Ancient Empires: Cleopatra's Crucial Bond With Mark Antony | Exclusive | History

The stakes at Actium for Cleopatra are sky high. She has risked her entire power, her entire kingdom, the survival of her entire dynasty on one man, Antony. The morning of September 2, 31 BC, Antony's warships advance out of Actium with Cleopatra's vessels in the rear. During the course of the battle, Antony's forces are able to open up the center of Octavian's line and give his ships a means of escaping the narrow bay of Actium. Then the fog of war seems to take over. Our sources are confused about what exactly is going on. But what we do know is that Cleopatra's ships now try to make an escape into the open ocean. Antony tries to follow her. His formation is completely broken up. And the Roman forces of Octavian are able to take advantage of the situation and cause the destruction of almost the entire fleet. The impact of Actium on Cleopatra and Mark Antony is catastrophic. Most of the army defects to Octavian. So they are not going to recover from this loss. And the dream of Egypt at the center of a world empire has been shattered. Like other great battles, such as Waterloo or Gettysburg, it really reshapes what the world will look like for centuries and millennia to come. According to Plutarch, Antony falls hard in love with Cleopatra. He even admits that as a young cavalry officer, when he first came to Egypt, that he fell in love with her then. Antony is famed for his conquests. He's immensely appealing. He's a man of boundless joy and impulsivity. It's very hard to believe Mark Antony could have failed to fall for Cleopatra. So very clearly, the relationship became sexual fairly early on. As soon as she's back in Egypt, Cleopatra forges a plan to protect her dynasty. Caesarion now has a huge target on his back because Octavian is looking for a way to murder the last challenger to his rule. Be safe. So she takes Caesarion, along with a huge pot of gold, and sends him off to India in a hope not only to protect him, but hopefully one day he'll be able to raise an army and perhaps even come back and challenge Octavian. After acting, Cleopatra becomes immensely resourceful. She begins to cast about for all possible means of escape, for every possible way to insulate her kingdom from Octavian's approach. Antony takes the opposite tack. Antony is, quite frankly, depressed after this loss. It marks the end of his role as one of the two strongest men in the Roman state. And he knows that he is going to have to submit to Octavian's power. Cleopatra tries to negotiate, tries to do what she had always done throughout her life, figure out what can she give to Octavian that will give her some degree of flexibility. So? He said I could remain queen. Dead or alive, and to you? I think there was this common bond between Antony and Cleopatra, and just as Antony would not abandon her at Actium, Cleopatra would not abandon him. Rejecting Octavian's offer, Cleopatra prepares for his inevitable invasion by constructing her own tomb. Cleopatra begins to build a mausoleum into which she piles as many treasures as she can possibly transport across Alexandria. What does any Roman ruler want? They want goods. They want treasure. And this she can use to bargain with Octavian for her kingdom. And her life.