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The Life and Times of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt
The Life and Times of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt
“Histories make men wise.”— Bacon. “I have no expectation that any man will read history aright who thinks that what was done in a remote age ... has any deeper sense than what he is doing to-day.”— Emerson. “To philosophise on mankind exact observation is not sufficient.... Knowledge of the present must be supplemented from the history of the past.”— Taine. “Only the dead men know the tunes the live world dances to.”— Le Gallienne. “Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for ... the earth shall
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
I have to thank most heartily the Honourable Mrs Julian Byng, Mrs Gerald Lascelles, Mr Ronald Storrs, and my wife, for reading the proofs of this volume, and for giving me the benefit of their invaluable advice....
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INTRODUCTION.
INTRODUCTION.
In the following pages it will be observed that, in order not to distract the reader, I have refrained from adding large numbers of notes, references, and discussions, such as are customary in works of this kind. I am aware that by telling a straightforward story in this manner I lay myself open to the suspicions of my fellow-workers, for there is always some tendency to take not absolutely seriously a book which neither prints chapter and verse for its every statement, nor often interrupts the
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CHAPTER I. AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY OF THE CHARACTER OF CLEOPATRA.
CHAPTER I. AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY OF THE CHARACTER OF CLEOPATRA.
To those who make a close inquiry into the life of Cleopatra it will speedily become apparent that the generally accepted estimate of her character was placed before the public by those who sided against her in regard to the quarrel between Antony and Octavian. During the last years of her life the great Queen of Egypt became the mortal enemy of the first of the Roman Emperors, and the memory of her historic hostility was perpetuated by the supporters of every Cæsar of that dynasty. Thus the bel
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CHAPTER II. THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA.
CHAPTER II. THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA.
No study of the life of Cleopatra can be of true value unless the position of the city of Alexandria, her capital, in relationship to Egypt on the one hand and to Greece and Rome on the other, is fully understood and appreciated. The reader must remember, and bear continually in mind, that Alexandria was at that time, and still is, more closely connected in many ways with the Mediterranean kingdoms than with Egypt proper. It bore, geographically, no closer relation to the Nile valley than Cartha
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CHAPTER III. THE BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS OF CLEOPATRA.
CHAPTER III. THE BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS OF CLEOPATRA.
Cleopatra was the last of the regnant Ptolemaic sovereigns of Egypt, and was the seventh Egyptian Queen of her name, 13 in her person all the rights and privileges of that extraordinary line of Pharaohs being vested. The Ptolemaic Dynasty was founded in the first years of the third century before Christ by Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, one of the Macedonian generals of Alexander the Great, who, on his master’s death, seized the province of Egypt, and, a few years later, made himself King of that co
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CHAPTER IV. THE DEATH OF POMPEY AND THE ARRIVAL OF CÆSAR IN EGYPT.
CHAPTER IV. THE DEATH OF POMPEY AND THE ARRIVAL OF CÆSAR IN EGYPT.
The fortress of Pelusium, near which the opposing armies of Ptolemy and Cleopatra were arrayed, stood on low desert ground overlooking the sea, not far east of the modern Port Said. It was the most easterly port and stronghold of the Delta; and, being built upon the much-frequented highroad which skirted the coast between Egypt and Syria, it formed the Asiatic gateway of the Ptolemaic kingdom. The young Ptolemy XIV. had stationed himself, with his advisers and his soldiers, in this fortress, in
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CHAPTER V. CAIUS JULIUS CÆSAR.
CHAPTER V. CAIUS JULIUS CÆSAR.
When Cæsar thus made the acquaintance of the adventurous young Queen of Egypt he was a man of advanced middle age. He had already celebrated his fifty-fourth birthday, having been born on July 12, B.C. 102, and time was beginning to mark him down. The appalling dissipations of his youth to some extent may have added to the burden of his years; and, though he was still active and keen beyond the common measure, his face was heavily lined and seamed, and his muscles, I suppose, showed something of
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CHAPTER VI. CLEOPATRA AND CÆSAR IN THE BESIEGED PALACE AT ALEXANDRIA.
CHAPTER VI. CLEOPATRA AND CÆSAR IN THE BESIEGED PALACE AT ALEXANDRIA.
There can be little doubt that Cæsar’s all-night interview with Cleopatra put an entirely new complexion upon his conception of the situation. Until the Queen’s dramatic entry into the Palace, his main object in remaining for a short time at Alexandria, after he had been shown the severed head of the murdered Pompey, had been to assert his authority in that city of unrivalled commercial opulence, and at the same time to make full use of a favourable opportunity to rest his weary mind and body in
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CHAPTER VII. THE BIRTH OF CÆSARION AND CÆSAR’S DEPARTURE FROM EGYPT.
CHAPTER VII. THE BIRTH OF CÆSARION AND CÆSAR’S DEPARTURE FROM EGYPT.
The death of Ptolemy and the submission of Alexandria brought the war to a definite close; and Cæsar, once more in comfortable residence at the Palace, was enabled at last to carry out his plans for the regulation of Egyptian affairs, with the execution of which the campaign had so long interfered. Cleopatra’s little brother, the younger Ptolemy, was a boy of only eleven years of age, who does not seem to have shown such signs of marked intelligence or strong character as would cause him to be a
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CHAPTER VIII. CLEOPATRA AND CÆSAR IN ROME.
CHAPTER VIII. CLEOPATRA AND CÆSAR IN ROME.
Cæsar’s movements during the year after his departure from Egypt do not, for the purpose of this narrative, require to be recorded in detail. From Alexandria, which he may have left at about the middle of the first week in July, he sailed in a fast-going galley across the 500 miles of open sea to Antioch, arriving at that city a few days before the middle of that month. 46 There he spent a day or two in regulating the affairs of the country, and presently sailed on to Ephesus, some 600 miles fro
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CHAPTER IX. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE EGYPTO-ROMAN MONARCHY.
CHAPTER IX. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE EGYPTO-ROMAN MONARCHY.
The people of Rome now began to heap honours upon Cæsar, and the government which he had established did not fail to justify its existence by voting him to a position of irrevocable power. He was made Consul for ten years, and there was talk of decreeing him Dictator for life. The Senate became simply an instrument for the execution of his commands; and so little did the members concern themselves with the framing of new laws at home, or with the details of foreign administration, that Cicero is
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CHAPTER X. THE DEATH OF CÆSAR AND THE RETURN OF CLEOPATRA TO EGYPT.
CHAPTER X. THE DEATH OF CÆSAR AND THE RETURN OF CLEOPATRA TO EGYPT.
There can be little reason for doubt that Antony, who is to play so important a part in the subsequent pages of this history, saw Cleopatra in Rome on several occasions. After his reconciliation to Cæsar in the early summer of B.C. 45, he must have been a constant visitor at the Dictator’s villa; and, as we shall presently see, his espousal of Cleopatra’s cause in regard to Cæsar’s will suggests that her charm had not been overlooked by him. It is said, as we have seen, that he had met her, and
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CHAPTER XI. THE CHARACTER OF ANTONY AND HIS RISE TO POWER.
CHAPTER XI. THE CHARACTER OF ANTONY AND HIS RISE TO POWER.
When Antony and Octavian first met after the death of Cæsar, the former was in possession of popular confidence; and he did not hesitate to advise Octavian to make no attempt to claim his inheritance. He snubbed the young man, telling him that he was mad to think himself capable of assuming the responsibilities of the Dictator’s heir at so early an age; and as a result of this attitude dissensions speedily broke out between them. A reconciliation, however, was arrived at in the following August,
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CHAPTER XII. THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN CLEOPATRA AND ANTONY.
CHAPTER XII. THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN CLEOPATRA AND ANTONY.
Determined to win the fickle Antony back to her cause and that of her son, Cleopatra set sail from Alexandria, and, passing between Cyprus and the coast of Syria, at length one morning entered the mouth of the Cydnus in Cilicia, and made her way up to the city of Tarsus which was situated on the banks of the river in the shadow of the wooded slopes of the Taurus mountains. The city was famous both for its maritime commerce and for its school of oratory. The ships of Tarshish ( i.e. , Tarsus) had
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CHAPTER XIII. CLEOPATRA AND ANTONY IN ALEXANDRIA.
CHAPTER XIII. CLEOPATRA AND ANTONY IN ALEXANDRIA.
There can be little doubt that Antony was extremely anxious to form a solid alliance with Cleopatra at this juncture, for he needed just such an ally for the schemes which he had in view. His relations with Octavian were strained, and the insignificant part played by the latter in the operations which culminated at Philippi had led him to feel some contempt for the young man’s abilities. The Triumvirate was, at best, a compromise; and Antony had no expectation that it would for one day outlive t
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CHAPTER XIV. THE ALLIANCE RENEWED BETWEEN CLEOPATRA AND ANTONY.
CHAPTER XIV. THE ALLIANCE RENEWED BETWEEN CLEOPATRA AND ANTONY.
In the autumn of the year B.C. 40, some six months after the departure of Antony, Cleopatra gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, whom she named Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, the Sun and the Moon. With this event she passes almost entirely from the pages of history for more than three years, and we hear hardly anything of her doings until the beginning of B.C. 36. During this time she must have been considerably occupied in governing her own kingdom and in watching, with a kind of desp
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CHAPTER XV. THE PREPARATIONS OF CLEOPATRA AND ANTONY FOR THE OVERTHROW OF OCTAVIAN.
CHAPTER XV. THE PREPARATIONS OF CLEOPATRA AND ANTONY FOR THE OVERTHROW OF OCTAVIAN.
When Cleopatra carried Antony back to Alexandria to recuperate after his exertions, it seems to me that she spoke to him very directly in regard to his future plans. She seems to have pointed out to him that Roman attempts to conquer Parthia always ended in failure, and that it was a sheer waste of money, men, and time to endeavour to obtain possession of a country so vast and having such limitless resources. Wars of this kind exhausted their funds and gave them nothing in return. Would it not b
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CHAPTER XVI. THE DECLINE OF ANTONY’S POWER.
CHAPTER XVI. THE DECLINE OF ANTONY’S POWER.
The city of Ephesus was situated near the mouth of the river Caystrus in the shadow of the Messogis mountains, not far south of Smyrna, and overlooking the island of Samos. Standing on the coast of Asia Minor, near the frontier which divided Lydia from Caria, it looked directly across the sea to Athens, and was sheltered from the menacing coasts of Italy by the intervening Greek peninsula. Ephesus, I need hardly remind the reader, was famous for its temple, dedicated to Diana of the Ephesians. T
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CHAPTER XVII. THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM AND THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT.
CHAPTER XVII. THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM AND THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT.
The story of the battle of Actium has troubled historians of all periods, and no one has been able to offer a satisfactory explanation of the startling incidents which occurred in it or of the events which led up to them. I am not able to accept the ingenious theory set forward by Ferrero, nor is it easy to agree wholly with the explanations given by classical authors. In the following chapter I relate the events as I think they occurred, but of course my interpretation is open to question. The
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CHAPTER XVIII. CLEOPATRA’S ATTEMPT TO BEGIN AGAIN.
CHAPTER XVIII. CLEOPATRA’S ATTEMPT TO BEGIN AGAIN.
Crushed and broken by her misfortunes, it might have been expected that Cleopatra would now give up the fight. She was not made, however, of ordinary stuff; and she could not yet bring herself to believe that her cause was hopeless. On her voyage across the Mediterranean she seems to have pulled herself together after the first shock of defeat; and, with that wonderful recuperative power, of which we have already seen many instances in her life, she appears, so to speak, to have regained her fee
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CHAPTER XIX. OCTAVIAN’S INVASION OF EGYPT AND THE DEATH OF ANTONY.
CHAPTER XIX. OCTAVIAN’S INVASION OF EGYPT AND THE DEATH OF ANTONY.
The historian must feel some reluctance in discrediting the romantic story of the attachment of Cleopatra and Antony at this period; but nevertheless the fact cannot be denied that they had now decided to live apart from one another, and there seems very little doubt that each regarded the other with distrust and suspicion. Antony had lived so long alone in his Timonium that he was altogether out of touch with his wife’s projects; and she, on her part, had not, for many a month, admitted him ful
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CHAPTER XX. THE DEATH OF CLEOPATRA AND THE TRIUMPH OF OCTAVIAN.
CHAPTER XX. THE DEATH OF CLEOPATRA AND THE TRIUMPH OF OCTAVIAN.
Cleopatra’s situation was at this moment terrible in the extreme. The blood-stained body of her husband lay stretched upon the bed, covered by her torn garments which she had thrown over it. Charmion and Iras, her two waiting-women, were probably huddled in the corner of the room, beating their breasts and wailing as was the Greek habit at such a time. Below the open window a few Romans and Egyptians appear to have gathered in the sun-baked courtyard; and, I think, the ladders still rested again
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GENEALOGY OF THE PTOLEMIES.
GENEALOGY OF THE PTOLEMIES.
1 Dickens. 2 Sergeant. 3 The Egyptian reliefs upon the walls of Dendereh temple and elsewhere show conventional representations of the Queen which are not to be regarded as real portraits. The so-called head of the Queen in the Alexandria Museum probably does not represent her at all, as most archæologists will readily admit. 4 This island has now become part of the mainland. 5 For a restoration of the lighthouse, see the work of H. Thiersch. 6 Josephus. 7 The first Ptolemy brought the bo
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