with his banners and his well-paid ranks,
The ne’er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia
(Are) jaded out o’ the field.
(III. i. 32.)
He himself over-runs and conquers Armenia, and other Asiatic kingdoms, and with his new prestige and resources is able to secure the support of a formidable band of subject kings. When Octavia has returned to Rome and he to Egypt, and war breaks out, he is still, thanks to these allies and to his own veteran legionaries whom he has so often led to victory and spoil, the master of a power that should more than suffice to make the fortune his.
But in his infatuation he throws all his advantages away. He pronounces on himself the verdict which his whole story confirms:
When we in our viciousness grow hard—
O misery on’t!—the wise gods seel our eyes;
In our own filth drop our clear judgements; make us
Adore our errors; laugh at’s, while we strut