Time-frames

Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra

= action of Julius Caesar = action of Antony and Cleopatra

60-54 B.C. Lifetime of the First Triumvirate, a tenuous alliance among Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar (100?-44 BC), and Marcus Crassus to apportion power in an era of civil conflict in which Rome's republican institutions oscillated between anarchy and one autarchy or another.
49 Caesar invades Italy, initiating civil war (49-45 B.C.). He defeats Pompey at Pharsalus (48 B.C.) and becomes sole master of the state (45). (Pompey flees to Greece and Egypt, where he is assassinated by the Ptolemies at Caesar's behest in 48 B.C. Caesar, having pursued him, dallies with Cleopatra (recalled A&C 2.2.232-4), perhaps fathering Caesarion (mentioned A&C 3.6.6).
44 Caesar assassinated in the Capitol by Brutus, Cassius, et al. JC 3.1.
   "Between the day of his death," intones the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed, "and that on which Octavi[us] defeated Antony at Actium lies a dreary period of anarchy and bloodshed."
43 The Second Triumvirate formed (Antony, Lepidus, and Octavius [as he is known in JC], a.k.a. Caesar [in A&C]): JC 4.1
42 Defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi by Octavius and Antony (JC 4.2-5.5).
41-40 Antony (82/81-30 B.C.) winters with Cleopatra (69-30 B.C.) in Alexandria, where A&C begins (1.1. -1.4)
40 Antony returns to Italy to patch things up with Octavius (A&C 2.2). Antony marries Octavia (A&C 2.2-2.3) and takes command of the eastern part of the empire; Octavius gets the west, and Lepidus contents himself with Africa. (Lepidus, mocked in JC 4.1 and A&C 3.2, is later banished by Octavius.)
38 The Triumvirate reaches terms with Sextus Pompeius, Pompey the Great's son, giving him temporary control of Sicily and the eastern Mediterranean (Shakespeare bundles this into A&C 2.6-2.7.) But the young Pompey is defeated in 36 B.C., ending his semi-piratical ascendency in this area (reported A&C 3.5, 3.6).
32 Antony divorces Octavia in favor of Cleopatra; they set up as imperial rulers of the east (reported 3.6.1-11) and make war on Rome (3.6.66-76).
31 Antony and Cleopatra defeated at Actium (the site of the action in A&C 3.7 to 3.10; for the battles beginning at 4.5 and 4.11, the scene is shifted to Alexandria). They commit suicide in 30 B.C. (4.15-5.2).
30 B.C.-13 A.D. Octavius reigns as Agustus Caesar. Perhaps in the year 30, but perhaps 30 years later (in Christian eyes), the "time of universal peace" (4.6.4) arrives.
Back to index.