The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0095/00959.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 29KB | 427 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00959}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Plutarch's Lives
Part II}
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$Author{Plutarch}
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$Subject{antony
caesar
having
upon
yet
cleopatra
like
first
fulvia
gave}
$Date{c75}
$Log{}
Title:       Plutarch's Lives
Book:        Antony
Author:      Plutarch
Date:        c75
Translation: Dryden, Arthur Hugh Clough

Part II

     When he made his entry into Ephesus, the women met him dressed up like
Bacchantes, and the men and boys like Satyrs and Fauns, and throughout the
town nothing was to be seen but spears wreathed about with ivy, harps, flutes,
and psaltries, while Antony in their songs was Bacchus the Giver of Joy and
the Gentle. And so indeed he was to some, but to far more the Devourer and the
Savage; ^3 for he would deprive persons of worth and quality of their fortunes
to gratify villains and flatterers, who would sometimes beg the estates of men
yet living, pretending they were dead, and, obtaining a grant, take
possession. He gave his cook the house of a Magnesian citizen, as a reward for
a single highly successful supper, and, at last, when he was proceeding to lay
a second whole tribute on Asia, Hybreas, speaking on behalf of the cities,
took courage, and told him broadly, but aptly enough for Antony's taste, "If
you can take two yearly tributes, you can doubtless give us a couple of
summers, and a double harvest time;" and put it to him in the plainest and
boldest way, that Asia had raised two hundred thousand talents for his
service: "If this has not been paid to you, ask your collectors for it; if it
has, and is all gone, we are ruined men." These words touched Antony to the
quick, who was simply ignorant of most things that were done in his name; not
that he was so indolent, as he was prone to trust frankly in all about him.
For there was much simplicity in his character; he was slow to see his faults,
but, when he did see them, was extremely repentant, and ready to ask pardon of
those he had injured; prodigal in his acts of reparation, and severe in his
punishments, but his generosity was much more extravagant than his severity;
his raillery was sharp and insulting, but the edge of it was taken off by his
readiness to submit to any kind of repartee; for he was as well contented to
be rallied, as he was pleased to rally others. And this freedom of speech was,
indeed, the cause of many of his disasters. He never imagined that those who
used so much liberty in their mirth would flatter or deceive him in business
of consequence, not knowing how common it is with parasites to mix their
flattery with boldness, as confectioners do their sweetmeats with something
biting, to prevent the sense of satiety. Their freedoms and impertinences at
table were designed expressly to give to their obserquiousness in council the
air of being not complaisance, but conviction.

[Footnote 3: Charidotes and Meilichius in their songs, but too often, in
reality, Omestes and Agrionius." These are all epithets applied in various
forms of worship to the Greek Dionysus or Bacchus. It was to Bacchus Omestes,
the Devourer, that the Greeks, in the battle of Salamis, offered the Persian
princes. See the story in the lives of Themistocles and Aristides.]

     Such being his temper, the last and crowning mischief that could befall
him came in the love of Cleopatra, to awaken and kindle to fury passions that
as yet lay still and dormant in his nature, and to stifle and finally corrupt
any elements that yet made resistance in him, of goodness and a sound
judgment. He fell into the snare thus. When making preparation for the
Parthian war, he sent to command her to make her personal appearance in
Cilicia, to answer an accusation, that she had given great assistance, in the
late wars, to Cassius. Dellius, who was sent on this message, had no sooner
seen her face, and remarked her adroitness and subtlety in speech, but he felt
convinced that Antony would not so much as think of giving any molestation to
a woman like this; on the contrary, she would be the first in favor with him.
So he set himself at once to pay his court to the Egyptian, and gave her his
advice, "to go," in the Homeric style, to Cilicia, "in her best attire," ^4
and bade her fear nothing from Antony, the gentlest and kindest of soldiers.
She had some faith in the words of Dellius, but more in her own attractions,
which, having formerly recommended her to Caesar and the young Cnaeus Pompey,
she did not doubt might prove yet more successful with Antony. Their
acquaintance was with her when a girl, young, and ignorant of the world, but
she was to meet Antony in the time of life when women's beauty is most
splendid, and their intellects are in full maturity. ^5 She made great
preparation for her journey, of money, gifts, and ornaments of value, such as
so wealthy a kingdom might afford, but she brought with her her surest hopes
in her own magic arts and charms.

[Footnote 4: "To go to Ida in her best attire" is the verse, in which Plutarch
merely substitutes Cilicia for Ida. See the Iliad Book, XIV. 162, where Juno
is described as setting forth to beguile Jupiter from his watch on Mount Ida,
while Neptune shall check the Trojans.]

[Footnote 5: She was now about twenty-eight years old.]

     She received several letters, both from Antony and from his friends, to
summon her, but she took no account of these orders; and at last, as if in
mockery of them, she came sailing up the river Cydnus, in a barge with gilded
stern and outspread sails of purple, while oars of silver beat time to the
music of flutes and fifes and harps. She herself lay all along, under a canopy
of cloth of gold, dressed as Venus in a picture, and beautiful young boys,
like painted Cupids, stood on each side to fan her. Her maids were dressed
like Sea Nymphs and Graces, some steering at the rudder, some working at the
ropes. The perfumes diffused themselves from the vessel to the shore, which
was covered with multitudes, part following the galley up the river on either
bank, part running out of the city to see the sight. The market-place was
quite emptied, and Antony at last was left alone sitting upon the tribunal;
while the word went through all the multitude, that Venus was come to feast
with Bacchus, for the common good of Asia. On her arrival, Antony sent to
invite her to supper. She thought it fitter he should come to her; so, willing
to show his good-humor and courtesy, he complied, and went. He found the
preparation to receive him magnificent beyond expression, but nothing so
admirable as the great number of lights; for on a sudden there was let down
altogether so great a number of branches with lights in them so ingeniously
disposed, some in squares, and some in circles, that the whole thing was a
spectacle that has seldom been equalled for beauty.

     The next day, Antony invited her to supper, and was very desirous to
outdo her as well in magnificence as contrivance; but he found he was
altogether beaten in both, and was so well convinced of it, that he was
himself the first to jest and mock at his poverty of wit, and his rustic
awkwardness. She, perceiving that his raillery was broad and gross, and
savored more of the soldier than the courtier, rejoined in the same taste, and
fell into it at once, without any sort of reluctance or reserve. For her
actual beauty, it is said, was not in itself so remarkable that none could be
compared with her, or that no one could see her without being struck by it,
but the contact of her presence, if you lived with her, was irresistible; the
attraction of her person, joining with the charm of her conversation, and the
character that attended all she said or did, was something bewitching. It was
a pleasure merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an
instrument of many strings, she could pass from one language to another; so
that there were few of the barbarian nations that she answered by an
interpreter; to most of them she spoke herself, as to the Aethiopians,
Troglodytes, Hebrews, Arabians, Syrians, Medes, Parthians,