| Perusine War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Roman Republic | Forces of Fulvia and Lucius Antonius | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Octavian | Fulvia Lucius Antonius | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 125,000 | 48,000 | ||||||||
The Perusine War (also Perusian or Perusinian War, or the War of Perusia) was a civil war of the Roman Republic, which lasted from 41 to 40 BC. It was fought by Lucius Antonius and Fulvia to support Mark Antony against his political enemy (and the future Emperor Augustus), Octavian.
Fulvia, who was married to Mark Antony at the time of the civil war, felt strongly that her husband should be the sole ruler of Rome instead of sharing power with the Second Triumvirate, especially Octavian.
Fulvia and Antony's younger brother, Lucius Antonius, raised eight legions in Italy.[1] The army held Rome for a brief time, but was then forced to retreat to the city of Perusia (modern Perugia, Italy). During the winter of 41–40 BC, Octavian's army laid siege to the city, finally causing it to surrender due to starvation when the besieged realized reinforcements from Italy or the East were not coming. The lives of Fulvia and Lucius Antonius were both spared, and Antonius was sent to govern a Spanish province as a gesture to his brother. Fulvia was exiled to Sicyon. Many inhabitants of the city were then butchered; they and others lost their land to veteran soldiers, as grimly remembered by the poet, Sextus Propertius, at the end of his first book of Elegies.
Fulvia died in 40 BC, and with her death came a peace between Antony and Octavian. The peace would be short-lived, however, as a civil war began a few years later.
References
- ^ Brice, Lee L. (2014). Warfare in the Roman Republic: From the Etruscan Wars to the Battle of Actium. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 45. ISBN 9781610692991.