The Battle of Actium

The Battle of Actium…the television event 2000 years in the making.

Well, no, not really. On HBO’s Rome, which wraps up it’s second and final season tonight at 9, the battles are not nearly as important as the men (and women) who controlled the city at the end of the Republic. Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Pompey Magnus, Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, Cleopatra, and Octavian (Augustus) Caesar are famous names still, more than two millennia later. There is good reason for that, and this show’s greatest strength is that it doesn’t have to stray very far from the historical record to tell a fantastically compelling story. Ciaran Hinds as Caesar and James Purefoy as Mark Antony, his right hand, are two of the most riveting characters to be found on TV today. Gladiator this is not.

There are always two different stories being told on this show, one of historical fact and one of dramatized fiction. The fiction features Roman legionnaires Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, their wives, and their children. Their stories are woven into the ebb and flow of events that have fascinated playwrights, artists and historians for centuries. There is very little poetic license taken to include them in events. (With one notable exception, which may be pivotal to tonight’s finale.) They are the glue that holds the show together and they are lead characters, but at the same time they are portrayed as common soldiers existing in an uncommon time. You laugh with them, you cry with them, and with a total of only 22 episodes you never get sick of them. Vorenus and Pullo are spared limping to the finish line the way Tony Soprano will, or losing their way like John Locke may have.

The dramatic side of Rome is well worth watching, either through On Demand or on DVD, so I will not spoil it for you here. However, if a nuts and bolts and somewhat long-winded explanation of the history involved interests you, then read on. If not, no worries, but do yourself a favor and check this show out while you still can.

As our story begins:

Pompey Magus and Caesar are uneasy friends and co-Consuls, the former the head of the Roman Senate and the latter in charge of its army. Jealousy between the two soon turns to rivalry, and rivalry quickly becomes civil war. Beaten, Pompey flees to Egypt where he believes he still has allies. Unfortunately for him, the boy-king, Ptolemy XVIII, who rules Egypt is eager to score points with the much younger Julius Caesar and orders Pompey beheaded.

In one of the greatest strategic blunders in history, Ptolemy and his advisors present Caesar with his Pompey’s severed head upon his arrival in Alexandria. To the Romans, the Egyptians at this time were little more than half-Greek, half-African savages, and that they would dare to not only murder a Roman Consul but to disrespect his body in this way is an offense that cannot go unpunished. Soon enough Ptolemy is floating face down in the Nile, his advisors heads are on stakes outside the royal palace, and Cleopatra sits on the Egyptian throne. (She is also mother to Caesar’s child, because nothing solidified a political alliance in the ancient world better than a baby.)

Caesar had the support of the people, but Pompey had the power of the Senate behind him. Returning to Rome Caesar is named Dictator for life, but makes the fatal mistake of granting amnesty to many Senators who had opposed him. Among them are the great orator, Marcus Tullius Cicero, and Marcus Junius Brutus, a descendent of the mythical Brutus who legend has it rid Rome of its last king. The relationship between Caesar and Brutus is complex. They are friends but also political rivals, and the friendship is put under further strain by a longstanding affair between Caesar and Servilia, Brutus’s mother.

The relationship between Caesar and Servilia, and the aftermath of their breakup, is indicative of the behind the scenes but powerful role women played in Roman politics. Caesar originally delays pursuing Pompey at the urging of his lover. When their affair becomes an embarrassing public scandal, Caesar ends the relationship. Servilia swears revenge and it is her influence that pushes Brutus towards a final break with his friend and fateful partnership with Gaius Cassius Longinus. The political and the personal collide, plots abound, and season one ends with Gaius Julius Caesar laying dead on the floor of the Roman Senate, victim of the most famous murder in world history.

Season two picks up exactly where the first season left off, with Mark Antony swearing revenge on Brutus and the other senators involved in the conspiracy. He forms an alliance with young Octavian, son of his mistress, Atia, and Caesar’s nephew, adopted son, and sole heir. It is Octavian, now one of the richest men in Rome thanks to his uncle’s will and holder of the name Caesar, who realizes the conspirators have backed themselves into a corner. If Julius Caesar was indeed a tyrant who needed to die, as the Senate would argue, then all of his acts are null and void. Elections will need to be called to fill all offices appointed by the Dictator in his final days. Tyrant or not, Caesar was loved by the people, and any elections held in the immediate aftermath of his murder will propel Antony to power.

Instead of holding elections and rather than going to war with each other, Antony and Octavian form an uneasy peace with Brutus and Cassius. The conspirators leave the city and head to Greece, and Antony in essence assumes the same role and power anyway that Caesar enjoyed before his death. This arrangement lasts only briefly, as Octavian is growing up and has ambitions of his own. Soon he and Antony are feuding. Atia, when faced with a choice between lover and son, chooses Mark Antony. Crushed, young Caesar leaves Rome to join his friend Marcus Agrippa and gain the military experience needed to realistically challenge Antony.

Time passes. Brutus and Cassius gather forces and strength in Greece while Octavian and Agrippa raise an army to go to war with Antony. Octavian reaches out to Cicero, the Senate’s most powerful speaker and longtime thorn in the side of Antony. He and Antony have formed an uncomfortable peace of their own, but it is one that Cicero has grown tired of and he eagerly turns on Antony in a letter read on the Senate floor. With his control of the Senate on the line Antony is forced to leave Rome and meet Octavian in battle. His forces are routed and Octavian Caesar returns to Rome victorious.

Victory, however, has left his own army weakened. Cicero, realizing that life under Octavian will be only slightly better than life under Antony, reaches out to Brutus and Cassius. This Caesar is weak, he tells them, and can be taken down at anytime. Realizing that his forces alone cannot beat the army gathered in Greece, Octavian swallows his pride and reconciles with Antony. They merge their forces. Needing a quick influx of cash to pay for yet another military campaign, they make a list of the richest men left in Rome still loyal to the conspirators. These men are murdered and their property seized. Among them is Cicero. He is not only killed, but Antony orders his hands chopped off and nailed to the door of the Senate as well.

The battle in Greece is quick and final. Both Cassius and Brutus are killed. Returning to Rome, Antony, Octavian and another (lesser) Roman general, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, form a Triumvirate. They divide the empire into three spheres, with Octavian in charge of Rome, Antony in charge of Egypt and the east, and Lepidus in control of Africa. To seal their new alliance Octavian marries off his sister, Octavia, to Antony, despite the fact that Antony has been bedding her mother for years.

The arrangement quickly falls apart and Antony departs for Alexandria and a fateful encounter with Cleopatra. The Egyptian Queen’s greatest desire is that her son by Julius Caesar, Caesarion, will be legitimized and given the same control of Rome his father sought. Seducing Antony is easy, as is getting him to promise her just that in his own will. When word of the will reaches Octavian it is exactly what he needs to break from Antony once and for all. The Senate labels Antony a traitor to Rome and declares war on Cleopatra. Octavian and Agrippa sail for Egypt, where they will meet Mark Antony one more time, tonight, at Actium.

(Original Post Date: 3/25/2007)