MAECENAS                Let Rome be thus informed.

AGRIPPA        Who, queasy with his insolence already,

Will their good thoughts call from him.

CAESAR                      The people know it,

And have now received his accusations.

AGRIPPA        Who does he accuse?

CAESAR                      Caesar, and that having in Sicily

Sextus Pompeius spoiled, we had not rated him

His part o’th’ isle. Then does he say he lent me

Some shipping, unrestored. Lastly, he frets

That Lepidus of the triumvirate

Should be deposed; and being, that we detain

All his revenue.                     (3.6.19-30)

The Roman people need to know about this, about Antony’s Alexandrian exhibitionism, is Maecenas’s response; let Rome be thus informed. Oh, he’s already losing his lustre in their eyes, Agrippa adds; they’re sick of his escapades and his attitude, queasy with his insolence already, and they’re on the point of turning against him. Hearing of this will their good thoughts call from him. (The fickleness of the Roman people, and their ability to be swayed—here, justifiedly, according to Agrippa and Maecenas—is a motif that runs through all the Roman plays.) Don’t worry, says Caesar, the people know it (I’ve made sure of that, is perhaps the implication) and have now received his accusations. Antony’s already been on at them with his own grievances and claims of ill-treatment. Who does he accuse? Caesar, says Caesar, surely getting a laugh, even without a shrug or a wry smile. Of course I’m the villain in all of this. Antony’s biggest beef is that when Pompey was defeated in Sicily, and his goods plundered, we had not rated him his part o’th’ isle. He thinks that he was hard done by when it came to dividing up the spoils and Pompey’s territory! And he says that he lent me some ships, which I haven’t returned! And, as the final straw, he’s being contrary about Lepidus, fretting that he’s been deposed as a triumvir, and also—since that’s happened and nothing can change that—that we’re hanging on to Lepidus’s money. (The suggestion could be that Antony wants his fair share of that too.)

All of Antony’s grievances in fact sound pretty legitimate—but Caesar makes him sound petulant and ungracious, as well as a bit petty.