Editing Mark Antony (section)

==Early life==
A member of the [[plebeian]] [[gens Antonia]], Antony was born in [[Rome]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/mark-antony|title=Mark Antony|date=24 October 2019|website=HISTORY|access-date=27 April 2023|archive-date=27 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427175145/https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/mark-antony|url-status=live}}</ref> on 14 January 83 BC.<ref>Plutarch, ''Life of Antony'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Antony*.html#86.5 86.5.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801170032/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Antony%2A.html#86.5 |date=1 August 2023 }}</ref><ref>Suerbaum 1980, 327–334.</ref> His father and namesake was [[Marcus Antonius Creticus]], son of the noted [[Marcus Antonius (orator)|orator Marcus Antonius]] who had been murdered during the purges of [[Gaius Marius]] in the winter of 87–86 BC.<ref name="Huzar-14">Huzar 1978, p. 14</ref> His mother was [[Julia (mother of Mark Antony)|Julia]], a third cousin of [[Julius Caesar]]. Antony was an infant at the time of [[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]]'s [[Sulla's civil war|march on Rome in 82 BC]].<ref>Goldsworthy, 2010, p. 39</ref>{{#tag:ref|As recorded by a calendar inscription known as the ''Fasti Verulani'' (c. 17–37 AD) for 14 January = [[Attilio Degrassi|Degrassi]], ''Inscriptiones Italiae'' 13.2.397–398, as cited by [[Jerzy Linderski]] and Anna Kaminska-Linderski, "The Quaestorship of Marcus Antonius," ''Phoenix'' 28.2 (1974), p. 217, note 24. The religious prohibition placed by [[Augustus]] on the day, marked as a ''[[dies vitiosus]]'' ("defective" day), is explained by Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), pp. 2187–2188. 14 January is accepted as Antony's birthday also by [[C.B.R. Pelling]], ''Plutarch: Life of Antony'' (Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 299, commentary to [[Plutarch]], ''Antony'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Antony*.html#73 73.5]; Nikos Kokkino, ''Antonia Augusta'' (Routledge, 1992), p. 11; [[Pat Southern]], ''Mark Antony'' (Tempus, 1998), p. ii; [[Adrian Goldsworthy]], ''Antony and Cleopatra'' (Yale University Press, 2010), [https://books.google.com/books?id=YguHDNElxpMC&dq=%22a+grand+celebration+for+his+birthday+on+14+january%22&pg=PT421 n.p.]. According to [[Suetonius]] (''Claudius'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Claudius*.html#11.3 11.3]), the emperor Claudius, Antony's grandson through maternal lineage, evaded the prohibition on commemorating Antony's birthday by calculations showing that had he been born under the [[Julian calendar]] he would have shared his [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#dies natalis|birthday]] with [[Nero Claudius Drusus|Drusus]], the emperor's father. Drusus was born in late March or early April, based on a reference that he was born "within the third month" after his mother [[Livia]] married Augustus on 17 January; G. Radke, "Der Geburtstag des älteren Drusus," ''Wurzburger Jahrbucher fur die Altertumswissenschaft'' 4 (1978), pp. 211–213, proposed that a birth date of 28 March for Drusus would resolve the chronological difficulties. Radke's proposal is summarized in English by the [[commentary (philology)|commentary]] on Suetonius' sentence by Donna W. Hurley, ''Suetonius: Divus Claudius'' (Cambridge University Press, 2001), [https://books.google.com/books?id=9yVR5Fac278C&dq=drusus+antony+birthday+january&pg=PA106 p. 106], and by Marleen B. Flory, "The Symbolism of Laurel in Cameo Portraits of Livia," in ''Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome'' (University of Michigan Press, 1995), vol. 40, p. 56, note 48.|group="note"}}

[[File:Lucius Antonius.jpg|thumb|Antony's brother [[Lucius Antonius (brother of Mark Antony)|Lucius]], on a coin issued at [[Ephesus]] during his consulship in 41 BC|198x198px]]
According to the Roman orator [[Marcus Tullius Cicero]], Antony's father was incompetent and corrupt, and was only given power because he was incapable of using or abusing it effectively.<ref name="Huzar-15">Huzar 1978, p. 15</ref> In 74 BC he was given the military command to defeat the [[pirates]] of the [[Mediterranean]], but he died in [[Crete]] in 71 BC without making any significant progress.<ref name=Huzar-14 /><ref name=Huzar-15 /><ref name="Scullard-154">Scullard 1980, p. 154</ref> The elder Antony's death left Antony and his brothers, [[Lucius Antonius (brother of Mark Antony)|Lucius]] and [[Gaius Antonius|Gaius]], in the care of their mother, Julia, who later married [[Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura]], an eminent member of the old [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]] nobility. Lentulus, despite exploiting his political success for financial gain, was constantly in debt due to his extravagance. He was a major figure in the [[Catilinarian conspiracy]] and was [[Extrajudicial killing|summarily executed]] on the orders of the consul [[Cicero]] in 63 BC for his involvement.<ref name="Huzar-17">Huzar 1978, p. 17</ref>

According to the historian [[Plutarch]], Antony spent his teenage years wandering through Rome with his brothers and friends gambling, drinking, and becoming involved in scandalous love affairs.<ref name=Scullard-154/> Antony's contemporary and enemy, Cicero, charged that he had a homosexual relationship with [[Gaius Scribonius Curio (praetor 49 BC)|Gaius Scribonius Curio]].<ref>Eyben 1993, p. 236</ref> This form of slander was popular during this time in the Roman Republic to demean and discredit political opponents.<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 August 2018 |title=In ancient Rome, political discourse was sometimes like an internet fight |url=https://www.zmescience.com/science/history-science/rome-political-discourse-insults-24082018/ |access-date=10 December 2019 |website=ZME Science |language=en-US |archive-date=18 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418141034/https://www.zmescience.com/science/history-science/rome-political-discourse-insults-24082018/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=History |first=Mindy Weisberger 2018-09-02T12:12:50Z |title=Think Politics Today Is Ugly? Politicians in Ancient Rome Were Insulting, Too |url=https://www.livescience.com/63473-insults-politics-ancient-rome.html |access-date=10 December 2019 |website=livescience.com |date=2 September 2018 |language=en |archive-date=10 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510025811/https://www.livescience.com/63473-insults-politics-ancient-rome.html |url-status=live }}</ref> There is little reliable information on his political activity as a young man, although it is known that he was an associate of [[Publius Clodius Pulcher]] and his [[street gang]].<ref>Eyben 1993, p. 58</ref> He may also have been involved in the [[Lupercal]] cult as he was referred to as a priest of this order later in life.<ref>Huzar 1978, p. 25</ref> By age twenty, Antony had amassed an enormous debt. Hoping to escape his creditors, Antony fled to [[Roman Greece|Greece]] in 58 BC, where he studied [[philosophy]] and [[rhetoric]] at [[Athens]].{{Cn|date=March 2024}}