History Thing 007 - Mark Antony, BAMF

[queerlyobscure]

Aaaand in the hopes that I'm over the last of my life/health issues for the moment, the return of HISTORY THINGS :D

Today, we're going to talk about Mark Antony.

Comments

[delphipsmith]

I love this Reader's Digest version of the Life of Marc Antony LOL! And indeed, the list of People Who Did Not Like Mark Antony is pretty fucking long. But when you're a world conqueror, what else can you expect? Not to mention that his personal life wasn't exactly marked by fidelity -- he was married at least four times and left his wife Octavia (sister of Octavian, later Augustus Caesar) for Cleopatra.

There's a line about him in the Masterpiece Theatre series I, Claudius that always makes me laugh: Octavia and several other women are sitting around chatting in the atrium and Livia, looking at Octavia's daughter, says, "She's very pretty. She looks like her father. He was very pretty." "Too pretty," says Octavia. "Oh, I don't know," says Livia, "rather pleasant if he's your husband." To which Octavia responds rather pointedly, "It was no great pleasure being Mark Antony's wife..." Heh heh heh.

Sorry, had to fix the quote!

[queerlyobscure]

You know, I am basically willing to forgive him for being an arsehole on the basis that he was an *entertaining* arsehole. And to be fair, multiple marriages weren't hugely uncommon in Rome and divorce wasn't really a big deal. Largely because, I guess, marriage was almost entirely political between the patricians. He did manage to have kids with Cleopatra while he was married to Octavia, though.

That is a fabulous line and I think sums him up nicely; pretty to look at, but you wouldn't want to own one.