In Shakespeare’s (I.iv. 30-33) Antony & Cleopatra, Octavian, future leader of the Roman Empire, says of Marc Antony’s wayward actions, “…’tis to be chid-/As we rate boys who, being mature in knowledge,/Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,/And so rebel to judgment.” Antony would go on to lose the battle of Actium to Octavius because he could not resist the sensual, pagan charms of Cleopatra and Egypt. This blinded him to his duty of loyalty to Rome and, as Shakespeare (III.xi. 64) also says, because of this lapse of judgment Antony lost “half of the bulk o’ th’ world.”
For all his lapse of judgment during this period of his life, Marc Antony was a great Roman and deserves his romantic reputation among poets, scholars and historians. The future Commander in Chief of Julius Caesar’s army was born into a wealthy family in Rome in 83 B.C., and he enjoyed a military lineage and upbringing that saw him leader of the Roman cavalry from 58 B.C. to 56 B.C. and then under Caesar from 54 B.C. to 50 B.C. (Marc 10). Pompey, Caesar and Crassus formed a Second Triumvirate during the Gallic Campaign while the leaders of the First Triumvirate were fighting. Antony went to Syria after this with Pompey and Crassus. He would make it to Syria with only a javelin, sword and wooden shield. The men would break through the great wall guarding Syria and its conquest added one more jewel to the Roman Empire. Antony fought in Gaul under Caesar and during the war between Caesar and Pompey the Great, Antony had command of the left wing of Caesar’s army during the Battle of Pharsalus. Antony and Caesar were good friends and Caesar trusted Antony to run Italy while he was traveling in Africa. In 44 B.C. Marc Antony and Julius Caesar equally shared the duties of consulship, the same year Julius Caesar would be assassinated.
After the assassination of Caesar the only thing standing in the way of Antony was Caesar...