Mark Antony (character of Rome)

Rome character


name= Mark Antony
class= Plebeian
family= Antonius
allies= Gaius Julius Caesar
Atia of the Julii
Lucius Vorenus
Gaius Octavian (2.5-2.8)
Octavia of the Julii
Cleopatra
enemies= Optimates
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus
Cato the Younger
Scipio
Cassius
Quintus Valerius Pompey
Marcus Junius Brutus
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Gaius Octavian
appearances=Appears in every episode.
portrayed= James Purefoy
fate= Commits suicide in "De Patre Vostro"

Mark Antony is a historical figure who features as a character in the HBO/BBC2 original television series "Rome", played by James Purefoy. The real Mark Antony was a Roman general and politician and a close supporter of Julius Caesar.

Character history

Season 1

As "Rome" begins, military genius Antony serves with Julius Caesar in Gaul. Elected as tribune by Caesar's influence, Antony becomes Caesar's main political representative in Rome during the crucial period leading up to the Crossing of the Rubicon. When a measure is passed in the senate to require Caesar to abandon his army and his imperium, which would leave him open to prosecution for treason by his political enemies, Antony attempts to veto it. However, a brawl breaks out and Antony's veto is not noted. Antony, guarded by members of the Legio XIII including Pullo and Vorenus, attempts to return to the senate to veto the measure, but is prevented from doing so when Pullo is attacked by a member of the Pompeian gang surrounding the senate.

Fleeing to Las Animas, Antony joins Caesar in his march on Rome. When Caesar leaves Rome to pursue the Optimates to Greece, Antony remains behind with the XIII, much to his chagrin.

When the war in Greece turns against Caesar, he sends for Antony. Antony considers ignoring the summons, and is urged to do so both by Pompey's emissaries and by his longtime paramour (and Caesar's niece) Atia of the Julii, who also proposes that the two marry. Antony rejects both the proposition and the proposal, and proceeds to Greece in time to be present for the Battle of Pharsalus.

After the Battle, Antony returns to Rome and continues to run it in Caesar's absence. He seems to be effective in this, intimidating Cicero into abandoning his attempts to plot against Caesar. He also reestablishes his relationship with Atia after previously spurning her. At the time of Caesar's assassination, Antony is distracted. Upon seeing Caesar's corpse, Antony appears genuinely grief-stricken, and backs out of the Senate without speaking.

Season 2

He soon falls comfortably into the position of "de facto" ruler of Rome. In "Son of Hades," Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt comes to Rome after Caesar's death. Antony dismisses her request for public acknowledgement of Caesar's son Caesarion with derision. Caesar's heir (and Atia's son) Octavian begins making demands for his inheritance; Antony rebuffs him. Not to be underestimated, Octavian makes a public announcement that he will pay Caesar's legacy to the common people. He and a furious Antony have violent fight during which Octavian is nearly killed; the boy leaves Rome to Marcus Agrippa. Soon he has raised an army to challenge Antony's dominance over Rome.

Antony and Octavian's war escalates; a peace is finally brokered by Atia. Hoping to finally marry Antony, she suggests a public gesture of unity between their families. Atia is shocked and devastated when her son marries Antony to Atia's daughter Octavia of the Julii instead. But soon Antony and Atia are back in each other's beds, and Octavia resumes her secret affair with Agrippa. Concerned about how his family's behavior reflects on his own honor, Octavian forces Antony to relocate to Egypt in "A Necessary Fiction," leaving Atia and Octavia in Rome. Arriving at the Egyptian palace, Antony looks at an alluring Cleopatra with new eyes.

Years later in the next episode, "Deus Impeditio Esuritori Nullus," Antony and Cleopatra are in love in Egypt raising their own twins, Helios and Selene; she urges him to declare war on Rome to free himself once and for all from Octavian's tyranny. Antony is hesitant, knowing that an attack on Rome would strip him of the people's devotion, the one thing that Octavian does not have. When Antony refuses Octavian's request for increased grain supplies for a starving Rome, Octavian sends his sister Octavia and mother Atia to intervene. Antony insists to a jealous Cleopatra that he no longer loves Atia, but Cleopatra intends to publicly flaunt their love in front of the Roman women or kill them; trying to prevent Atia's humiliation or murder, Antony has his wife and former lover sent away without seeing them. He soon descends into a drunken and opium-induced self-indulgent stupor.

In the series finale "De Patre Vostro," Antony has neglected his legions, and his military might begins to slowly fail. Octavian receives what is purportedly a copy of Antony's last will and testament from Posca; the document states that Antony will leave all of his land and titles to his illegitimate children by Cleopatra. This, as Octavian guesses it will, turns the Roman people against Antony; allowing Octavian to declare him a traitor and go to war against him. Antony loses the Battle of Actium to Octavian, who seeks Antony's personal surrender or he will burn the palace to the ground with everyone inside. Cleopatra hopes for some alternate solution, but to Antony the only way out of the situation is suicide. Octavian makes a secret offer to Cleopatra: she can keep her life and her crown in exchange for allowing his men into the palace to take Antony. She is genuinely torn between her love for Antony, her duty as queen and her personal honor. She and Antony agree to die by their own hands, but with the help of her servant and advisor Charmian, Cleopatra later fakes her own suicide, prompting Antony to kill himself. Soon realizing that Octavian only wants her as a trophy and will never let her keep her throne, Cleopatra foils him by allowing a poisonous snake to bite her. Octavian later asks Octavia to raise Antony and Cleopatra's twins, and she accepts.

Comparison with the historical Mark Antony

Most of what we know about the historical Mark Antony comes from Plutarch's "Parallel Lives", and his personality in "Rome" appears to be essentially consistent with what Plutarch wrote of him. [ [http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/antony.html Plutarch's "Parallel Lives": "Antony" ~ Internet Classics Archive] (MIT)] [ [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Antony*.html Plutarch's "Parallel Lives": "Life of Antony" - Loeb Classical Library edition, 1920] ] [ [http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/d_antony.html Plutarch's "Parallel Lives": "The Comparison of Demetrius and Antony" ~ Internet Classics Archive] (MIT)] Antony is portrayed as a soldier's soldier, a lover of women, and unfailingly devoted to Caesar. "Rome" also depicts him as truly despising politics, and lacking tact or subtlety in political matters, which Caesar uses to his advantage.

The antipathy Antony shows for Cicero in, for example, the episode "Caesarion" is historically attested. The historical Mark Antony held Cicero responsible for the execution of Antony's stepfather, Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, as part of the Catiline conspiracy.

There is no evidence that Mark Antony was romantically involved with Atia Balba Caesonia (basis for Atia of the Julii) as is depicted in the series. The Mark Antony of "Rome" is also notably lacking family; the historical Antony had two younger brothers, Lucius and Gaius, both of whom played roles in the events of the time. Additionally, it is not mentioned in the series that Antony was a blood relative of Caesar's through his mother, Julia Antonia, Caesar's cousin.

Further, the Mark Antony of "Rome" is initially unmarried; the historical Mark Antony was married three times prior to his union with Octavia Minor (to Fadia, Antonia Hybrida and, most notably, Fulvia). Antony would have married Fulvia at some point during the events of Season 1. The historical Antony had seven children: two sons, Marcus Antonius Antyllus and Iullus Antonius Creticus, by Fulvia; two daughters, Antonia Major and Antonia Minor, by Octavia Minor; and a daughter and two sons, Cleopatra Selene, Alexander Helios and Ptolemy Philadelphus by Cleopatra VII. Only Antonia Major and Cleopatra's twins Selene and Helios are noted in the series.

The historical timeline has also been manipulated. Antony fathered his first two children with Cleopatra before marrying Octavia; when he later left Rome, he settled in Athens, Greece with Octavia, and they had their daughters. He ultimately left his wife in Greece and reunited with Cleopatra in Egypt; he and Cleopatra subsequently had their third child. In the series, Antony marries Octavia and is then forced by Octavian to relocate to Egypt; he leaves Octavia in Rome pregnant with Antonia Major (who may not be his). In Egypt, Antony reconnects with Cleopatra; they have met before but never had a romantic relationship. They later have the twins Helios and Selene.

In the series, Antony is elected "Tribune of the People;" the correct title would have been "Tribune of the Plebs."

References