“Cleopatra held aloof from such things.

“Though she had devoted much time to the magic arts of the Egyptians, her clear intellect had rendered her so familiar with the philosophy of the Hellenes that it was a pleasure to hear her converse or argue in the museum-as she often did-with the leaders of the various schools.  Her self-confidence had become very strong.  Though, while with us, she said that she longed to return to the days of the peaceful Garden of Epicurus, she devoted herself eagerly enough to the events occurring in the world and to statecraft.  She was familiar with everything in Rome, the desires and struggles of the contending parties, as well as the characters of the men who were directing affairs, their qualities, views, and aims.

“She followed Antony’s career with the interest of love, for she had bestowed on him the first affection of her young heart.  She had expected the greatest achievements, but his subsequent course seemed to belie these lofty hopes.  A tinge of scorn coloured her remarks concerning him at that time, but here also her heart had its share.

“Pompey, to whom her father owed his restoration to the throne, she considered a lucky man, rather than a great and wise one.  Of Julius Caesar, on the contrary, long before she met him, she spoke with ardent enthusiasm, though she knew that he would gladly have made Egypt a Roman province.  The greatest deed which she expected from the energetic Julius was that he would abolish the republic, which she hated, and soar upward to tyrannize over the arrogant rulers of the world—­only she would fain have seen Antony in his place.  How often in those days she used magic art to assure herself of his future!  Her father was interested in these things, especially as, through them, and the power of the mighty Isis, he expected to obtain relief from his many and severe sufferings.

“Cleopatra’s brothers were still mere boys, completely dependent upon their guardian, Pothinus, to whom the King left the care of the government, and their tutor, Theodotus, a clever but unprincipled rhetorician.  These two men and Achillas, the commander of the troops, would gladly have aided Dionysus, the King’s oldest male heir, to obtain the control of the state, in order afterwards to rule him, but the flute-player baffled their plans.  You know that in his last will he made Cleopatra, his favourite child, his successor, but her brother Dionysus was to share the throne as her husband.  This caused much scandal in Rome, though it was an old custom of the house of Ptolemy, and suited the Egyptians.

“The flute-player died.  Cleopatra became Queen, and at the same time the wife of a husband ten years old, for whom she did not even possess the natural gift of sisterly tenderness.  But with the obstinate child who had been told by his counsellors that the right to rule should be his alone, she also married the former governors of the country.