-January 1, 43 BC- Everyone in the high offices of the government changes over (as they did every year). The move was usually lateral, as they usually would go from like consul to pro-consul or would move out as administrators of provinces or whatever.
-Marc Antony was pro-consul and was to take over the position as governor of Macedonia, but at the last minute he changed his mind and wanted to govern Cisalpine Gaul instead.
-However, a dude named Decimus Brutus was still governor of Cisalpine Gaul, and his term wasn't up yet, so so he refused to roll over just because of Marc Antony (who had gotten the tribunes to change the law, I guess).
-So, instead of using diplomacy or legality, Marc Antony just gathered up an army and marched off to Cisalpine Gaul to remove Brutus by force!
-Obviously, the Republic was completely fucking broken at this point.
-Antony traveled to the Po Valley in Cisalpine Gaul and began to lay siege to the city of Mutina (where Brutus was holed up).
-There were two new consuls of Rome at this time: Gaius Vibius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, both big Julius Caesar supporters who had served under him in his armies and had been appointed consuls by Caesar himself.
-Although they had been Caesar supporters, they still didn't like Antony fucking around now that they were in positions of high authority. Antony was no Julius Caesar.
-They declared him an enemy of the state once he marched off to Cisalpine Gaul.
-Meanwhile, Octavian knew that he had to do something to continue his upward momentum, so he moved into Roman politics as pro-praetor.
-The Senate allowed him to do this because he had legions backing him, plus the Senate was in strong need of more troops if they were going to take out Marc Antony and his army.
-Octavian agreed to merge his army with the Senate's, but remained as the leader of the combined troops. Then, he left Rome with the army to go fight Marc Antony!
-When he arrived in the Po Valley, however, he was immediately put in his place as a noob general by the much more experienced Aulus Hirtius, who I guess had come along.
-Hirtius didn't want to take his chances and attack Marc Antony without total victory being assured, so he waited for Pansa too arrive with his three legions that he brought up from Rome as reinforcements.
-Marc Antony quickly decided to stop laying siege to the city and instead attacked Pansa's forces before Pansa could link up with Octavian and Hirtius.
-Antony fought Pansa in a battle now known as the Battle of the Forum Gallorum (possibly near Castelfranco Emilia, Emilia-Romagna). Antony, with the advantage of experience and surprise, crushed Pansa's legions! Pansa himself was actually injured in the battle as well, and would actually die a few days later. Rumor has/had it that Octavian actually had Pansa's Greek doctor poison him, but who really knows for sure?
-However, Antony was then surprised by Hirtius' legions, who were able to quickly guess what Antony was up to. Antony's legions were crushed and ended up fleeing once it got dark.
-Octavian had stayed behind on orders to guard the camp, which Antony would later use to try and call out Octavian as a coward.
-Hirtius then attacked Antony's camp, this time with Octavian present! Octavian himself actually fought in this battle as well, although Hirtius ended up getting killed.
-Ultimately, Antony's forces ended up losing, and Antony fled yet again after lifting his siege on Mutina.
-Because both Pansa and Hirtius were now dead, Octavian had full control over all eight legions!
-Brutus then chased after Antony, who had fled into the Alps.
-Octavian refused to accompany Brutus, preferring to remain in Cisalpine Gaul.
-Soon, Antony arrived in Gaul and linked up with the 11 legions stationed there.
-Brutus tried to flee back to Cisalpine Gaul, but realized that Octavian was waiting for him there with his own legions and wasn't necessarily an ally anymore.
-Brutus was screwed, but actually ended up dying in an unexpected way- he was captured by a Gallic tribe looking to appease Marc Antony, and ended up presenting Brutus' head to Antony later!
-Back in Rome, Antony's defeat was celebrated by everyone, but it quickly became obvious that there was a serious problem- Octavian now controlled like 10 legions, AND he was legally Caesar's son and heir. Antony controlled the other 10. A storm was brewing...
-Meanwhile, in the East, Marcus Brutus (THE Brutus) and Cassius, a co-conspirator senator who had plenty of influence in the East, were raising legions themselves to defend the Republic from both Octavian AND Antony.
-Back in Rome, Octavian had sent centurions to the Senate demanding that he be named consul since both Pansa and Hirtius were dead.
-The Senate refused, so this time Otavian marched his army down from Cisalpine Gaul to Rome itself! Obviously intimidated, the Senate granted him consulship.
-Antony and Octavian obviously hated each other, but knew that fighting each other would just be suicide for both of them. So, they decided to form an uneasy alliance in order to fight off Brutus and Cassius' liberator army.
-Thus, the Second Triumvirate was born! Antony, Octavian, and the patrician Marcus Lepidus.
-Lepidus was arguably the third wheel in this triumvirate, but he was important because he acted as a buffer between Octavian and Antony if shit got too out of balance.
-The triumvirate knew that the first thing they needed to do was crush Brutus and Cassius. One major problem, however, was that they had no money.
-In order to raise an army on the cheap, they decided to enforce a proscription- basically, a death list that would cause those named to be enemies of the state and their properties forfeited to the government as a result.
-Obviously, those who were steadfast liberators of the Republic and allies of Brutus and Cassius, including senators, were to be named in the proscription.
-Although it was against Octavian's wishes, Cicero was on the list due to Antony's extreme insistence.
-Thus, Cicero was executed by triumvirate agents in December 43 BC.
-At this point, the Second Triumvirate was like a three-headed dictator, and this was actually ratified legally under the Senate to be allowed to exist for a period of five years!
-Antony also was said to have reviewed every decapitated head after an execution in order to make sure it was legit, even while he was eating dinner!
-One problem with the proscriptions, besides it being heinous and barbaric, was that the mass killing of the senators caused all the new property on the market to become seriously undervalued, and because of this the triumvirate didn't make as much money as they had planned. So, they added to the proscription list!
-They also resorted to straight-up thuggery by breaking into the treasury at the Temple of Vesta.
-They also instituted a tax on the Italian peninsula- this was previously considered unthinkable, as Italians had ALWAYS been exempt from taxes!
-Taxes were actually more unpopular with the public than the proscriptions!
-Finally, the triumvirate scraped together enough cash to raise an army and go to war against Cassius and Brutus. Lepidus was left behind to manage Rome, and Antony and Octavian marched off to war with 19 legions!
-They landed in Greece before the liberator navy could establish a blockade.
-They ended up positioning their forces west of the town of Phillipi (near modern-day Kavala, Greece).
-This was chosen as a good place to fortify and confront the triumvirate army due to the difficult terrain. Plus, to the north were rocky hills, and to the south were marshlands.
-Cassius' plan was to chill and hold position until the naval blockade could be set up, and then the triumvirate army would be trapped and surrounded.
-Antony led the legions to go check out the layout of the land while Octavian stayed back at camp, apparently sick again (or being a coward? Who knows?).
-While it was obvious that he liberators were expecting a direct assault, Antony noticed that the southern swamps actually weren't that bad! Perhaps it would be possible to lead the legions through the swamp to attack...
-Antony began to construct a causeway through the swamp...
-However, it only took a few days before Cassius' legions noticed something fishy going on in the swamps, and quickly began to prepare to surround Antony's initial penetrating force as they made their way through the swamp.
-Pressed for time, Antony quickly ordered a full assault through the swamp! Antony was lucky, as Cassius wasn't expecting a full-on attack so quickly.
-Meanwhile, Brutus realized that because the triumvirate army was preoccupied by the swamp batle, it would be a good time to mount a counterattack on the main triumvirate camp, occupied only by Octavian and reserve troops.
-Brutus was actually successful in his assault, and took over Cassius' position.
-Strange position for both armies now, as Brutus had defeated Octavian, but Antony had defeated Cassius.
-Cassius ended up dying (either by having a slave kill him or just by committing suicide himself; it's unclear), and when Brutus found out he was sad, as he had once stated that Cassius was "The last of the Romans". Brutus decided to regroup, refortify, and stick to the original plan, but the morale of his troops was quickly going down and his generals were pressuring him to launch another attack.
-October 23, 42 BC- Brutus launches an attack against his better judgement, and in a straight-up slugfest against the triumvirates his army fell.
-Although he still had four legions left, it was obvious that the battle was over...so Brutus committed suicide.
-The Battle of Phillipi marked the final end of the Roman Republic, as well as the pinnacle of Mark Antony's life.
-Pompey's son, Sextus Pompey, would continue fighting the Second Triumvirate from his base in Sicily, but this wasn't really considered a major threat. It was, however, pretty irritating, as he was constantly trying to create a naval blockade to block trade routes to Rome.
-Although Marc Antony honored the corpse of Brutus and gave proper respects, Octavian didn't give a FUCK and decapitated the body. He then ordered the head to be shipped off to Rome and to be thrown at the feet of a statue of Julius Caesar.
-Antony then remained in the East; he was planning on a massive invasion of the Parthian Empire!
No comments:
Post a Comment