The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0000/00007.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 25KB | 374 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00007}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of Cleopatra, Queen Of Egypt
Chapter V: Accession To The Throne}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Abbott, Jacob}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{ptolemy
cleopatra
pompey
caesar
alexandria
himself
time
antony
pothinus
roman}
$Date{1900}
$Log{}
Title:       History Of Cleopatra, Queen Of Egypt
Book:        Cleopatra
Author:      Abbott, Jacob
Date:        1900

Chapter V: Accession To The Throne

     At the time when the unnatural quarrel between Cleopatra's father and her
sister was working its way toward its dreadful termination, as related in the
last chapter, she herself was residing at the royal palace in Alexandria, a
blooming and beautiful girl of about fifteen.  Fortunately for her, she was
too young to take any active part personally in the contention.  Her two
brothers were still younger than herself.  They all three remained, therefore,
in the royal palaces, quiet spectators of the revolution, without being either
benefited or injured by it.  It is singular that the name of both the boys was
Ptolemy.

     The excitement in the city of Alexandria was intense and universal when
the Roman army entered it to reinstate Cleopatra's father upon his throne.  A
very large portion of the inhabitants were pleased with having the former king
restored.  In fact, it appears, by a retrospect of the history of kings, that
when a legitimate hereditary sovereign or dynasty is deposed and expelled by a
rebellious population, no matter how intolerable may have been the tyranny, or
how atrocious the crimes by which the patience of the subject was exhausted,
the lapse of a very few years is ordinarily sufficient to produce a very
general readiness to acquiesce in a restoration; and in this particular
instance there had been no such superiority in the government of Berenice,
during the period while her power continued, over that of her father, which
she had displaced, as to make this case an exception to the general rule.  The
mass of the people, therefore - all those, especially, who had taken no active
part in Berenice's government - were ready to welcome Ptolemy back to his
capital.  Those who had taken such a part were all summarily executed by
Ptolemy's orders.

     There was, of course, a great excitement throughout the city on the
arrival of the Roman army.  All the foreign influence and power which had been
exercised in Egypt thus far, and almost all the officers, whether civil or
military, had been Greek.  The coming of the Romans was the introduction of a
new element of interest to add to the endless variety of excitements which
animated the capital.

     The restoration of Ptolemy was celebrated with games, spectacles, and
festivities of every kind, and, of course, next to the king himself, the chief
center of interest and attraction in all these public rejoicings would be the
distinguished foreign generals by whose instrumentality the end had been
gained.

     Mark Antony was a special object of public regard and admiration at the
time.  His eccentric manners, his frank and honest air, his Roman simplicity
of dress and demeanor, made him conspicuous; and his interposition to save the
lives of the captured garrison of Pelusium, and the interest which he took in
rendering such distinguished funeral honors to the enemy whom his army had
slain in battle, impressed the people with the idea of a certain nobleness and
magnanimity in his character, which, in spite of his faults, made him an
object of general admiration and applause.  The very faults of such a man
assume often, in the eyes of the world, the guise and semblance of virtues.
For example, it is related of Antony that, at one time in the course of his
life, having a desire to make a present of some kind to a certain person, in
requital for a favor which he had received from him, he ordered his treasurer
to send a sum of money to his friend - and named for the sum to be sent an
amount considerably greater than was really required under the circumstances
of the case - acting thus, as he often did, under the influence of a blind and
uncalculating generosity.  The treasurer, more prudent than his master, wished
to reduce the amount, but he did not dare directly to propose a reduction; so
he counted out the money, and laid it in a pile in a place where Antony was to
pass, thinking that when Antony saw the amount, he would perceive that it was
too great.  Antony, in passing by, asked what money that was.  The treasurer
said that it was the sum that he had ordered to be sent as a present to such a
person, naming the individual intended.  Antony was quick to perceive the
object of the treasurer's maneuver.  He immediately replied, "Ah! is that all?
I thought the sum I named would make a better appearance than that; send him
double the amount."

     To determine, under such circumstances as these, to double an
extravagance merely for the purpose of thwarting the honest attempt of a
faithful servant to diminish it, made, too, in so cautious and delicate a way,
is most certainly a fault.  But it is one of those faults for which the world,
in all ages, will persist in admiring and praising the perpetrator.

     In a word, Antony became the object of general attention and favor during
his continuance at Alexandria.  Whether he particularly attracted Cleopatra's
attention at this time or not does not appear.  She, however, strongly
attracted his.  He admired her blooming beauty, her sprightliness and wit, and
her various accomplishments.  She was still, however, so young - being but
fifteen years of age, while Antony was nearly thirty - that she probably made
no very serious impression upon him.  A short time after this, Antony went
back to Rome, and did not see Cleopatra again for many years.

     When the two Roman generals went away from Alexandria, they left a
considerable portion of the army behind them, under Ptolemy's command, to aid
him in keeping possession of his throne.  Antony returned to Rome.  He had
acquired great renown by his march across the desert, and by the successful
accomplishment of the invasion of Egypt and the restoration of Ptolemy.  His
funds, too, were replenished by the vast sums paid to him and to Gabinius by
Ptolemy.  The amount which Ptolemy is said to have agreed to pay as the price
of his restoration was two thousand talents - equal to ten millions of dollars
- a sum which shows on how great a scale the operations of this celebrated
campaign were conducted.  Ptolemy raised a large portion of the money required
for his payments by confiscating the estates belonging to those friends of
Berenice's government whom he ordered to be slain.  It was said, in fact, that
the numbers were very much increased of those that were condemned to die, by
Ptolemy's standing in such urgent need of their property to meet his
obligations.

     Antony, through the results of this campaign, found himself suddenly
raised from the position of a disgraced and homeless fugitive to that of one
of the most wealthy and renowned, and, consequently, one of the most powerful
personages in Rome.  The great civil war broke out about this time between
Caesar and Pompey.  Antony espoused the cause of Caesar.

     In the mean time, while the civil war between Caesar and Pompey was
raging, Ptolemy succeeded in maintaining his seat on the throne, by the aid of
the Roman soldiers whom Antony and Gabinius had left him, for about three
years.  When he found himself drawing toward the close of life, the question
arose to his mind to whom he should leave his kingdom.  Cleopatra was the
oldest child, and she was a princess of great promise, both in respect to
mental endowments and personal charms.  Her brothers were considerably younger
than she.  The claim of a son, though younger, seemed to be naturally stronger
than that of a daughter; but the commanding talents and rising influence of
Cleopatra appeared to make it doubtful whether it would be safe to pass her
by.  The father settled the question in the way in which such difficulties