3 – He Loved Wine & Women
Although not a great deal is known about Mark Antony’s personal life, most sources agree that he was a womanizer with a love of wine. In the HBO Series ‘Rome’, he is portrayed as a sex addict with alcoholic tendencies who was prone to murderous rages. The trouble is, history is written by the winners so in the wake of his defeat to Octavian, he was always likely to be thoroughly vilified by Roman literature and he most certainly is.
The main source for Antony’s personal life comes from Plutarch, and his account is pretty damning. According to Plutarch, Antony had a thirst for wine that bordered on alcoholism. While other texts appear to confirm that the commander did indeed enjoy his wine a little too much, most of the accounts of womanizing come from Plutarch who usually brings it up in the context of his drinking.
Perhaps the main reason why we associate Mark Antony with womanizing behavior is the idea that he went ‘all in’ with Cleopatra. The thing is, his primary reason for his relationship with the Egyptian queen was probably monetary gain. It is easy to paint him in a negative light by suggesting that he risked his reputation and life to cavort with a ‘foreigner.’ In reality, Cleopatra was one of the wealthiest people in the world, and it made sense to spend time with her to raise the military forces he needed to take on Octavian.
Mark Antony was apparently an exceptionally good-looking man; even Plutarch describes him as having a ‘bold and masculine look, which is found in the statues and portraits of Hercules.’ As a result, he was typically surrounded by beautiful women which means he might not have been fixated on Cleopatra’s alleged beauty; at least not initially (His actions at Actium suggest he had long since fallen hopelessly in love with Cleopatra). Incidentally, we have no idea what Antony looked like! Octavian ensured that there are no definitive images of his enemy and none of the busts attached to the commander are 100% attributed to him. It should be noted; the fact he had multiple wives does little to dissuade us from the idea that he was a womanizer.