112
ANTONY TRIUMPHS AT ALEXANDRIA.
after having annihilated the troops who were to protect it.
This and other circumstances placed the main army of the
Romans in such difficulties, that they retreated, until after
struggling with great difficulties they reached Armenia: An-
tony nearly met with the same fate as Crassus; a fourth of
his army was destroyed, and the greater part of his baggage
was lost.7
Antony returned to Alexandria, and there again revelled in
sensual pleasures with his concubine to whom, to the great
annoyance of the Romans, he gave Coele-Syria, Judaea, and
Cyprus.8 Plutarch’s life of Antony is very lengthy, but it
contains many interesting anecdotes which he had received
from the mouth of his grandfather or great-grandfather. It
shews the fearful distress of those times ; and his descriptions
of the condition of Greece in particular, are extremely inter-
esting. His comparing Antony with Demctrius at first excites
our surprise ; but there is, nevertheless, a great analogy between
the two eharaeteɪs. Antony lived surrounded by eastern
splendour and luxuries, procured by the sums which he had
extorted from the subject nations, and Plutarch’s anecdotes
shew in what a contemptible manner he spent his time. Ifone
is occupied with the history of a man, he usually excites a kind
of sympathy in us ; but this is not the case with Antony : we
feel, on the contrary, glad that things are coming to a close
with him. He did not however forget the disgrace of his
Parthian campaign; to expiate which he invaded Armenia
and made prisoner Artavasdes, who had before deserted him
in his war against the Parthians. Artavasdcs was carried
to Alexandria, where Antony celebrated a splendid triumph.
In the meantime Octavian made war upon Sext. Pompeius.
Agrippa was the soul of the undertaking : he built a fleet in
the lake Lucrinus, formed the lake into a harbour, by digging
a canal from it to the sea, and trained his fleet for maritime
warfare. A reasonable pretext for the war did not exist, but
notwithstanding this, the conquest of Sicily was undertaken.
7 Plutaroh, Anton. 33, foil.; Pseudo-Appian, De Dell. Partli. p. 71, foil cd.
Scliweigh.; Veil. Patere. ii. 82.
6 It is an unaccountable phenomenon that this kingdom received the name
of Chalcis, which, as far as I am aware, occurs only on coins of Cleopatra. I
fcannot explain it, hut do not agree with the numismatists, who refer the name
to the tetrarchies as they existed at a later period.—N.—(Compare Eckel, Doctr.
Num. Vet. iii. p. 264, foil )
MURDER OF SEXT. POMΓEIUS,
113
Octavian was anything but perfectly successful in the war,
although he conquered his enemy in the end. His fleet was
twice destroyed by storms ; but Agrippa restored it, and at last
gained a glorious victory off1 Mylae (Milazzo). Octavian’s fleet,
on the other hand, was completely defeated before his eyes off
Tauromenium, and it must be said, to his disgrace, that the
commanders of the enemy’s fleet were freedmen, Mena and
Menecrates.9 Octavian’s troops had indeed landed under
Cornificius, one of his most faithful friends; but he too was
defeated, and would have been destroyed with his forces, had
not Agrippa saved him. A new fleet was built; and another
great naval victory gained by Agrippa decided the contest.
Sext. Pompeius fled to Asia Minor, and implored the protec-
tion of Antony, who was inclined to grant it, but could not
make up his mind as to what he should do. At last Sext.
Pompeius was murdered in Phrygia by Titius.10 What renders
this murder more revolting, is the fact that its perpetrator was
one of the proscribed men on whose behalf Pompeius had
exerted himself; for, in his treaty with the triumvirs at Mise-
nuɪn, he had stipulated for the suppression of the proscription,
that the lists should be destroyed, and that those whose names
were on them should be restored to their former rights. Whe-
ther the Pompeian family now became extinct, or whether the
Sext. Pompeius who is mentioned as Consul in the reign of
Tiberius was a descendant of the family, I cannot now say.
By the expulsion of Pompeius from Sicily, Octavian be-
came master of the island. At the beginning of the war he
had called in the assistance of Lepidus ; but the latter, dissa-
tisfied with the proceedings of his colleagues, who had made
all their arrangements without consulting him, now wished to
shew them a kind of defiance, and he delayed coming to Sicily.
At last, however, when the matter was already very compli-
cated, he came with a considerable army. After the defeat of
Pompeius, he quarrelled with Octavian about the possession of
Sicily, and if we look at the question as one of absolute justice,
— if we can speak of justice in such transactions of robbers,—
I believe that Lepidus had a right to demand the evacuation
9 MηrSs, the same as M∏ι,∣iSωpos, not Maenas; the name is known from the
Epistles of Horace (i, 7).—N.
10 Dion Cassius, xlix. 18. Compare Appian, De Bell. Cwιl. v. 144;
Strabo, iii. p. 141.
VOL. HI. I