Sober Octavian vs Drunken Antony
They say Mark Antony drank too much that's it’s why he lost. They want us to believe that the world belongs to the sober, the measured, and the cold. But let’s look at what that 'sobriety' actually bought us.
The Sober Octavian: Octavian was sober when he signed the proscription lists that sent his own friends to the grave. He was sober when he sacrificed more than 300 prisoners of war in the temple of Julius Caesar after he won the Perusine war. He was sober when he exiled his daughter to a barren rock for the sake of an image. His sobriety was a shield, not a virtue. It allowed him to treat the world like a ledger, calculating lives like cattle. He made Rome a silent graveyard made of marble.
Octavian’s 'friendships' were just to take advantage of others . Look at Agrippa, the man who literally handed him the world at Actium. How was he rewarded? With suspicion, with 'honorable' exiles, treated like a threat because he was too competent for the Emperor's ego. And Maecenas? The man who built Octavian’s image? Octavian repaid his brilliance by taking his wife, Terentia, into his own bed. To him, a friend was just a ladder to be kicked away once you’ve climbed it.
Octavian treated women like property. He married and divorced to seal borders, then wrote laws to punish the very passions he indulged in secret. He used 'virtue' as a leash while he pursued the wives of his allies. He brutally exploited his only child by passing her from one man to another like she was a piece of meat or only a baby producing machine.
The Drunken Antony: Now, look at the Lion. Yes, he drank. He drank with the veterans in the mud of the Alps. Richest wine to dirtiest filth, he drank it all. He drank with the actors of Rome to poets of Alexandria. Why? Because Antony refused to be a machine. His 'drunkenness' was an overflow of life. It was the Dionysian fire that says: 'I am a man, and I will not apologize for the size of my cup or my heart.'
Now, look at Antony's friendship. Look at Publius Ventidius, a man who rose from being a prisoner of war to a General. Antony didn't fear his success like Octavian's propaganda claimed; he celebrated it with games, coins and triumph! Look at Canidius Crassus, who stood by the Lion until the bitter end at Alexandria. He was executed for his loyalty to Antony. Unlike Octavian, Antony didn't need to downplay his friends achievements because he honoured them. He created a brotherhood.
Antony walked with a Queen as his equal. He didn't want women as silent ornament. He wanted a soul that could match his own wild spirit. Yes, he had lots of wives and lovers. But he never hide his devotion behind a mask of Roman 'decency.' He lived his love out loud, in the open for all to see and never was ashamed of it.
In the end, Octavian died surrounded by a 'peace' he bought with betrayal. Antony died with the name of the woman he loved on his lips and the loyalty of his men etched into history. The 'sober' man died alone in a crowd of sycophants. The 'drunken' general lives on in every heart that values a friend or a lover over a throne.
