Antonius intention to restore the republic

[Ingsoc]

One of Augustus most notable achievements was "restoring the republic" as a pseudo-republic system that disguise his monarchist rule. However it's seem that the idea of "restoring the republic" was taken from his bitter enemy Antonius.

 

"Lucius made a speech to the citizens, saying that he should visit punishment upon Octavian and Lepidus for their lawless rule, and that his brother would voluntarily resign his share of it and accept the consulship, exchanging an unlawful magistracy for a lawful one, a tyranny for the constitution of their fathers." (Appianus, BC, 5.30)

 

[Lucius Antonius:]"I undertook this war against you, not in order to succeed to the leadership by destroying you but to restore to the country the patrician government which had been subverted by the triumvirate, as not even yourself will deny. For when you created the triumvirate you acknowledged that it was not in accordance with the law, but you established it as something necessary and temporary because Cassius and Brutus were still alive and you could not be reconciled to them. When they, who had been the head of the faction, were dead, and the remainder, if there were any left, were bearing arms, not against the state, but because they feared you, and moreover the five years' term was running out, I p449demanded that the magistracies should be revived in accordance with the custom of our fathers, not even preferring my brother to my country, but hoping to persuade him to assent upon his return and hastening to bring this about during my own term of office. If you had begun this reform you alone would have reaped the glory." (Appianus, BC, 5.42)

 

"He twice thought of restoring the republic; first immediately after the overthrow of Antonius, remembering that his rival had often made the charge that it was his fault that it was not restored; and again in the weariness of a lingering illness, when he went so far as to summon the magistrates and the senate to his house, and submit an account of the general condition of the empire." (Suentonius, Life of Augustus, 28)

 

"Such was the strength of the contestants. As for Antonius, he on his part swore to his own soldiers that he would admit no truce in the war he wage, and promised in addition that within two months after his victory he would relinquish his office and restore to the senate and the people all its authority" (Cassius Dio, 50.7)

 

It's another evidence that Augustus and Antonius weren't much different in their political ideas, it's also discredit the theory of the "eastern monarchy".

[sylla]

One of Augustus most notable achievements was "restoring the republic" as a pseudo-republic system that disguise his monarchist rule. However it's seem that the idea of "restoring the republic" was taken from his bitter enemy Antonius... It's another evidence that Augustus and Antonius weren't much different in their political ideas, it's also discredit the theory of the "eastern monarchy".

A most cleaver observation, as the distorted image of Anthony as a useless drunkard implanted by the Augustan propaganda has persisted to this very day.

The enmity of Octavius and Anthony was just because of the lust for power, not ideology.

It is frequently ignored that Anthony was a most able absolute ruler of the Eastern half (ie, the richest and more populated) of the Roman world for almost a decade.

Most of his personal reforms were preserved after Actium, and even the client kings appointed by Anthony were mostly conserved by Augustus; in fact, some the few that were dismissed by the latter were eventually called back again

[cornelius_sulla]

Lucius was a blowhard with his brother's hand implanted firmly up his arse, directing all of the words and the sway that he holds, it seems, 2000 years later. Marcus, Lucius, Lepidus and Octavian all knew that the Republic was dead and buried. All that mattered who who could co opt that memory of the Republic to best suit their goals.

[sylla]

Lucius was a blowhard with his brother's hand implanted firmly up his arse, directing all of the words and the sway that he holds, it seems, 2000 years later.

Maybe that schatological description fitted the lesser Antonius, as far as we believe in Cicero, which given the political context was indeed a long shot.

 

I suppose the same description could be applied to almost any not-so-famous close relative of any major Roman figure.

 

As far as I can tell, Lucius Antonius political and military performance across the Perugian War and his own consulate was not so bad, during a highly contested period.