ANTONIUS, Marcus, commonly known as Mark Antony, a Roman triumvir: b. 86 a.c.; d. 30 B.C. He was the grandson of Marcus An tonius, the greatest orator and one of the great est men of his day. His father, also Marcus Antonius, was surnamed Creticus in derision, from a disgraceful defeat which he suffered in an unprovoked invasion of the isle of Crete. He went abroad early, served with Gabinius in Syria, and distinguished himself greatly, both there and in Egypt, where he already gave tokens of consummate soldiership. He next joined Caesar in Gaul, where he passed several campaigns with increasing honor as one of his legates, and deserved much of the credit, usual ly given to his leader, for the total defeat of Vercingetorix at the terrible siege of Alesia. Being elected one of the tribunes of the people, when the Senate ordered Caesar to disband his forces, he, with Quintus Cassius, vetoed the bill ; and, on the Senate proceeding to arm the con suls with dictatorial power by the vote ne quid respublica detrimenti capiat, they fled together, disguised as slaves, to Caesar's camp, feigning to believe that their lives were in danger, thus giving that ambitious general the desired oc casion for crossing the Rubicon and marching upon Rome. In reward for this service, when Caesar went to follow up his fortunes by crush ing out the Pompeian party in Spain, he left Antony governor of Italy and lieutenant-gen eral of his forces. He astounded all Italy by the ostentation and cynicism of his vices, but when the last struggle took place between Pompey and his own commander, he at once laid aside the debauchee and resumed the soldier. His skill preserved the fleet and intrenchments at Dyrrachium; it was he who commanded the victorious left wing in the crowning conflict at Pharsalia, and turned the wavering tide of success to the standards of Caesar. When the Ides of March had come, and great Caesar fell at the base of Pompey's statue, it was the mas culine and sonorous eloquence of Antony— for he was an orator second to Cicero and Caesar only—that did actually raise the stones of Rome to mutiny and forced the discomfited murderers to fly from their half-finished task.
It was Antony's soldiership and Antony's sword that defeated Cassius and drove Brutus to suicide, while the cold, cowardly, crafty Oc tavius was sleeping in his secure tent. In the proscriptions which followed it is characteristic of Antony that he was by so much the more insolent, as he was the less cruel, of the trium virs. But the third triumvir, the imbecile Lepidus, was soon disposed of, and Octavius and Antony divided the Roman world, as mas ters. Anthony took the East; Octavius, the cold formalist, betook himself to the West. Thence forth the life of Antony was one wild dream Once he broke from his luxurious lethargy, in vaded central Armenia and penetrated Padilla; and then, forced to retreat at length by the circumstances of the country, the climate, the innumerable hordes of Oriental horse, brought off his army by a most extraordinary retreat. In 21 days he fought 18 pitched battles, marched 300 miles, through one continuous skirmish, and when he reached the boundary stream his Parthian pursuers unstrung their bows and bade him go away unharmed. He returned to his life of luxury and to Cleopatra, but his career was run. Rome took arms against him; his troops, his mistress, his fortune deserted him; and Actium saw him, for the first time, with his back to his foes. Deceived to the last by the Egyptian Queen, who imposed upon him by a false rumor of her death, he died by his own hand. Most like he was to Mirabeau in that he was everything at times, and in everything almost the greatest, but nothing long— orator, soldier, statesman; trifler, buffoon; tribune, triumvir, conqueror; faithful lover, false husband, fran tic debauchee; and, when the wine of life was quaffed to the lees, a fearless suicide at last.