the East, of which Cleopatra furnished a large proportion. After staying with his allies at Samos, Antony moved to Athens. His land forces, which had been in Armenia, came down to the coast of Asia and embarked under Publius Canidius Crassus. Octavian kept up his strategic preparations. Military operations began in 32 BC, when his general Agrippa captured Methone, a Greek town allied to Antony. But by the publication of Antony's will, which Lucius Munatius Plancus had put into Octavian's hands, and by carefully letting it be known in Rome what preparations were going on at Samos and how Antony was effectively acting as the agent of Cleopatra, Octavian produced such a violent outburst of feeling that he easily obtained Antony's deposition from the consulship of 31 BC, for which Antony had been designated. In addition to the deposition, Octavian procured a proclamation of war against Cleopatra. This was well understood to mean against Antony, though he was not named. In issuing a war declaration, the Senate deprived Antony of any legal authority. Battle Following his decisive victory at Actium, for the majority of July, Octavian lay siege to Alexandria. However, Antony's troops were well trained and battle hardened; some had fought alongside Antony for 20 years. Despite Octavian having a numerical advantage, Antony used the walls of Alexandria with great effectiveness. Throughout July, Octavian launched probing assaults on the city, but, unable to find a clear weakness, did not make a decisive assault. After a month of hard fighting, many of his troops wanted to launch an all-out assault. On July 30, Octavian launched his attack. The fighting was brutal, but Antony was able to resist Octavian at the city's hippodrome. However, heavy casualties (close to 10,000) on both sides further diminished any chance Antony had. In early August, Octavian, now severely outnumbering Antony, launched a second, ultimately successful attack by land from east and west, causing the city to fall. Antony committed suicide, as did Cleopatra nine days after the battle. Octavian had Caesarion, Cleopatra's son by Julius Caesar, as well as Mark Antony's eldest son, Antyllus, executed. Octavian showed mercy to the rest of Antony's children and gave them to his sister and Antony's former wife, Octavia, to be raised as Roman citizens. Antony's children would all rise to positions of relative power, and eventually would be direct ancestors to three Roman emperors: Claudius, Nero and Caligula.