https://ancientrome.org/tags/actium/ Recent content in Actium on Ancient Rome Hugo en-us Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://ancientrome.org/actium-the-battle-that-made-the-empire/ Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://ancientrome.org/actium-the-battle-that-made-the-empire/ <p>Outside the Vienna Secession building stands one of the more theatrical bronze monuments in Europe: the <em>Marc Anton Gruppe</em>, cast in 1899 by the Austrian sculptor Arthur Strasser. It shows Mark Antony in full Roman dress, seated in a chariot pulled not by horses but by four lions — two fully grown, two younger, all rendered with remarkable musculature and a controlled ferocity that has not softened in 125 years of Viennese weather. The patina has gone deep green. The lions look ready to move. Antony sits above them with the bearing of a man accustomed to commanding things that could kill him.</p>