this one's for all my mean girls

“mark antony in antony and cleopatra is nonbinary” is not really an ideologically coherent way of describing the section of my thesis on antony but it IS really funny to say out loud

Oh please please please give us more!!! You can’t leave us hanging with that!!! I didn’t know there was anything to be said about Antony’s gender identity and gender expression!

OH BOY IS THERE. YOU HAVE ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD. first of all, the reblog to this post is helpful for what i was specifically talking about--rome and egypt are set up as masculine and feminine respectively, figured by octavian and cleopatra, and antony is constantly vacillating between the two, which, no, does not make someone nonbinary, but i'm being silly. but the reason i'm being silly in this particular way is because antony's gender is HUGE in a&c, which is on some levels a play about the way gender is performed, especially masculinity. there's an absolutely fantastic essay that i will never fucking shut up about that examines the idea of antony's "dissolving" masculinity and his increasing inability to perform Manhood, which of course gets blamed on cleopatra (and on a metatextual level is commentary about performance and theater and how all of that makes gender lines squiggly). the quote i really like and never stop thinking about from said essay is:

to quickly and probably poorly summarize Coppelia Kahn's essay on JC in Roman Shakespeare: Kahn says social life in Rome is driven by male-male rivalry/emulation, where you want to outdo the other guy so much that it becomes homoerotic. in this reading, portia and brutus and cassius are all terrified of being "penetrated" by weakness and thus showing themselves to be womanly. and i think there's SOMETHING there with antony as the guy who beats brutus pretty roundly in JC and thus proves himself effective/powerful = MANLY, and then some years later (in-story and on shakespeare's timeline) we get A&C, where antony is an absolute fucking failboat who gets compared to a eunuch and "bewitched" by a scary powerful hot woman (bucketloads of orientalism in the way this is portrayed obviously). i don't entirely know what it is! but there's something there! especially considering, well, y'know,

[image description: tags on this post left by @ganymede-time, reading: #antony and cleopatra #if ur such a man then why did you penis fail so hard at stabbing urself... with ur big dick sword... /end description]

remember how he stabs himself and DOESN'T DIE and then someone STEALS HIS SWORD it can't get worse than that

anyway, obviously it is not apt or even progressive/transpositive to call this "antony's nonbinary arc" but have you considered: i think it's funny

Cicero’s Afterlife in Fan Fiction

Yes. This happened. Professional classicists spent the better part of an hour discussing the ins and outs of Cicero slash.

Melanie Racette-Campbell lectured about the purpose and content of numerous Cicero fanfics at the Celtic Conference in Classics last week, and she definitely talked about a Cicero/Antony story that featured the erotic revisioning of a famed Ciceronian line: “his arms yielded to the toga.”

I have an odd job.

Happy deathday to Marcus Antonius! Hope he is having a good time in the afterlife with his 5 wives and 1 husband.

The Death of Mark Antony, August 1st, 30 BC

At sunrise, Antony led his men out to do battle with the enemy and standing on the high ground outside the city, he watched his fleet move out from the harbour to attack Octavian's ships and to disembark the forces which were to menace the enemy's rear. But as he watched, he saw the sailors of each fleet salute those of the other and come to rest side by side, evidently by a secret arrangement made between them.

While he was still staring in dismay at this spectacle, his cavalry suddenly galloped forward before his eyes and were received into Octavian's lines. The enemy then advanced upon him, whereat his remaining troops fled back into the city. He had no other option but to retreat or risk being taken alive. He followed the confused retreat, cursing them, as he went, for their refusal to obey his orders, and shouting at them his accusations of treachery.

It was clear that the collapse was the result of a prearrangement with the enemy, and Antony made his way back to the palace after an honourable death was denied to him in the battlefield, crying out that Cleopatra had betrayed him, and calling her every foul name he could lay his tongue to.

It’s said that, as he stormed into the building, she ran for her life to her unfinished mausoleum which stood on the far side of a courtyard, overlooking the sea. It was a stone structure of two storeys. Her two ladies, Iras and Charmion, and one eunuch, accompanied her; and dashing into the mausoleum, they closed and bolted the great doors and thereafter mounting the stairs to the upper floor, from the windows of which they could observe something of what was going on in the courtyard and palace. It seems probable that the Queen was not responsible for the desertions. The generally held belief is: she knew quite well that Antony would hardly be persuaded to think her innocent, and her flight was from his wrath. A better probability is that she was preparing to burn up the mausoleum along with herself and the great treasures which she had accumulated as Antony gave his life on the battlefield.

Looking out of the window, one of her ladies called hysterically down to some servant or soldier below, telling him to go to Antony and to say that the Queen was about to kill herself; but the man in his excitement misunderstood the message, for the news that she was dead was presently brought to Antony as with two or three faithful officers, he paced about, sword in hand, waiting distractedly for events to shape themselves. At this He cried out: "Well, then, why wait longer? Fate has taken away the only thing for which I could say I still wanted to live."; and with these words he rushed to his own room, tearing off his armour as he went, and calling to his personal servant, Eros, to come to him.

He was heard then to speak aloud to Cleopatra, whose spirit he thought to be hovering near to him. "I am not unhappy to have lost you for a moment, Cleopatra my beloved", he said, "for I shall soon be with you; but what so shames me is that a famous soldier should be found to have had slower courage than a woman."

He then turned to Eros and, handing him his sword, encouraged him to keep his promise of being his executioner when the time came; but the man snatched the weapon and stabbed himself to the heart with it, falling dead at Antony’s feet. '"Well done, Eros!" Antony exclaimed, looking down at him in admiration, and picking up the dripping sword. "You have shown your master how to do what you had not the heart to do yourself." Thereupon he plunged the blade into his own body, and fell back upon his bed, where he fainted away.

The wound was not immediately mortal, and he presently coming to his senses, entreated those who had gathered around him to put him out of his pain; but at this they all fled from the room, leaving him groaning and struggling. Some of them ran to the mausoleum and called up to Cleopatra that Antony had stabbed himself but was still alive and thereat flinging up her arms and tearing her hair she screamed to them to bring him to her. They hastened back therefore and told him that the Queen was not dead but that she was calling for him; whereupon he immediately struggled to his feet but falling back, gave orders to them to carry him to her, although every movement was agony to him.

In their arms they brought him in the great heat of this summer's morning to the door of the mausoleum, but this could not be opened, for the bolts had been shot too deep to be moved; and he was therefore laid upon the ground beneath the window of the upper room so that Cleopatra might speak to him. The mausoleum, however, as has been said, was still unfinished and as some ropes were hanging down from the roof where the builders had been working. Then he was to be placed upon a stretcher and hauled up to the window. A few minutes later the Queen and her three attendants were frantically tugging and pulling at these ropes while the dying man lying half-conscious upon the lurching and bumping stretcher scorched by the sun, tormented by the flies, and agonized by every jolt ascended inch by inch towards them.

As he came near to the window, he regained full consciousness, holding out his blood-stained hands towards his wife, tried to raise himself up. Somehow, at last, they managed to drag him through the window and to lay him upon a couch, all covered with blood and dripping with sweat, and writhing in death agony. Cleopatra then flung her arms about him in a frenzy of grief, calling him her beloved husband, her lord, her emperor and her God. She mercilessly beat her breasts and tore her hair, wiped off some of his blood and smeared her face with it. She was shaken by the convulsions of her weeping but Antony stopped her lamentations and asked for a cup of wine so that he could speak to her. It is said that in that last frightful re-union all their misfortunes, all their bitter misunderstandings, were forgotten: for these short minutes of life which remained to him only their deathless love remained, and he was at last in the knowledge that they two, in spite of their many quarrels, were indeed one flesh. She brought a cup of wine, for him to drink; and when he had drunk, he gasped out some words of advice to her, telling her not to trust Octavian, but that she should look to her own safety if she could do to without disgrace.

"You must not pity me in this last turn of Fate", he whispered, "You should rather be happy in the remembrance of our love, the many good things that were mine and in the recollection that of all men I was once the most famous and the most powerful, and now, at the end, have fallen not dishonourably, a Roman by a Roman valiantly vanquished." A moment later the great Marcus Antonius breathed his last.

Image: ‘Cleopatra Captured by Roman Soldiers after the Death of Mark Antony’ Bernard Duvivier (1789)

Sources: Plutarch's Life of Mark Antony

Paricia Southern, Mark Antony A Life

Eleanor Goltz Huzar, Mark Antony: A Biography

Arthur Weigall, The Life and Times of Marc Antony

Ranking Portrayals of Marcus Antonius

Alright I've watched enough rome media to finally start making these lists. Lets begin:

#1: James Purefoy in HBO Rome (2005)

Look at him in his beautiful Alexandria eyeliner. Is this series the most historically accurate portrayal of the late roman republic? Absolutely not, they had the audacity to cut out my good friend Fulvia (and Porcia and the Junias). However James Purefoy without a doubt put 100% of his pussy into this performance. Definitely the most personality out of everyone on this list. He's so funny, we need more fancams/edits of him. But also his decline during the final Egypt arc, so well acted and painful to watch.

#2: James Corrigan in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (2017)

Not the best screenshot, but you get the idea. I think people talk more about the Cassius performance in this one, but James Corrigan also killed it with Antony. His cry havoc scene was so beautifully performed. Friends, romans, countrymen almost had me switching sides. He also really imbued the right amount of swarmy jock energy into his portrayal, just slightly more restrained than James Purefoy.

#3: Richard Burton in Cleopatra (1963)

Love it when costume designers get the Mark Antony belongs in a miniskirt memo. Honestly, I did not really enjoy his performance until the very end with his post-Actium depression. His regret over not dying an honorable roman death was moving. He was just a little too boring for me in the first two thirds of the film. But the costuming is so fun to look at, though I know less than historically accurate. This was the most expensive movie ever made at the time, and you can definitely tell.

#4: Marlon Brando in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1953)

He's serving cunt your honor. Apologies to Mr. Brando and his sweet little lupercalia miniskirt, but someone had to be last. He actually really delivered with the friends, romans, countrymen speech, just not quite as well as James Corrigan. Interestingly, his casting was apparently controversial back in the day. They didn't think he had the range. He totally pulled it off though and looked pretty while doing it.

That wraps up my list. Would love to see other people's rankings and thoughts, especially with any media I'm missing out on.

happy pride month to marcus "sed cito curio interuenit, qui te a meretricio quaestu abduxit et, tamquam stolam dedisset, in matrimonio stabili et certo collocauit. nemo umquam puer emptus libidinis causa tam fuit in domini potestate quam tu in curionis. quotiens te pater eius domu sua eiecit, quotiens custodes posuit, ne limen intrares! cum tu tamen nocte socia, hortante libidine, cogente mercede, per tegulas demitterere" antonius

(cinaedus flag by @catominor)

some late republicans to get a design feel <3