Thy full supremacy thou knew’st, and that
Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods
Command me....
You did know
How much you were my conqueror: and that
My sword, made weak by my affection, would
Obey it on all cause.
(III. x. 51.)
But in Shakespeare’s view the final decision was not reached even at the battle of Actium. Despite that disaster and the subsequent desertions, Antony is still able to offer no inconsiderable resistance in Egypt. In direct contradiction of Plutarch’s statement, he says, after the reply to Euphronius and the scourging of Thyreus:
Our force by land