Question: Donations of Alexandria

If Antony won his Civil War with Octavian, would he have maintained the various "donations of Alexandria" and kept his various children as near-eastern kings? The whole system he established seems very un-Roman - and it seems like the Roman East would never really assimilate if Antony's client kings endured.

Of course then again maybe nothing major would really happen. These children of Antony's would be raised as Hellenic monarchs, and lacking Rome's bottomless manpower base, once Antony was dead they'd have nowhere to turn.
 
If Antony won his Civil War with Octavian, would he have maintained the various "donations of Alexandria" and kept his various children as near-eastern kings? The whole system he established seems very un-Roman - and it seems like the Roman East would never really assimilate if Antony's client kings endured.

Of course then again maybe nothing major would really happen. These children of Antony's would be raised as Hellenic monarchs, and lacking Rome's bottomless manpower base, once Antony was dead they'd have nowhere to turn.

Since I'd just been reading about Antony for my other thread today thought I'd answer. Based on what I've read, Antony's aim, despite what Octavian's propaganda will tell you, was not to overthrow Roman authority in the East. He still viewed the Roman people and senate as the supreme authority and did not want Egyptians usurping the Roman bureaucratic structure in the East or replacing important officials. He believed that, with the donations, the East would be easier to govern if it was supported by client kingdoms, this was already working well in Asia Minor at the time. So Antony was still counting on the places being under Rome's rule with the Romans doing the heavy lifting for his puppet monarchs.
 
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That makes a surprising amount of sense - and actually hints that the kids themselves could possibly have political careers if they grew up and managed to distance themselves from the Hellenism of their upbringing. If Antony's soldiers stay loyal to his children, and Antony himself is a dictator of sorts over Rome (I can't see him being a subtle in his autocracy, after all) then in all probability they could just be savvy enough to play the Roman to their Roman allies and play the Hellenic/Eastern King to their Eastern subjects.

The idea of the client Kingdoms will probably become untenable eventually - there's just no reason you'd keep them once your power is firmly established enough.
 
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