Menas

Family: Pompeian · Role: soldier · First appears: Antony and Cleopatra · Act II, Scene VI

Menas serves the Pompeian cause as a soldier. In Act I, Scene IV, he and Menecrates seize vessels and raid Italy, making the sea serve them and stirring revolt in Sextus Pompeius’s name: “No vessel can peep forth but ’tis as soon Taken as seen.” In Act II, Scene VI, Menas is an enemy of Enobarbus, declaring that they have come to fight.

In Act II, Scene VII, aboard Sextus Pompeius’s galley, Menas is recognized as a faithful servant and presents himself as one who has long honored Pompey’s fortunes. He proposes cutting the cable and killing Octavius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Lepidus, who are aboard, so that all power would belong to Sextus Pompeius. Sextus Pompeius rejects the treachery, saying it would have been good service only if done without being spoken of; Menas then resolves to abandon him: “For this, I’ll never follow thy palled fortunes more.”

Relationship record

Life events

• Menecrates and Menas seize vessels, raid Italy, and fuel revolt under Pompey's name.(Antony and Cleopatra · Act I, Scene IV · 📍 Italy)
  • With: Menecrates Sextus Pompeius
  • “Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound With keels of every kind. Many hot inroads They make in Italy—the borders maritime Lack blood to think on’t—and flush youth revolt. No vessel can peep forth but ’tis as soon Taken as seen; for Pompey’s name strikes more Than could his war resisted.”
• Menas offers Pompey control of the world by killing Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus, but Pompey rejects the treachery.(Antony and Cleopatra · Act II, Scene VII · 📍 Pompey’s Galley)
  • With: Sextus Pompeius Octavius Caesar Mark Antony Lepidus
  • “These three world-sharers, these competitors, Are in thy vessel. Let me cut the cable, And when we are put off, fall to their throats. All then is thine. POMPEY. Ah, this thou shouldst have done And not have spoke on ’t! In me ’tis villainy; In thee ’t had been good service. Thou must know ’Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour; Mine honour it. Repent that e’er thy tongue Hath so betray’d thine act. Being done unknown, I should have found it afterwards well done, But must condemn it now. Desist, and drink.”
• Menas resolves to abandon Pompey after Pompey refuses his assassination plot.(Antony and Cleopatra · Act II, Scene VII · 📍 Pompey’s Galley)
  • With: Sextus Pompeius
  • “MENAS. [Aside.] For this, I’ll never follow thy palled fortunes more. Who seeks, and will not take when once ’tis offered, Shall never find it more.”

Antony and Cleopatra · Act II, Scene VI

• enemies with Enobarbus “We came hither to fight with you.”

Antony and Cleopatra · Act II, Scene VII

• employer: Sextus Pompeius “Thou hast served me with much faith.”
• admired: Sextus Pompeius “I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes.”
• enemies with Octavius Caesar (Menas proposes killing Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus.) “These three world-sharers, these competitors, Are in thy vessel. Let me cut the cable, And when we are put off, fall to their throats.”
• enemies with Mark Antony (Menas proposes killing Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus.) “These three world-sharers, these competitors, Are in thy vessel. Let me cut the cable, And when we are put off, fall to their throats.”
• enemies with Lepidus (Menas proposes killing Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus.) “These three world-sharers, these competitors, Are in thy vessel. Let me cut the cable, And when we are put off, fall to their throats.”

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Extracted from the original text of Shakespeare's Roman Plays. Made with Rho MD.