"Antony and Cleopatra" by Colleen McCullough, summary

This is a monumental panorama of the decline of the Roman Republic, where historical accuracy supplants the usual Shakespearean romanticization of the triumvir and the Egyptian queen. The political mechanisms of the ancient Mediterranean are revealed through the prism of sober material calculation: the distribution of grain, the upkeep of legions, and the manipulation of wills determine the fate of states more powerfully than the passions of love. Calculation triumphs over blind passions. In 2007, the writer completed this extensive manuscript. The creation of this complex historical canvas required extensive scholarly research against the backdrop of the author’s rapidly deteriorating vision, who was forced to dictate individual chapters and overcome a serious illness to meticulously execute this grandiose ancient vision.

The novel is the seventh installment in the extensive "Lords of Rome" series. This final volume was preceded by "The First Man in Rome," "The Crown of Grass," "Fortune’s Favorites," "Caesar’s Women," "Caesar," and "The October Horse."

Eastern Possessions and the Meeting at Tarsus

After his triumph at Philippi, Mark Antony sets out to establish direct control of the eastern provinces. The general requires colossal resources. In Nicomedia in Asia Minor, the Roman triumvir is besieged by the obsequious rulers of the surrounding client states. The cunning Prince Herod secures recognition of his legitimate rights to rule Judea through the secret mediation of the wily Roman legate Quintus Dellius. Having established himself in Tarsus, Cilician, the general calls on the Egyptian queen to answer for her support of the republicans.

A royal Egyptian woman arrives along the Cydnus River on a luxurious gilded vessel, disguised as Aphrodite. Lavish banquets stun the general. In exchange for financial promises, the guest coldly demands the execution of her sister Arsinoe, who has taken refuge in the sacred temple of Ephesus. The boisterous winter months in the Alexandrian palaces pass amid the unrestrained sybaritism of the triumvir’s drinking society, until Parthian troops under Prince Pacorus suddenly breach the Syrian borders of the Roman state.

The dictator’s son, Caesarion, astonishes the Romans with his striking resemblance to his famous father. The five-year-old boy displays remarkable tenacity. Information about a conspiracy by his legal wife, Fulvia, forces the commander to interrupt the festivities and hastily sail for Italy.

The Roman Crisis and the Alliance of the Triumvirs

In Rome, the young Octavian wages a desperate battle against famine and the ruin of peasant farms. Sextus Pompey cuts off wheat supplies. The outbreak of rebellion by consul Lucius Antonius and the powerful Fulvia culminates in the destruction of besieged Perusia. Rejected by her enraged husband, the instigator of the Italian rebellion voluntarily opens her veins in someone else’s Athenian chambers, forever escaping the inevitable public disgrace in Rome. The walls of Brundisium are sealed against the legions of the eastern ruler.

The reconciliation of the triumvirs is cemented by the diplomatic marriage of the widowed military leader with the virtuous Octavia, whose beauty and meekness charm the Romans.

The newlyweds move to Athens. Italy finally gets a long-awaited respite from the inevitable new major civil conflicts.

Lead bullets against the Parthians

The experienced commander Publius Ventidius leads a large-scale military campaign against the Parthian invaders in Syria. The Parthian cavalry is routed. Special slinger units devastate the enemy’s heavy cavalry with specially cast lead bullets. On the snowy mountain passes of the Taurus Mountains, Roman cohorts utterly defeat the army of the rebellious defector Labienus, sending the remnants of his troops into panicked flight. Prince Pacorus is killed in the Battle of Gindarus. The envious ruler of the East baselessly accuses the victor of bribery and dismisses his comrade from the siege of Samosata.

The insulted veteran resigns and leaves to celebrate a well-deserved Roman triumph. Changes are afoot in the capital. Octavian abruptly divorces Scribonia on the day of his daughter Julia’s birth. His new bride is the patrician Livia Drusilla, pregnant with their second son. Her noble husband, Tiberius Nero, unquestioningly agrees to an immediate divorce for the sake of his own political survival and the payment of monstrous debts. An ancient sacred rite binds the young couple forever.

In Tarentum, the triumvirs extend their emergency powers for another five years. The naval forces are divided. Antony hands over one hundred and twenty war galleys to his colleague in exchange for the promised legions for a new campaign in the east. The pregnant Octavia remains in Italy under the care of her caring brother.

The whole of Roman society awaits with growing anxiety the inevitable open clash between two irreconcilable rulers of a huge state.

Marriage in Antioch and the Winter Departure

In Syrian Antioch, the general enters into an Egyptian marriage with Cleopatra, generously bestowing Roman lands and Phoenician ports upon his mistress. The grand Parthian campaign begins. Ahead of his own colossal baggage train with siege engines, the self-confident triumvir leads sixteen legions through the mountains to the walls of impregnable Phraaspa. The betrayal of the guides results in the destruction of the convoy. Deprived of their heavy battering rams, the Romans waste precious summer days fruitlessly standing beneath enemy fortifications.

The retreat through deep snowdrifts turns into an icy nightmare without hot food or heating. The army melts before our eyes. The Roman cohorts subsist on raw wheat grains under the constant attacks of pursuing horse archers. In the coastal Syrian village of Belaya, a broken commander drowns his shame in relentless drinking until the long-awaited arrival of the saving Egyptian fleet with warm clothing.

The fall of Sextus and the revelation of the will

The naval Battle of Naulochus ends with the complete defeat of Sextus Pompey’s pirate fleet thanks to the boarding harpoons invented by Agrippa. The attempt by the power-hungry triumvir Marcus Lepidus to seize the richest Sicilian lands ends in the bloodless conversion of twenty-two legions to the victorious banner of the young Caesar. The disgraced pontiff is exiled. The colossal treasures of the defeated enemy temporarily satisfy the financial appetites of the demobilized soldiers.

An unprecedented political spectacle unfolds in Alexandria. Having captured the Armenian king Artavasdes, the Roman general stages a triumphal procession through the Egyptian streets and donates the legitimate spoils of war to the sanctuary of Serapis. The heirs receive kingdoms. The young Caesarion is proclaimed king of kings, and the young children of the Egyptian ruler are granted vast Roman provinces. The legitimate consuls flee Rome for the east.

The insulting divorce from Octavia is the final straw for the Italians. Legates Plancus and Titius, having defected to the legitimate government, reveal the secret of the eastern ruler’s scandalous will. Appearing before the terrified Vestal Virgins at night, accompanied by loyal barbarian bodyguards, the young ruler forcibly seizes the sacred scroll, defying centuries-old religious prohibitions and the furious curses of the high priestess Appuleia. The announcement of the last will shocks the senators. The demand for burial in Alexandria next to the foreign ruler finally transforms the Roman patrician into a dangerous apostate in the eyes of his fellow citizens.

Citizens unanimously rally around the defender of the Fatherland.

The sea trap at Actium and the finale in Alexandria

A special ancient fetial rite at the Temple of Bellona marks the declaration of holy war against the foreign queen. Italy swears allegiance to Caesar. Agrippa’s naval forces blockade the triumvir’s massive fleet in the narrow Ambracian Gulf on the western coast of Greece. Malaria breaks out in the camps. Roman nobles and Eastern monarchs abandon the doomed camp of their former idol by the dozens.

The September battle turns into a rout. Sixty fast Egyptian galleys burst through the resulting breach and set sail south. Abandoning the sagging, unwieldy flagship, the distraught ruler boards a light rowboat and, before the eyes of the legionnaires, rushes after the royal vessel. The remaining ships capitulate. Nineteen legions on land lay down their arms before the victors without a single blow.

The following summer, Octavian’s victorious Roman cohorts crossed the eastern border without the slightest hindrance and entered Egyptian soil. The last loyal veterans in the vicinity of the Alexandrian hippodrome, without the slightest resistance, defect to the advancing Roman cohorts under the command of the experienced commander Statilius Taurus, recognizing the utter futility of further armed struggle. False news of the death of the queen pushes Mark Antony to take a fatal step. Mortally wounded, the general orders himself carried to the tomb and breathes his last in the arms of a woman locked in a monumental pyramid.

The victor coldly eliminates his direct rivals. The eldest son of the defeated triumvir, Antyllus, is killed by soldiers in the capital’s sanctuary. Young Caesarion is intercepted on the road to Memphis and secretly murdered on the personal orders of the triumphant emperor, who could not tolerate the presence of the dictator’s second heir. Categorically refusing to serve as a living trophy in the humiliating triumphal procession through the Roman Forum, the proud Egyptian ruler, in her royal regalia, ingests the deadly poison of a cobra smuggled into the palace. Two faithful maids share their mistress’s fate.

The wealthiest Egypt is forever transformed into the triumphant emperor’s private, closed viceroyalty, replenishing the state’s depleted treasury. Rome experiences a triple triumph. On January 16, 27 BC, the grateful Senate officially bestows upon the supreme ruler the sacred, honorary name of Augustus.