At the end of the play, the eponymous tragic hero Antony has lost the Battle of Actium and ultimately kills himself after his defeat. For this reason many would say that Caesar achieved a complete victory over his rival; However, is it that simple? Although Caesar achieved a military victory in the battle that takes place at the climax of the play, this does not necessarily mean that he achieved a complete victory. The play is not just about military conflict and equally the overall winner of the play cannot be decided solely on the basis of the Battle of Actium. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay On the one hand, the title of the work refers to both Antony and Cleopatra and makes no reference to Caesar; this is because between political struggles and conflicts this comedy talks about love. Antony has such a strong love for Cleopatra that for her “He would let Rome melt into the Tiber” and for him she “would depopulate Egypt”. For each other they would give up their titles and epithets, their power and everything they previously stood for, Antony was the epitome of a Roman man and Cleopatra's name was synonymous with her country, in her final moments as he dies in his arms Anthony says: “I am dying, Egypt, dying”. Being willing to give up everything for each other shows how strong their feelings are, yet Caesar has no such bond with anyone. Caesar is shown alone; his cold, calculating, and Machiavellian nature paints him as a bureaucrat who is highly resistant to or even incapable of showing emotion for much of the play. Her refusal to speak in prose shows her calculating and economical tendencies and her desire to give her sister away to her enemy despite claims that she is a sister "That no brother / Has ever loved so much" can lead the audience to doubt. his emotional abilities. When discussing Antony's absence with Lepidus he says "the fallen man, never loved until he is worth love", which is essentially lamenting that people will always complain about the current leader and hope for a new one until the new one leader will not take power in which case they will then continue to complain about him, according to him the people cannot see a good emperor when he is right in front of them. Although this is simply her verdict on how politics works, expressed in aphoristic language, the repetition of "love" and the current anger directed towards Antony may lead the audience to believe that Caesar is jealous of the love Cleopatra gives to Antony . If Antony has something that Caesar can't, then surely Caesar's victory cannot be seen as completely complete, furthermore, one could even say that it is a small victory for Antony if Caesar is indeed jealous, which is not hard to believe as it is shown . it is not uncommon for Caesar to be envious of Antony. Caesar has never been given the same respect as Antony and probably never will be. A recurring motif in the work is the mythologizing of Antonio both by himself and by others, often choral figures who show the general public's view of Antonio. His eyes are "like plated Mars", he can "speak loudly like Mars", and his relationship with Cleopatra is compared to "What Venus did to Mars". He is repeatedly compared to the Roman god of war, but the only mention of Caesar as mythological is intended as a joke, mocking Lepidus' eagerness to flatter Caesar when Ahenobarbus says “Caesar? Well, he is the Jupiter of men. To which Agrippa replies “What is Antony? The god of Jupiter." Even from this light-hearted joke at the expense of Lepidus the chorus figures of Agrippa and Ahenobarbus showa clear sense of a perceived hierarchy in which Antony is above Caesar. The reason why Agrippa and Ahenobarbus find it funny to say this is clearly because in their eyes and therefore in the eyes of the masses Caesar does not deserve such mythologizing or respect. Ahenobarbus shows this again in his dialogue with Lepidus upon the arrival of Antony and Caesar where Lepidus says "Behold comes the noble Antony." and Ahenobarbus then says “And over there, Caesar.” Antony is given an epithet, as often happens in the opera, but Caesar is not. While Antony is flattered (perhaps undeservedly) throughout the play, Caesar is mocked. In his first mention in the play he is referred to as the "sparse-bearded Caesar", mocking him for his youth and therefore his perceived inability to be emperor, this contrasts with the moment in the play where Ahenobarbus fantasizes about what it would be like to be the “bearer of Anthony's beard”. Antony is further tied to masculinity while Caesar is considered a childish figure, not deserving of respect or the position he holds. When Cesare bellows “He calls me a boy and scolds me because he had the power,” he is behaving just like the thing Antonio constantly compares him to, a child, and this outburst represents an abandonment of his Machiavellian principles. Caesar's victory cannot be truly complete if he never gains the respect his defeated rival commanded him and one could even say that simply angering Caesar with insults is a small victory for Antony. Antony's final victory against Caesar is probably his death. . While this seems contradictory, it is important to note that he died on his own terms, he is "a Roman valiantly defeated by a Roman". Antonio, thus formulated, relives his glorious days as a warrior; at the same time he died honorably in battle and prevented Caesar from taking his own life in battle. His name has become synonymous with the idea of ​​a Roman hero, as stated by Philo “when he is not Antony / he is too devoid of that great property / which should nevertheless belong to Antony”. To possess the quality of being like Antonio is to be an almost divine legend. The only thing greater than “an Antonio” would be the winner of “an Antonio,” and in his final moments he managed to be both. By removing Caesar from the picture the audience perceives him as irrelevant, both in Antony's death and in general. It is Antony who triumphs in this moment, while Caesar has eliminated his other potential opponent, lying about the reasoning and instead saying it was because “Lepidus had become too cruel”; he failed to defeat Antony since it was Antony who took that victory away from him. As Cleopatra said, “none but Antony / should conquer Antony.” His death is also a triumph as he dies in the arms of his lover, Cleopatra. Caesar's only goal in this play was to get Antony back in Rome away from her and so it must be a crushing defeat when Antony not only dies away from Rome, in Egypt but also in the arms of the woman against whom Caesar was helpless in the fight for Antonio. Caesar is shown to have been unable to destroy the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra and since this has been his goal since the beginning of the play, it is obviously a huge failure on Caesar's part. His original intentions were to win back Antony's help since he had to bear "a burden so great in his lightness", but instead Caesar has lost both Antony and Lepidus and is ultimately left alone to manage an empire that will be much more difficult to control without support from those who were once his friends. This not only raises the question of whether Caesar's victory is "complete" but also whether it can be seen as a victory.Although Antony did not win over Caesar as such, this does not necessarily mean that Caesar won over Antony, it seems that this play instead ends with a situation where there are no winners. He himself, in the last words of the work, recognizes that it is a "great solemnity", after all, can it really be considered a victory for Caesar when the repercussions will directly disadvantage him? It is impossible to deny that Caesar has placed him in a position in which he has no rivals, he has won the battle at the climax of the play and thus secured his position as ruler of the greatest empire in the world. There's no way this couldn't be seen as a win in itself, regardless of any other factor. Caesar demonstrates that he has a clear understanding of military tactics as he challenges Antony to fight him at sea, which both he and Antony know is his weakness. Caesar predicts that Antony's pride will prevail over all reason and he is right when Antony proclaims "I will fight at sea." Antony's pride and obstinacy are the cause of his fall, he is begged by a soldier "O noble emperor, do not fight at sea" but not even this flattery can convince him and "The largest shovel in the world is lost / with much ignorance". Public opinion of Antony is clearly misled as he is not the "Mars-like" military hero he once was, but a deluded and stubborn old man who has "kissed away / Kingdoms and provinces". It is said that he "kissed" them away because his ignorance and blind pride are the result of his infatuation with Cleopatra, which is one of Antony's crucial weaknesses in the play if you want to see it through Caesar's eyes. The irony is that if we are to base our conclusion on the results of this battle then it is Caesar who most deserves the comparison to Mars, Antony is no longer the man he once was and is beaten with relative ease by someone he has previously compared Antony to a child he is a bathroom character who was once a legendary military hero but has recently become an "old pimp" and a "fool whore", there is no bato in the character of Caesar however, while he never has and perhaps never will he ever have the respect that Antonio once had in his prime, at least there has been no fall from grace on his part. We can see this from the use of epithets throughout the play, while Caesar is rarely given any at any point in the play, it is evident that towards the end of the play the amount of epithets used when referring to Antony decreases drastically, this represents the audience's awareness that he is no longer "an Antonio". This can be shown, for example, in the lines of one of Antony's soldiers who is not named. He refers to Antony as his "noble emperor" which is not even true (he is not an emperor) and this shows how he respects him and gives in to flattery, however the same Soldier later removes every epithet and therefore every sign of respect and he simply calls him "Antony". He has lost respect not only because he fails to live up to his reputation, but because he has betrayed everything he once stood for. Antony was the epitome of what a Roman man should be, yet he abandoned his home and his people and in the opening lines of the play he expresses his indifference towards Rome by saying “Let the broad bow / of the extended empire fall! " He becomes aggressive and violent, this is demonstrated by Thidias' whipping, he demands that the whipping not stop until "like a boy we see him shiver his face and moan out loud for mercy." The phrase "Do not shoot the messenger" comes to mind since Thidias is just a simple servant and messenger of Caesar, but Antony uses him as a scapegoat and violently vents all his.