Domina Victrix

Chapter 41: 26 AD, Rome, Antioch, and Egypt

Senator Julius sat stewing in his seat as Cicero droned on, and on, and on. The feud between the Antonys and Ciceros was personal, professional, and political, and it would never die. Both were prominent plebeian clans who owed their rise to links with patricians, the Ciceros with Pompey the Great, and the Antonys with Julius Caesar. But there the similarities ended, and the enmities began.

Mark Antony's father had died while Mark was a boy. He was raised by his stepfather, Lentullus Sura. Sura was caught up in the Catiline Conspiracy, a plot by Sergius Catilina to overthrow the then-Republic for a permanent dictatorship. Cicero called Catilina out in the Senate and engineered his arrest and execution. In the resulting purge, Sura was also killed. Nor did Cicero approve of Antony's next political mentor, Clodius Polcher.

In the civil war between Pompey and Caesar, Cicero backed Pompey and continued to oppose Caesar, who elevated Mark and his brothers as prominent military and civil leaders. Antony supported popular reforms such as universal land ownership and voting rights, something Cicero opposed. And where Antony flaunted his wealth and scandalous lifestyle as a perk of being a conquering general, Cicero showed off his conservative Roman family values. Matters came to a head when Antony and Octavian triumphed over Cassius and Brutus at the Battles of Philippi. Cicero launched a series of fourteen blistering speeches raking Antony over the coals for his lifestyle, his politics, and his military leadership. Furious, Antony had the last word when, as Triumvir, he ordered Cicero's death.

But, no. Cicero met his end bravely, baring his neck for his assassins and putting up no resistance. Overnight, he became a martyr and his son stepped into his shoes. The next Cicero continued his rants about Antony and, after the latter's suicide in Alexandria, pronounced restrictions on the Antony family. No male of the family was ever to be named Marcus and they were to hold no public offices or use any honorifics such as Creticus or Armenius. The second Cicero also prosecuted Julia's lovers and was livid when Mark's son Julius cheated justice by ending his own life. Now a third Cicero was on their asses and he had mud to throw. Four generations of Antony men were named Marcus. The Antioch branch used both Creticus and Armenius as part of their names. Julius had been a tribune, a Legatus, and was now a Senator. Old Marcus had been a Proconsul of Syria. Two of his sons were Imperial Legates or theater commanders. The family was linked to the Imperial family, as well as royalty in Mauretania, Pontus, and Emessa, with extensive holdings throughout the Empire.

"This family knows no bounds to their power," Cicero thundered. "I give you as an example the half-assed hero of Artaxata, Young Tribune Marcus, who scorned a wreath from his Emperor, and wouldn't deign to grace us with his presence for an Ovation honoring his father. He has so little regard for any authority that he and his Emessan wife named their son Marcus and are spreading stories about eagles following his every move!"

Julius gasped. Antony had never bothered with political opinion or public relations and it had cost him. Young Marcus, now in the field against Nubia and unaware of what was going on in Rome, could be in mortal danger if the wrong kind of stories were spread. Julius stood.

"I give you the lie, Cicero!" he shouted.

"You are out of order, Senator," a Consul snapped.

"I demand recognition when he is through," Julius said.

"Why not now, Antonius?" Cicero sneered. "I beg you. What of anything I just said was untrue?"

"Every last bit of it," Julius said. "What you referred to as edicts against my family never had the force of law. My grandfather's memory was not damned because Divine Augustus was gracious enough to be merciful toward us in defeat. He restored Grandfather's estates, and arranged or assented to royal marriages and links to his own family for most of Antony's children. That my father repaid him in dishonor, I regret, but the young man you're running down had nothing to do with any of it."