It was also now that Antony entered on a new religious policy, and began to insist more emphatically on his identification with Dionysus:[48]a god of liberation and eastern conquest, of course, as well as of vitality and exhilarating release. In Athens, he was duly celebrated as deos Neos
Magie 1950 (e 8jj) 1282П. 15. If Reynolds 1982(8270) doc. 7 refers to the Labienus war (cf. lines 3-4 with her commentary), rewards were also voted to Rhodes, Lycia, Laodicea and Tarsus. On the campaign in general cf. Sherwin-White 1984 (a 89) 303-4.
App. BCiv. v.75.319; cf. esp. Buchheim i960 (c 49) 49-51; Hoben 1969 (E 840) 34-9.
Cf. esp. Hoben 1969 (e 840) 116—19. 50 Cf. Dio xlix.32.3j Buchheim i960 (c 49) 18-19.
" Joseph. A] xiv.3^o, BJ 1.248.
72 App. BCiv. v.73.319 with Gabba 1970 (в 55)0*/on 'he date, Buchheim i960 (c 49) j 1-2. The realm extended as far as Iconium (Strab. xii. 5.3-6.2 (j68Q);cf. Mitford 1980 (e 860) 1242. For Zeno's resistance to Labienus cf. Strab. xiv.2.24— 5 (660Q.
,J Cf. Joseph. A] xiv.392-7, 406, BJ 1.288-92, 297; Buchheim i960 (c 49) 67.
Strab. xiv. j. 2-3 (669C), 671,68 j: cf. R. Meiggs, Trees and Timber in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Oxford, 1982) 117. On the date cf. the inscription published by Pouilloux 1972 (c 189), attesting an Egyptian orpanfyos of'Cyprus and Cilicia' in 38-7; Mitford 1980 (e 860) 1293-4.
App. BCiv. v.75.319 w'th Gabba 1970 (в 5 5) adloc.; Buchheim i960 (c 49) 66-7.
Dio xlvin.39.2.
Aiovvoos, in 39/8,[49] and he and Octavia were hailed as deot Evepyerat.[50]There were even perhaps hints of a divine marriage between Antony- Dionysus and the city's goddess Athena;[51] he issued cistophori representing himself as Dionysus;[52] and stories were later told about his extravagant Dionysiac displays - a platform above the theatre, decorated with Dionysiac tambourines and fawnskins, where he drank with his friends all day; then torchlit Dionysiac processions to the Acropolis.101 Some of the detail is surely fantastic, but the general policy makes sense. His future now more clearly lay in the East; eastern states often worshipped their rulers; and he would be the greatest master of all. Divinity was the only comfortable status.
In spring 38 Antony made a rapid visit to Brundisium, where Octavian had invited him for talks about the worsening situation in Italy; but Octavian did not arrive. Antony issued a public letter of rebuke, and crossly sailed back. This irritating distraction must have delayed his departure to the East (that may even, in part, have been Octavian's intention), but Antony still reached Syria, with an army, by midsummer. He arrived to discover that Ventidius' triumphs had continued. The winter of 39/8 had been spent in consolidation: there was little sign, for instance, of any more energetic support for Herod, who had returned to Judaea during the summer and linked with Silo's troops. By the autumn he was encamped against Jerusalem, but Silo was still unco-operative, and his army soon scattered to its winter billets. In the spring Ventidius recalled Silo to Syria, anticipating a further attack from Pacorus. It soon came, but Ventidius had time to occupy a strong position at Gindarus, north east of Antioch in the Cyrrhestica region of Syria. As at the Cilician Gates the previous year, the Parthians attacked rashly; as at Mt Amanus, their leader fell, and they were wholly routed.102 Ventidius most effectively brought many of the Syrian cities over by sending around Pacorus' head on a stake.
Now there was little left to do. It was even possible to support Herod more openly, and Ventidius sent two legions and 1,000 cavalry to his help. (They turned out to be notably ineffective.) Otherwise there was only a pocket of resistance in Commagene, whose wealthy king
Antiochus was recalcitrant, refusing to surrender the Parthian survivors who had fled to him. Ventidius besieged him in Samosata, then Antony arrived to take over the campaign. Antiochus was eager to negotiate, but Antony refused; yet the siege proved more difficult than he expected, and he later, rather ingloriously, accepted terms.[53] Ventidius returned to Rome, and celebrated the triumph he richly deserved on 27 November 38; he died a little later, and was given a state funeral. Antony returned to Athens, where he spent the winter of 38/7. He had little more to fear from the Parthians in Asia Minor; it might even be time to think of carrying the war into Parthia itself, the richest way of winning glory that could be imagined. But first events in the West were again calling for attention.
vii. tarentum, 37 b.c.
The pact of Misenum was fragile. Antony, now a wary ally of both Sextus and Octavian, was the man who could preserve it: but he was soon away in the East, and the uneasy division of the West between Sextus and Octavian began to show strain. Signs of a rift emerged only a few months after the pact, when in autumn 39 Octavian divorced Scribonia, the bride he had married when courting Sextus' favour the previous year. (A few months later he married Livia instead: a love- match, perhaps, as people said[54] - but she certainly linked him to another great clan, and that was not imprudent.) And the Italian famine continued, with pirates continuing to ravage the shore of Campania and harry the grain ships: Octavian publicly blamed Sextus. Antony too was contributing to the instability, prevaricating about the surrender of the Peloponnese to Sextus. During the winter of 39/8 matters came to a head. Sextus' admiral Menodorus went over to Octavian and gave him control of Sardinia and Corsica, three legions and sixty ships. War between Octavian and the outraged Sextus naturally followed, and in spring 3 8 there were two great sea-battles, one off the coast of Cumae near Naples and one in the Straits of Messana. Both were considerable victories for Sextus, but he still followed his distinctive defensive policy, and did not press home his advantage. Octavian retired safely to Campania.
Antony must have heard of this with mixed feelings. He will not have been dismayed to see Sextus and Octavian assiduously weakening one another; but one of them might win, and an undisputed master of the
West was a disconcerting prospect. Before the two battles in the spring of 38, he had been worried enough to make the journey back to Brundisium, despite his urgency to move to the eastern front; at this point he was still pressing Octavian to avoid a breach with Sextus.[55]Octavian had then avoided a meeting, but after his defeats stood in much greater need of Antony's support. In Autumn 38 Octavian sent Maecenas to seek a pledge of help against Sextus. We are told that Antony gave it;[56] and indeed the odds now favoured Sextus, so that moderate aid to Octavian might seem the best way to preserve the balance of power. But Antony's pledge doubtless carried its conditions, and relations were very strained.
Octavian had further problems too. There had been trouble in Gaul since the previous year, which had culminated in a full-scale revolt in Aquitania. By the end of 3 8 this had been dealt with by Agrippa, but this merely replaced one embarrassment with another: Agrippa's glory contrasted too obviously with Octavian's own defeats, and Agrippa tactfully went without a triumph.[57] And Octavian's control of Italy was not beyond reproach. Public life was unusually disordered, with a shortage of candidates for some offices, while in other cases magistrates were hastening to resign their offices: in 3 8 there were no less than sixty- seven praetors.[58] And the popular riots were continuing, including some support of a new favourite, a certain M. Oppius. Predictably, he soon died.[59] Any pretence of normality was wearing very thin.