Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
Caesar word, if he pleased, he should come and seize it himself,
which he did. And, reading it over to himself, he noted those
places that were most for his purpose, and, having summoned the
senate, read them publicly. Many were scandalized at the
proceeding, thinking it out of reason and equity to call a man
to account for what was not to be until after his death. Caesar
specially pressed what Antony said in his will about his burial;
for he had ordered that even if he died in the city of Rome, his
body, after being carried in state through the forum, should be
sent to Cleopatra at Alexandria. Calvisius, a dependent of
Caesar's, urged other charges in connection with Cleopatra
against Antony; that he had given her the library of Pergamus,
containing two hundred thousand distinct volumes; that at a
great banquet, in the presence of many guests, he had risen up
and rubbed her feet, to fulfill some wager or promise; that he
had suffered the Ephesians to salute her as their queen; that he
had frequently at the public audience of kings and princes
received amorous messages written in tablets made of onyx and
crystal, and read them openly on the tribunal; that when
Furnius, a man of great authority and eloquence among the
Romans, was pleading, Cleopatra happening to pass by in her
chair, Antony started up and left them in the middle of their
cause, to follow at her side and attend her home.
Calvisius, however, was looked upon as the inventor of most of
these stories. Antony's friends went up and down the city to
gain him credit, and sent one of themselves, Geminius, to him,
to beg him to take heed and not allow himself to be deprived by
vote of his authority, and proclaimed a public enemy to the
Roman state. But Geminius no sooner arrived in Greece but he
was looked upon as one of Octavia's spies; at their suppers he
was made a continual butt for mockery, and was put to sit in the
least honorable places; all which he bore very well, seeking
only an occasion of speaking with Antony. So, at supper, being
told to say what business he came about, he answered he would
keep the rest for a soberer hour, but one thing he had to say,
whether full or fasting, that all would go well if Cleopatra
would return to Egypt. And on Antony showing his anger at it,
"You have done well, Geminius," said Cleopatra, "to tell your
secret without being put to the rack." So Geminius, after a few
days, took occasion to make his escape and go to Rome. Many
more of Antony's friends were driven from him by the insolent
usage they had from Cleopatra's flatterers, amongst whom were
Marcus Silanus and Dellius the historian. And Dellius says he
was afraid of his life, and that Glaucus, the physician,
informed him of Cleopatra's design against him. She was angry
with him for having said that Antony's friends were served with
sour wine, while at Rome Sarmentus, Caesar's little page (his
delicia, as the Romans call it), drank Falernian.
As soon as Caesar had completed his preparations, he had a
decree made, declaring war on Cleopatra, and depriving Antony of
the authority which he had let a woman exercise in his place.
Caesar added that he had drunk potions that had bereaved him of
his senses, and that the generals they would have to fight with
would be Mardion the eunuch, Pothinus, Iras, Cleopatra's
hairdressing girl, and Charmion, who were Antony's chief
state-councillors.
These prodigies are said to have announced the war. Pisaurum,
where Antony had settled a colony, on the Adriatic sea, was
swallowed up by an earthquake; sweat ran from one of the marble
statues of Antony at Alba for many days together, and, though
frequently wiped off, did not stop. When he himself was in the
city of Patrae, the temple of Hercules was struck by lightning,
and, at Athens, the figure of Bacchus was torn by a violent wind
out of the Battle of the Giants, and laid flat upon the
theater; with both which deities Antony claimed connection,
professing to be descended from Hercules, and from his imitating
Bacchus in his way of living having received the name of Young
Bacchus. The same whirlwind at Athens also brought down, from
amongst many others which were not disturbed, the colossal
statues of Eumenes and Attalus, which were inscribed with
Antony's name. And in Cleopatra's admiral-galley, which was
called the Antonias, a most inauspicious omen occurred. Some
swallows had built in the stern of the galley, but other
swallows came, beat the first away, and destroyed their nests.
When the armaments gathered for the war, Antony had no less than
five hundred ships of war, including numerous galleys of eight
and ten banks of oars, as richly ornamented as if they were
meant for a triumph. He had a hundred thousand foot and twelve
thousand horse. He had vassal kings attending, Bocchus of
Libya, Tarcondemus of the Upper Cilicia, Archelaus of
Cappadocia, Philadelphus of Paphlagonia, Mithridates of
Commagene, and Sadalas of Thrace; all these were with him in
person. Out of Pontus Polemon sent him considerable forces, as
did also Malchus from Arabia, Herod the Jew, and Amyntas, king
of Lycaonia and Galatia; also the Median king sent some troops
to join him. Caesar had two hundred and fifty galleys of war,
eighty thousand foot, and horse about equal to the enemy.
Antony's empire extended from Euphrates and Armenia to the
Ionian sea and the Illyrians; Caesar's, from Illyria to the
westward ocean, and from the ocean all along the Tuscan and
Sicilian sea. Of Africa, Caesar had all the coast opposite to
Italy, Gaul, and Spain, as far as the Pillars of Hercules, and
Antony the provinces from Cyrene to Ethiopia.
But so wholly was he now the mere appendage to the person of
Cleopatra, that, although he was much superior to the enemy in
land-forces, yet, out of complaisance to his mistress, he wished
the victory to be gained by sea, and that, too, when he could
not but see how, for want of sailors, his captains, all through
unhappy Greece, were pressing every description of men, common
travelers and ass-drivers, harvest laborers and boys, and for
all this the vessels had not their complements, but remained,
most of them, ill-manned and badly rowed. Caesar, on the other
side, had ships that were built not for size or show, but for
service, not pompous galleys, but light, swift, and perfectly
manned; and from his head-quarters at Tarentum and Brundusium he
sent messages to Antony not to protract the war, but come out
with his forces; he would give him secure roadsteads and ports
for his fleet, and, for his land army to disembark and pitch
their camp, he would leave him as much ground in Italy, inland
from the sea, as a horse could traverse in a single course.
Antony, on the other side, with the like bold language,
challenged him to a single combat, though he were much the
older; and, that being refused, proposed to meet him in the
Pharsalian fields, where Caesar and Pompey had fought before.
But whilst Antony lay with his fleet near Actium, where now
stands Nicopolis, Caesar seized his opportunity, and crossed the
Ionian sea, securing himself at a place in Epirus called the
Ladle. And when those about Antony were much disturbed, their
land-forces being a good way off, "Indeed," said Cleopatra, in
mockery, "we may well be frightened if Caesar has got hold of
the Ladle!"
On the morrow, Antony, seeing the enemy sailing up, and fearing
lest his ships might be taken for want of the soldiers to go on
board of them, armed all the rowers, and made a show upon the
decks of being in readiness to fight; the oars were mounted as
if waiting to be put in motion, and the vessels themselves drawn
up to face the enemy on either side of the channel of Actium, as
though they were properly manned, and ready for an engagement
And Caesar, deceived by this stratagem, retired. He was also
thought to have shown considerable skill in cutting off the
water from the enemy by some lines of trenches and forts, water
not being plentiful anywhere else, nor very good. And again,
his conduct to Domitius was generous, much against the will of
Cleopatra. For when he had made his escape in a little boat to
Caesar, having then a fever upon him, although Antony could not
but resent it highly, yet he sent after him his whole equipage,
with his friends and servants; and Domitius, as if he would give
a testimony to the world how repentant he had become on his
desertion and treachery being thus manifest, died soon after.
Among the kings, also, Amyntas and Deiotarus went over to
Caesar. And the fleet was so unfortunate in everything that
was undertaken, and so unready on every occasion, that Antony
was driven again to put his confidence in the land-forces.
Canidius, too, who commanded the legions, when he saw how things
stood, changed his opinion, and now was of advice that Cleopatra
should be sent back, and that, retiring into Thrace or
Macedonia, the quarrel should be decided in a land fight. For
Dicomes, also, the king of the Getae, promised to come and join
him with a great army, and it would not be any kind of
disparagement to him to yield the sea to Caesar, who, in the
Sicilian wars, had had such long practice in ship-fighting; on
the contrary, it would be simply ridiculous for Antony, who was
by land the most experienced commander living, to make no use of
his well-disciplined and numerous infantry, scattering and
wasting his forces by parceling them out in the ships. But for
all this, Cleopatra prevailed that a sea-fight should determine
all, having already an eye to flight, and ordering all her
affairs, not so as to assist in gaining a victory, but to escape
with the greatest safety from the first commencement of a
defeat.
There were two long walls, extending from the camp to the
station of the ships, between which Antony used to pass to and
fro without suspecting any danger. But Caesar, upon the
suggestion of a servant that it would not be difficult to
surprise him, laid an ambush, which, rising up somewhat too
hastily, seized the man that came just before him, he himself
escaping narrowly by flight.
When it was resolved to stand to a fight at sea, they set fire
to all the Egyptian ships except sixty; and of these the best
and largest, from ten banks down to three, he manned with twenty
thousand full-armed men, and two thousand archers. Here it is
related that a foot captain, one that had fought often under
Antony, and had his body all mangled with wounds, exclaimed, "O,
my general, what have our wounds and swords done to displease
you, that you should give your confidence to rotten timbers?
Let Egyptians and Phoenicians contend at sea, give us the land,
where we know well how to die upon the spot or gain the
victory." To which he answered nothing, but, by his look and
motion of his hand seeming to bid him be of good courage, passed
forwards, having already, it would seem, no very sure hopes,
since when the masters proposed leaving the sails behind them,
he commanded they should be put aboard, "For we must not," said
he, "let one enemy escape."
That day and the three following the sea was so rough they could
not engage. But on the fifth there was a calm, and they fought;
Antony commanding with Publicola the right, and Coelius the left
squadron, Marcus Octavius and Marcus Insteius the center.
Caesar gave the charge of the left to Agrippa, commanding in
person on the right. As for the land-forces, Canidius was
general for Antony, Taurus for Caesar; both armies remaining
drawn up in order along the shore. Antony in a small boat went
from one ship to another, encouraging his soldiers, and bidding
them stand firm, and fight as steadily on their large ships as
if they were on land. The masters he ordered that they should