History of Ancient Rome | The Second Triumvirate (Lecture 30)

Lecture 30: Octavian was temporarily in charge of Rome, but Antony was in Cisalpine Gaul marshaling his resources, and the Liberators were doing the same in Greece and the east. Octavian therefore secured his position by burying the hatchet and forging an alliance with Antony. Along with another leading Caesarian, M. Aemilius Lepidus, Antony and Octavian formed the “Second Triumvirate” on 27 November 43 BC. Unlike the First, the Second Triumvirate was a legally established junta, constituted for five years with what amounted to dictatorial powers. Its first act was to issue proscriptions, in which Cicero, an enemy of Antony’s, met his death. After dispensing with the Liberators at Philippi in 42 BC, the Triumvirate dominated Roman politics for the next ten years (it was renewed in 38 BC). Like its predecessor, the Second Triumvirate was fraught with tensions. Lepidus was sidelined and eventually squeezed out altogether after making an attempt to assert himself in 36 BC. Antony went east and was never to return to Rome. Octavian stayed in the west, and both men focused on their respective halves of the empire.

Essential Reading:
Appian, The Civil Wars, book 3.
Scullard, Gracchi to Nero, chapter 8.
Plutarch, Makers of Rome, 9 (“Mark Antony”).

Supplemental Reading:
Raaflaub and Toher, Between Republic and Empire, chapter 4.
Syme, Roman Revolution, chapters, 14–18.

Lecture 31: https://www.bitchute.com/video/AIFXGCCB7KB2/