Act 3, Scene 6

Rome. A Room in CAESAR'S House.

[Enter CAESAR, AGRIPPA, and MAECENAS.]
Octavius Caesar
1689 Contemning Rome, he has done all this, and more,
1690 In Alexandria. Here's the manner of't:—
1691 I' the market-place, on a tribunal silver'd,
1692 Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold
1693 Were publicly enthron'd: at the feet sat
1694 Caesarion, whom they call my father's son,
1695 And all the unlawful issue that their lust
1696 Since then hath made between them. Unto her
1697 He gave the 'stablishment of Egypt; made her
1698 Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia,
1699 Absolute queen.
Maecenas
1700 This in the public eye?
Octavius Caesar
1701 I' the common show-place, where they exercise.
1702 His sons he there proclaim'd the kings of kings:
1703 Great Media, Parthia, and Armenia,
1704 He gave to Alexander; to Ptolemy he assign'd
1705 Syria, Cilicia, and Phoenicia: she
1706 In the habiliments of the goddess Isis
1707 That day appear'd; and oft before gave audience,
1708 As 'tis reported, so.
Maecenas
1709 Let Rome be thus
1710 Inform'd.
Agrippa
1711 Who, queasy with his insolence
1712 Already, will their good thoughts call from him.
Octavius Caesar
1713 The people knows it: and have now receiv'd
1714 His accusations.
Agrippa
1715 Who does he accuse?
Octavius Caesar
1716 Caesar: and that, having in Sicily
1717 Sextus Pompeius spoil'd, we had not rated him
1718 His part o' the isle: then does he say he lent me
1719 Some shipping, unrestor'd: lastly, he frets
1720 That Lepidus of the triumvirate
1721 Should be depos'd; and, being, that we detain
1722 All his revenue.
Agrippa
1723 Sir, this should be answer'd.
Octavius Caesar
1724 'Tis done already, and messenger gone.
1725 I have told him Lepidus was grown too cruel;
1726 That he his high authority abus'd,
1727 And did deserve his change: for what I have conquer'd
1728 I grant him part; but then, in his Armenia
1729 And other of his conquer'd kingdoms, I
1730 Demand the like.
Maecenas
1731 He'll never yield to that.
Octavius Caesar
1732 Nor must not then be yielded to in this.
[Enter OCTAVIA, with her train.]
Octavia
1733 Hail, Caesar, and my lord! hail, most dear Caesar!
Octavius Caesar
1734 That ever I should call thee castaway!
Octavia
1735 You have not call'd me so, nor have you cause.
Octavius Caesar
1736 Why have you stol'n upon us thus? You come not
1737 Like Caesar's sister: the wife of Antony
1738 Should have an army for an usher, and
1739 The neighs of horse to tell of her approach
1740 Long ere she did appear; the trees by the way
1741 Should have borne men; and expectation fainted,
1742 Longing for what it had not; nay, the dust
1743 Should have ascended to the roof of heaven,
1744 Rais'd by your populous troops: but you are come
1745 A market-maid to Rome; and have prevented
1746 The ostentation of our love, which left unshown
1747 Is often left unlov'd; we should have met you
1748 By sea and land; supplying every stage
1749 With an augmented greeting.
Octavia
1750 Good my lord,
1751 To come thus was I not constrain'd, but did it
1752 On my free will. My lord, Mark Antony,
1753 Hearing that you prepar'd for war, acquainted
1754 My grieved ear withal: whereon I begg'd
1755 His pardon for return.
Octavius Caesar
1756 Which soon he granted,
1757 Being an obstruct 'tween his lust and him.
Octavia
1758 Do not say so, my lord.
Octavius Caesar
1759 I have eyes upon him,
1760 And his affairs come to me on the wind.
1761 Where is he now?
Octavia
1762 My lord, in Athens.
Octavius Caesar
1763 No, my most wronged sister; Cleopatra
1764 Hath nodded him to her. He hath given his empire
1765 Up to a whore; who now are levying
1766 The kings o' theearth for war: he hath assembled
1767 Bocchus, the king of Libya; Archelaus
1768 Of Cappadocia; Philadelphos, king
1769 Of Paphlagonia; the Thracian king, Adallas;
1770 King Manchus of Arabia; King of Pont;
1771 Herod of Jewry; Mithridates, king
1772 Of Comagene; Polemon and Amyntas,
1773 The kings of Mede and Lycaonia, with
1774 More larger list of sceptres.
Octavia
1775 Ay me, most wretched,
1776 That have my heart parted betwixt two friends,
1777 That do afflict each other!
Octavius Caesar
1778 Welcome hither:
1779 Your letters did withhold our breaking forth,
1780 Till we perceiv'd both how you were wrong led
1781 And we in negligent danger. Cheer your heart:
1782 Be you not troubled with the time, which drives
1783 O'er your content these strong necessities;
1784 But let determin'd things to destiny
1785 Hold unbewail'd their way. Welcome to Rome;
1786 Nothing more dear to me. You are abus'd
1787 Beyond the mark of thought: and the high gods,
1788 To do you justice, make their ministers
1789 Of us and those that love you. Best of comfort;
1790 And ever welcome to us.
Agrippa
1791 Welcome, lady.
Maecenas
1792 Welcome, dear madam.
1793 Each heart in Rome does love and pity you:
1794 Only theadulterous Antony, most large
1795 In his abominations, turns you off,
1796 And gives his potent regiment to a trull
1797 That noises it against us.
Octavia
1798 Is it so, sir?
Octavius Caesar
1799 Most certain. Sister, welcome: pray you
1800 Be ever known to patience: my dear'st sister!
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1689archaic vocab
“Contemning Rome, he has done all this”
'Contemning' means showing open contempt for or scorning. Octavius Caesar opens by declaring that Antony has publicly defied Rome's authority and expectations through his conduct in Alexandria.
TLN 1691historical topical
“I' the market-place, on a tribunal silver'd, / Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold / Were publicly enthron'd”
Antony and Cleopatra staged a massive public ceremony in Alexandria in which they sat on golden thrones on a silver platform — the 'donations of Alexandria' — and publicly parcelled out the eastern Roman world to their children. Octavius recounts this as scandalous evidence of Antony's contempt for Roman governance: a Roman commander had no right to give away conquered territory without the Senate's consent.
historical The Second Triumviratehistorical The Ptolemies and Egypt
TLN 1694historical topical
“Caesarion, whom they call my father's son”
Caesarion ('little Caesar') was Cleopatra's son by Julius Caesar — making him, if the claim held, the blood heir of Julius Caesar and therefore a direct rival to Octavius, who was Caesar's adopted heir only. Octavius resented the claim bitterly: he based his entire power on being Caesar's heir, and a living biological son would undercut that.
historical The Second Triumvirate
TLN 1702historical topical
“His sons he there proclaim'd the kings of kings”
'Kings of kings' was a Near-Eastern royal title — used by the Persian Great Kings and later by rulers of Parthia and Armenia — asserting supremacy over all other monarchs. By giving the title to his own sons and distributing Media, Parthia, Armenia, Syria, Cilicia, and Phoenicia among them, Antony was not just rewarding family but publicly reorganizing the Roman East as a client empire of his own, entirely outside Roman constitutional law.
historical The Second Triumvirate
TLN 1706classical allusion
“In the habiliments of the goddess Isis / That day appear'd”
'Habiliments' means clothing, dress, or regalia. Cleopatra appeared at the ceremony robed as Isis, the great Egyptian mother-goddess — an act of political theatre claiming divine queenship. Plutarch records this explicitly: the Ptolemaic queens regularly identified themselves with Isis, and for Roman observers like Octavius it confirmed that Antony had surrendered to a foreign deity.
classical Cleopatra as the goddess Isishistorical The Ptolemies and Egypt
TLN 1716historical topical
“having in Sicily / Sextus Pompeius spoil'd, we had not rated him / His part o' the isle”
This is Antony's accusation: after Octavius defeated Sextus Pompeius (the young Pompey, son of Pompey the Great) and took Sicily, he did not give Antony his agreed share of the island. Sextus Pompeius was not Pompey the Great — he was the young naval commander whose fleet had threatened Rome until Octavius's admiral Agrippa crushed him at Naulochus in 36 BCE.
TLN 1720historical topical
“Lepidus of the triumvirate / Should be depos'd; and, being, that we detain / All his revenue”
Antony's third accusation: that Octavius deposed Lepidus — the third member of the ruling triumvirate — and then kept all his estates and income rather than sharing them. Lepidus was the weakest of the three world-rulers; Octavius stripped him of his military command after the Sicily campaign (36 BCE), imprisoned him, and seized his wealth. Antony protests that Lepidus's deposition was illegal and that the revenue should have been divided.
historical The Second Triumvirate
TLN 1733rhetorical device
“Hail, Caesar, and my lord! hail, most dear Caesar!”
Octavia's double greeting — saluting her brother Octavius Caesar both as 'Caesar' (his political title and name) and as 'my lord' (her family superior) — captures her impossible position: she is simultaneously Caesar's sister and Antony's wife, two loyalties that are now at war with each other. The formal 'Hail' echoes Roman salutation and immediately sets a public, ceremonious tone that contrasts sharply with her private grief.
TLN 1745historical topical
“A market-maid to Rome; and have prevented / The ostentation of our love”
Octavius rebukes Octavia for arriving in Rome like a market-girl — quietly, privately, unannounced — instead of with the full military escort and public ceremony a triumvir's wife deserved. 'Prevented' means forestalled or anticipated, not blocked. 'Ostentation' is not boasting but the proper outward display of honour — the official show of welcome and love that Octavius wanted to stage but could not because Octavia gave no warning of her arrival.
TLN 1763rhetorical device
“Cleopatra / Hath nodded him to her. He hath given his empire / Up to a whore”
'Nodded him to her' means beckoned him with a nod — Cleopatra has merely gestured and Antony has abandoned Rome to follow. The image reduces the world's greatest general to a dog called by its owner with a nod of the head. Octavius immediately follows this with 'He hath given his empire / Up to a whore' — deliberately inflammatory language designed to provoke Octavia's sympathy and present the coming war as a personal injury to family honour.
TLN 1767historical topical
“Bocchus, the king of Libya; Archelaus / Of Cappadocia; Philadelphos, king / Of Paphlagonia; the Thracian king, Adallas”
Octavius lists the client kings from across the eastern Mediterranean whom Antony has assembled as his allies — Libya, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Thrace, Arabia, Pontus, Judaea (Herod of Jewry), Comagene, Media, and Lycaonia. The list demonstrates the enormous scale of the coalition Antony and Cleopatra have built, while also showing (from Octavius's perspective) that Antony has allied Rome's eastern dependencies with a foreign queen against Rome itself.
historical The Battle of Actium
TLN 1784syntax grammar
“let determin'd things to destiny / Hold unbewail'd their way”
'Determined things' are events that have already been decided or set in motion — what destiny has fixed. 'Hold unbewail'd their way' means let them proceed without being mourned or lamented. Octavius is telling Octavia: do not grieve over what is already in motion, let fate run its course without weeping.
TLN 1796archaic vocab
“gives his potent regiment to a trull / That noises it against us”
'Regiment' here means authority, rule, or power — not a military unit. Maecenas says Antony has handed his great power to a 'trull' (a prostitute or low woman), who is now using it to make war against Rome. The word 'noises' means to spread news loudly, to declare publicly.