Antony

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.