Julius Caesar is dead: his right-hand man, Antony, and his legal heir, Octavius, have divided the Roman Empire between them in an uneasy peace. But Antony has become deeply enraptured by the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. And she's as ambitious and wily and seductive a politician as any Roman. Shakespeare's tragedy, almost his last play of this kind, is replete with romance and politics. As Antony's affair with Cleopatra strains and cracks, so his grip on empire weakens, leaving his rival Octavius space to claim it all. In language of dazzling poetry and glamour and compression, Shakespeare shows us the two legendary lovers over the hill and running out of time........