The scenery and the setting change: now we are in Rome, into Caesar’s palace.  

Caesar is speaking: he is expressing his negative opinion about Antony. He is condemning Antony’s behaviour because it is not coherent with the one of a roman general (“he fishes, drinks and wastes the lamps of night in revel”). He is follow his instincts and this cannot be accepted by Caesar, because one of the qualities of a roman man is the restraint. Indeed, Caesar criticizes Antony’s female features (“he’s not more manlike than Cleopatra”) that are considered weakness according to the roman culture. Not only, but also he does not consider people who come from Rome who want to tell. This go against the roman value of hospitality, according to which the guest is considered sacred.

Lepidus at first does not believe to his words. Lepidus identifies the origin of his behaviour with his nature (“hereditary”). The scene is so important because it focuses on the nature of Antony.

It sounds like he is partly a man and partly a woman. Maybe, it is what Shakespeare is trying to convey: in each one, the male and the female converge to create the be. The intelligent reader connects this aspect of the human nature with the sonnet XX, in which Shakespeare connotes the Fair youth like the “master mistress”. The fair youth, Anthony, Shakespeare, all the people are in this sense hermaphrodite.

The roman culture does not accept Antony to show his feminine side, because the important value for Caesar (the flagship of the Roman) are the war. He reproaches Antony because it does not come home yet after many recalls, because Cleopatra subjects him and he cannot get rid. A roman has his rights and duties, but Antony is not respecting the obligation to defend the homeland.

Caesar create a negative image of Antony that is considered like the opposite of what he was before he fell in love with Cleopatra. Here there is an opposition between two cultures: the Roman one, pragmatic, hospitable and male, and the Egyptian one, which value is the otium.