It's a time of sorrow. Caesar has been stabbed and killed.
A civil war has ensued. The leaders of the conspirators are dead. It is time for a new leader of the newly formed Roman Republic to be elected. Marc Antony is the most popular candidate running for President and is supported by many and I am of the foremost of his supporters. Rome needs a leader that is loyal, clever, and a great orator! Mark Antony fits the bill.
He is by far the most highly skilled orator in all of Rome. His words and voice are what caused the second civil war, where the conspirators were defeated.In his funeral speech, at which Brutus did not attend, he swayed the Roman crowd, inciting them into such a frenzy that they completely forgot about the will he was going to read in their mad and hurried attempt to find and kill the conspirators who killed their beloved Caesar. In his speech, Antony repeatedly uses the word honorable to sarcastically refer to the conspirators and uses the word ambitious to describe how they wronged Caesar and killed him using the excuse that he was ambitious.
Antony then takes Brutus’ reasons for killing Caesar and easily flips them around with a few well said words and uses them against the conspirators. Although he is proven to be a well spoken man, some say he was cold hearted for wanting to kill the conspirators but that was because he was loyal to Caesar which he will show to Rome as well. A loyal man but a weak political leader is ten times the worth of a non-loyal, strong political leader because a non-loyal political leader will tend to be politically corrupt as were the conspirators’ thoughts of Caesar.Mark Antony shows his share of strong loyalty when it is obvious that he could have chosen to aid the conspirators in their attempt at killing Caesar and he could have benefited more from it.
He could have just joined the conspirators after they killed Caesar, but instead chose to get revenge, an act that would have gotten him killed, because of his extreme loyalty toward Caesar and he expected to get nothing from it except self satisfaction.The characteristic that I consider the most prominent and helpful for a leader to have and that Antony posseses is cleverness. Mark Antony proves how clever he is when he pretends to befriend the conspirators so as to have them lower their guard so that they can allow him to speak to the crowd at Caesar’s funeral. Also he tells the crowd that he shouldn't read the will, inciting them to stay and listen, interesting them and making them want to know its contents.He even showed how clever he was when he told his men not to kill or imprison Lucilius but instead to feed him and take care of him because someone like him would be better as a friend and not an enemy and thus gained the respect of Lucilius and the others who were spared.
In showing his ability as a great orator, being clever, and as a loyal being, Mark Antony has gained my vote as President of the new Roman Republic. As long as he is loyal to Rome, I shall, in return, be eternally loyal to him. He will make a great leader. He is the one that will hold Rome together and he is the one who shall once again bring glory and honor to Rome!
