ANTONY AND THE BOOKMAKER’S VIEW OF HISTORY.

ANTONY AND THE BOOKMAKER’S VIEW OF HISTORY. It seems to me that Antony’s successes would have been assigned a low probability by a bookmaker assessing the rivals for supreme power in Rome in the period either before Julius Caesar’s rise or after his assassination. There were many candidates for power, and the candidates would all, by nature of the Roman system, have acquired substantial political and military experience. In the long struggle for supreme power after Caesar’s death, lasting almost 15 years, Antony came in second. Sportswriters tend to dismiss the accomplishment of losing the Super Bowl or coming in second at Wimbledon, and historians have similar inclinations. In evaluating Antony as a politician and soldier, we should remember that Julius Caesar, whose military and political judgment deserve deference, made Antony his right hand man.