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Shakespeare’s Roman trilogy reaches a climax in The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, a love- and wine-drenched account of Octavius Caesar’s defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, and his consolidation of power over the nascent Roman Empire. The play is punctuated by bountiful allusions to Virgil's Aeneid. But besides the haunting downfall of the play’s title characters, in the background of the action arises the specter of a new religious creed, Christianity. Katherine Bradshaw joins Jonathan and Ryan again, to take the measure of Shakespeare’s Roman trilogy.

Jan Blits’s edition of The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra: https://amzn.to/3DolBcK

Virgil’s Aeneid, trans. Robert Fagles: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780143105138

Virgil’s Aeneid, Latin-English: https://amzn.to/3BAWOS7

Niccolo Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy (free): https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/detmold-the-historical-political-and-diplomatic-writings-vol-2#lf0076-02_label_026

Niccolo Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy, trans. Harvey Mansfield https://amzn.to/3DBfVMk

Dante’s Divine Comedy: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780142437544

René Girard’s I See Satan Fall Like Lightning: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781570753190

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Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com