Allan Massie - Antony

ANTONY

Also by Allan Massie

Novels

Change and Decay in All Around I See

The Last Peacock

The Death of Men

One Night in Winter

Augustus

A Question of Loyalties

Tiberius

The Sins of the Father

Caesar

The Ragged Lion

These Enchanted Woods

King David

Shadows of Empire

Non-Fiction

Muriel Spark

Ill-Met by Gaslight

The Caesars

Portrait of Scottish Rugby

Colette

101 Great Scots

Byron's Travels

Glasgow: Portrait of a City

The Novel Today 1970-89

Edinburgh

ALLAN MASSIE

ANTONY

SCEPTRE

Copyright 1997 Allan Massie

First published in 1997 by Hodder and Stoughton A division of Hodder Headline PLC A Sceptre Book

The right of Allan Massie to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

987654321

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 0 340 55604 8

Typeset by Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Polmont, Stirlingshire Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic, Bungay, Suffolk.

Hodder and Stoughton A division of Hodder Headline PLC 338 Euston Road London NW1 3BH

LIST OF PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS

Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony)Triumvir

Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (Octavian) Triumvir

Marcus Aemilius LepidusTriumvir

ANTONY'S WIVES. FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Fulviawife

Octaviawife

Cleopatrawife

Cytherismistress

Glaphyramistress

Antyllusson

Scribonius Curio stepson

Gaius Scribonius Curiofriend

Publius Clodius Pulcherfriend

Publius Canidius CrassusGeneral

Publius Ventidius BassusGeneral

Cnae us Domitius AhenobarbusGeneral

RIVALS

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa friend of Octavian

Caius Cilnius Maecenas friend of Octavian

MISCELLANEOUS

Sextus Pompeianus (Pompey) warlord

Artavasdes King of Armenia

Herod King of Judaea

Caesarion son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar

Alexas servant to Cleopatra, lover of Critias

CHRONOLOGY

BC

82Birth of Antony.

63Catiline's Conspiracy.

58Caesar begins Gallic War. Antony in the East.

57Antony fighting in Egypt.

54Antony joins Caesar in Gaul.

49Caesar crosses Rubicon, begins Civil War.

44Antony consul. Caesar murdered. Antony named

'imperator'.

Fights against Decimus Brutus. Octavian claims to be
Caesar's heir. Cicero de livers speeches against Antony.

Triumvirate of Antony, Octavian and Lepidus formed.

Proscriptions.

42Antony defeats Brutus and Cassius at Philippi.

41-40 Siege of Perusia. Pact of Brundisium. Antony marries

Octavia and makes his last visit to Rome.
39Treaty made between Triumvirs and Sextus Pompeius.

36Antony's Parthian War.

Antony goes through a form of marriage with

Cleopatra.
34Antony conquers Armenia.

32Octavian prepares war against Antony and Cleopatra.

31Battle of Actium.

30Last battles of Alexandria. Suicide of Antony and

Cleopatra.

I

The gale of the night had blown itself out, but the wind from the mountains still struck cold in little gusts. Trebonius had drawn me out of the theatre and held me in the portico with some tale - of dire import, he insisted - which was so long in its rambling telling that I grew bored, stopped listening, and instead amused myself with eyeing up a pretty whore plying her trade even so early in the day. It is one of my minor regrets that in the tumult that followed, I lost the chance of enjoying her. She was a Syrian, I think, with a dark liquid bold gaze. - You don't need to take that down, Critias.

But I have, as you see. Actually I have learned to ignore this sort of request when he is dictating his memoirs, of which he has already completed three substantial volumes, the last some while back when his fortune was happier. I stopped obeying such commands one day when I was very tired and when my pen seemed to run on without the consent of my will. If that seems odd, I can't help it. It's how it was. Then later, transcribing my notes, for I use a sort of shorthand of my own devising, I judged that what he had not intended me to take down was as interesting and perhaps more revealing than what he wished me to record. So from that day I have trusted my own judgement in deciding what I should write and what not. And I have formed the habit, as you see, of adding my own comments. This can be confusing because I am not always certain subsequently whether I thought something or he said it. Moreover our affairs are now in so wretched a state that... but he's ready to begin again. No... he's still pacing the

room like a lion in a cage. He still looks like a lion, he still has a noble presence.

Of course Trebonius had been put on me by the conspirators - the self-styled Liberators. I realised that as soon as the cry went up and he grabbed me and assured me that I was in no danger myself. I couldn't believe that, and broke loose from his grip and ducked into the crowd. I'm not going to describe the confusions - you can work that up, later, Critias. You've heard me speak of it often enough and read enough accounts to be able to make something dramatic of it.

Shan't bother. This is at least the third time that he has approached the awful Ides of March, and on previous occasions found himself unable to go on.

All right then, to be quite honest, I couldn't give a description of it myself. I saw nothing, the way you remember nothing of a battle except the odd flash. Violent action is like a dream, more vivid than waking experience. Yet only a few fragments may lodge and be recalled, while the dream itself escapes you. It was like that. In passing, let me say that I've always thought people who claim to remember their dreams in exact detail - Himself was one of course - to be liars. Of course we all lie in our different ways and for different reasons. Octavian lies because he's naturally so crooked he shits in spirals. He might as well be a Cretan like you, Critias.

If my lord says so.

They should have killed me too, then and there. I've never understood why they didn't. Mouse Brutus - that is, Decimus, not Marcus Junius Worthy Descendant of the Noble Brutus - told me later that Cassius had argued for me to be chopped along with Caesar, but that Cousin Markie, as Mouse who loathed him always called the Liberator, nobly said they were killing the tyrant, not his jackals. "Thanks a lot," I said. "Me a jackal?"

"That's how Markie put it," Mouse replied, grinning.

"And what about you, Mouse? Whose side were you on in this debate?"

"Well," Mouse said, "you know I've alwa ys been fond of you, and I even tried to get you on our side, but you were drunk and I don't think took in what I was saying. But now, well, I have to admit that I agreed with Cassius. Entirely, my dear, on account of the respect I have for your abilities."

Well, he was quite right, Mouse was no fool, even if he wasn't as clever as he supposed. They would have been wise to bump me off along with Himself. I soon gave them cause to regret they hadn't. But there was never such an addle-pated business as their conspiracy. They took no measures to seize power or secure control of the city. They really seemed to suppose that with Himself out of the way, the Republic would naturally return to its old equilibrium. I can understand Marcus Brutus thinking that, but Cassius? He was after all no fool.