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What role does Antony play in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar? Why is Antony significant?

Mark Antony is the pivotal character in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. His great funeral oration in the third act turns everything around. Up to that point the conspirators are on the offensive. They are just about to take over the governing of Rome, with Brutus and Cassius in the leading positions of power. But, just as recorded in history by Plutarch, Antony displays both remarkable courage and surprising eloquence as he single-handedly arouses the Roman plebeians to mutiny against Julius Caesar's assassins and forces them to flee from the city. At the end of Act III, Scene 2, a Servant tells Antony that Octavius has arrived in Rome and adds:



I heard him say, Brutus and Cassius
Are rid like madmen through the gates of Rome.



From that point on Antony is the most powerful man in the empire. Octavius is still quite young. It will take him some time to free himself from dependence upon Antony''s superior sagacity and experience. Lepidus, the third member of their  triumvirate, is a relative nonentity who will eventually be disposed of in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. 


Brutus and Cassius are at a disadvantage in their conflict with Antony and Octavius because the two leading conspirators are forced to camp and forage in the hinterlands while Antony and Octavius are firmly ensconced in the power base of Rome. Under Antony's experienced generalship, he and Octavius defeat the armies of Brutus and Cassius at the battle of Philippi, and Antony has secured the rulership of the Roman Empire to be divided between himself and Augustus. Eventually Augustus becomes the first of a long line of emperors, something that never could have happened without the courage and brilliance of Mark Antony. 

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