Second Triumvirate

Багерман А.Я.

The Second Triumvirate was the emergency board of Octavian, Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, created by the Lex Titia in 43 BCE to reorganize the state after Caesar's assassination. Unlike the private alliance of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus, the triumvirs received an official five-year mandate, authority to pass measures outside ordinary procedure, appoint magistrates, distribute provinces and wage war.

The central events of the Second Triumvirate were the proscriptions and death of Cicero, victory over Brutus and Cassius at Philippi, the division of the Roman world, the removal of Lepidus, and the war between Octavian and Antony with Cleopatra. Octavian's victory at Actium in 31 BCE opened the way to the Augustan Principate. For the general meaning and a comparison of the two coalitions, see Triumvirate.

Formation of the Second Triumvirate

Mark Antony, Octavian and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus reached an agreement near Bononia, modern Bologna, in the autumn of 43 BCE. All three were associated with Caesar's cause, but had recently been rivals. Their settlement combined a campaign against Caesar's assassins with arrangements for their own control of Roman politics.

The Lex Titia of 27 November 43 BCE formally established their extraordinary office for five years. The title triumviri rei publicae constituendae described a board for reconstituting the state. This legal grant distinguishes the Second Triumvirate from the private political alliance usually called the First Triumvirate.

The initial settlement divided western responsibilities. Antony received most of Gaul, Lepidus retained Narbonese Gaul and Spain, and Octavian's sphere included Africa, Sicily and Sardinia. Formal allocations did not guarantee actual control. Sextus Pompey's growing maritime power subsequently made Sicily and the supply routes to Italy a central problem; it is misleading to treat his control of all these islands as already identical in 43 and later years.

From proscriptions to renewed civil war

Proscriptions and Philippi

The triumvirs issued proscription lists authorising the killing of named opponents and confiscation of their property. These measures served political retaliation and the financing of armies. Cicero was among the victims. Senators and equestrians fled to different opponents of the triumvirs, including Brutus and Cassius in the East and Sextus Pompey.

Antony and Octavian took armies to Macedonia, while Lepidus remained in the West. Brutus and Cassius had raised substantial forces and resources in the eastern provinces. Ancient troop totals should be treated as estimates, not precise counts of soldiers actually present at each battle.

The two battles of Philippi took place in October 42 BCE, near modern Kavala in northern Greece. In the first, Antony defeated Cassius's forces while Brutus's men overran Octavian's camp. Cassius died by suicide after misjudging the outcome. Brutus was defeated in the second battle and also killed himself. Some survivors joined the victors; others continued resistance elsewhere.

Dividing responsibilities after victory

Victory did not automatically terminate the triumvirs' legal mandate. Antony concentrated on the East, while Octavian undertook the politically dangerous settlement of veterans in Italy. Lepidus's position weakened, although he later governed Africa.

Confiscations and land assignments helped provoke the Perusine War of 41–40 BCE. Lucius Antonius, Antony's brother, and Fulvia opposed Octavian; the conflict ended with the surrender of Perusia. It should not be simplified into a fully coordinated campaign directed throughout by Antony from the East.

The settlement at Brundisium in 40 BCE restored cooperation and clarified the eastern and western spheres. Antony married Octavian's sister Octavia. Lepidus held Africa. These arrangements remained personal and unstable, while Sextus Pompey's fleet continued to affect Italy's communications and grain supply.

Tarentum and the removal of Lepidus

At Tarentum in 37 BCE, Antony and Octavian agreed to renew the triumviral arrangement for another five-year period and exchange military assistance. Antony supplied ships for operations against Sextus Pompey; the promised transfer of troops for Antony's eastern war became a further source of dispute. Lepidus was not an equal participant in this bargain.

In 36 BCE Octavian's forces, with Agrippa's decisive naval contribution, defeated Sextus Pompey in Sicily. Lepidus then tried to assert his position, but his troops went over to Octavian. He lost effective triumviral power and withdrew from political command, although he retained the priesthood of pontifex maximus until his death.

Antony's unsuccessful Parthian campaign of 36 and his subsequent Armenian campaign belong to this same period of strained cooperation. Octavian meanwhile strengthened his position in the West. The triumvirate had become a rivalry between two dominant partners, rather than a functioning alliance of three equals.

The final rupture

The renewed mandate is conventionally reckoned through the end of 33 BCE, but the legal presentation of authority during its final years is disputed. It is safer to distinguish the grant of powers from the practical military control retained by the leaders.

In 32 BCE the consuls Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Sosius sided with Antony. They and many senators left Rome as the confrontation with Octavian intensified. Their replacement by suffect consuls did not create a new kind of office: a consul suffectus filled a vacancy and held consular authority for the remaining term.

Antony's separation from Octavia and relationship with Cleopatra became central to Octavian's campaign against him. Reports of an ordinary Roman legal marriage to Cleopatra should not be repeated without qualification. Political propaganda portrayed Antony as subordinating Roman interests to the Egyptian queen.

Octavian obtained Antony's will from the Vestal Virgins and publicised provisions said to favour Cleopatra's family and burial at Alexandria. The act was controversial, and the surviving accounts are shaped by the victors' political narrative. The alleged contents and their presentation must be distinguished from an independently preserved document.

Actium and the end of the alliance

Lepidus's removal in 36 BCE ended the partnership of three, but it did not immediately end all claims to triumviral authority. The final contest between Octavian and Antony developed into war in 32–30 BCE. The formal declaration targeted Cleopatra, while Antony's forces fought alongside hers.

At Actium on 2 September 31 BCE, Octavian's side, with Agrippa commanding the fleet, won the decisive naval battle. Antony and Cleopatra escaped to Egypt. Both died in 30 BCE as Octavian completed his conquest, and Egypt came under Roman rule.

Octavian was now without an equivalent military rival. The settlement of 27 BCE, when he received the name Augustus, is the conventional starting point of the Principate. This was a political transformation over several years, not a single moment in 30 BCE when every republican institution disappeared.

Related topics

• Roman Republic
• The first Triumvirate
• Mark Antony
• Octavian Augustus
• Marcus Aemilius Lepidus
• Principate
• Cicero

Literature

Ancient sources

• Plutarch, Life of Antony.
• Appian, Civil Wars, Books 4–5.
• Cassius Dio, Roman History, Books 46–50.
• Cicero, Philippics: speeches from the earlier conflict, not an account of the triumvirate's entire history.

Modern studies

• Ronald Syme. The Roman Revolution. Oxford University Press, 1939.
• H. H. Scullard. From the Gracchi to Nero. Fifth edition. Routledge, 1982.
• Richard D. Weigel. Lepidus: The Tarnished Triumvir. Routledge, 1992.
• Peter Green. Alexander to Actium. University of California Press, 1990.
• Walter Eder. "Augustus and the Power of Tradition", in Karl Galinsky, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Augustus. Cambridge University Press, 2005.