Marc Antony served as one of Julius Caesar's generals during the conquest of Gaul and the Civil War. Marc Antony was the administrator of Italy during the time Caesar eliminated opponents in Greece, North Africa, and in Spain. Caesar died in 44 BC and Marc Antony joined with two other generals and formed a dictatorship comprising of three men. This tripartite dictatorship was called Triumvirate, who also took part in defeating Caesar's murderers. After this, Antony took over Rome's eastern provinces.
By looking at these evidences, it is not clear that Marc Antony and Augustus Caesar were in contention at all. In fact, the record seems to show that Marc Antony was one of Caesar's generals and was in support of him in his battles. He was also appointed by Caesar to be administrator of Italy, which shows that Augustus Caesar had high regard for Marc Antony.
The main reason for this is because Antony started to act independently. He felt more powerful than ever and he felt that he could do anything on his own. This made Octavian suspicious of him so he was considered to be a traitor. At that time, a lot of leaders cannot take the fact that they would be overthrown or defeated so, in a way, Marc Antony lost to Augustus Caesar because he killed himself.
Augustus is considered to be a great Roman leader because he was able to transform the Roman Republic to a Roman Empire. The moment that Cleopatra heard that Rome declared war against Egypt, Antony was immediately by her side. A year after that, they committed suicide.
Mike John, Content Explorer, MCA, Los Angeles, California, USA
Answered Feb 05, 2019
To fully understand why Marc Antony lost to Auggustus Caesar, it’s important to understand a little background about the day and time in Rhome in which it all took place. Marc (Marcus) Antony was a Roman general and politician who strictly opposed the oligarchy style of government which was intact at the time. He was intent on bringing in an autocratic Roman Empire. A civil war erupted in 31 BC and the two were officially at odds.
Hostility between Marc Antony and Aggustus Caesar was aggravated by Marc Antony’s ongoing love affair with Cleopatra. War was declared on Cleopatra as a direct result and Antony was also defeated by forces at the Battle of Actium. Antony and Cleopatra accepted their defeat but took their ultimate fate into their own hands. They fled to Egypt and committed suicide where they went to their graves...together. Aggustus then became the rule of the Roman Empire.