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  • Fortune is one of the most mysterious forces in nature.

  • It influences our lives before our birth and will continue to exude its power long after

  • we are gone.

  • So much rides on fortune's whims.

  • She can be quick to give generously, and often even quicker to ravage terribly.

  • In history, the Mongols seemed to have had Fortune on their side, when nearly the whole

  • world was at their feet.

  • They were even able to gather a force of 140,000 men to cross the sea and take Japan.

  • Yet, Fortune does no man's bidding forever.

  • Her fickle hand decided to strike a blow against the Mongols in the form of a monstrous typhoon.

  • Japan had expected an enormous invasion, but instead Fortune delivered thousands of dead,

  • bloated bodies.

  • Because of this, Fortune appears an almost paranormal force.

  • The ancient Romans recognized this, choosing to see luck in the form of the goddess Fortuna.

  • For her they built temples, worshipping her in the hopes of winning her whimsical favour.

  • Animals were sacrificed and their entrails scrutinised, all with the aim of decoding

  • a message from her.

  • Yet, Fortuna was not so easily amused.

  • Earthquakes, famines and pestilence still visited the Romans as they did elsewhere.

  • The legendary figures of Roman genius would have come to nought without Fortune's favour.

  • These characters were lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.

  • Without these rare instances of fate, Rome would have fallen to dust, joining the remnants

  • of so many other nameless nations.

  • This, therefore, is the story of how two men acted out the roles assigned to them by the

  • goddess Fortuna, to the extent that they would build a new stage for Western civilization

  • to play out all of its spectacular dramas.

  • The legend goes that Rome, through its founders Romulus and Remus, was born on the teat of

  • a wolf.

  • Both the inhabitants of the city-state and the world accepted this as historical truth.

  • After all, there was definitely something of the wolf in the Romans.

  • A restlessness nature that beckoned them to conquer and devour everything in their path.

  • In fact, it was believed that Rome was destined to conquer the entire world.

  • One man believed that it was only through him that Rome could achieve its rightful glory.

  • This man was Julius Caesar.

  • Julius Caesar was a scion of an ancient, noble family.

  • A family which, in spite of its proud pedigree, had little more than a few sliverings of gold

  • and a dubious claim to be a descendant of the goddess Venus to show for it.

  • This distasteful fact would fester in Caesar's breast like a sickness throughout his life.

  • This sickness had but one cure: success in all things.

  • Yet, Caesar was a Roman.

  • And, in Rome, a free republic, all citizens were considered equal.

  • And so, how can one rise to the top, when there is no top to rise to?

  • However, as is often the case, some citizens were more equal than others.

  • As a member of the old nobility, that had existed since the ancient time of Kings, Caesar

  • was amongst these men.

  • Yet, their capacity for wielding power was equal to that of the lowliest street urchin.

  • In this, Rome found its pride: here, a citizen was only worth his merit.

  • Merit usually being quite crudely counted in the number of heads cut off and enemies

  • crucified.

  • So be it.

  • Julius Caesar would use his reputation and genius to excel in this way, and in doing

  • so create a legacy which would take nearly one thousand years to match in the inexorable

  • deeds of Genghis Khan.

  • As a young man, though, Caesar's career prospects were bleak to say the least.

  • His family, though noble, was associated with the losing side of a bloody civil war.

  • This meant that Caesar spent the first few decades of his life dredging through the monotony

  • of civil service.

  • At the age of 31, whilst serving as a treasury secretary in Spain, he is said to have cried

  • underneath a statue of Alexander the Great.

  • A lamentable image considering that Alexander had the world at his feet by Caesar's age,

  • whereas he was but a frustrated, middling civil servant.

  • He was meant for so much more than his current lot in life.

  • Undeniably, Caesar's ego was immense.

  • Thus, the Republic's lack of appreciation for his talents was intolerable.

  • And, it was not just the Republic who failed to recognise his worth.

  • Sometime before his time in Spain, when he was but a young man, Caesar was kidnapped

  • by pirates.

  • Knowing that they had a noble prisoner in Caesar, the pirates demanded the great sum

  • of 20 talents, a contemporary unit of measurement, in exchange for his safe return.

  • By all standards, this was a princely ransom.

  • After all, a single talent was the equivalent of around 30kg of silver.

  • Such a fee was not to be taken lightly.

  • Any other man from a down-on-their-luck noble family might have worried over their ability

  • to source such an amount.

  • But not Caesar.

  • Rather, he was outraged.

  • 20 talents of silver was a pitiful sum for a man of his quality.

  • He demanded that he was worth 50 at the very least.

  • The pirates took the chastisement with good cheer, even when their uppity captive promised

  • in no uncertain fashion that he would crucify them all.

  • The ransom was duly paid and another profitable kidnapping concluded.

  • However, it would soon be clear that Julius Caesar was not a man to make idle threats.

  • He quickly assembled a small fleet in Greece and pursued the pirates.

  • One can only imagine their surprise when their one-time captive and haughty aristocrat surrounded

  • them with a flotilla of ships.

  • Outmanned and enveloped, the pirates surrendered to Caesar.

  • Eager to save their lives, all dropped onto bended knee and begged for mercy.

  • Caesar, steely eyed and sharp of mind, was the sort of man who understood the balance

  • between abject slaughter and clemency.

  • The handing out of mercy could make a man more powerful.

  • After all, such was the prerogative of a king to his subjects.

  • So, the pirates got their mercy: as their bodies were hammered to crosses, their throats

  • were slit.

  • A quick death.

  • That was Caesar's mercy, a mercy which the Republic would feel soon enough.

  • It had always been Caesar's ambition to be the very best.

  • The incident with the pirates was just a taster of his capabilities, and of his wrath.

  • However, let it not be doubted that Caesar was anything less than a man of charisma.

  • In fact, it was his charisma which allowed him to progress through the fearlessly competitive

  • society of the Romans.

  • Threats and bribery, the more heavy-handed methods of forging alliances, were not the

  • only ways to get things done.

  • Factional friendships, familial alliances and even finding your way into the right women's

  • beds were ways which an ambitious citizen could put his charisma to good use.

  • Not to forgot the blessing of the Goddess Fortuna.

  • It was through these methods that a middle-aged Caesar gained the ultimate position within

  • the Republic, Consul, a role equivalent to that of a modern day president or prime minister.

  • Yet, even that was not good enough for Caesar.

  • By using the power that position bestowed upon him, he was able to acquire for himself

  • a governorship for when his term in office was over.

  • This governorship would allow him to be free of legal prosecution.

  • For as a Consul Caesar had made many enemies: beatings and ritual humiliations were all

  • part of his political programme.

  • One time, when in disagreement with his co-Consul, Marcus Bibulus, Caesar had ordered a bucket

  • of excrement to be poured over his head during a speech.

  • The last thing that Caesar wanted was for these unfortunate incidents to come back to

  • haunt him later.

  • After all, he was by no means finished.

  • Now well into his forties, Caesar was about to embark upon his life ambition - the one

  • which, even as a child, he had known he had been destined for - global conquest.

  • Through a series of antagonizing moves, Caesar managed to provoke the tribes of Gaul into

  • attacking him.

  • Gaul, situated north of Rome, encompassed an area similar to that of modern day France.

  • By luring them into an attack, Caesar had the excuse he needed to initiate a massive

  • campaign of conquest.

  • Within just a few years, Caesar and his armies burned 800 cities to the ground, indiscriminately

  • slaughtering all those within their walls.

  • For those who escaped the blow of the sword, enslavement followed.

  • It has been estimated that these slaves numbered more than one million during the initial conquest

  • alone.

  • The area would subsequently be opened up as a new slave market for Rome, which provided

  • its rapacious citizens a stable stream of servants, gladiators and prostitutes.

  • His legions, in the course of the war, killed over one million men and enslaved a million

  • more.

  • A bloody mid-life crisis if ever there was one.

  • Thus, with the conquest of Gaul complete, there was nothing left but for Caesar to finally

  • have his triumph, and for the festivities to begin.

  • This was the moment Caesar had been waiting for.

  • Little did he know that fate would once more test his resolve.

  • On his way back to Rome, Caesar and his legions camped on the banks of the Rubicon river.

  • This was the boundary to the sacrosanct Roman city, where no army was allowed to march except

  • with the consent of the Senate.

  • This permission Caesar requested, so that he may parade his men through the streets

  • of him home city and bask in the glory of his success.

  • Messengers hurried letters to the gates of Rome.

  • Denial of such a request was unusual.

  • However, Caesar's enemies had been busy in his absence.

  • The foremost of Caesar's enemies was a man called Marcus Cato.

  • As a leading member of the Senate, he had amassed a strong following who regarded Julius

  • Caesar's personal ambitions as dangerous to the Republic.

  • Their concerns were made all the more justified when Caesar had attempted to secure the re-election

  • to Consul in absentia whilst fighting the Gauls.

  • Why should they allow this overmighty citizen to proclaim his greatness in a city where

  • equality was prized?

  • So, when the messengers returned to Caesar's camp, the response of the Senate echoed these

  • very sentiments.

  • Julius Caesar was to return to the capital as a private citizen, alone.

  • Or, be declared an enemy of the state.

  • Caesar understood the intimate maneuverings of Roman politics better than most.

  • This was a stunt meant to humble him.

  • Such had been the fate proscribed in the past to all men who had become too great for the

  • likings of the Senate.

  • Thoughts of a future marred by legal harassment, defamation, financial bankruptcy and eventual,

  • ignominious, retirement coloured Caesar's mind.

  • But, unlike those before him, Caesar refused to see his honours come to nothing.

  • Looking out to his legions, Caesar would have seen an army of tried and tested killers.

  • Men who had been hardened by an unimaginably grueling campaign.

  • But, more importantly, men whose hardships Caesar had shared in: as their leader, he

  • had dug trenches and built fortifications with them, starved with them, bled with them

  • and so forged an unbreakable bond of brotherhood.

  • If it were his command, these soldiers would follow him to fiery gates of Hell.

  • Caesar summoned his men.

  • They wanted their triumph just as much as he did.

  • As their commander spoke to them it would have become increasingly clear that the only

  • way to achieve their deserved glory was to follow Caesar into civil war.

  • Legend goes that as the army was just about to cross the Rubicon, Caesar ordered them

  • to halt.

  • He walked to the where the land met the river and stared into the water for a long time,

  • reflecting on all that had happened in his life to bring him to this point.

  • Why Caesar decided to cross the Rubicon is a question which has haunted historians for

  • centuries.

  • Perhaps it was at this moment that he would have realised that with just one more step

  • he would be destroying the old order of Rome.

  • In fact, the established order of the entire classical world.

  • All would go up in smoke.

  • In doing so, a new world would be birthed into existence: the world of Caesar, and with

  • it the first clear evolutionary step towards the modern, Western world.

  • How many more would have to die in order to achieve this...?

  • With this thought, Caesar wakened from his moment of reflection.

  • His lieutenants had gathered close to him.

  • When he finally spoke, Caesar uttered the legendary words: “The die is cast.”

  • Every step from the Rubicon hence was a blitzkrieg.

  • Within days, the senators fled and Caesar marched in triumph into Rome with his troops.

  • He was master of the city, and soon of the Roman empire in its glorious entirety.

  • The fleeing senators went on to establish rebellions in Spain and Greece.

  • Caesar and his legions, fuelled by yet another victory, quickly caught up with them and crushed

  • them all in turn.

  • Pompey the Great, leader of the senators' armies, fled to Egypt.

  • Pompey had once been a close friend and son-in-law to Caesar, having married his now long-dead

  • daughter, Julia.

  • Upon the shores of Egypt, Caesar found the Pharaoh's men awaiting him.

  • They presented him with the gift of a wicker basket.

  • It guarded a gory contents.

  • When Caesar opened it, the severed head of Pompey, his friend and enemy, stared up at

  • him.

  • Caesar instantly flew into a fit of rage and sorrow.

  • This was far from the reaction that the Egyptians had expected.

  • By ordering the slaughter of Pompey, the Pharaoh Ptolemy had crossed the line: a line which

  • separated the affairs of Romans from the rest of the world.

  • Pompey had been Caesar's to judge.

  • Storming the palace of Alexandria, Caesar immediately put Pompey's assassins to death.

  • Later that night, a second offering was delivered.

  • Plutarch records it as having been secretly smuggled into the palace, rolled up inside

  • a carpet.

  • This time, Caesar was honoured with a far more pleasant gift.

  • From out of the unfurled rug stepped the 21-year-old rebellious sister-queen of the God-King Ptolemy,

  • the infamous seductress Cleopatra.

  • After a single night with Caesar, he would help her to topple Ptolemy and become sole

  • ruler of Egypt.

  • In Egypt, Caesar shed whatever remained of his Republican pretensions.

  • By helping his now mistress Cleopatra to the throne, Caesar sat alongside her as a God-like

  • being.

  • His egotism had catapulted him to new and unexpected heights: he was no longer a man,

  • but a God-King in the making, ruler of the greatest empire that there had ever been.

  • When Caesar's Indian Summer with Cleopatra finally drew to a close, it was time to crush

  • the last few remaining rebels of the Republic.

  • And the best had been saved for last.

  • Cato had watched the fallout of his allies' submissions from his North African villa.

  • Caesar knew how to play the card of clemency.

  • So the hand of friendship had been offered to all who fought against him in the Civil

  • War.

  • This had left a bitter taste in the ideologically sentimental mouth of Cato.

  • Only a king had the power to spare - and Caesar was no king.

  • One evening Cato sat in his villa, discussing philosophy with his son and their friends.

  • Wine was drunk and merriment made.

  • To all, it seemed like a normal evening.

  • However, when Cato retired to his room later than night, he knew that he must prevent himself

  • from ever becoming subject to that great tyrant Julius Caesar.

  • Pulling his dagger from his sheath, he placed it to his gut and violently thrust inwards.

  • Yet, Cato did not expire immediately.

  • The wails of his agony drew the attention of his son and the resident doctor.

  • They found him, collapsed on the floor, covered in blood with his bowels in his hands as they

  • tumbled out of his cavity.

  • Barely breathing, he stared up at them.

  • Frantically, they started to stuff his intestines back into his body, in an attempt to bandage

  • him up and save his life.

  • Cato, sensing their intention, pushed them away then reached inside of himself.

  • In his last act of resistance, he ripped open his bloody wound and finished the deed.

  • Thus ended the Republic in a pile of blood and guts on the floor.

  • The Civil war was over.

  • A new senate - controlled by Caesar - was instated.

  • Finally, they would grant him many triumphs.

  • Like no man before him, he was celebrated.

  • Parades and triumphal games were held across the city.

  • Hundreds of beasts and thousands of slaves were slaughtered in Caesar's honour and

  • for the entertainment of the masses.

  • A river of blood ran through the city of Rome, and bathing in its murky waters was Gaius

  • Julius Caesar - the man who would soon be proclaimed Dictator for life and absolute

  • master of the Roman empire.

  • However, Fortuna's fickle grasp took his arm one day on his way to work.

  • Stepping out from the shadows, a gypsy seer whispered into Caesar's ear and said: “You

  • will be killed on the ides of March.”

  • On the fated day, the 15th of March, Caesar once more saw the gypsy woman on his way to

  • the Senate house.

  • Remembering her warning, he laughed: “The ides of March have come!”.

  • Smirking, the woman retorted: "Aye, Caesar.

  • But not gone."

  • That day in the Senate house, under a statue of Pompey, the daggers of all the senators

  • were thrust deep into Julius Caesar.

  • In a moment which would colour artistic imagery for centuries, Caesar fought off multiple

  • daggers before he fell to his knees, weakened but still breathing.

  • Only one senator's dagger remained unbloodied.

  • Brutus, the man raised by Caesar and suspected of being his bastard son.

  • It was when his dagger plunged into Caesar's breast that the will to resist dissipated.

  • To Brutus, Caesar muttered his famous last words: “Not you too, my boy.”

  • On a funeral bed of a bloodied and tattered toga, Caesar's corpse remained as the assassins

  • hurried to the centre of the city to proclaim the liberty of the Republic.

  • However, the people of Rome saw no cause for celebration.

  • They ran to their homes and prepared themselves for the inevitable.

  • Rome had bled the world for hundreds of years, and now it was her turn to suffer.

  • Caesar had brought peace and glory to the city.

  • With his death, all of this would tumble.

  • Families would fracture and divide; neighbours would betray neighbours; friends would be

  • soaked in the blood of their dearest.

  • Civil war had once again come to Rome.

  • The head of this bloody beast would be Gaius Octavian, Julius Caesar's nephew, adopted

  • son and chosen heir.

  • Little did he know that his time had come so early.

  • All across the Empire, people shaved their heads in mourning for the great man Caesar.

  • For Octavian, these shaven heads were the death knell for his childhood.

  • Still undergoing military training, he was in the Balkans when his people beckoned him

  • to flee.

  • They told him of his uncle's execution and warned him that he would be killed on sight

  • by Caesar's enemies should he set foot in Italy.

  • Yet, just like his uncle, Octavian was a man who carved out his own destiny.

  • Before the year was done, he would be master of Rome, commanding Caesar's veterans as

  • his own private army.

  • And, he was only 18 years old.

  • However, Octavian was by no means unopposed.

  • There had been another contender for the mastery of the Roman world: a highly capable lieutenant

  • of Julius Caesar by the name of Marc Antony.

  • There was also the rich and influential Marcus Lepidus, another member of the Roman elite.

  • In order to consolidate his power, Octavian was forced to form a shaky alliance, known

  • as the second triumvirate, with these two men.

  • With their help, he was able to secure the financial and military backing required to

  • combat his uncle's assassins, who were by now known as the Liberators.

  • As for the Liberators themselves, they had assembled a large army in Greece, with many

  • in Rome suspected of nurturing sympathy for their cause.

  • This weed of sympathy would be ripped from the ground with bloody, vengeful talons.

  • Embodying the bloodlust of the Roman sigil, Octavian and Antony instituted a program of

  • organized murder to rid themselves of all their political enemies at home.

  • These were called the proscriptions.

  • Every morning in the forum, the centre of the city, a list of the traitors' names

  • would be publicised.

  • By sunset, the names were marked on tombs, and a series of heads spiked onto stakes in

  • the forum.

  • These events moved in tandem with the Roman sun: with each new sunrise a new list of names,

  • and with each sunset an exhibition of decapitated heads.

  • With this cycle of death came paranoia and suspicion: Roman citizens would wake up every

  • morning, never knowing if that night a soldier would burst through their door and spill their

  • blood over their families' dinner.

  • And, they were right to worry.

  • For even Octavian and Antony's friends were struck down in the bloodshed.

  • Cicero, the legendary orator, friend and financier of Octavian, found his way onto one of these

  • fatal lists for having had insulted Marc Antony.

  • It was clear to all that no one was beyond the reach of the proscriptions.

  • All in all, around 300 senators and more than 2,000 members of the nobility were proscribed

  • enemies of the state.

  • And so it was that the remaining senators were tamed through fear.

  • They posthumously proclaimed Julius Caesar a God, thus bestowing upon Octavian the title

  • of son of God.

  • Octavian, Antony and Lepidus had secured their power base in Rome.

  • Now, they were ready to meet the Liberators on the field and destroy the old republic

  • once and for all.

  • The venue for the final showdown would be the Battle of Phillipi.

  • The man tasked with leading the Liberators' legions was Marcus Junius Brutus, the final

  • senator to stab Caesar, who was also most likely his illegitimate child.

  • Whether or not he knew this to be a possible act of patricide is disputed.

  • Chroniclers recorded that, in the lead up to the final battle, Brutus was visited by

  • a shadowy phantom one night.

  • When he had asked, “Who art thou?”, the immense spectre was reported as having answered:

  • Thy evil spirit, Brutus, and thou shalt see me at Phillipi.”

  • Later, when camped on the grounds near Phillipi with his legions, Brutus saw the phantom again.

  • This time the humanoid being said nothing, only looked at him before vanishing.

  • To the superstitious mind of a Roman, this was a bad sign.

  • Yet, Brutus was not the only one to receive a ghostly premonition that night.

  • In the opposing army, Octavian dreamt of an apparition who warned him toflee the camp”.

  • The following day, Brutus' men split off from the main army and launched a surprise

  • attack on Octavian's troops.

  • Caught unawares, they were immediately defeated.

  • 18,000 bodies turned the ground red.

  • Brutus had sent the camp into a frenzy, as his own men divulged to plunder and the despoiling

  • of the dead.

  • By the time Octavian's tent was reached, Caesar's heir was gone.

  • Despite this loss, there still remained a great number of men to populate the battlefield.

  • Both armies are estimated to have totalled in excess of 400 thousand soldiers and auxiliaries.

  • Battles of this proportion were extremely rare.

  • A few miles from Octavian's camp, the Liberators' fleet had intercepted their enemies' reinforcements

  • and cut off their supplies.

  • Two legions drowned in the sea.

  • That evening, the Liberators toasted their success with the dead men's wine.

  • This left the collation in a precarious situation.

  • Although Octavian had escaped Brutus' ambush, seemingly on the advice of paranormal intervention,

  • he and Antony were now holed up amongst marshes and mountains with little in the way of provisions

  • for around 200,000 men.

  • This is a fact which Brutus would have been well aware of.

  • The battle had now changed from one of swords and shields to one of stomachs.

  • His legions, with access to the sea, were well-provided for.

  • It seemed as though the outcome was secure.

  • However, the goddess Fortuna had other plans.

  • As the siege of the stomachs dragged on, the Liberators' mercenaries began to desert.

  • Increasingly on edge, Brutus and the other Liberators fought over how best to proceed,

  • in fear of a complete collapse of the army.

  • Rather than wait for the collations' inevitable starved surrender, they prepared for an attack.

  • Meanwhile, Marc Antony's men was on the move.

  • Leaving Octavian to protect the front, Antony made for Brutus' flank.

  • Despite their hunger, his legions sought to unnerve their opponents.

  • When Liberator soldiers taunted them for their lack of supplies, Antony's men threw bread

  • made from roots over their fortifications.

  • After all, these men were grizzled veterans of Julius Caesar, with some having served

  • him under in the bloody days of Gaul.

  • Hunger was but another cost of victory.

  • Such an act of defiance caused more factional dissent among the liberators.

  • With morale collapsing, it was no longer enough to simply outlast their opponents.

  • With more men and a better position, now was the time to strike.

  • Although the dark omen brought by the phantom haunted Brutus' mind, he was forced to concede

  • to the majority: he was but a Republican, and only tyrants like Caesar disregard their

  • fellows.

  • So it was that on the 23rd, the two armies met in battle.

  • Unusual for the standards of the period, the bulk of the fighting was hand to hand.

  • The nature of the terrain and the stakes of the battle made missiles and archers redundant.

  • Just as this Civil War had started bloody, it would end bloody.

  • The number of the fallen was not recorded, but when the Liberators surrendered, there

  • were only 14,000 men there to do so.

  • However, before they did, Brutus issued one final command.

  • He is said to have asked one of his men to hold a sword aloft, so that he could run into

  • it.

  • Lost in his cause, and inspired by the martyrdom of Cato, Brutus chose not live in Caesar's

  • world.

  • And so, the sword smashed into his body.

  • His death would have been instant.

  • With that action ended the bloodiest campaign in Roman history.

  • However, the civil war was not yet over.

  • Three hungry and ambitious men now stood over the empire, each ready to devour it.

  • Lepidus took the most modest slice, settling for the wealthy provinces of North Africa.

  • Between the two of them, Octavian and Antony divided the rest.

  • Antony lay claim to the riches of the Roman East, where he would would eventually make

  • Alexandria his new capital.

  • On the other side, Octavian took Spain, France and Italy, maintaining Rome as his seat of

  • power.

  • Yet, before the meal was over, friction had already started to putrefy this great banquet

  • of land and peoples.

  • Despite the grandeur of his gains, Marc Antony was displeased with Octavian's dominion.

  • He chastised Lepidus' modesty, for having handed Spain over to Octavian.

  • Now that their enemies were dead, there was little need for the alliance.

  • Antony fostered a deep rivalry with Octavian.

  • In his mind, their success at Philippi had been his alone: Octavian had spent the war

  • in his tent or running from it, whilst his lieutenant, Agrippa, had led the army.

  • It was true, Octavian was not a military genius like his adopted father.

  • His skills lay in the management of people.

  • At this, he was a master.

  • This was a fact which Antony would soon learn.

  • When Octavian returned to Rome, he was already making preparations against Antony's inevitable

  • betrayal.

  • In order to maintain the loyalty of Ceasar's veterans, he dispossessed many of the people

  • in central Italy of their land, so that it may be reassigned to his soldiers.

  • This reward had been long-promised, and now the debt was settled.

  • However, this move understandably infuriated those who lost their land.

  • Seizing the opportunity, Marc Antony's brother, Lucius, gathered the support of the dispossessed

  • and a majority of the senators, and led a revolt against Octavian.

  • As would be a theme of Octavian's reign, the opposing forces were no match for his

  • veterans and their able commander, the ever-loyal officer Agrippa.

  • Whilst Lucius was spared for his relation to Antony, the 300 senators who he was allied

  • with were transformed into an august assembly of heads.

  • Yet, more macabre decorations for the Roman forum.

  • Thus was Octavian's power cemented in Rome.

  • Now, it was time to turn his attention to the empire.

  • Octavian was not the sort of man to allow for potential rivalries to foster and grow

  • out of control.

  • His ambition, after all, was of the abrasive sort.

  • As such, Marcus Lepidus would have to be dealt with.

  • That being said, Octavian could also be merciful.

  • Lepidus' loyalty and modesty was duly rewarded.

  • After bribing his soldiers so as to wrestle North Africa out of his hands, Lepidus was

  • allowed a comfortable retirement in his villa.

  • With him safely tucked away out of the glare of the political spotlight, Octavian could

  • now focus on destroying Marc Antony.

  • After some time, rumours of Antony trickled through the streets of Rome.

  • People began to whisper that the once great Roman lieutenant had abandoned himself, seduced

  • by the wiles of Cleopatra.

  • By taking the beguiling Egyptian queen as a mistress, Antony ruled alongside her as

  • a God-King.

  • It was said, disdainfully, that he would dress himself in the attire of a God and indulge

  • in lavish parties and the effeminate luxuries of the East.

  • Worse yet, the streets were alive with talk of Antony having become Cleopatra's pet.

  • He was said to have been at her beck and call: whenever she desired a foot massage, it was

  • his hands who did the job.

  • This was all the more terrible considering that he had abandoned his Roman wife, Octavian's

  • own sister, Octavia, and their children in Rome.

  • Before too long, everyone in Rome knew of how far Antony had fallen.

  • "Going native" was an unforgivable crime to the proud Romans.

  • Combined with his faithlessness to his family, it was easy for Marc Antony to be painted

  • as a man of low morals.

  • Octavian did not need to do much to ensure that Antony's name kept being dragged through

  • the mud.

  • He merely had to fan the flames.

  • The more people spoke, the more quickly the conclusion was reached: Cleopatra was going

  • to use Marc Antony to make themselves King and Queen of the Roman world.

  • Whilst Antony entertained himself with the golden pleasures of the Goddess Isis, Octavian

  • was rebranding his own identity - as champion of the Roman people.

  • After all, Fortuna had presented him with a stage on which to play.

  • Moreover, 'noble champion' was not a difficult role to fulfil.

  • Indeed, the drama was a tragedy: the Roman people had been betrayed the faustian Marc

  • Antony, who had sold his soul to Cleopatra in exchange for her wealth and beauty.

  • Antony was playing this part well.

  • After winning a military victory in the east, he had snubbed Rome, choosing to parade his

  • trophies in Alexandria instead.

  • His villanry reached new lows when he proclaimed that he was planning on dividing the Roman

  • East amongst his children.

  • These were not his lands to give away, as he was supposed to be their guardian on behalf

  • of the Roman people, and not their master.

  • Furthermore, he had declared Caesarion, the bastard child of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra,

  • the legitimate heir to Caesar, thus branding Octavian a usurper.

  • These traitorous revelations were Octavian's stage cue.

  • He must now play the part of Rome's hero: the defender of her liberty and the righteous

  • hand of justice.

  • In doing so, he shed off the skin of the iron-handed youth, transforming himself into the champion

  • of Rome against foreign tyranny.

  • Octavian, once again, called upon the services of his close friend and lieutenant Agrippa

  • to follow him into battle in the East.

  • Their force would be outnumbered by Marc Antony, who was confident in a victory over Julius

  • Caesar's whelp.

  • Historical rumour recalls the story of a two-headed snake almost 100 feet long being incinerated

  • by lightening in central Italy just before the battle.

  • As snakes were associated with Egyptian royalty, this great spectacle portended the gruesome

  • downfall of Antony and Cleopatra.

  • Meanwhile, on the Western coast of Greece, at Actium, Antony and Cleopatra assembled

  • two formidable fleets of large warships, estimated at around 230 vessels which were vastly larger

  • than Octavian's.

  • However, this upper-hand was lost when, just before the battle, one of Antony's generals

  • defected to Octavian, bringing with him the enemy's battle plans.

  • The advantage was lost.

  • Antony's fleet was set ablaze under a storm of firebrands.

  • Unable to do anything, he watched on as 200 of his ships sank, friends and soldiers still

  • aboard, to the bottom of the Mediterranean.

  • On top of this, it seems as though Love was proving herself a fickle friend, as Cleopatra

  • abandoned Antony, being the first to retreat.

  • Relinquishing all hope, Antony left his large warship for a smaller vessel so as to flee

  • back to Alexandria.

  • Within a week, all of Antony's forces had surrendered.

  • Cleopatra and Antony no longer had any support.

  • It is believed that, under the mistaken impression that Cleopatra was already dead, Antony committed

  • suicide by stabbing himself with his sword.

  • Just before he died, a messenger is said to have arrived informing he that Cleopatra still

  • lived.

  • As his lifeforce ebbed away, his friends carried him to her monument, in which she was hiding,

  • where he died in her arms.

  • When Octavian finally reached Alexandria, Cleopatra was taken prisoner.

  • Upon learning that she was destined to be paraded through the streets of Rome as part

  • of Octavian's triumph, Cleopatra killed herself.

  • Death was a more noble fate that being publicly stripped of one's titles and humiliated

  • as a trophy.

  • Traditionally, it has been retold that she ended her life with a poisonous asp bite to

  • the breast.

  • However, according to modern historians, it is more likely that Cleopatra drank a deadly

  • cocktail of poisons and opium to induce a far quicker and far less painful eternal sleep.

  • And so, with her end, the two-headed snake was dead.

  • Not only that, but all of Antony and Cleopatra's children (barring the ones Antony had fathered

  • by Octavian's sister) were murdered - for the safety of the Roman world.

  • This of course included Caesarion, the troublesome would-be heir of Caesar.

  • After such bloodshed, as contemporary poet Horace said, it was nowtime for a drink”.

  • In the days that followed, Octavian hosted an enormous triumph in Rome.

  • Endless spoils of war, as well as animals, slaves and entertainers were transported to

  • the city from all across the world.

  • After all, one of the wealthiest provinces of the age - Egypt - had just been annexed

  • to the empire.

  • Even the triumphs of his adopted father, Caesar, would have paled in comparison.

  • Yet, Octavian was about more than just material splendour.

  • To showcase his godliness to the people, he had hundreds of shrines erected throughout

  • the city.

  • Behind his own house, a beautiful marble temple of Apollo was built.

  • The location, of course, was no coincidence - it was meant to show Octavian's personal

  • association with the God of Light.

  • His house would become a temple in its own way too.

  • As everyone in Rome was destined to pay a visit if they wished to advance themselves

  • in society.

  • Octavian, after all, now held the keys to every door - having waded through blood to

  • do so.

  • In due course, the Senate would present him with the name Augustus - “the illustrious

  • one” - which from then on would be used as the official title of the princeps of the

  • Roman empire.

  • Augustus Caesar now stood as the most powerful man that had ever lived.

  • As absolute master of an estimated 45 million people, roughly 15 percent of the world's

  • population lived and breathed under the rule of this one man.

  • With his cruelty exhausted upon the acquisition of absolute power, he set out to build a peace

  • which would last for generations.

  • There would be wars to come, with most of them concluding in orderly resolution.

  • Augustus expanded the borders of the empire even further, to the extent that the Mediterranean

  • became but a Roman lake.

  • By defining the borders of the Roman Empire so masterfully, he bestowed upon her his most

  • splendid gift: pax Augusta, a period of relative peace which would last for roughly 200 years.

  • The Goddess Fortuna surely smiled upon Rome.

  • Unlike his enemies, Augustus died at the old age of 75.

  • Surrounded by his wife, family and friends in the same house that his natural father

  • had died in, he is recorded as having said: “Have I played my part well?

  • If so, applaud as I exit.”

  • These were not his last words, however, for those he directed to his wife: “Remember

  • our union, Livia, for as long as you live - and so farewell.”

  • And with that endearing human touch ended a spectacular career and a genius of a man.

  • However, he knew that in his exit the curtain would not be drawn on the stage.

  • For even as the illustrious one's eyes were closing for the last time, a sword found its

  • way to the throat of his grandson in order to consolidate the power of the new leader,

  • Tiberius.

  • Under his rule, Rome would experience depravity sinking to new lows, a standard only to be

  • sunk even lower, to the deepest depths of the earth, by his descendents.

  • Yet, through the succeeding reigns of paedophiles, rapists and serial killers, Augustus' legacy

  • would endure and live on for over a millenia and a half.

Fortune is one of the most mysterious forces in nature.

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凱撒家族的黑暗歷史。崛起|古羅馬有聲紀錄片 (The Dark History of the House of Caesar: The Rise | Ancient Rome Audio Documentary)

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    Amy.Lin 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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