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Dreams of Empire - The Fall of the Roman Empire
by Addison Hart
Part 1
Early in the first century BC, a Roman teenager
from a minor patrician family visited Nicomedes, King of Bithynia. On his return
trip to the city of Rome, the historian Plutarch tells us that "he was captured
by pirates near the island of Pharmacusa. At that time there were large fleets
of pirates, with ships large and small, infesting the seas everywhere." When the
boy was first captured, the pirates demanded that the family pay twenty gold
talents for his safe return, but it was soon upped to a good fifty talents when
the boy told them that they did not understand the importance of their new
prisoner. The boy sent most of his companions away to earn the money, and he was
left alone with the pirates. The boy was not at all intimidated by the
villainous pirates, and for thirty-eight days he lived with them, and they grew
to respect the boy, and they even began to grow a sort of bond with him. The boy
once, in a jovial manner, said to them that he would one day have them
crucified.
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Part 2
The night sky late on August 8th, 48 BC, was suddenly host to a literal ball of
fire, some said a fiery torch, flung into the air, twisting about in the sky,
slamming down somewhere off in the darkness. The object had come, it seemed,
from the direction of the camps of Julius Caesar, and had been heading straight
for the camps of Gnaeus Pompeius. Obviously, within seconds of the appearance of
the fiery body, the Pompeians began to scramble about under the stars. They were
preparing for an attack that they knew would sooner or later come. It seemed
that Caesar was finally going to end this civil war once and for all. The very
next day, August the 9th, the Consul/Dictator of Rome did just that.
When Pompey awoke the next morning (assuming he even managed sleep on
that rather hectic night), he knew that this was the day old Caesar would come,
and he knew that he would definitely be defeated by this veteran army, despite
the words of General Titus Labienus, a veteran of the Gallic Wars, who felt that
Caesar was just as unprepared as Pompey. All the same, Pompey had 40,000 men
with him, Caesar only sported 22,000.
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Part 3
Of course, another three men were now slowly emerging from all this chaos, as
Crassus, Caesar, and Pompey had done in the last generation of Civil War. The
three men were strikingly different, and they all seemed to hate each other
tremendously to boot. The first was, of course, the thirty-eight year old Marcus
Antonius, alias Marc Antony. Art depicting Antonius shows him in various
different appearances, and so it's hard to pin down exactly what he looked like.
He was a handsome individual, tall, square-faced, curly-haired, Plutarch tells
us that at one time he had a fine Herculean beard. He had a rather large nose,
turning down at the tip, and a strong, projecting chin. He had rather fleshy
features. Indeed, in his later years he seems to have gotten a little on the
chubby side. Despite that, he was built like a gladiator, as befitted someone
who claimed to be a descendant of Herakles (Hercules) himself. Antonius was born
in 82 BC into a fine political family, and he married into an even finer one,
that of Julius Caesar. Young Antonius always had a taste for strong drink, and
so by 60 BC, the man was a hopeless, drunken, denarii-less individual. It was
only through the mob leader Clodius Pulcher that Antonius was saved from a nasty
fate, and he soon set out to Syria as a commander of cavalry. Of course, in the
military old Antonius excelled, so much so in fact that he wound up as the
second most powerful man in Caesar's army next to, well, Caesar himself. Now, of
course, he was one of the most powerful men in Rome, period. He was beloved by
his troops, as well. He was seen to go into the tents of the wounded to speak
with them, and on occasion he would burst into tears when he saw the hopelessly
wounded. He was also known for his rather puerile tricks on, well, just about
anybody, especially his wives. He was known to be quite vulgar on occasions, and
he was also famous for his numerous affairs.
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Part 4
Though Antonius had hard work ahead of him, Octavian's task of holding Italy
together was rather tough going. The problem was land grants to veterans.
Eighteen cities had been confiscated by the government for land for the veterans
of the army, but the inhabitants of the city were, understandably, rather ticked
off by the idea of simply being shoved out of their dwellings so as some cut-up,
battle-weary soldier could move in. With the support of both Antonius and,
unsurprisingly, Sextus Pompey, the ancient Etruscan city of Perusia arose in
full revolt, rallying some small army to attempt to gain it's own independence,
or at least to show this upstart Octavian some sense. Despite the total
destruction of Perusia itself, the Perusian Wars seemed to last longer than they
should have, thanks to Antonius. The Eastern triumvir actually dared to sail
towards Italy. Was this to be the start of some nasty little political coup?
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