Cleopatra, in parting with Antony as described in the last chapter, lost him for two or three years.  During this time Antony himself was involved in a great variety of difficulties and dangers, and passed through many eventful scenes, which, however, can not here be described in detail.  His life, during this period, was full of vicissitude and excitement, and was spent probably in alternations of remorse for the past and anxiety for the future.  On landing at Tyre, he was at first extremely perplexed whether to go to Asia Minor or to Rome.  His presence was imperiously demanded in both places.  The war which Fulvia had fomented was caused, in part, by the rivalry of Octavius, and the collision of his interests with those of her husband.  Antony was very angry with her for having managed his affairs in such a way as to bring about a war.  After a time Antony and Fulvia met at Athens.  Fulvia had retreated to that city, and was very seriously sick there, either from bodily disease, or from the influence of long-continued anxiety, vexation, and distress.  They had a stormy meeting.  Neither party was disposed to exercise any mercy toward the other.  Antony left his wife rudely and roughly, after loading her with reproaches.  A short time afterward, she sank down in sorrow to the grave.

The death of Fulvia was an event which proved to be of advantage to Antony.  It opened the way to a reconciliation between him and Octavius.  Fulvia had been extremely active in opposing Octavius’s designs, and in organizing plans for resisting him.  He felt, therefore, a special hostility against her, and, through her, against Antony.  Now, however, that she was dead, the way seemed to be in some sense opened for a reconciliation.

Octavius had a sister, Octavia, who had been the wife of a Roman general named Marcellus.  She was a very beautiful and a very accomplished woman, and of a spirit very different from that of Fulvia.  She was gentle, affectionate, and kind, a lover of peace and harmony, and not at all disposed, like Fulvia, to assert and maintain her influence over others by an overbearing and violent demeanor.  Octavia’s husband died about this time, and, in the course of the movements and negotiations between Antony and Octavius, the plan was proposed of a marriage between Antony and Octavia, which, it was thought, would ratify and confirm the reconciliation.  This proposal was finally agreed upon, Antony was glad to find so easy a mode of settling his difficulties.  The people of Rome, too, and the authorities there, knowing that the peace of the world depended upon the terms on which these two men stood with regard to each other, were extremely desirous that this arrangement should be carried into effect.  There was a law of the commonwealth forbidding the marriage of a widow within a specified period after the death of her husband.  That period had not, in Octavia’s case, yet expired.  There was, however, so strong a desire that no obstacle should be allowed to prevent this proposed union, or even to occasion delay, that the law was altered expressly for this case, and Antony and Octavia were married.  The empire was divided between Octavius and Antony, Octavius receiving the western portion as his share, while the eastern was assigned to Antony.