Fulvia’s Final Act

Abstract The assassination of Caesar left Antonius as the most powerful man in Rome. Fulvia and her children shared in his fortunes. Fulvia herself became a target of the political invective of Antonius’s enemy, Cicero, and she profited from the proscriptions that the triumvirs unleashed on Rome. While Antonius was in the East, Fulvia helped lead a group of Antonius’s allies in the capital. As relations between Antonius’s brother, Lucius, and Octavian devolved into the Perusine War, Fulvia worked to persuade Antonian generals to come Lucius’s aid and even raised troops to help lift the siege of Perusia. This lies at the base of stories that she strapped on a sword and waged war herself. Even though the Antonians lost the war, Octavian dared not harm Fulvia. Her importance to Antonius is underscored by the massive escort his generals provided for her as she left Italy. She died in Greece shortly thereafter.