The Augustan Empire 43 BC

Still, after spending the winter in Athens he prepared to depart eastwards in the spring of 38. There were a few preliminaries to take care of. The Parthian evacuation made this a sensible time to reorganize some parts of the East, at least provisionally; this time he concentrated on a great swathe from north to south of central Asia Minor. Twenty-five years earlier Pompey had ascribed a considerable tract of western Pontus to Bithynia, but allowed control to remain largely with the cities he had fostered: Antony now reversed the process, weakening the cities and establishing a new strong kingdom of Pontus.⁸⁸ It was to be ruled by Darius, a descendant of Mithridates Eupator. Deiotarus of Galatia had died, and his possessions in Pontus were assigned to Darius; however, Deiotarus' grandson Castor was recognized as king of Galatia, and he was also allowed the interior of Paphlagonia.⁸⁹ So far Antony was following the traditional Roman policy of supporting kings from the old regal families; thus also Lysanias was confirmed as king of Ituraea.⁹⁰ And so far he was not especially concerned with rewarding past loyalties: Lysanias for one had taken the Parthian side.[43] But he also had new, able favourites of his own. Amyntas, once Deiotarus' secretary, was given Pisidia; Polemo of Laodicea-ad-Lycum, whose father Zeno was one of the few who resisted Labienus, received a dominion combining the western part of Cilicia with some parts of Lycaonia.[44] Like Ituraea and parts of Pontus, these were rough, unpacified regions: the new kings evidently had work to do. It was also probably now that Cleopatra was given Cyprus and a region of eastern Cilicia: she too perhaps had a task, for Cilicia and Cyprus were peculiarly rich in timber, and she was presumably to build ships to replenish Antony's fleet.[45] Herod of Judaea also received some further backing. Ventidius and his lieutenant Poppaedius Silo had apparently not tried very hard to displace the rival claimant Antigonus for the throne:[46] he had more pressing concerns. Stronger support could now be given. It seems that Antony began, rather oddly, by recognizing Herod as 'king of the Idumaeans and Samarians': possibly he acknowledged that Jerusalem was for the moment beyond recovery, and granted him this new title in provisional compensation.[47]

It was also now that Antony entered on a new religious policy, and began to insist more emphatically on his identification with Dionysus:[48]a god of liberation and eastern conquest, of course, as well as of vitality and exhilarating release. In Athens, he was duly celebrated as deos Neos

Magie 1950 (e 8jj) 1282П. 15. If Reynolds 1982(8270) doc. 7 refers to the Labienus war (cf. lines 3-4 with her commentary), rewards were also voted to Rhodes, Lycia, Laodicea and Tarsus. On the campaign in general cf. Sherwin-White 1984 (a 89) 303-4.

App. BCiv. v.75.319; cf. esp. Buchheim i960 (c 49) 49-51; Hoben 1969 (E 840) 34-9.

Cf. esp. Hoben 1969 (e 840) 116—19. ⁵⁰ Cf. Dio xlix.32.3j Buchheim i960 (c 49) 18-19.

" Joseph. A] xiv.3^o, BJ 1.248.

⁷² App. BCiv. v.73.319 with Gabba 1970 (в 55)0*/^on 'he date, Buchheim i960 (c 49) j 1-2. The realm extended as far as Iconium (Strab. xii. 5.3-6.2 (j68Q);cf. Mitford 1980 (e 860) 1242. For Zeno's resistance to Labienus cf. Strab. xiv.2.24— 5 (660Q.

^,J Cf. Joseph. A] xiv.392-7, 406, BJ 1.288-92, 297; Buchheim i960 (c 49) 67.

Strab. xiv. j. 2-3 (669C), 671,68 j: cf. R. Meiggs, Trees and Timber in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Oxford, 1982) 117. On the date cf. the inscription published by Pouilloux 1972 (c 189), attesting an Egyptian orpanfyos of'Cyprus and Cilicia' in 38-7; Mitford 1980 (e 860) 1293-4.

App. BCiv. v.75.319 ^w'th Gabba 1970 (в 5 5) adloc.; Buchheim i960 (c 49) 66-7.

Dio xlvin.39.2.

Aiovvoos, in 39/8,[49] and he and Octavia were hailed as deot Evepyerat.[50]There were even perhaps hints of a divine marriage between Antony- Dionysus and the city's goddess Athena;[51] he issued cistophori represent­ing himself as Dionysus;[52] and stories were later told about his extravagant Dionysiac displays - a platform above the theatre, decorated with Dionysiac tambourines and fawnskins, where he drank with his friends all day; then torchlit Dionysiac processions to the Acropolis.¹⁰¹ Some of the detail is surely fantastic, but the general policy makes sense. His future now more clearly lay in the East; eastern states often worshipped their rulers; and he would be the greatest master of all. Divinity was the only comfortable status.