But, notwithstanding the influence of Antony’s rank and power in shielding him from public censure, he carried his excesses to such an extreme that his conduct was very loudly and very generally condemned.  He would spend all the night in carousals, and then, the next day, would appear in public, staggering in the streets.  Sometimes he would enter the tribunals for the transaction of business when he was so intoxicated that it would be necessary for friends to come to his assistance to conduct him away.  In some of his journeys in the neighborhood of Rome, he would take a troop of companions with him of the worst possible character, and travel with them openly and without shame.  There was a certain actress, named Cytheride, whom he made his companion on one such occasion.  She was borne upon a litter in his train, and he carried about with him a vast collection of gold and silver plate, and of splendid table furniture, together with an endless supply of luxurious articles of food and of wine, to provide for the entertainments and banquets which he was to celebrate with her on the journey.  He would sometimes stop by the road side, pitch his tents, establish his kitchens, set his cooks at work to prepare a feast, spread his tables, and make a sumptuous banquet of the most costly, complete, and ceremonious character—­all to make men wonder at the abundance and perfection of the means of luxury which he could carry with him wherever he might go.  In fact, he always seemed to feel a special pleasure in doing strange and extraordinary things in order to excite surprise.  Once on a journey he had lions harnessed to his carts to draw his baggage, in order to create a sensation.

Notwithstanding the heedlessness with which Antony abandoned himself to these luxurious pleasures when at Rome, no man could endure exposure and hardship better when in camp or on the field.  In fact, he rushed with as much headlong precipitation into difficulty and danger when abroad, as into expense and dissipation when at home.  During his contests with Octavius and Lepidus, after Caesar’s death, he once had occasion to pass the Alps, which, with his customary recklessness, he attempted to traverse without any proper supplies of stores or means of transportation.  He was reduced, on the passage, together with the troops under his command, to the most extreme destitution and distress.  They had to feed on roots and herbs, and finally on the bark of trees; and they barely preserved themselves, by these means, from actual starvation.  Antony seemed, however, to care nothing for all this, but pressed on through the difficulty and danger, manifesting the same daring and determined unconcern to the end.  In the same campaign he found himself at one time reduced to extreme destitution in respect to men.  His troops had been gradually wasted away until his situation had become very desperate.  He conceived, under these circumstances, the most extraordinary idea of going over alone to the camp of Lepidus and