The importance of Enobarbus in Antony and CleopatraIn Shakespeare's play, Antony and Cleopatra, we are told the story of two passionate and greedy lovers of power. In the first two acts of the play, we learn that they are embroiled in an adulterous relationship and that both are forced to show their devotion to Caesar. In addition to discovering the strange love story of Antony and Cleopatra, we discover some interesting secondary characters. The most important supporting character in the play's theme is Enobarbus. Enobarbus is a high-ranking soldier in Antony's army who appears to be very close to his commander. We know this from the way Enobarbus is allowed to speak freely (at least privately) with Antony, and is often used as someone in whom Antony confides. We see Antony confiding in Enobarbus in Act I, scene ii, as Antony explains. how Cleopatra is “cunning beyond the thought of man” (I.ii.146). In response to this, Enobarbus speaks very freely about his vision of Cleopatra, even if what he says is very positive: ...her passions are made only of the most beautiful part of pure love. We cannot call its winds and its waters sighs and tears; these are storms and tempests greater than the almanacs can record. It can't be cunning about her; if so, she makes rain as well as Jupiter. (I, ii, 147-152) After Antony reveals that he has just heard the news of his wife's death, we are once again offered an example of Enobarbus's freedom to say what he he thinks, in that he tells Antony to "give the gods a sacrifice of gratitude" (I.ii.162), essentially saying that Fulvia's death is a good thing. Obviously, someone would never say something like that unless they were in very close company. While acting as Antony's friend and promoter, Enobarbus introduces the audience to some of the myth and legend surrounding Cleopatra. Probably his most important role in the play is to exaggerate the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra. Which he does so well in the following statements: When she first met Mark Antony, she pinched his heart, on the river Cydnus. (II.ii.188-189) The barge in which she sat, like a burnished throne, Burned on the water: the stern was of beaten gold; The sails were purple and so fragrant that the winds were lovesick; the oars were of silver, (II.