ABSTRACT
Clarendon Press, 1960), pp. 205-7; Christopher Pelling, “The Triumviral Period,” CAH2 10, 1996, 8-11. 4 Appian, Civil War 5.1: Meta\ de\ tÕn Kass…ou kaˆ BroÚtou q£naton o` me\ n Ka‹sar ™pˆ tÁj 'Ital…aj Éei, o` de\ 'Antènioj ™j th\n 'As…an, œnqa aÙtù sumb£llei Kleop£tra basilˆj A„gÚptou, kaˆ eÙqu\ j Ñfqe‹sa ™kr£tei. Ñ de\ œrwj Óde aÙto‹j te ™ke…noij ™j œscaton œlhxe
The first two decades of Juba’s life were tumultuous times for Rome, as the Republic continued to collapse. Within two years of his arrival in the city, his saviour Julius Caesar was assassinated. The following year, Octavian, Antonius, and M. Aemilius Lepidus were constituted as triumvirs, who placed avenging the murder at the head of their agenda, spending over a year at the task. In October of 42 BC at Philippi their vengeance seemed complete with the deaths of Brutus and Cassius. Antonius had become the dominant member of the triumvirate; Lepidus, already marginalized, was not at Philippi and Octavian’s conduct at the battle was less than distinguished.1
Antonius would have sensed redemption for a personal career that so far had, at best, been mixed: after the battle he was saluted as imperator by the victors and the vanquished alike, while Octavian, his status at a low point, was verbally abused after the battle.2 With the underestimation of him that characterized the era, it might have seemed natural that he return to Italy, possibly to end his brief career, but Antonius would remain in the East to clean up the mess left by the activities of Brutus and Cassius over the previous two years. The eastern provinces had to be stabilized and there were serious internal problems in both Judaea and Egypt, too close to the Roman territories to be ignored. Antonius was the one to settle these difficult issues.3
