Chapter XIV #3
Looking back, I believe that unless he scored an early victory, Antony must always have intended to escape with the queen and her treasure.
Perhaps she gave him no choice. The Egyptian ships were hers to command, not his.
Whatever the truth, the effect on his sailors and marines, who had watched him leave, was utterly demoralising.
Some poor devils tried to follow him, jettisoning everything on board to increase their speed and endeavouring to row out to sea.
But he had ordered his fleet to leave their sails on shore to prevent any such flight – further evidence that their true role that day was always to enable him to get away.
They could not keep up with the fast Egyptian squadron, and we easily picked them off.
The rest fought grimly to the end. We ceased using fire to disable them as we wished to capture as many ships as possible. This prolonged the struggle for several hours, but by dusk it was over, and we had won.
It was too dark to attempt to land, so I stayed at sea overnight, exhausted and mostly sleepless due to the pain in my arm.
In the morning, dawn broke over a scene of such destruction as I had never witnessed before and thankfully, now my life is nearly done, will never see again.
Strewn across the gently lapping waves as far as the eye could see were bodies, oars, masts, blackened hulks, spars of timber, tools, javelins, clothing, shoes, little keepsakes men had brought from home, and makeshift rafts to which a few survivors clung and cried for rescue.
Later, when we counted the casualties, we reckoned we had lost two and a half thousand dead to their five thousand and had captured or sunk two hundred and fifty enemy vessels.
I went ashore later that morning and conferred with Caesar.
His mood was irritable. One might have thought we had suffered a terrible defeat rather than a crushing victory.
He berated me for allowing Antony to escape with Cleopatra and all her treasure.
He needed that treasure, he said, to pay his army.
I could scarcely believe my ears. I countered that on the contrary, Antony’s flight was our good fortune.
If the Egyptian fleet had stayed and fought, the battle might have gone the other way, and then we would have found ourselves without a navy and facing a superior force on land under Antony’s command.
He said bitterly that we still faced a superior force on land, and Antony was still at large. I retorted with equal sharpness that I was confident we could beat them easily.
– Their men are ravaged by sickness and hunger. They too haven’t been paid for months. And they’ve just watched their commander disappear over the horizon with his mistress and the money that might have gone to them. I doubt they’ll put up much of a fight.
He told me not to stand there arguing with him, but to go and make sure our army was ready for battle.
They were among the bitterest words we had ever exchanged – and at the very moment when we should have been congratulating one another.
I told myself his churlishness was due to exhaustion.
But in my heart, I knew the real cause. He resented the fact that I had yet again played a more prominent role in our success than he had.
It did not improve our relations that I also turned out to be right about Antony’s army.
It was indeed huge – nineteen legions and twelve thousand cavalry – but a week passed and it did not stir from its camp.
In the absence of Antony, and following the defection of Ahenobarbus, command had devolved upon Publius Canidius.
He was a capable lieutenant who had served under Lepidus in southern Gaul, but he was no inspiring leader.
Confronted by demoralised officers and mutinous legionaries, and fearing for his life, he slipped away one night into the darkness, never to return.
The following day, I was able to inform Caesar that Antony’s army had surrendered to him without further bloodshed. The campaign was over.
He nodded.
– Good.
Three weeks after the battle, while we were still encamped near Actium, Caesar celebrated his thirty-second birthday.
Not long ago, there had been three rulers of the Roman world. Then there had been two. Now there was only one. Every province of the empire was effectively Caesar’s, to do with as he wished. His rival had lost his army, his navy and finally his reputation.
Caesar was the same age as Alexander the Great when he died. But his dominion was vastly larger, and he had the advantage over Alexander of being very much alive.
He decided to mark the occasion by holding a lavish dinner for his officers.
I had not seen much of him in the intervening weeks.
There had been too much for me to do, repairing damaged ships, tending to our wounded, and above all trying to maintain the discipline of Antony’s legions.
Our combined force was vastly larger than we needed.
How were we to pay and feed them? What were we to do with them?
But Caesar had stayed in his tent, working with his secretaries, and did not bother to summon me.
I was not even sure whether he would ask me to his dinner.
But the night before, he sent a staff officer with an invitation.
His bad mood had completely lifted. He was in the highest spirits.
He had just learned that Antony had recently arrived in Egypt in the company of Cleopatra, and it was reported that he blamed her for all his misfortunes, so much so they were no longer even speaking to one another.
Over dinner, the image of the sulking lovers was a source of much ribald amusement.
Antony had lost not just the world but his bed!
Someone asked Caesar when he intended to go and finish him off.
– Oh, there is no need to hurry. Let the news of our victory spread around the Mediterranean.
After they hear what has happened, not even the feeblest fly-blown ruler in Africa will dare to touch him.
Every door will be closed to him, poor neutered fool.
I fancy spending a winter in Athens before a spring and summer campaign in Egypt next year. What do you all say?
The proposal was greeted with loud cheers and a banging of fists on the table. I did not join in. In truth, I was offended that he should have announced his plans without talking to me first.
He noticed my silence. After dinner, he came round the table, touched my arm and asked me to step outside and take some fresh air with him.
We walked together without speaking along the sandy beach in the twilight, his guards trailing at a distance. Bodies from the battle even now were still being washed up on the shore. We stood and watched them rolling in the shallows, shapeless dark humps in the gloom. At last, Caesar spoke.
– We must make sure that such a slaughter never occurs again. Once Antony is out of the way, there must be no more killing of Romans by Romans.
– I could not agree more. I have certainly killed a great many in your service.
– You have indeed.
He looked at me.
– You think I am insufficiently grateful to you?
– Not at all.
– I realise none of this could have been achieved without you.
Everyone knows it. You have been the most loyal friend any man could wish for.
If I have kept my distance these past few weeks it’s only because I have been mulling things over, trying to decide what to do next. Here, I have something for you.
He reached into his pocket and produced a small box. I opened it. Inside was a signet ring with a device in the shape of a sphinx. I held it up to the fading light.
– Are you asking me to marry you?
We laughed together – the first time for a long while – and our old relations were restored.
– No, that is a duplicate of my official seal.
I have decided not to take you on to Egypt with me.
I want you to escort Antony’s legions back to Italy, demob them, pay them, settle them on the land – I leave the details up to you.
My seal will give you all the authority you need.
I have appointed myself consul for the coming year, and I’ll inform the Senate you are to be regarded as my proxy in every respect until I return.
I hope you’ll see it as a measure of my trust in you.
I tried to conceal my disappointment. I would much have preferred to join the expedition against Antony. It was a dismal, difficult assignment he was giving me, although I could hardly refuse it, even though I was full of misgivings. I wondered what lay behind his decision. I had my suspicions.
I tried to put on the ring, but I couldn’t get it past my knuckle – my hands had always been bigger than his, my fingers thicker.
It seemed a very small thing to carry so much weight.
– And what if you don’t return? What if you are killed in battle, or you fall ill again? What are your instructions then?
He sighed and shook his head.
– My dear Agrippa, I entrust you with half the world and all you can do is raise objections! Of course I shall return, and together we shall remake Rome. We have both known it, ever since that fortune-teller in Apollonia cast my horoscope. It is my destiny.