Lucius Antonius (brother of Mark Antony)

Lucius Antonius
Antonius
Antonius is the nomen of the gens Antonia, one of the most important plebeian families at Rome. It is also the source of the English personal name Anthony, as well as a number of similar names in various European languages....

(1st century BC) was the younger brother and supporter of Mark Antony

Mark Antony

Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...

, a Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

politician.

Lucius was son of Marcus Antonius Creticus

Marcus Antonius Creticus

Marcus Antonius Creticus was a Roman politician, member of the Antonius family. Creticus was son of Marcus Antonius Orator and by his marriage to Julia Antonia he had three sons: Triumvir Marcus Antonius, Gaius Antonius and Lucius Antonius.He was elected praetor in 74 BC and received an...

, son of the rhetorician Marcus Antonius Orator

Marcus Antonius Orator

Marcus Antonius Orator was a Roman politician of the Antonius family and one of the most distinguished Roman orators of his time. He was also the grandfather of the famous general and triumvir, Mark Antony.-Career:...

executed by Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...

' supporters in 86 BC

86 BC

Year 86 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Cinna and Marius/Flaccus...

, and Julia Antonia

Julia Antonia

Julia Caesaris or Julia Antonia was a daughter to consul Lucius Julius Caesar III and mother to the future triumvir and deputy of Caesar, Mark Antony. She was a sister to consul Lucius Julius Caesar IV. Her mother is unknown. She was born and raised in Rome...

, a cousin of Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

. Together with his older brothers Mark Antony and Gaius Antonius

Gaius Antonius

Gaius Antonius was the second son of Marcus Antonius Creticus and Julia Antonia, and thus, younger brother of Mark Antony, triumvir and enemy of Caesar Augustus.-Early life:...

, he spent his early years roaming through Rome in bad companies. Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

refers the untamed life of the youths and their friends, frequenting gambling houses and drinking too much.

Lucius was always a strong supporter of Mark Antony. In 44 BC

44 BC

Year 44 BC was either a common year starting on Sunday or Monday or a leap year starting on Friday or Saturday of the Julian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday of the Proleptic Julian calendar...

, the year of Antony's consulship and Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

's assassination, Lucius as a tribune of the plebs

Tribune

Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...

brought forward a law authorizing Caesar to nominate the chief magistrates during his absence from Rome. After the murder of Caesar, he supported his brother Marcus. He proposed an agrarian law in favor of the people and Caesar's veterans, and took part in the operations at Mutina (43 BC

43 BC

Year 43 BC was either a common year starting on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday or a leap year starting on Sunday or Monday of the Julian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the Proleptic Julian calendar...

). In 41 BC

41 BC

Year 41 BC was either a common year starting on Wednesday or Thursday or a leap year starting on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday of the Julian calendar and a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Proleptic Julian calendar...

, he was consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

with Publius Servilius Vatia as his senior partner. In this year, he assisted Mark Antony's wife, Fulvia

Fulvia

Fulvia Flacca Bambula , commonly referred to as simply Fulvia, was an aristocratic Roman woman who lived during the Late Roman Republic. Through her marriage to three of the most promising Roman men of her generation, Publius Clodius Pulcher, Gaius Scribonius Curio and Mark Antony, she gained...

, who was anxious to recall her husband from Cleopatra's court, in the raising of an eight legion

Roman legion

A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...

army to fight

Fulvia's civil war

The Perusine War was a civil war of the Roman Republic, which lasted from 41 to 40 BC. It was fought by Lucius Antonius and Fulvia to support Mark Antony against his political enemy , Octavian....

against Octavian

Augustus

Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...

's unpopular policies. Later, observing the bitter feelings that had been evoked by the distribution of land among the veterans of Caesar, Antonius and Fulvia changed their attitude, and stood forward as the defenders of those who had suffered from its operation. Antonius marched on Rome, drove out Lepidus

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (triumvir)

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus , was a Roman patrician who rose to become a member of the Second Triumvirate and Pontifex Maximus. His father, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, had been involved in a rebellion against the Roman Republic.Lepidus was among Julius Caesar's greatest supporters...

, and promised the people that the triumvirate should be abolished. On the approach of Octavian, he retired to Perusia

Perusia

The ancient Perusia, now Perugia, first appears in history as one of the 12 confederate cities of Etruria. It is first mentioned in the account of the war of 310 or 309 BC between the Etruscans and the Romans...

in Etruria, where he was besieged by three armies, and compelled to surrender (winter of 41 BC

41 BC

). The city was destroyed but his life was spared, and he was sent by Octavian to Spain as governor. Nothing is known of the circumstances or date of his death. Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

, in his Philippics, actuated in great measure by personal animosity, gives a highly unfavorable view of his character.

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