumbersome and
slow.
LXVI. Though the two fleets were beginning to come together, they did
not drive the ships against, nor strive to crush one another, for the
ships of Antonius, owing to their weight, were unable to move forwards
with any force, which mainly gives effect to the blows of the beaks, and
those of Cæsar not only avoided meeting front to front the strong and
rough brass work of the enemy, but did not even venture to strike
against them on the flank. For the beaks would easily have been broken
off by coming in contact with the hulls[447] of the enemy's vessels,
which were protected by large square pieces of timber fastened to one
another with iron. The battle therefore was like a land fight, or, to
speak more exactly, like the assailing of a fortress; for three and four
of Cæsar's ships at the same time were engaged about one of the ships of
Antonius, and the men fought with light shields and spears and poles and
fiery missiles; the soldiers of Antonius assailed them also with
catapults from wooden towers. While Agrippa was extending the left wing
with a view to surround the enemy, Publicola, being compelled to advance
to meet him, was separated from the centre, which fell into confusion,
and was also closely engaged with Arruntius. While the sea fight was
still undecided and equally favourable to both sides, all at once the
sixty ships of Cleopatra were seen raising their sails for the purpose
of making off, and flying through the centre of the combatants; for they
were stationed behind the large vessels and they caused confusion by
making their way through them. The enemy looked on with wonder, seeing
them take advantage of the wind and shape their course towards the
Peloponnesus. On this occasion Antonius clearly showed that he was not
governed by the considerations that befit either a commander or a man,
or even by his own judgment, but, as some one observed in jest, that the
soul of the lover lives in another person's body, so was he dragged
along by the woman as if he had grown to her and moved together with
her. For no sooner did he see her ship sailing away, than, forgetting
everything, and deserting and skulking away from those who were fighting
and dying in his cause, he got into a five-oared galley with only Alexas
the Syrian and Skellius to attend him, and followed after her who had
already ruined him and was destined to complete his ruin.
LXVII. Cleopatra, having recognised the vessel of Antonius, raised a
signal; and Antonius accordingly, coming up to her and being taken into
her ship, neither saw Cleopatra nor was seen by her, but advancing close
to the prow he sat down by himself in silence holding his head with both
his hands. In the meantime there were seen Liburnian ships[448] from
Cæsar's fleet in pursuit; but Antonius, by ordering his men to turn his
vessel's head towards them, kept them all in check, except the ship of
Eurykles, the Lacedæmonian, who proudly pressed on, brandishing a spear
on the deck, as if to hurl it at Antonius. Standing on the prow of his
vessel Antonius asked who it was that was pursuing Antonius? The reply
was, "I am Eurykles, the son of Lachares, and by the help of Cæsar's
fortune I am avenging my father's death." Now Lachares had been beheaded
by Antonius in consequence of being involved in a charge of robbery.
However Eurykles did not fall upon the ship of Antonius, but he dashed
against the other of the admiral-ships (for there were two) with the
brazen beak, and made it spin round, and as the ship fell off from its
course he took it, and also another ship which contained costly vessels
for table use. When this assailant had retired, Antonius, again settling
down in the same posture, remained without moving, and, after spending
three days at the prow by himself, either because of his passion or that
he was ashamed to see Cleopatra, he put in at Tænarus.[449] Here the
women who were in attendance on Cleopatra first of all brought them to
speak to one another, and next they persuaded them to sup and sleep
together. And already not a few of the transport ships and some of their
friends after the defeat began to collect around them; and they brought
intelligence of the destruction of the navy, but they supposed that the
army still kept together. Antonius sent messengers to Canidius with
orders for him to retreat quickly through Macedonia with his army into
Asia; and as it was his intention to cross over from Tænarus to Libya,
he selected one of the store-ships which conveyed much money and many
royal utensils in silver and in gold of great value, and gave them to
his friends, telling them to divide the things among them and to look
after their safety. As they refused and wept, he comforted them with
much affection and kindness, and by his entreaties induced them to
depart; and he wrote to Theophilus, his steward in Corinth, to provide
for the safety of the men and to conceal them until they should be able
to make their peace with Cæsar. This Theophilus was the father of
Hipparchus, who had the greatest influence with Antonius, and was the
first of his freedmen who went over to Cæsar, and he afterwards lived in
Corinth.