#philippics

Demosthenes, Defender of (Athenian) Democracy?

He was pleasure-loving, hard drinking and his strong physique tolerated hard living. Although his social circle spanned all layers of society, he seems to have preferred low company and he is alleged to have been addicted to gambling, although Cicero, clearly biased, is our only source on this. It may have been his inborn inclination to carousel which led him to more often than not choose low company (Everitt 2002, 262) such as actors and courtesans. These friends may have influenced him easily; yet he also moved in influential circles such as that of Curio, with whom he shared a life-long friendship and who, probably, drew him into the gang of Clodius of the “young and incorrigibles”, and possibly introduced him to Caesar.

His choice of the wrong friends helped him to earn a bad reputation with his own class, but it made him popular with the lower classes. The common people thought Antony sluggish and impatient, although his careless immorality was widely popular:

What might seem to some very insupportable, his vaunting, his raillery, his drinking in public, sitting down by the men as they were taking their food, and eating, as he stood, off the common soldiers' tables, made him the delight and pleasure of the army. In love affairs, also, he was very agreeable: he gained many friends by the assistance he gave them in theirs, and took other people's raillery upon his own with good-humour. And his generous ways, his open and lavish hand in gifts and favours to his friends and fellow-soldiers, did a great deal for him in his first advance to power, and after he had become great, long maintained his fortunes, when a thousand follies were hastening their overthrow. One instance of his liberality I must relate. He had ordered payment to one of his friends of twenty-five myriads of money or decies, as the Romans call it, and his steward wondering at the extravagance of the sum, laid all the silver in a heap, as he should pass by. Antony, seeing the heap, asked what it meant; his steward replied, "The money you have ordered to be given to your friend." So, perceiving the man's malice, said he, "I thought the decies had been much more; 'tis too little; let it be doubled." This, however, was at a later time. [Plut. Ant. 2]

There is a dichotomy in Antony’s life-pattern: on the one hand, he lived happily among his soldiers, campaigning, tolerating hardships, living a rough and simple lifestyle, joking and being coarse-witted, while on the other hand he reveled in living in large mansions, such as the house of Pompeius, enjoying extravagance, luxury and pomp.

Sources:

Cicero, Philippic. 12. 13

Plutarch's Life of Antony

Eleanor Goltz Huzar, Mark Antony - A biography

Antony compromises the integrity of the household as an architectural unit.

HELP! I can't...

Antony compromises? The integrity? Of the household? As an architectural unit?? By sneaking in through the roof? To meet with Curio??? This is so funny to me I can't. Compromises the integrity of the household as an architectural unit, huh.

Actually, I think the entire chapter that quote came from is a work of art. Look at this part.

The scenario Cicero conjures up features plot elements of romantic New Comedy, suitably blackened, with the youthful libertine (Curio Junior) and his lover (Antony) running foul of Curio Senior, who, playing the strict father familiar from the comic stage, repeatedly chucks his son’s homeboy out of the house — to no avail.

TO NO AVAIL

I'm looking at this book's table of contents and I think I have to read it. Just look at some of the chapter titles!

Family Therapy: Cicero as Counselor

Hitting 'Fast-Forward,' or: How to Pull Off a Praeteritio

Antony Adrift

Caesar's Approach to HR, or Why Antony Has What it Takes

Antony Augur, Addled and Addling

Antony Colonized a Colony!

Antony's Enrichment Activities

HELPP

This book is Cicero, Philippic 2, 44-50, 78-92, 100-119: Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary by Ingo Gildenhard.