The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0001/00010.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 21KB | 325 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00010}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of Cleopatra, Queen Of Egypt
Chapter VIII: Cleopatra A Queen}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Abbott, Jacob}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{caesar
cleopatra
egypt
rome
upon
city
time
course
fact
power
see
pictures
see
figures
}
$Date{1900}
$Log{See Cleopatra's Sister*0001001.scf
}
Title:       History Of Cleopatra, Queen Of Egypt
Book:        Cleopatra
Author:      Abbott, Jacob
Date:        1900

Chapter VIII: Cleopatra A Queen

     The war by which Caesar reinstated Cleopatra upon the throne was not one
of very long duration.  Caesar arrived in Egypt in pursuit of Pompey about the
1st of August; the war was ended and Cleopatra established in secure
possession by the end of January; so that the conflict, violent as it was
while it continued, was very brief, the peaceful and commercial pursuits of
the Alexandrians having been interrupted by it only for a few months.

     Nor did either the war itself, or the derangements consequent upon it,
extend very far into the interior of the country.  The city of Alexandria
itself and the neighboring coasts were the chief scenes of the contest until
Mithradates arrived at Pelusium.  He, it is true, marched across the Delta,
and the final battle was fought in the interior of the country.  It was
however, after all, but a very small portion of the Egyptian territory that
was directly affected by the war.  The great mass of the people, occupying the
rich and fertile tracts which bordered the various branches of the Nile, and
the long and verdant valley which extended so far into the heart of the
continent, knew nothing of the conflict but by vague and distant rumors.  The
pursuits of the agricultural population went on, all the time, as steadily and
prosperously as ever; so that when the conflict was ended, and Cleopatra
entered upon the quiet and peaceful possession of her power, she found that
the resources of her empire were very little impaired.

     She availed herself, accordingly, of the revenues which poured in very
abundantly upon her, to enter upon a career of the greatest luxury,
magnificence, and splendor.  The injuries which had been done to the palaces
and other public edifices of Alexandria by the fire, and by the military
operations of the siege, were repaired.  The bridges which had been broken
down were rebuilt.  The canals which had been obstructed were opened again.
The sea-water was shut off from the palace cisterns; the rubbish of demolished
houses was removed; the barricades were cleared from the streets; and the
injuries which the palaces had suffered, either from the violence of military
engines or the rough occupation of the Roman soldiery, were repaired.  In a
word, the city was speedily restored once more, so far as was possible, to its
former order and beauty.  The five hundred thousand manuscripts of the
Alexandrian library, which had been burned, could not, indeed, be restored;
but, in all other respects, the city soon resumed in appearance all its former
splendor.  Even in respect to the library, Cleopatra made an effort to
retrieve the loss.  She repaired the ruined buildings, and afterward, in the
course of her life, she brought together, it was said, in a manner hereafter
to be described, one or two hundred thousand rolls of manuscripts, as the
commencement of a new collection.  The new library, however, never acquired
the fame and distinction that had pertained to the old.

     The former sovereigns of Egypt, Cleopatra's ancestors, had generally, as
has already been shown, devoted the immense revenues which they extorted from
the agriculturalists of the valley of the Nile to purposes of ambition.
Cleopatra seemed now disposed to expend them in luxury and pleasure.  They,
the Ptolemies, had employed their resources in erecting vast structures, or
founding magnificent institutions at Alexandria, to add to the glory of the
city, and to widen and extend their own fame.  Cleopatra, on the other hand,
as was, perhaps, naturally to be expected of a young, beautiful, and impulsive
woman, suddenly raised to so conspicuous a position, and to the possession of
such unbounded wealth and power, expended her royal revenues in plans of
personal display, and in scenes of festivity, gayety, and enjoyment. She
adorned her palaces, built magnificent barges for pleasure excursions on the
Nile, and expended enormous sums for dress, for equipages, and for sumptuous
entertainments.  In fact, so lavish were her expenditures for these and
similar purposes during the early years of her reign, that she is considered
as having carried the extravagance of sensual luxury and personal display and
splendor beyond the limits that had ever before or have ever since been
attained.

     Whatever of simplicity of character, and of gentleness and kindness of
spirit she might have possessed in her earlier years, of course gradually
disappeared under the influences of such a course of life as she now was
leading.  She was beautiful and fascinating still, but she began to grow
selfish, heartless, and designing.  Her little brother - he was but eleven
years of age, it will be recollected, when Caesar arranged the marriage
between them - was an object of jealousy to her.  He was now, of course, too
young to take any actual share in the exercise of the royal power, or to
interfere at all in his sister's plans or pleasures.  But then he was growing
older.  In a few years he would be fifteen - which was the period of life
fixed upon by Caesar's arrangements, and, in fact, by the laws and usages of
the Egyptian kingdom - when he was to come into possession of power as king,
and as the husband of Cleopatra.  Cleopatra was extremely unwilling that the
change in her relations to him and to the government, which this period was to
bring, should take place.  Accordingly, just before the time arrived, she
caused him to be poisoned.  His death released her, as she had intended, from
all restraints, and thereafter she continued to reign alone.  During the
remainder of her life, so far as the enjoyment of wealth and power, and of all
other elements of external prosperity could go, Cleopatra's career was one of
uninterrupted success.  She had no conscientious scruples to interfere with
the most full and unrestrained indulgence of every propensity of her heart,
and the means of indulgence were before her in the most unlimited profusion.
The only bar to her happiness was the impossibility of satisfying the impulses
and passions of the human soul, when they once break over the bounds which the
laws both of God and of nature ordain for restraining them.

     In the mean time, while Cleopatra was spending the early years of her
reign in all this luxury and splendor, Caesar was pursuing his career, as the
conqueror of the world, in the most successful manner.  On the death of
Pompey, he would naturally have succeeded at once to the enjoyment of the
supreme power; but his delay in Egypt, and the extent to which it was known
that he was entangled with Cleopatra, encouraged and strengthened his enemies
in various parts of the world.  In fact, a revolt which broke out in Asia
Minor, and which it was absolutely necessary that he should proceed at once to
quell, was the immediate cause of his leaving Egypt at last.  Other plans for
making head against Caesar's power were formed in Spain, in Africa, and in
Italy.  His military skill and energy, however, were so great, and the
ascendency which he exercised over the minds of men by his personal presence
was so unbounded, and so astonishing, moreover, was the celerity with which he
moved from continent to continent, and from kingdom to kingdom; that in a very
short period from the time of his leaving Egypt, he had conducted most
brilliant and successful campaigns in all the three quarters of the world then
known, had put down effectually all opposition to his power, and then had
returned to Rome the acknowledged master of the world.  Cleopatra, who had, of
course, watched his career during all this time with great pr