Antony

Toward the Greeks, then, Antony conducted himself without rudeness or offence, at least in the beginning, nay, he indulged his fondness for amusement by listening to literary discussions and by witnessing games and religious rites. In his judicial decisions also he was reasonable, and delighted to be called a Philhellene, and still more to be addressed as Philathenian, and he gave the city very many gifts.

But when the Megarians wished to show him something fine to rival Athens, and thought that he ought to see their senate-house, he went up and took a view of it; and when they asked him what he thought of it, It is small, he said, but rotten. He also had measurements taken of the temple of Pythian Apollo, with the purpose of completing it; indeed, he promised as much to the senate.

But presently he left Lucius Censorinus in charge of Greece, and crossing over into Asia[*](In 41 B.C.) laid hands on the wealth that was there. Kings would come often to his doors, and wives of kings, vying with one another in their gifts and their beauty, would yield up their honour for his pleasure; and while at Rome Caesar was wearing himself out in civil strifes and wars, Antony himself was enjoying abundant peace and leisure, and was swept back by his passions into his wonted mode of life.

Lute-players like Anaxenor, flute-players like Xanthus, one Metrodorus, a dancer, and such other rabble of Asiatic performers, who surpassed in impudence and effrontery the pests from Italy, poured like a flood into his quarters and held sway there. It was past all endurance that everything was devoted to these extravagances.

For all Asia, like the famous city of Sophocles,[*](Thebes, in the Oedipus Rex, 4.)

1. was filled alike with incense offerings,
2. Alike with paeans, too, and voice of heavy groans.