Mark Antony and Octavian are heirs to…

Tergeste, under Roman control from 177 BCE, had been granted the status of colony under Julius Caesar, who recorded its name as Tergeste in his Commentarii de bello Gallico (51 BCE).

During Roman times, Tergeste is defined an "Illyrian city" by Artemidorus of Ephesus, a Greek geographer, and "Carnic" by Strabo.

The border of "Roman Italia" has moved from the Timavo river to Formione (today Risano).

The Roman Tergeste flourishes due to its position as a crossroad from Aquileia, the main Roman city in the area, and Istria, and as a port as well, some ruins of which are still visible.

Octavian builds a line of walls around the city in 33-32 BCE, and supervises the construction of harbor facilities.

The consuls Ahenobarbus and Sosius, having departed Rome for Antony’s headquarters, have brought with them numerous Roman senators, probably more than two hundred.

Ahenobarbus, finding Cleopatra with Antony, endeavors, in vain, to obtain her removal from the army.

Antony, amid a virulent exchange of propaganda, divorces the deserted Octavia in 32 BCE to marry Cleopatra, purportedly willing his possessions to her and her children by Caesar.

When two of Antony’s able ministers, Munatius Plancus and Marcus Titius, desert their client for Octavian in the autumn of 32 BCE, he obtains the information he needs to confirm with the Senate all the accusations he has made against Antony.

By storming the sanctuary of the Vestal Virgins, Octavian forces their chief priestess to hand over Antony's secret will (of dubious though possible authenticity), deposited there for safekeeping, which would have given away Roman-conquered territories as kingdoms for his sons to rule, together with plans to build a tomb in Alexandria for him and his queen to reside upon their deaths.

In late 32 BCE, Octavian abrogates Antony’s titles and obtains from a truncated Senate the annulment of Antony's powers as triumvir, and a declaration of war against Cleopatra.

Hatred for Antony, fanned by Octavian, sweeps through Italy, and Octavian plays this emotional card to have all the peoples in Italy and the western provinces swear an oath of fealty to him, each leader inducing the populations under his control to swear formal oaths of allegiance to his own cause.

The majority of the senators still side with Antony, as do both consuls.

Cleopatra and Herod, the Roman client king of Judea, own a monopoly over the extraction of asphalt from the Dead Sea, which is used in ship building.

Following Herod’s return from Rome, construction had begun on a new fortress on the rock of Masada (which, according to Josephus, a first-century Jewish Roman historian, Herod fortified between 37 and 31 BCE as a refuge for himself in the event of a revolt).

The cliffs on the east edge of Masada are about thirteen hundred feet high and the cliffs on the west are about three hundred feet high; the natural approaches to the cliff top are very difficult.

Herod has surrounded Masada’s upper plateau with a wall with three gateways and thirty-eight white plastered towers.

He constructs the northern palace, containing colonnades and a small bath, on three rock terraces in a position commanding splendid views.

Three parts comprise the sizable western palace complex: the king's residence, a workshop block with servants' quarters, and a series of storerooms.

In the king's residence is a throne room entered by a large hall bearing a multicolored floor mosaic depicting geometric and floral motifs.

Rows of enormous cisterns feed a large bath house based on Roman designs.

An aqueduct extends from the wadis north and south of the rock to twelve large reservoirs in the cliff face from which the water is delivered to cisterns cut into the summit.

Herod’s second wife, Mariamne I, has borne him two sons, Alexandros (b. 35 BCE) and Aristobulus (b. 31 BCE), and two daughters, Salampsio and Cypros.

Mariamne's father, Alexander of Judaea, the son of Aristobulus II, had married his cousin Alexandra, daughter of his uncle Hyrcanus II, in order to cement the line of inheritance from Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, but the inheritance had soon continued the blood feud of previous generations, and eventually led to the downfall of the Hasmonean line.

Mariamne, by virtue of her parents' union, claims Hasmonean royalty on both sides of her family lineage.

Josephus writes that it was because of Mariamne's vehement insistence that her husband, Herod, had made her brother, Aristobulos III, High Priest.

Within a year of his appointment, Aristobulos, who was not yet eighteen, had in 36 BCE drowned at a party in Jericho; Alexandra, his mother, blamed Herod.

Alexandra had written to Cleopatra, begging her assistance in avenging the boy's murder.

Cleopatra in turn had urged Mark Antony to punish Herod for the crime and Antony had sent for him to make his defense.

Herod left his young wife in the care of his uncle Joseph, along with the instructions that if Antony should kill him, Joseph should kill Mariamne.

Herod apparently believed his wife to be so beautiful that she would become engaged to another man after his death and that his great love for Mariamne prevented him from enduring a separation from her, even in death.

Joseph became familiar with the Queen and eventually divulged this information to her and the other women of the household, which did not have the hoped-for effect of proving Herod's devotion to his wife.

Rumors soon circulated that Herod had been killed by Antony, and Alexandra had persuaded Joseph to take Mariamne and her to the Roman legions for protection.

However, Herod was released by Antony and had returned home, only to be informed of Alexandra's plan by his mother and sister, Salome.

Salome also accused Mariamne of committing adultery with Joseph, a charge which Herod initially dismissed after discussing it with his wife.

After Herod forgave her, Mariamne inquired about the order given to Joseph to kill her should Herod be killed, and Herod then became convinced of her infidelity, saying that Joseph would only have confided that to her were the two of them intimate.

He gave orders for Joseph to be executed and for Alexandra to be confined, but did not punish his wife.

The flourishing settlement of Qumran is destroyed by an earthquake in 31 BCE; its inhabitants begin rebuilding the complex.

The site is best known as the settlement nearest to the caves in which the Dead Sea Scrolls are hidden, caves in the sheer desert cliffs and beneath, in the marl terrace.

The war begins very early in 31 BCE, while Antony and Cleopatra are temporarily stationed in Greece.

Octavian gains a preliminary victory when the navy under the command the loyal and talented Marcus Agrippa successfully ferries troops across the Adriatic Sea and captures the Greek city and naval port of Methone, loyal to Antony, at the southwestern tip of Greece.

Octavian’s enormous popularity with the legions secures the defection of the provinces of Cyrenaica and Greece to his side.

Agrippa, with combined land and naval forces about equal to those assembled by Antony and Cleopatra, captures decisive points all along the line, cutting off Antony and Cleopatra's main force from their supply routes at sea.

Octavian, leaving his Etruscan friend and adviser Maecenas in charge of Italy, in the late spring of 31 BCE lands on the mainland opposite the island of Corcyra (modern Corfu) and marches south.

Antony moves his headquarters at the beginning of 31 BCE from Ephesus to Athens and …

…marshals his principal fleet in the gulf of Ambracia (northwestern Greece).