The Augustan Empire 43 BC

Unfortunately, it was also uncomfortably close to a Roman triumph, which itself had many Dionysiac associations;[113] and it was all too easy for Octavian to represent it as a sacrilegious transfer of the Roman ceremony to Egypt.[114] And that was not all. At around the same time, perhaps indeed at the same ceremony,[115] came the 'Donations of Alexandria'. In the Alexandrian Gymnasium were set up high golden thrones for himself and Cleopatra, and lower ones for their children: and he declared Cleopatra monarch (along with her son Caesarion) of Egypt, Cyprus and Koile Syria. Armenia, Media and - when conquered - Parthia were to fall to their six-year-old son Alexander Helios; Libya and Cyrene to his twin Cleopatra Selene; and Ptolemy Philadelphus, still only two, was to have Phoenicia, Syria and Cilicia. Then the children appeared themselves, Alexander with Median clothes and head-dress, Ptolemy with the distinctive Macedonian boots, cloak and cap — but

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Alexander had a regal tiara too, and Ptolemy a diadem.[116] It was all show. The gestures made no difference to the administration of the East.[117] But it was a show with style, and it doubtless went down very well in Alexandria.

It was still an extraordinary thing to do, and Octavian clearly relished it. Just as in 36 when he flaunted his liaison with Cleopatra, Antony surely underestimated the dangers of such behaviour before the Roman public: and once again we see a substantial political error centring on Cleopatra — perhaps indeed inspired by her persuasion. At that time, Antony was still concerned about Italian opinion. He responded to Octavian's constitutional talk by writing grandly himself to the Senate about restoring the Republic.[118] But the antics in Alexandria belied the republican pretence. The gestures may have meant little, but if they meant anything they meant a dynastic succession: Antony was indeed a second Hercules, but in fathering a new race of monarchs, and fathering them from a foreign woman. He would even issue coins with his head on one side and Cleopatra's on the other. It was unthinkable, a foreign woman on a Roman coin![119] True, his Roman children were not forgotten either: at around this time he was issuing coins with his head and that of his eldest son Antyllus, his principal heir in Roman law.[120]But there too the suggestions were all too close to a dynasty; and that was not the Roman way.

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Still, one should not overstate the damage. Octavian certainly fastened on this, and Antony's friends in Rome were certainly discom­fited:[121] that is enough to demonstrate its unwisdom. But still in early 3 2, when he sought ratification in Rome for his acta, the Antonian consuls Sosius and Ahenobarbus believed they could hush up the affair of the Donations, some fifteen months earlier:[122] hardly credible, if they had been as public and spectacular as our sources Plutarch and Dio suggest.

Other propaganda mattered more. Of course, Antony and Octavian had been exchanging public abuse for years, with particular ferocity during the early stages in 44—43 and the Perusine War of 40.[123] Butduring the last few years Octavian had rather been directing his fire at Sextus — the champion of the slaves and pirates, or so Octavian could pretend.²¹⁶ With Sextus' fall, the propaganda battle with Antony recommenced, and they were soon exchanging public letters and manifestos. Part of it was simply the competition to outbid one another in constitutionalist protestation; but much was more personal. That of course followed the traditions of Roman invective, but it also suited the times. To be successful, propaganda needs to find a willing public, with prejudices it can subtly mirror and exploit. Now it was easy to see civil war and fraternal bloodshed as the index of the collapse of the old virtues. The public was ripe for believing what it was told about Antony's morality, and for thinking that it mattered. By winter 35/4 Octavian was probably making capital out of his sister's treatment: surely she was entitled to a divorce — but she was of course too noble to seek one.²¹⁷ Then there was all the eastern degeneracy, the debauchery, the infatuation (as of course it must be) with Cleopatra. All could be painted in the most lurid colours. Horace's ninth Epode, written a few years later in 31, gives some of the flavour:

Future generations will not believe it - a Roman soldier, bought and sold, carrying stakes and bearing arms for a woman, even bringing himself to serve under withered eunuchs! And amid the army's standards the sun glimpses a shameful mosquito net.

(Hor. Epodes ix. 11—16)