After Caesar’s death three men divided Rome between them. One of them is Antony, who spoke in the forum. He is not in Rome now.
He is in Alexandria in Egypt. He spends his days beside a queen called Cleopatra. The play’s opening lines are an officer’s complaint about it.
The general’s eyes used to run over the lines of an army, he says. Now those eyes look somewhere else. Just then a message arrives from Rome.