Antony, Octavian, and the republic's last chance

Mark Antony was a capable battlefield commander whose weaknesses lay in strategic planning and politics. He still had the support of two consuls and roughly a third of the Senate, yet Octavian's control of Rome had already changed the political rules. Agrippa's command of Octavian's handpicked fleet converted Octavian's organization and resources into combat power. An Octavian defeat and death at Actium might therefore have prolonged the republican system, even though Antony did not understand how far that system had already eroded.