Antony and Cleopatra

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Page 1 What does this passage suggest about the relationship between Cleopatra and Antony? Compare this with how the relationship is portrayed in the other written source material from the classical period in Book 1, Chapter 1. In this passage Plutarch describes the relationship between Cleopatra and Antony as one of great love and sacrifice. It tells of Cleopatra’s devotion to Antony, but also of her manipulation of him and Antony’s weakness and susceptibility to Cleopatra’s cunning. Cleopatra uses her flatterers to manipulate Antony, “her flatterers also worked hard upon Antony” (Plutarch “Life of Antony” 53; p320) to convince him of her devotion to him, they describe her as a “mistress who was utterly devoted to him” (Plutarch” Life of Antony”). Such was her love of Antony that the flatterers implied that not being with him would lead to her demise “it would be the death of her” (Plutarch “Life of Antony”). So convinced was Antony by this manipulation that he returned to Alexandria to be with Cleopatra even at the risk of dissention in Parthia, showing Rome his weakness as a leader. The source material in book 1, chapter 1 describes the similarities in Cleopatra and Antony’s relationship. Firstly in the Reading 1.1, Cassius Duo describes Antony as” emasculated”, a “shadow of his former manly Roman self” (Trevor Fear, 2008, p.7). Octavian states “he is either blind to reason or mad” (Scott-Kilvert, 1987, p 52, 53, 54 and 55) and of how Cleopatra has “bewitched” and “enslaved” Antony. Octavian, in his speech uses Antony’s demise as an example of what will happen to Rome under the influence of Egypt and shows the stark contrast between the Egypt and Rome Page 2 Using this “example” of Antony as his justification for war on Egypt to “defend our own way of life and values” (Scott-Kilvert 1987). Similarly in Plutarch’s Life of Antony, Cleopatra is
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