CORRECCIÓN DE ERRORES de la Ley Foral 6/2000, de 3 de julio,

It was the Balkans that witnessed the final agony of the Late Republic in the aftermath of Caesar’s murder.141 The turbulent events after 15th March 44 BC are

137

а / Danow 1938, 239-40; Šašel Kos 2005, 498.

138

As attested in the inscription CIL VI, 41023 = Dessau, ILS 47, lines 5-10, erected on the Forum; see also Papazoglou 1979, 319.

139

Broughton 1955, 2.202, 210 and 218; Papazoglou 1979, 320-1.

140

His activities could be localised in Central Rhodopes around Smolyan based on coin evidence, see Find cat. no. 58 – a small hoard from Smolyan, closing denarius of 56 BC (RRC 425/1).

141

transmitted to us thanks mainly to Appian, Plutarch and Cassius Dio.142 They resulted in the establishment of the Second Triumvirate in November 43 BC. It was

legally enacted with no delay by lex Titia, passed on 27th November, marking de facto the end of the Republic143. Mark Antony, Caesar Octavian and M. Lepidus were appointed for “triumviri rei publicae constituendae consulari potestate” giving them

imperium maius for the next five years. Early in 42 BC Antony and Octavian moved to

Macedonia to crash Brutus and Cassius, leaving Lepidus to hold Italy.

Fig. 3.11. Aureus (7.95g) of Mark Antony and Caesar Octavian as triumviri rei publicae, 41 BC. M.

Barbatius Pollio, moneyer, type Crawford 517/1a. Photo after Triton V (16 Jan. 2002), no. 1840.

Between the middle of 44 and late 42 BC Macedonia, Illyria and southern areas

of Thrace were in the hands of Marcus Brutus144, after he ousted the Republican governor C. Antonius. Sometime in the summer of 43 BC Brutus led a successful

campaign against the Bessi in the Rhodopes. He got the support of King Rhaescuporis [I] of Bizy (App. BC 4.87; Dio 47.25.1–2), and in addition a few other Thracian chieftains submitted to him. While in Thrace, Brutus continued to gather more soldiers and money. It was queen Polemocratia, the widow of the Thracian ruler Sadalas II, who consigned the entire Thracian treasury to Brutus, in return for protecting her infant son (the future Sadalas III). Appian states that Brutus among the treasures he found an unexpected quantity of gold and silver, which he coined and converted into currency (App. BC 4.75).145

Fig. 3.12. Aureus (8.01g) of Marcus Brutus, late summer – autumn 42 BC, type Crawford 507/1b.

Photo after Triton XII (Jan. 2009), no. 526.

142

Details in Lica 2000, 93-120. See also Pelling 1996, in CAH 10, 1-9.

143

Bengtson 1967, 239.

144

Collart 1931, 423-9; Papazoglou 1979, 323-4; Pelling 1996, in CAH 10, 6-8; Woytek 2003, 380-1, 512.

145

The double battles at Philippi took place in October 42 BC (Appian, BC 4.82; Dio

47.48.2).146 They determined the fate of the Republican leaders and future of Rome. It was a time when Thracians had hedged their bets on the battle: Cotys, king of the Odrysae, sent Rhaiskos, one of his sons – to Antony and the Caesarian camp, and the other, Rhaescuporis – to the Republican side (Appian, BC 4.87-88, 4.136), each one with a 3,000 Thracian cavalry force. Days before the decisive battle of Philippi, Brutus ordered extra payments (donativa) of 1,000 denarii to be made to each soldier (‘viritim’), double or respectively more to the officers (Appian 4.118)147.

The actual winner at Philippi was Mark Antony, who was successful in both battles, while Octavian was twice defeated. Writing about the situation after the battle, Appian states explicitly: “the fame of Antony was then at its height, not only

among the soldiers, but among all others. The victory of Philippi was considered wholly due to him, on account of Octavian’s illness.” (App. BC 5.6.53; 5.6.58–59).

Shortly after the battles in Macedonia, a new Civil War threatened, but the diplomacy of both sides patched together the so-called “Treaty of Brundisium” in October 40 BC (Bengtson 1967, 241), dividing the provinces of the Republic into spheres of influence. Appian (BC 5.7.65) notes that with this treaty Octavian and Antony “made

a fresh partition of the whole Roman empire between themselves, the boundary line being Scodra, a city of Illyria…. All provinces and islands east of this place, as far as the river Euphrates, were to belong to Antony and all west of it to the ocean to

Octavian.”148 Thus, from November 42 to September 31 BC the whole of Greece,

Macedonia and southern Thrace came into Mark Antony’s hands.149

While he cemented his hold in the East and reformed the provincial administration, Octavian tightened his grip in the West and nominally oversaw a campaign against the pirate commander Sextus Pompeius, based in Sicily. The campaign was actually commanded by Octavian’s lieutenant Marcus Agrippa, and it culminated in a victory in 36 BC. Agrippa had been consul in 37 BC and his diplomacy

had secured the Triumvirate's renewal. In September/October 37 at Tarentum Antony and Octavian renewed their “leadership for another five years”, with Lepidus expelled

146

Discussion and details in Collart 1937, 190-219, esp. at 214-5; Bengtson 1977, 139-51; Pelling 1996, in CAH 10, 6-8; Woytek 2003, 388-91.

147

Discussion in Woytek 2003, 390, 552.

148

See details in Šašel Kos 2005, 369-73 and Lica 2000, 106-8.

149

from the Triumvirate (Dio 48.54.6; Plut. Ant. 35.3).150 The Balkans, Macedonia, Achaia and the East remained in the hands of Mark Antony up to the battle of Actium. The Parthian war waged by Antony in 36-35 BC turned out to be disastrous for his army. Despite the initial successes of his general Publius Ventidius Bassus in Syria (Plut. Ant. 34), the Roman forces were dragged into another heavy campaign with the Parthians in Armenia, from where they withdrew with heavy casualties (Dio 49.27–33). In 35 BC Octavian started his military campaigns in Illyricum.151 Having been successful, they were used by Octavian as an essential part of his political propaganda.152 Among different other themes, this propaganda was emphasizing both Octavian’s military achievements and Antony’s military misfortune in those years.153