Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/308

 27* A N T O N I U S. thefe three conferred, they would eafily be perfuaded, (hat the patriots wanted only to deftroy them all, which could not be done fo effectually, as by clafhing them againft one another : they therefore combined, and profcribed their refpeclive enemies, and divided the empire among themfelves. Cicero fell a facrifice to the refentment of Anthony, who in*- deed was charged with mod of the murders then committed : but thty were rather to be charged to the account of his Dion. L. 47. wife Fulvia, who, being a woman of avarice, cruelty, and revenge, committed a thoufand enormities of which her hufband was ignorant : infomuch that, his foldiers once biingingto him the head of a man killed, as they fuppofed, by his order, he faid, Alas ! poor man^ I did not knoiu y ntr did 1 ever jee him. Upon the defeat of Brutus and Caffius by Oflavius and Anthony at Philippi, which was owing chiefly to the military fkill and bravery of the latter, Anthony obtained the fovereign dominion; and furely he prefcnts us with a moft uncommon piclure of human nature, when we confider, how he was roufed at once by Ccefar's death from the midft of pleafure and debauch, formed the true plan of his intereft, andpurfued it with a molt furpniing; vigour and addrcfs, till, after many and almoft infuperable difficulties, he accomplifhed at length what he all along aimed at. After the battle at Philippi, Anthony went into Alia ; where he had the moft fplendid court that ever was feen. The kings and princes of Afta came to his levee, and acknowledged no other fovereign in the Eaft but him. Queens and princeiTes, knowing him doubtleis to be a man of amour and gallantry, ftrove who ibould win his heart ; and the famous Cleopatra of Egypt fucceeded. The reft of Anthony's hiftory, his moft luxurious and efTeminate manner of living with this princefs, and his ignominious death, (for fuch it may bejuftly called) are all minutely and copioufly related in the article of Cleopatra^ to which we refer the reader. We fhall only add a Cm all account of Marcus Julius Antonitis, his fon by Fu-lvia. This Antonius, after the death of his father, and the con- queft of Egypt, was fo favoured by Oclavius, now Auguftus, that from one office to another he was railed to the conful- fhip, in the year of Rome 744.. He married Marcella, daughter of Octavia, the lifter of Auguftus, by which he became next in his favour to Agrippa : but proving ungrate- ful to the emperor, for he was one of the firft who debauched his daughter Julia, and being alfo (ufpedred of a confpiracy y ell - paterc> againll him, he killed himfelf, as is laid, to prevent the in- famy