To destroy his political rival Marc Antony, Octavius used Cleopatra.
I wonder if there were Roman senators—or anyone in Italy, for that matter—who screamed, “Improper!”
But was Augustus breaking the law—any more than our Donnius Trumpius did by going after Hunter Biden?
Some conduct is too unthinkably disgraceful to be illegal.
It sure seems more than just shabby, doesn’t it, to use state power for petty domestic political ends?
But Octavius accomplished three important goals: to destroy Marc Antony, to dominate Egypt,
and to crush the snake of matriarchy.
