Miss

Carefully read the following extract several times. What does the passage tell us about Plutarch’s view of the effect of Cleopatra on Antony, and how does this viewpoint relate to the wider Roman perspective on Cleopatra and Egypt' The Roman view of Cleopatra was a dim one to say the least. The political leaders of Rome were constantly battling to protect themselves and their reputations and at the same time eradicate that of rivals. It seems that the Roman leaders knew Cleopatra was a strong, powerful, intellectual politician, and being a woman, at this time made her one of the biggest rivals of all. Plutarch, a Roman who wrote about ‘The life of Antony’ over 100 years after the deaths of Cleopatra and her lover, had a similar opinion to the rest of Rome on how she affected him. It appears that Plutarch thought Antony’s love for Cleopatra was his downfall and that she ‘corrupted’ him (Scott-Kilvert, 1965, p. 9). Cleopatra is conveyed by Rome as bewitching and the love which Antony has for her is seen as madness, and it could be argued that it was due to her that he lost all of his Roman morals and ‘abandoned his ancestral way of life’ and instead indulged ‘in a life of royal luxury’ and was unable to ‘conceive a manly thought or do a manly deed’ (Scott-Kilvert, 1987, p. 27). Plutarch believed that Antony ‘allowed the queen to carry him off to Alexandria’ where he was ‘content to squander’ his ‘precious’ time on ‘idle pleasures’. This implies that Antony was weak under the influence of Cleopatra. He had given up all responsibilities to live a life of extravagance and was socialising within a group of friends they called the ‘Inimitable Livers’ another sign to show that Antony was now more concerned with indulging ‘himself in the amusements and diversions of a young man’ (Plutarch, in AA100 Assignment Book, 2009, p.17). That Plutarch believed Antony ‘allowed’ Cleopatra to take him to Egypt also portrays the queen as manipulative. This is also shown in Plutarch’s account of their first meeting. Rather than responding to Antony’s summons straight away Cleopatra waited. When she did finally arrive ‘it was as if in mockery of his orders’ (Scott-Kilvert, 1965, p. 10). She arrived in a beautiful fashion, dressed as Venus, Roman goddess of love and beauty. It appears she intended to seduce Antony from the start. She also uses this opportunity to show how extravagant she is. Her over the top lifestyle later rubs off on Antony when ‘they gave banquets...of an almost incredible extravagance (Plutarch, in AA100 Assignment Book, 2009, p.17). Rome didn’t have a positive opinion of Cleopatra, and therefore nor did they of Antony after he left Rome. The Roman world did not value romantic love so Antony was seen as ‘blind to reason or mad’ (Scott-Kilvert, 1987, p. 27) for his infatuation with Cleopatra. This love for her just further backed up the Roman opinion that he had become weak and self-indulgent. Plutarch was writing over 100 years after the actual events happened, his opinion was bias towards the Roman view of Cleopatra as his only resources would have been from Rome. Had he been an Egyptian writing in this time his story may have been different.