The dying they called him and the living needed his help, but Marco Antonio fled from the Battle of Accio (or Actium) when he saw the sails of his beloved Cleopatra go away.
In the annals of the time, by authors such as Plutarch or Virgil, the history and legend are intermingled to tell that the last Farana believed that her’s partner had died in the naval fray and that motivated the withdrawal of it.
Anyone who was the reason, that defeat of Marco Antonio and Cleopatra at the hands of Octavio was definitive.
The latter would crush shortly after the rival of him (and ancient ally of him) and the couple of him, who committed suicide before falling into his hands.
The consequences of Accio, which took place on September 2 of the year 31 before Christ, were many and very important.
First, it meant the end of the so-called ancient Egypt and the incorporation of the Nile Territories to Rome.
He also paved the way for the transformation of the Roman Republic in Empire, with Octavio crowned as César Augusto three years later.
But the military geostrategia pales before the history of love, which even today, 2050 years later, interpels the most epic romantics.
Moreover, the debate on whether the torrid relationship between Roman General and Queen Greco-Egyptia was the one that marked the future of one of the most important battles in history.
To understand what happened between them we must return a few years ago, at the time of Julio César.
The winner of the Gaul war traveled to Egypt during the Second Civil War of the Roman Republic, following the trail of Pompey.
There was another internal contest, which faced Cleopatra against her brother (and her husband) ptolemy XIII.
The monarch seduced the Roman dictator and, according to the chronicles, she not only convinced him to be put on her side, but she was pregnant with him, giving birth shortly after the son of both, cesar.
Restored on the throne Cleopatra, the good tune between Egypt and Rome was sealed with the visit of the Farana to the city of the seven hills.
She met her there Marco Antonio, faithful general of César in Gaul and in other military campaigns.
The murder of the latter in the year 44 A.C.
He began another turbulent period that ended with the death of Caesar’s killers and the establishment of a triumvirate formed by Marco Antonio, Octavio and Lépido.
The territories of Rome were distributed and the most oriental ones corresponded to him, including the tutelage of Egypt.
For this reason, he cited with her in Tarso (Anatolia), where he had the general barracks of her, 41 years before the birth of Jesus.
At that time, a relationship was initiated that would last 10 years and that, supposedly, produced several children, even though during that period Marco Antonio was married to two women: Fulvia and Octavia (sister of Octavio).
Precisely this last marriage aimed the friction between the two triumviros (Lépido was marginalized), with an increasingly focused on Egypt and Octavio Antonio, with a growing power over the Senate of Rome.
Things went to worse, until they degenerated into an Octavian war statement against Marco Antonio and Cleopatra.
It has also been much speculated on the tragic dimension of this love story due to the tormented character of Marco Antonio.
In ‘Cleopatra’ (1963), the Super-Mega-production led by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, was incidentally included in the shadow of Julio César was always floating on the faithful assistant of him.
In the film, the fact of being permanently compared with him – and, above all, to inherit his love for Cleopatra – leads Marco Antonio to be abandoned in the drink and in his insecurities, making improper military decisions of his brilliant career as a strategist and
Self-destruct yourself voluntarily or unconsciously.
From there he would come his behavior in Accio, where he preferred to leave his most faithful lieutenants on land to be persecuted “as a boar wounded by a dog pack” by the boats commanded by Agrippa, the Ectavio’s waters, in the waters of the entrance
The Gulf of Ambracy (Greece).
As life imitates art, the filming of the naval battle was the framework of another sentimental cataclysis, in this case among the interpreters who embodied the two lovers.
When the filming began, both Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor) and Marco Antonio (Richard Burton) were married people: she, with her fourth husband (the actor and singer Eddie Fisher, father besides the Actress Carrie Fisher) and he with his first
Wife (the businesswoman of the Sybil Williams night).
The long shooting in the studios of Cinecittà, in Rome, fueled the scandalous romance, which became fuel for the golden years of the ‘Dolce Vita’ Roman.
Flocks of paparazzi followed by trastevere and Piazza Navona to the couple, who married a year after the premiere.
Two years later, in 1966, both starred ‘Who fears Virginia Woolf?’, Adaptation of the theatrical work of the same name, by Edward Albee.
There they gave life to a mid-age marriage whose volcanic relationship was marked by alcohol and conflict.
Something that did not disturb much of reality: In 1974 there was a divorce between both, but they became married the following year, to separate again, “this time, definitively- nine months later.
