After Caesar's death, Rome was plunged into a new power struggle. The main rivals were Mark Antony, Caesar's most trusted general in Gaul, and Octavian, Caesar's grandnephew and adopted son.
After Caesar's assassination, Mark Antony delivered his famous funeral oration, made famous by Shakespeare, which began: "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears." Antony and Octavian were forced to share power, and the empire was divided between them.
But the rivalry continued and led to a naval battle at Actium in 31 BC. Octavian won a great victory, making him the undisputed master of the Roman state.
A tragic romance
Mark Antony had met Cleopatra when she was living in Rome with Caesar, and in 34 BC he joined her, partly because of her personal charm, but also because of her great wealth and the Egyptian armies she commanded.
Although queen of Egypt, Cleopatra was actually a Macedonian Greek, a direct descendant of Ptolemy, one of Alexander the Great's generals. Her coins do not show her as the great beauty we might imagine, but rather as a rather large-nosed woman with a strong chin.
Cleopatra had joined forces with Mark Antony against Octavian, with the ambition of becoming Roman empress. After their defeat at Actium, the two returned to Egypt and committed suicide there. Mark Antony killed himself with a sword and Cleopatra is believed to have done so by allowing herself to be bitten by a snake. Coins of the period
Among the coins from this period that have survived to this day, the denarii from 32-31 BC, minted to pay Mark Antony's troops, are particularly noteworthy. The obverse shows a galley in homage to Antony's naval power. The reverse of each coin also bore an inscription mentioning the number of a legion, from LEG I to LEG XIX. The Egyptian tetradrachms featuring the famous Cleopatra (69-30 BC) also date from this period. Plutarch, the Greek biographer, wrote that her beauty was not incomparable in itself and that it did not even attract the attention of those who saw her, but that the queen had an irresistible personal charm, an elegant bearing, and captivating conversation, qualities that are obviously not reflected in these coins, unlike her rather long nose and strong chin.