What if Mark Antony and Cleopatra had been successful against Octavian? (Roman, Egypt)

[johnnybgood12]

From what I know the battle was pretty decisive in Octavia's favor, but hypothetically say Mark Antony and Cleopatra had won the decisive final battle and Octavia had been killed in the process, would Mark Antony and Cleopatra have been able to go to Rome as victors or would there still be many out to kill them?

[Grandstander]

Continuing resistance to Anthony and Cleopatra after the removal of their main rivals would have meant Rome trying to get by denied the grain shipments from Egypt upon which they depended. They would not have had the military means to try and break an embargo since we are assuming the Roman fleet went to the bottom at Actium rather than A & C's.

Famine in Rome of course would have created destabilizing conditions marked by riots and power struggles, making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to organize another attempt to overcome A & C. Those two take the position..."If we are welcomed in Rome we bring the grain with us", they win popular support from the mobs, represent the only hope for restoring order to the Patricians..and for the time being they are the power in Rome.

What would follow in the ensuing years, who knows? The Roman Empire never suffered a shortage of plots and intrigues against those in power, and there is no reason to believe that Anthony and Cleopatra would have been immune. Perhaps they would have eventually turned on one another.

[mensaguy]

Thread closed while I try to figure out how "What if" fits into a History forum. (Shouldn't that be in Fantasy?)