Enter Agrippa, Maecenas, and Caesar

CAESAR          Contemning Rome, he has done all this and more

In Alexandria. Here’s the manner of’t:

I’th’ market place on a tribunal silvered,

Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold

Were publicly enthroned. At the feet sat

Caesarion, whom they call my father’s son,

And all the unlawful issue that their lust

Since then hath made between them. Unto her

He gave the ’stablishment of Egypt; made her

Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia,

Absolute queen.                    (3.6.1-11)

Caesar is Not Happy; in fact, Caesar is Outraged, not merely a bit cross—he’s enraged—and also affronted, shocked to the core. He’s in the middle of telling Agrippa and Maecenas something—perhaps justifying his own course of action, or because he’s just received news from one of his agents, in a letter or in person—and it very quickly becomes apparent who he is. And where he, Antony is: he’s in Alexandria, back in Egypt with Cleopatra (is there a little pang of sympathy for Octavia?) where, contemning Rome, defying and disparaging it, outraging all its mores and flouting its decencies and principles (he has basically raised two fingers to Rome and especially to Caesar) Antony has been playing up, and playing to the gallery. And here’s the manner of it, here’s what he’s been up to. In the market place, about as public as you could get (but also common and vulgar?) up on a tribunal, a dais covered with silver, he and Cleopatra in chairs of gold were publicly enthroned. Caesar is first outraged by the ostentation: silver! gold! Profligate, flashy, brash. And especially he’s outraged that this took place so publicly; this wasn’t a private game, this was a calculated performance of power, a coronation. (Ahem.) But there’s more. At the feet, lounging there, sat Caesarion, whom they call my father’s son. (Caesarion was Cleopatra’s son with Julius Caesar, Octavius Caesar’s adoptive father—and so he’s evidence of Julius Caesar’s dalliance with Cleopatra, a possible rival to Octavius, and also, perhaps, a sign of Antony’s own moral laxity, that he’s happy to accept Cleopatra’s sexual past, including her relationship with a man whom he knew well and who was his patron.) And other children too, all the unlawful issue that their lust since then hath made between them. (Historically, there might have been three.) All this evidence of a relationship which has endured for so many years! Even more, all this evidence of sex! Caesar cannot cope, not least because of the insult to his own beloved sister, Octavia. But he also can’t cope with the thought that Antony and Cleopatra love each other, are committed to each other; it has to be lust.

But there’s more; there was evidently a purpose to this gilded, multi-generational performance in Alexandria. Antony—whom Caesar hasn’t named yet, just as previously he’s shied away from naming Cleopatra—is giving territories to Cleopatra, territories which should rightfully be counted part of the Roman empire, which Antony has no authority to distribute. That’s what he’s doing, though: he confirms that she is the ruler of Egypt and then gives her the territories of lower Syria, Cyprus, and Lydia, as their absolute queen, outright, autonomous and all-powerful sovereign. (The lineation does briefly make it look as if Caesar is referring to Antony as an absolute queen. Sadly, no. But he’s Definitely Not Happy.)