was Octavian, the adopted son of Caesar, a man who, though still
quite young and possessed of great ability, was cunning, cold-
blooded, and deceitful. The other was Antony, a soldier by
training, and with all a soldier's bluntness, courage, and
lawlessness.

The Roman world was divided for the time between these two men,
Antony receiving the government of the East, Octavian that of the
West. In the year which had preceded this division Cleopatra had
wavered between the two opposite factions at Rome. In so doing she
had excited the suspicion of Antony, and he now demanded of her an
explanation.

One must have some conception of Antony himself in order to
understand the events that followed. He was essentially a soldier,
of excellent family, being related to Caesar himself. As a very
young man he was exceedingly handsome, and bad companions led him
into the pursuit of vicious pleasure. He had scarcely come of age
when he found that he owed the enormous sum of two hundred and
fifty talents, equivalent to half a million dollars in the money
of to-day. But he was much more than a mere man of pleasure, given
over to drinking and to dissipation. Men might tell of his
escapades, as when he drove about the streets of Rome in a common
cab, dangling his legs out of the window while he shouted forth
drunken songs of revelry. This was not the whole of Antony.
Joining the Roman army in Syria, he showed himself to be a soldier
of great personal bravery, a clever strategist, and also humane
and merciful in the hour of victory.

Unlike most Romans, Antony wore a full beard. His forehead was