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====The Second Triumvirate====

The Second Triumvirate saw the rise of Octavian and Mark Anthony, who became the most powerful man in Rome. Lepidus was decidedly the junior partner in the political arrangement. Octavian, Mark Anthony and Lepidus divided the Roman Empire between them, but Anthony and Caesar's heir soon deftly side-lined Lepidus. Anthony assumed responsibility for the pacification of the east which had become restive after the civil wars. Anthony successful reimposed Roman control over the Eastern section of the Roman Empire. The relationship between Mark Anthony and Octavian was sealed by a series of marriages. However, in truth, the two men were never really allies and both knew that there would be a day of reckoning. Still, the Second Triumvirate allowed Octavian and Mark Anthony to rule the Roman Empire.

Octavian was the real power in Rome and he observed the forms of the Republican system.<ref>Holland, Tom, <i>Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic</i> (London, Anchor Books, 2003), p. 207 </ref> In the east, Mark Anthony began a relationship with the Ptolemaic Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra IV. For a brief period, the Roman territories were divided between Octavian who presented himself as champion old-fashioned Roman values and beliefs and Mark Anthony who seemed to be creating a personal domain for himself and Cleopatra in the east. For the entire duration of the Second Triumvirate, the Senate was subservient to Octavian and Anthony. The political arrangement between Anthony and Octavian that was made possible by the assassins who sought to preserve the Republic, did much to undermine the old system of governance and politics.<ref> Holland, p 298</ref>