Antony and Cleopatra

Mark Antony is the protagonist and tragic hero of Antony and Cleopatra. He is a middle-aged Roman general renowned for his skill as a soldier. Antony is a former ally of Julius Caesar who is now a member of the Second Triumvirate—an alliance between himself, Octavian, and Lepidus to govern Rome. Entrusted with defending the eastern provinces under Rome’s control, Antony has fallen in love with the Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra, and begins to neglect his duty.

Antony is consistently characterized as a man who embodies Roman greatness and masculinity, but his fellow Romans frame his love for Cleopatra as a fatal flaw that drives him to act against his nature. At the beginning of the play, Philo, one of Antony’s Roman soldiers, laments his pleasure-seeking and decadent life in Egypt, referring to him as “the triple pillar of the world transformed / Into a strumpet’s fool” (1.1.13-14). Philo contrasts Antony’s strength as a triumvir, capable of holding up the whole world like a pillar, with his romantic love for Cleopatra, suggesting that it turns his greatness into something ridiculous. Caesar expresses similar distaste for Antony’s behavior in Egypt, deriding him for his luxurious lifestyle and for allowing a woman to manipulate him into forsaking his alliance.