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Comment:
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Most Legionary denarii do not show the name
of the legion. This one does.
LEG XII ANTIQVAE
This was Caesar's 12th legion, raised in 58 BC for the campaign against the Helvetii. It served throughout the wars in Gaul (58 to
49), Italy (49), and at Pharsalus (48). It was disbanded 46-45 BC and the
colonists were settled at Parma. The legion was reformed in 44-43 BC most
likely by Lepidus. The legion was then passed to Antony in 41-31 BC and was
present at Actium. It appears on Antony's coinage as LEG XII ANTIQVAE.
Colonists were settled at Patrae, Greece alongside
men of Legio X Equestris,
perhaps by Antony, more likely by Octavian soon after Actium. The legion's
whereabouts during most of Augustus' reign is unclear. The 12th was very
possibly the unnamed third legion (with III Cyrenaica and XXII Deiotariana) stationed in Egypt. That unnamed legion
disappears from Egypt at just about the same time that Legio
XII Fulminata is first found in Syria. By early in
the reign of Tiberius, the 12th legion was based at Raphanae.
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MARK
ANTONY (Marcus Antonius)
- Antony
was born in Rome c. 83 BC.
- From
58 to 56 BC he served as a cavalry officer in campaigns in Palestine and
Egypt, and from 54 to 50 BC in Gaul under Julius Caesar.
- With
Caesar's aid, he attained the offices of quaestor,
augur, and tribune of the people.
- At
the outbreak of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey the Great,
Antony was appointed Caesar's commander in chief in Italy. He commanded
the left wing of Caesar's army at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, and
in 44 BC he shared the consulship with Caesar.
- After
Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, Antony's funeral speech, immortalized
by Shakespeare in the play "Julius Caesar", turned the Roman
people against the conspirators, leaving Antony virtually supreme in
Rome.
- His
rival was Gaius Octavius, grandnephew of
Caesar and his designated heir. For a time the two were reconciled, and
together with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus formed
the Second Triumvirate, dividing the Roman Empire between
themselves.
- In 42
BC, at the battle of Philippi, the triumvirate crushed the forces of two
of Caesar's assassins, Marcus Junius Brutus
and Gaius Cassius Longinus.
- Later
in 42 BC, Antony met the Egyptian queen Cleopatra
in the city of Tarsus, in Cilicia (now in Turkey), and fell in love with
her, returning with her to Egypt in 41 BC.
- In 40
BC, back in Rome the triumvirate split up the Roman world, with Antony
receiving the eastern portion.
- To
cement his relations with Octavius he married
the latter's sister, Octavia.
- Nevertheless,
Antony soon returned to Egypt and Cleopatra.
- In 36
BC, he was defeated in a military expedition against the Parthians, causing popular disapproval of his
conduct in Rome.
- In 34
BC Octavius declared Caesarion
(Cleopatra's son by Julius Caesar) as Caesar's heir in Octavian's place
and divides the east amongst Cleopatra and her children.
- With Octavius stirring up emnity,
war was inevitable.
- In 31
BC the forces of Antony and Cleopatra were defeated by those of Octavius at the naval Battle of Actium, off the
coast of Greece.
- Cleopatra
fled the battle scene, followed by Antony.
- In 30
BC, besieged by the troops of Octavius in
Alexandria and deceived by a false report of Cleopatra's suicide, Antony
killed himself by falling on his sword.
- Cleopatra
then famously killed herself with an asp.
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