Marc Antony's Last Letter

(A/N-I write well when I am angry. This is steam; one big metaphor
for a friendship gone very very bad.)

Marc Antony's Last Letter
(Or, Triumvirate)

Dear Octavian,
I am writing you to apologize.

What am I saying? I have no need to apologize. This whole mess is your
fault.

Do not try to pin the rift on me, like you always did. Everything was
my fault. Caesar would not have died if I were a psychic. We would not
have needed the help of Agrippa at Sicily if I had just ten thousand
more soldiers. And Octavia. Where to start with that wench? Every day
all I heard in the senate was "Octavia says you don't buy her nice
robes, only the cheap ones that cost half your salary. Octavia says you
are never at home, even though you run Rome. Octavia says that her
mother-in-law is too controlling of her husband life, even though you
receive abusive letter from your mother-in-law every other day." I am
glad to be rid of the woman! That is one nice thing about Cleopatra-all
her relatives are dead!

And let us talk of Lepidus. In the beginning, as I recall, you did not
even want to involve Lepidus in the triumvirate, even though he and I
ran Rome quite well together before you moved into the picture. Then
you, Caesar's son, came along and tried to squeeze him out. But Caesar
did not leave you any money after his death. I wonder why. Every word
out of your mouth about that man was laced with hate. So we needed
Lepidus. You want to use him, Octavian! He was nothing but a change
purse carried by a legion of soldiers. He kept us safe from ourselves.
The triumvirate was Athens; he, the Themistocleian wall that fell
before the death of the glorious city. He tried to keep us together,
and succeeded for many years. Now he rests with Pluto-and who wrote the
note to Mercury, demanding that Lepidus be bewitched to the underworld?
I find it odd the message consisted of your handwriting.

I fled. Yes, I did. But I could flee. I had places to go, other friends
willing to take me in. You did not. You still do not, Octavian. I
remember how you declared to me in front of the entire senate, "Other
allies, Marc Antony? You have no other allies!" Everyone had quite a
laugh afterwards. How does that laugh taste? There are plenty of spices
in Egypt for you to season them with. Ah, Egypt is lovely, by the way.
Cleopatra sends her wishes to you. Our navy is the finest in the known
world. However, I do realize that you have the advantage with the Roman
army. But even then, you have enough to lose and I have enough to gain
for me to be a bit smug. If you choose war, so be it. We have already
fought one on a personal scale, and, in my eyes, I triumphed. The
triumvirate is dissolving; a block a salt beneath the crying eye of
Rome. Yet I stay solid, absorbing the salt of every Roman tear, while
you let the water wash away your life. I stay solid, as I always have
and will.

Good day to you, Octavian. Have fun ruining the Roman republic
further.
-Marc Antony