Editing Marcus Antonius

{{Era|Individuals}}{{WP-REAL|Mark Antony}}
{{Pre-release|[[Assassin's Creed Roleplaying Game]]}}
{{Update|''[[Assassin's Creed Roleplaying Game]]''}}
{{Quote|Leaders must do what it takes to allow their people to survive.|Marcus Antonius to Aya, 44 BCE.|Assassin's Creed: Origins (comic)|Assassin's Creed: Origins 1}}
{{Character Infobox
| image = AC Origins Mark Antony.png
| birth = 14 January 83 BCE<br>[[Rome]], [[Roman Republic]]
| death = 12 August 30 BCE<ref name="Echoes">''[[Assassin's Creed Roleplaying Game]] – [[Legacy of the Brotherhood]]'' – [[Echoes of Betrayal]]</ref> {{c|aged 53}}<br>[[Alexandria]], [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]]
| species = [[Human]]
| affiliates = [[Roman Republic]]
*[[Roman army]]
[[Ptolemaic Kingdom]]<br>
[[Order of the Ancients]]
}}
'''Marcus Antonius''' (83 BCE – 30 BCE), commonly referred to in English as '''Marc Anthony''' or '''Mark Antony''', was a [[Rome|Roman]] politician and general.<ref>{{WP|Mark Antony}}</ref> A supporter and loyal friend of [[Gaius Julius Caesar]], he formed a political alliance with [[Augustus|Octavian]] to eliminate the [[Assassins|Hidden Ones]] responsible for  [[Assassination of Julius Caesar|Caesar's assassination]].

Antonius later entered a romantic relationship with the last [[pharaoh]] of [[Egypt]], [[Cleopatra]], but this ostracized him from his fellow Romans. Fueled by disagreements with Antonius over possession of Caesar's [[Sword of Damokles]], Octavian seized the opportunity to increase his own political power and led his army to [[War of Actium|fight]] against those of Antonius and Cleopatra, the last remaining opposition to his complete control over the [[Roman Republic]]. Faced with certain defeat, Antonius faked his death and attempted to escape with Cleopatra's and Caesar's son [[Caesarion]] and the Sword of Damokles to [[India]], but was ultimately killed by the Hidden Ones under [[Amunet]].<ref name="Echoes"/>

==Biography==
===Meeting Aya===
[[File:ACOc - Aya meeting Antony.png|thumb|250px|left|Antonius meeting Aya]]
In 44 BCE, while in [[Rome]], Antonius approached the [[Roman Hidden Ones]]' [[Mentor]] [[Amunet|Aya]], introducing himself to her and explaining that they had a mutual friend in [[Cleopatra]], who was considered to hold Aya in high regard. Aya refuted that Cleopatra held only herself in high regard, like many leaders in the world. Antonius explained that leaders, like [[Gaius Julius Caesar|Julius Caesar]] himself, had to do what it took to ensure their subjects survived, though Aya disagreed, believing that a leader should never sacrifice [[civilian]]s.<ref name="Origins 1">[[Assassin's Creed: Origins (comic)|''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' comic]] – [[Assassin's Creed: Origins 1|Issue #1]]</ref>

A few days later, Antonius was present at the [[Theatre of Pompey]] to witness the [[Assassination of Julius Caesar|assassination of Caesar]]. Meeting with Aya again, he warned her that [[Marcus Junius Brutus|Brutus]] had seriously miscalculated the consequences of Caesar's death. He claimed that the people of Rome would not see Brutus as a liberator who killed a tyrant, but as the murderer of their beloved general.<ref name="Origins 1" />

===Pursuing the Hidden Ones===
{{Dialogue|Antonius|Many thanks.|Aya|I merely want the bloodshed to end. What version of Rome do you wish to create, Mark Antony?|Antonius and Aya, after she stopped Brutus from killing him, 44 BCE.|Assassin's Creed: Origins (comic)|Assassin's Creed: Origins 4}}
[[File:ACOc - Aya threatening Antony.png|thumb|250px|Aya threatening Antonius]]
Three hours after Caesar's murder, Antonius used his considerable influence to turn the Roman citizens against Caesar's killers. He claimed that the ''Liberatores'' responsible for Caesar's death had acted without their consent, and made them fear for their own safety. As an angry mob formed around him, several citizens brought forward a Roman senator they accused of being one of the conspirators involved in Caesar's assassination. Before the man could speak and defend himself, the mob began savagely beating him to death.<ref name="Origins 2">[[Assassin's Creed: Origins (comic)|''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' comic]] – [[Assassin's Creed: Origins 2|Issue #2]]</ref>

Aya intervened and put the man out of his misery with an [[arrow]] before fleeing from the mob. Meanwhile, Antonius returned to the Theatre of Pompey, knowing Aya would arrive there as well shortly since it was the last place people would expect her to go to. When the Hidden One confronted him and aimed her [[bow]] at him, Antonius insisted that his death would not bring peace to Rome as the citizens wanted Brutus' head. He then implored Aya to bring Brutus to the people so that Rome could be at peace, and watched as another angry mob arrived and chased the Hidden One away.<ref name="Origins 2"/>

Sometime later, Antonius' men captured Aya, and the general went to speak with her in her prison cell. He brought her food and tried to reason with her, promising to do his best to secure her release if she told him where Brutus and [[Gaius Cassius Longinus|Cassius]] were hiding. When Aya refused to betray her fellow Hidden Ones, an irritated Antonius ordered that she be bound and thrown into a large submerged arena filled with [[hippopotamus]]es. However, Aya survived the ordeal and managed to escape with the help of Brutus and Cassius.<ref name="Origins 3">[[Assassin's Creed: Origins (comic)|''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' comic]] – [[Assassin's Creed: Origins 3|Issue #3]]</ref>

[[File:ACOc - Confronting Antony.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Antonius defeated by Aya, Brutus, and Cassius]]
As the three Hidden Ones tried to flee through an underwater tunnel, Antonius and his men waited for them on the other side. A fight broke out, which saw the Hidden Ones emerging victorious and killing all of Antonius' guards, leaving the general at their mercy. A furious Brutus almost killed Antonius, disgusted at his use of the Roman citizens' fear to manipulate them, but ultimately spared him at Aya's urging. Antonius thanked Aya for saving him, but she responded that she only did it to end the bloodshed before the general took his leave.<ref name="Origins 4">[[Assassin's Creed: Origins (comic)|''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' comic]] – [[Assassin's Creed: Origins 4|Issue #4]]</ref>

===Roman Civil War===
Despite his defeat by the Hidden Ones in Rome, Antonius refused to renounce his pursuit of Brutus and Cassius and allied with Caesar's adopted son and heir Octavian to bring the ''Liberatores'' to justice. A [[Liberators' civil war|civil war]] followed, with the armies of Brutus and Cassius facing those of Antonius and Octavian. In 42 BCE, the two sides clashed at the [[Battle of Philippi]] in [[Makedonia|Macedonia]]. Ultimately, Brutus and Cassius both took their lives in the face of defeat, and the [[Roman Republic]] stood victorious.<ref name="Origins 4"/>

Out of respect for Brutus, Antonius sent his most expensive purple mantle to Brutus' comrades for his body to be wrapped in it. The Assassins initially tried wrapping the body in the [[Shroud of Eden 1|Shroud of Eden]] in an attempt to revive him, but were only partially successful. The Assassins considered their attempt a failure, and Brutus' corpse was then wrapped in Antonius' mantle.<ref name="PL">''[[Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy]]'' – [[Holidays: Chapter 1 – Ghosts of Christmas Past]]</ref>

In 41 BCE, Antonius started a political and romantic relationship with Cleopatra, the pharaoh of [[Egypt]] and Caesar's former mistress. In the winter of that year, Antonius was given a boat tour of Egypt by Cleopatra, who was eager to show her country's wealth to her new lover and ally. Antonius' relationship with the Egyptian pharaoh left the Roman Senate most displeased, so to calm spirits in Rome, he married Octavian's sister [[Octavia]].<ref>''[[Discovery Tour: Ancient Egypt]]'' – [[Tours: Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt]]: "Cleopatra & Antony"</ref>

While he remained legally married to Octavia, Antonius spent most of his time in Egypt with Cleopatra, who gave birth to their children, and helped her expand the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]] with the goal of eventually turning it into an empire. However, in doing so, Antonius failed to realize the growing threat of Octavian, who began to cement his own power back in Rome.<ref name="Egyptian Empire">''[[Discovery Tour: Ancient Egypt]]'' – [[Tours: Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt]]: "A New Egyptian Empire?"</ref>

In 38 BCE, Aya—by now known as Amunet—informed her fellow Hidden One and ex-husband [[Bayek]] of [[Siwa]] that Antonius and Cleopatra were becoming a problem, noting that the Roman had ''"the same stench of tyranny that Caesar did"''. Around the same time, Antonius sent [[Gaius Julius Rufio]], a former general under Caesar, a letter to reprimand him after the general had apparently disrespected Cleopatra.<ref name="THO">''[[Assassin's Creed: Origins]]'' – ''[[The Hidden Ones (DLC)|The Hidden Ones]]'' –  [[Sic Semper Tyrannis]]</ref>

===War with Octavian and death===
By the late 30s BCE, Antonius and Octavian's once powerful alliance had fallen apart due to their own political ambitions.<ref name="Origins 4"/> After Antonius repudiated his Roman wife for the Egyptian queen,<ref name="Egyptian Empire"/> Octavian orchestrated a propaganda campaign to ruin his rival's reputation. The campaign succeeded and the Roman people came to despise both Antonius and Cleopatra, allowing Octavian to declare [[War of Actium|war]] on Egypt with the backing of the Roman Senate.<ref name="War With Rome">''[[Discovery Tour: Ancient Egypt]]'' – [[Tours: Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt]]: "War With Rome"</ref>

In 31 BCE, Antonius' forces aided the Egyptian fleet in [[Battle of Actium|battling]] the Roman fleet commanded by Octavian at {{Wiki|Actium}}. However, Antonius and Cleopatra's forces were ultimately routed, allowing Octavian to march on [[Alexandria]].<ref name="War With Rome"/> Faced with certain defeat, Antonius faked his death and went into hiding.<ref name="Echoes"/> On 12 August 30 BCE, while Antonius was hiding out in Cleopatra's palace in Alexandria, Amunet made her way inside and met with her old friend Cleopatra, convincing her to give up resistance for the sake of peace. She committed suicide with a vial of poison provided by Amunet, and in the aftermath, the Hidden Ones proceeded to look for traces of Antonius, eventually tracking him to [[Caesarion]]'s room. Confronting his opponents armed with the Sword of Damokles, he ultimately was defeated, and in his dying moments, implored the Hidden Ones to protect Caesarion from falling into Octavian's hands.<ref name="Echoes"/>

==Gallery==
<gallery position="center" widths="180" captionalign="center">
Mark Antony at Cleopatra's Feast - Gerard Hoet.jpg|''{{Wiki|The Banquet of Cleopatra|Marcus Antonius beim Festmahl der Kleopatra}}''  by {{Wiki|Gerard Hoet}}
ACOc - Aya imprisoned.png|Antonius speaking to an imprisoned Aya
ACOc - Sparing Antony.png|Aya persuading Brutus to spare Antonius
</gallery>

==Appearances==
*''[[Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy]]'' {{1stm}}
*''[[Assassin's Creed: Initiates]]'' {{Mo}}
*''[[Assassin's Creed: Origins]]'' – ''[[The Hidden Ones (DLC)|The Hidden Ones]]'' {{mo}}
*[[Assassin's Creed: Origins (comic)|''Assassin's Creed: Origins'' comic]] {{1st}}
*''[[Discovery Tour: Ancient Egypt]]'' {{Mo}}
*''[[Echoes of History]]'' {{Mo}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{ACOC}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antonius, Marcus}}
[[Category:83 BCE births]]
[[Category:30 BCE deaths]]
[[Category:Individuals]]
[[Category:Romans]]
[[Category:Roman senators]]
[[Category:Roman Consuls]]
[[Category:Roman generals]]
[[Category:Governors]]
[[Category:Antonii]]
[[Category:Order of the Ancients]]
[[fr:Marc Antoine]]