aa100 assignment 1. octavian versus plutarch on anthony
Assignment 01
Compare and contrast the ways in which the passage below attempts top discredit Anthony with the ways this is done in the speech attributed to Octavian die ( in reading 1.1 of book 1. Chapter 1.)
It is very obvious when reading both passages that whilst Plutarch and Octavian had similar but also differing opinions about Mark Anthony and his relationship with Cleopatra, they are both guilty of putting their own negative spin on the situation. They both use different approaches to the subject but the end result is the same. Anthony is portrayed as a man who has lost his way and in doing so, has sunk to the lowest levels of society .The one thing they both agree on, is that Cleopatra had a very negative effect on Anthony and is responsible for his decline. To answer the above question we need to explore the relationship between Anthony and Cleopatra in more detail, to understand why Octavian and Plutarch had formed such negative opinions in the first place.
Who was Cleopatra? She was the last of the Egyptian pharaohs and. was also the last of the Hellenistic queens of Egypt. Due to a lack of Egyptian documents or historical items, all our knowledge about her comes from roman history which is why we get such a negative slant on her character. In roman society at this time, woman had no role in public or political life .they found the idea of a queen abhorrent and had little respect for her citizens because of this. Rome also had little respect for a country ruled by a monarchy as it once was a monarchy itself but after a bitter civil struggle it collapsed .it is thought that this was one of the main reasons for Caesars assassination. Feelings ran strong that Caesar was beginning to see himself as a king and it wasn’t tolerated by his citizens. As a result of this hatred very strong negative imagery was written about Cleopatra .she was believed to be a temptress. A woman who luxuriated in physical pleasure. Her citizens were called a rabble
Compare and contrast the ways in which the passage below attempts top discredit Anthony with the ways this is done in the speech attributed to Octavian die ( in reading 1.1 of book 1. Chapter 1.)
It is very obvious when reading both passages that whilst Plutarch and Octavian had similar but also differing opinions about Mark Anthony and his relationship with Cleopatra, they are both guilty of putting their own negative spin on the situation. They both use different approaches to the subject but the end result is the same. Anthony is portrayed as a man who has lost his way and in doing so, has sunk to the lowest levels of society .The one thing they both agree on, is that Cleopatra had a very negative effect on Anthony and is responsible for his decline. To answer the above question we need to explore the relationship between Anthony and Cleopatra in more detail, to understand why Octavian and Plutarch had formed such negative opinions in the first place.
Who was Cleopatra? She was the last of the Egyptian pharaohs and. was also the last of the Hellenistic queens of Egypt. Due to a lack of Egyptian documents or historical items, all our knowledge about her comes from roman history which is why we get such a negative slant on her character. In roman society at this time, woman had no role in public or political life .they found the idea of a queen abhorrent and had little respect for her citizens because of this. Rome also had little respect for a country ruled by a monarchy as it once was a monarchy itself but after a bitter civil struggle it collapsed .it is thought that this was one of the main reasons for Caesars assassination. Feelings ran strong that Caesar was beginning to see himself as a king and it wasn’t tolerated by his citizens. As a result of this hatred very strong negative imagery was written about Cleopatra .she was believed to be a temptress. A woman who luxuriated in physical pleasure. Her citizens were called a rabble