#mark antony

History remembers Mark Antony as the lover of Cleopatra, but before she ever entered the picture, he shared a raw, terrifying, and deeply passionate yet political marriage with Fulvia.

Phoenicia, Tripolis. Mark Antony and Fulvia, the first living Roman woman to be depicted on coins. Bronze (dated year 23 of the Pompeian era = 42/1 BCE). 

​She was not a woman who sat behind the loom while he carved up the Roman world. Fulvia was a force in her own right, brilliant, fiercely ambitious, and uncompromisingly loyal to Antony. As Plutarch famously noted in his Life of Antony:

​“She was a woman who took no thought for spinning or housekeeping, nor would she be content with ruling a husband who was a private citizen, but wished to rule a ruler and command a commander. Consequently, Cleopatra was indebted to Fulvia for teaching Antony to obey a wife, since she received him quite tamed and trained from the beginning to obey women.” Antony 10.3

​Yet despite her stern reputation, their marriage was filled with genuine warmth and playful devotion. Antony delighted in making her smile. Plutarch recorded a charming story of Antony sneaking back into Rome in disguise just to surprise her:

​“Antony tried, by sportive ways and youthful sallies, to make even Fulvia more light-hearted. For instance, when many were going out to meet Caesar after his victory in Spain, Antony himself went forth. Then, on a sudden, a report burst upon Italy that Caesar was dead and his enemies advancing upon the country, and Antony turned back to Rome. He took the dress of a slave and came by night to his house, and on saying that he was the bearer of a letter to Fulvia from Antony, was admitted to her presence, his face all muffled. Then Fulvia, in great distress, before taking the letter, asked whether Antony was still alive; and he, after handing her the letter without a word, as she began to open and read it, threw his arms about her and kissed her.” Antony 10.4

​When Caesar was assassinated and Rome eventually descended into civil war, their shared fire shifted from domestic playfulness to political survival. Fulvia managed his interests, backed his soldiers, and fought tooth and nail to protect his position in Italy while he was away commanding legions in the East.

​And then came the unraveling.

​While Antony was in the East, Lucius Antonius and Fulvia raised legions back home to defend his standing against a rising Octavian. She helped his brother Lucius lead the Perusine War, an extraordinary display of leadership that made chroniclers like Appian write this exaggeratedly :

​“Fulvia, the wife of Antony, a woman who in every respect differed from the female sex, was doing everything in her power to stir up trouble... She girded herself with a sword, addressed the soldiers, and took full control of affairs.” The Civil Wars 5.14

​When the war was lost and Perusia fell in 40 BC, Fulvia fled to Greece to meet him. But the reunion was not the romantic homecoming she had fought for. Expecting gratitude, she was met instead with Antony’s sharp anger over a war he felt was premature and disastrous for his alliance with Octavian.

​The rejection said to have broken her:

​“Fulvia, who was on her way to meet him, met him at Athens; but there were angry words between them, and she fell sick of a disease which was aggravated by her despair. When Antony set sail for Italy, he left her ill at Sicyon. And there, neglected by him, as it seemed, she died of her illness.” Antony 30.1-2

​Broken in spirit, Fulvia died in Sicyon shortly after, left behind as Antony departed to patch things up with Octavian, an alliance famously sealed by his immediate marriage to Octavian's sister, Octavia.

​The tragic irony of her end is that Fulvia burned down her entire world trying to save Antony’s place at the top of it. The man who once disguised himself as a slave just to embrace her in the dark ultimately had to leave her to die under the weight of a world where he was at the top, carrying a lingering guilt for the woman who had fought harder for him than anyone else in Rome:

Not exactly sure why the two of them are paired together? But whatever

It was made by Canini Giovanni Angelo

“As the daughter of Mark Antony, niece of Augustus, sister-in-law of Tiberius, mother of Claudius, and grandmother of Caligula, Antonia (36 BCE-37 CE) was a central member of the imperial court and was only the second woman given the title of Augusta. This head is considered to be one of the most mature representations of Antonia (see coin 12) and may be a copy of the portrait carried during the annual games held on her birthday. The narrow band in her hair may signify her role as priestess of the deified Augustus. This bust was assembled from several parts in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, when it was common to restore ancient sculpture to appear "whole" and therefore more beautiful. The head and two sections of the bust are ancient, although from different originals, while the inscribed left shoulder and the hair on the back of the neck are modern.”