ANTONY, MARK

born 82/81 BC died , August, 30 BC, Alexandria also spelled Marc Anthony, Latin Marcus Antonius Roman general under Julius Caesar and later triumvir (4330 BC), who, with Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, was defeated by Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) in the last of the civil wars that destroyed the Roman Republic. Roman general and, after Caesar's death, one of the triumvirs in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and the hero of Antony and Cleopatra. Historically, Marcus Antonius was one of Caesar's most distinguished allies. After gaining distinction as a soldier, he became Caesar's consul in 44 BC. In Julius Caesar, the noble Antony delivers the funeral oration upon Caesar's death. His famous speech, beginning Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears, eloquently and effectively turns the Roman populace against Brutus and his fellow conspirators, and with Octavius, Antony later defeats Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Philippi. Having written Antony as a loyal and honourable man in Julius Caesar, Shakespeare focuses more closely on his character in Antony and Cleopatra. In this play Antony is a tragic figure, reluctant to abandon the voluptuous pleasures of Egypt and Cleopatra even as the Roman politics threaten his position and his very life. Inexorably the great Roman soldier loses his energy, his will, and his power of judgment, and, though he ultimately stirs himself to fight when Egypt is attacked by Octavius, he finds he has lost his taste for warfare. His fleet is defeated at Actium, and he stabs himself upon hearing a false report of Cleopatra's death. Additional reading Eleanor Goltz Huzar, Mark Antony (1978, reprinted 1986), is a biography. H.H. Scullard, From the Gracchi to Nero, 5th ed. (1982), includes extensive notes and bibliographic references. John M. Carter, The Battle of Actium (1970), recounts the events from 44 to 30 BC, with bibliography. A reprint of four chapters from The Cambridge Ancient History, W.W. Tarn and M.P. Charlesworth, Octavian, Antony, and Cleopatra (1965), offers a sympathetic description, first published in 1934 and superseded in detail, of Antony's regime in the eastern provinces.