Antony had never troubled himself much in regard to his dignity; and now, in the character of the jolly ruler of the East, he was quite unmindful of his appearance in the eyes of serious men. Often he was to be seen walking on foot by the side of Cleopatra’s chariot, talking to the eunuchs and servants who followed in her train. He caused the Queen to give him the post of Superintendent of the Games,--a position which was not considered to be particularly honourable. It is apparent that her company had become very essential to him, and much notice was taken of the fact that he now accompanied her wherever she went. He rode through the streets at her side, conducted the official and religious ceremonies for her, or sat by her when she was trying cases in the public tribunal. Sometimes when he himself was alone upon the judicial bench, looking out of the window in the midst of some intricate judgment and by chance seeing Cleopatra’s chariot passing by across the square, he would without explanation start up from his seat, run over to her, and walk back to the Palace at her side, leaving the magistrate, police, and prisoners in open-mouthed astonishment.
We hear nothing in regard to Antony’s relations with his children, and it is difficult to picture him as he appeared in the family circle. His stepson Cæsarion, his two sons Alexander and Ptolemy, and his daughter Cleopatra, were all at this time residing in the Palace; and moreover his son by Fulvia, Antyllus, a boy somewhat younger than Cæsarion, had now come to live with him in Alexandria. It is probable that he was an affectionate and indulgent father; and there must have been many happy scenes enacted in the royal nurseries, which, could they have been recorded, would have gone far to correct the popular estimate of the nature of Antony’s home-life with Cleopatra. The Queen was his legal wife;[107] and in contemplating the extravagances and eccentricities of his behaviour at Alexandria, we must not lose sight of the obvious fact that his life at this period had also its domestic aspect. He did not admit to himself that his union with Cleopatra was in any way scandalous; and writing to Octavian in the following year he seems to be quite surprised that his family life should be regarded as infamous. “Is it because I live in intimate relations with a Queen?” he asks. “_She is my wife._ Is this a new thing with me? Have I not acted so for these nine years?” Indeed, as compared with Octavian’s private life, the family circle at Alexandria, in spite of Antony’s buffoonery and heavy drinking, was by no means wholly shameful. In Rome Octavian was at this time employing his friends to search the town for women to amuse him, and these agents, acting on his orders, are related to have kidnapped respectable girls, and to have torn their clothes from them, as did the common slave-dealers, in order to ascertain whether they were fit presents for their vile master. We hear no such stories in regard to the jovial Antony.