act 4, scene 11
Another part of the Ground.

[Enter CAESAR with his Forces, marching.]

CAESAR.
But being charg'd, we will be still by land,
Which, as I take't, we shall; for his best force
Is forth to man his galleys. To the vales,
And hold our best advantage.

[Exeunt.]
gradesaver
Between the two camps. Caesar gives orders for troop movement.
Cleopatra cannot understand Roman duty and the Roman conception of honor. She must ask Enobarbus who bears responsibility for Actium, and she also has to ask what Antony means by his speech to his servants. These short, quick scenes convey the sense of a rapid war. By this point, victory for Octavius is inevitable. There are times when Antony temporarily sets Octavius back, but even these scenes are rapid, so as not to give the impression of a permanent reversal. Shakespeare gives Antony a few last fleeting moments of glory, greatly expanding on the last battles from the terse version in Plutarch. Antony is quite conscious of impending doom, although he puts a brave face on defeat. The coming end makes him emotional, and he indulges his tendency toward extravagance. Like Cleopatra, he has a sense of the theatrical, but as with her his love of drama does not mean that his emotions aren't genuine. Inevitable death has a way of bringing out theatrically and genuine emotions. One cannot imagine Octavius, even in defeat, making a similar gesture. The taste for extravagant gesture also means that Antony will put up a good last fight, but Caesar is so passionless, objective, and rational that Antony might as well be fighting gravity. The theme of fate and historical necessity is very much present until the very end. The war has always seemed fated, and its progression has only made the end clearer. Caesar looks forward to the fulfillment of the Roman world's destiny: "The time of universal peace is near. Prove this a prosp'rous day, the three-nooked world / Shall bear the olive freely". Caesar hopes to achieve peace, although arguably his peace is the peace that cannot challenge one man's absolute power. With the political animal, such as Caesar, it is easier to see the process than the ultimate motivations. Does Caesar see his power as a means to a universal peace. Or is universal peace the natural and necessary status of an empire under his power alone. Enobarbus' end is deeply concerned with questions of honor and loyalty. Enobarbus has stayed on longer than most of Antony's men. He does so because of honor, even after he knows Antony will lose: ". he that can endure / To follow with allegiance a fall'n lord / Does conquer him that did his master conquer / And earns a place I'th'story". When Antony seems to be deprived of his good sense, Enobarbus deserts, but regrets it almost immediately. In Caesar's camp, Antony's men are used but never trusted. Caesar, with chilling calculation, orders that the defectors should make up his own front line, alluding euphemistically to the fact that the front line will take the worst casualties. Having betrayed one master, Antony's former friends cannot hope to be trusted by their new one. Although Antony has failed at the most important points of Roman honor, in loyalty and generosity to his friends he is splendid. His gift to Enobarbus drives the deserter to die of grief. Enobarbus, who throughout most of the play has cynically observed the shortcomings and hypocrisy of others, in the end is obsessed with his own failure to be loyal to Antony. His insight, when turned on himself, drives him to grief. The play loses one of its most outspoken, objective, and insightful characters
cliffnotes
We now return briefly to Caesar and his army, also on the battlefield. He instructs his men that unless they are attacked, they should keep their strongest forces on land, to hold the positions they have.
Caesar's apparent sea preparations are a ruse. He hopes, by this maneuver, to draw off Antony's best men to sea and take advantage of this strategy on land, where, thus far, Antony has been the victor.
sparknotes
Antony determines that Caesar means to attack him by sea and declares himself ready. He wishes his enemy were equipped to fight in fire or air, swearing he would meet him in those places if he could
Act IV, scenes ix-xv In Act IV, scene xv, Antony, who has been betrayed by his lover and has lost the war to Caesar, offers one of the play's most profound reflections on the connection between character and circumstance: "Here I am Antony, / Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave" . As his fortune changes from good to bad, so, he believes, his character slips from honorable to dishonorable. He likens himself to a cloud that shifts from one shape into another. Given the play's investment in spectacle--neither love nor war truly matters unless one has something to show for them--Antony's disturbance at being unable to hold a "visible shape" is particularly interesting. His honor, it seems, is primarily a function of whether the world sees him as honorable. When it fails to do so, Antony no longer fits into it. His rigid definition of himself as a victorious general and as Cleopatra's lover betrays his Roman sensibilities, which cannot and will not allow him to assume the contradictory roles of the conqueror and the conquered. He will, he decides, either be the hero or cease to exist at all by killing himself. His statement "Here I am Antony" reflects his search for a glimpse of his former, simpler self: the indomitable hero who will put an end to his life. Thus, he thankfully notes to Eros, all that remains to him is suicide. Once the second sea battle is lost, the play belongs to Antony until his death--Cleopatra recedes, as does Caesar. In the scenes leading up to his death, Antony's feelings of betrayal, regret, and, ultimately, love give way to some of the finest language in the play. Oh, sun, thy uprise shall I see no more: Fortune and Antony part here; even here Do we shake hands. All come to this? The hearts That spanieled me at heels, to whom I gaveTheir wishes, do discandy, melt their sweetsOn blossoming Caesar, and this pine is barkedThat over topped them all.           Here, as Antony bids goodbye to "Fortune," he comes to an important realization from which he cannot recover. Comparing himself to a tree that once towered above all others, he now feels that Cleopatra's inconstant love, which once "spanieled" at his heels, has stripped him of his bark. This metaphor expresses that he feels raw, unprotected, and doomed to die. Cleopatra enters soon after Antony delivers these lines, and he scares her away with vicious threats. More than anger, however, Antony feels a keen sense of loss. He laments, "I made these wars for . . .  the Queen-- / Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine, / Which . . .  had annexed unto't / A million more, now lost" . This utterance of regret confirms Antony's lost sense of self: he no longer possesses either of the identities--military giant or lover of Cleopatra--that have defined him so well. The news of Cleopatra's suicide suffices to cool Antony's temper and returns him to thoughts of reconciliation. By killing himself, Antony envisions joining his love in the afterlife: "I come, my queen . . .  / Where souls do couch on flowers we'll hand in hand, / And with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze" . This consummation in death of their love moves the couple toward its ultimate victory over Caesar and the Roman Empire.