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Antony and Cleopatra

Chapter 2: Dramatis Personæ
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About This Book

The play follows the turbulent partnership between a Roman triumvir and an Egyptian queen as political ambition, personal passion, and shifting alliances pull them between imperial duty and intimate excess. Scenes move between councils, military camps, and royal courts, portraying intrigues among rival leaders, betrayals, and waning authority. As military fortunes reverse, private loyalty collides with public necessity, prompting desperate decisions that culminate in tragic deaths. The work explores the interplay of love and power, contrasts disciplined statecraft with lavish court life, and traces how pride, honor, and political calculation shape public fate and private ruin.

Dramatis Personæ

MARK ANTONY, Triumvir
OCTAVIUS CAESAR, Triumvir
LEPIDUS, Triumvir
SEXTUS POMPEIUS,
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, friend to Antony
VENTIDIUS, friend to Antony
EROS, friend to Antony
SCARUS, friend to Antony
DERCETUS, friend to Antony
DEMETRIUS, friend to Antony
PHILO, friend to Antony
MAECENAS, friend to Caesar
AGRIPPA, friend to Caesar
DOLABELLA, friend to Caesar
PROCULEIUS, friend to Caesar
THIDIAS, friend to Caesar
GALLUS, friend to Caesar
MENAS, friend to Pompey
MENECRATES, friend to Pompey
VARRIUS, friend to Pompey
TAURUS, Lieutenant-General to Caesar
CANIDIUS, Lieutenant-General to Antony
SILIUS, an Officer in Ventidius’s army
EUPHRONIUS, an Ambassador from Antony to Caesar
ALEXAS, attendant on Cleopatra
MARDIAN, attendant on Cleopatra
SELEUCUS, attendant on Cleopatra
DIOMEDES, attendant on Cleopatra
A SOOTHSAYER
A CLOWN

CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt
OCTAVIA, sister to Caesar and wife to Antony
CHARMIAN, Attendant on Cleopatra
IRAS, Attendant on Cleopatra

Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants

SCENE: Dispersed, in several parts of the Roman Empire.