Challenging Gender Roles: Fulvia , Velleius Paterculus II.74

Trigger Warning: suicide

[74] Fractis Brutianis Cassianisque partibus Antonius transmarinas obiturus provincias substitit. Caesar in Italiam se recepit eamque longe quam speraverat tumultuosiorem repperit. Quippe L. Antonius consul, 2 vitiorum fratris sui consors, sed virtutum, quae interdum in illo erant, expers, modo apud veteranos criminatus Caesarem, modo eos, qui iussa divisione praediorum nominatisque coloniis agros amiserant, ad arma conciens magnum exercitum conflaverat. Ex altera parte uxor Antonii Fulvia, nihil muliebre praeter corpus gerens, ornnia armis tumultuque miscebat. 3 Haec belli sedem Praeneste ceperat; Antonius pulsus undique viribus Caesaris Perusiam se contulerat: Plancus, Antonianarum adiutor partium, spem magis ostenderat auxilii, quam opem ferebat Antonio. 4 Usus Caesar virtute et fortuna sua Perusiam expugnavit. Antonium inviolatum dimisit, in Perusinos magis ira militum quam voluntate saevitum ducis: urbs incensa, cuius initium incendii princeps eius loci fecit Macedonicus, qui subiecto rebus ac penatibus suis igni transfixum se gladio flammae intulit.

--Velleius Paterculus II.74

Once the factions of Brutus and Cassius were suppressed, Mark Antony stayed behind to look after the overseas provinces. [Octavian] Caesar returned to Italy and found it worse off than he had hoped. The consul Lucius Antonius, who was aligned with brother’s motives but had none of his virtues, not only brought charges against Caesar in the presence of his own men, but also incited rebellion among those who were displaced when Caesar’s colony was made. In addition to this, Mark Antony’s wife Fulvia, who was in no way lady-like except for looking like one [nihil muliebre praeter corpus gerens ], was stirring up trouble and armed conflict.  She made Praeneste the seat of conflict; when Antony was routed by Caesar’s forces, he made his way to Perusia. Plancus, another one of Antony’s cronies, offered the hope of assistance, but did not actually provide any. Relying on his military prowess and his good fortune, Caesar besieged Perusia. He released Antony unharmed, and the city’s fate was more due to the soldiers’ fury than his own. The city was burned to ashes by its own leader Macedonicus, who, despairing of punishment, set his own property on fire and killed himself with a sword.

VELLEIUS PATERCULUS	MAP:
Name:  Velleius Paterculus Date:  19 BCE – 31 CE Works:  Roman History	REGION  1
BIO:	Timeline:
Velleius Paterculus was an Italian-born Roman statesman and author. Writing a generation after the publication of Livy’s massive history, Velleius reinvented the genre by creating a succinct abbreviated text that fits all of Roman history, from Aeneas’ flight from Troy to the reign of Augustus, into two volumes.	SILVER AGE ROME