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$Title{History Of Cleopatra, Queen Of Egypt
Chapter X: Cleopatra And Antony}
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$Author{Abbott, Jacob}
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$Date{1900}
$Log{See Cleopatra's Barge*0001201.scf
See Entertainments At Tarsus*0001202.scf
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Title:       History Of Cleopatra, Queen Of Egypt
Book:        Cleopatra
Author:      Abbott, Jacob
Date:        1900

Chapter X: Cleopatra And Antony

     How far Cleopatra was influenced, in her determination to espouse the
cause of Antony rather than that of Brutus and Cassius, in the civil war
described in the last chapter, by gratitude to Caesar, and how far, on the
other hand, by personal interest in Antony, the reader must judge.  Cleopatra
had seen Antony, it will be recollected, some years before, during his visit
to Egypt, when she was a young girl.  She was doubtless well acquainted with
his character.  It was a character peculiarly fitted, in some respects, to
captivate the imagination of a woman so ardent, and impulsive, and bold as
Cleopatra was fast becoming.

     Antony had, in fact, made himself an object of universal interest
throughout the world, by his wild and eccentric manners and reckless conduct,
and by the very extraordinary vicissitudes which had marked his career.  In
moral character he was as utterly abandoned and depraved as it was possible to
be.  In early life as has already been stated, he plunged into such a course
of dissipation and extravagance that he became utterly and hopelessly ruined;
or, rather, he would have been so, had he not, by the influence of that magic
power of fascination which such characters often possess, succeeded in gaining
a great ascendency over a young man of immense fortune, named Curio, who for a
time upheld him by becoming surety for his debts. This resource, however, soon
failed, and Antony was compelled to abandon Rome, and to live for some years
as a fugitive and exile, in dissolute wretchedness and want.  During all the
subsequent vicissitudes through which he passed in the course of his career,
the same habits of lavish expenditure continued, whenever he had funds at his
command.  This trait in his character took the form sometimes of a noble
generosity.  In his campaigns, the plunder which he acquired he usually
divided among his soldiers, reserving nothing for himself.  This made his men
enthusiastically devoted to him, and led them to consider his prodigality as a
virtue, even when they did not themselves derive any direct advantage from it.
A thousand stories were always in circulation in camp of acts on his part
illustrating his reckless disregard of the value of money, some ludicrous, and
all eccentric and strange.

     In his personal habits, too, he was as different as possible from other
men.  He prided himself on being descended from Hercules, and he affected a
style of dress and a general air and manner in accordance with the savage
character of this his pretended ancestor.  His features were sharp, his nose
was arched and prominent, and he wore his hair and beard very long - as long,
in fact, as he could make them grow.  These peculiarities imparted to his
countenance a very wild and ferocious expression.  He adopted a style of
dress, too, which, judged of with reference to the prevailing fashions of the
time, gave to his whole appearance a rough, savage, and reckless air.  His
manner and demeanor corresponded with his dress and appearance.  He lived in
habits of the most unreserved familiarity with his soldiers.  He associated
freely with them, ate and drank with them in the open air, and joined in their
noisy mirth and rude and boisterous hilarity.  His commanding powers of mind,
and the desperate recklessness of his courage, enabled him to do all this
without danger.  These qualities inspired in the minds of the soldiers a
feeling of profound respect for their commander; and this good opinion he was
enabled to retain, notwithstanding such habits of familiarity with his
inferiors as would have been fatal to the influence of an ordinary man.

     In the most prosperous portion of Antony's career - for example, during
the period immediately preceding the death of Caesar - he addicted himself to
vicious indulgences of the most open, public, and shameless character.  He had
around him a sort of court, formed of jesters, tumblers, mountebanks,
play-actors, and other similar characters of the lowest and most disreputable
class.  Many of these companions were singing and dancing girls, very
beautiful, and very highly accomplished in the arts of their respective
professions, but all totally corrupt and depraved.  Public sentiment, even in
that age and nation, strongly condemned this, conduct.  The people were
pagans, it is true, but it is a mistake to suppose that the formation of a
moral sentiment in the community against such vices as these is a work which
Christianity alone can perform.  There is a law of nature, in the form of an
instinct universal in the race, imperiously enjoining that the connection of
the sexes shall consist of the union of one man with one woman, and that woman
his wife, and very sternly prohibiting every other.  So that there has
probably never been a community in the world so corrupt, that a man could
practice in it such vices as those of Antony, without not only violating his
own sense of right and wrong, but also bringing upon himself the general
condemnation of those around him.

     Still, the world are prone to be very tolerant in respect to the vices of
the great.  Such exalted personages as Antony seem to be judged by a different
standard from common men.  Even in the countries where those who occupy high
stations of trust or of power are actually selected, for the purpose of being
placed there, by the voices of their fellow-men, all inquiry into the personal
character of a candidate is often suppressed, such inquiry being condemned as
wholly irrelevant and improper, and they who succeed in attaining to power
enjoy immunities in their elevation which are denied to common men.

     But, notwithstanding the influence of Antony's rank and power in
shielding him from public censure, he carried his excesses to such an extreme
that his conduct was very loudly and very generally condemned.  He would spend
all the night in carousals, and then, the next day, would appear in public,
staggering in the streets.  Sometimes he would enter the tribunals for the
transaction of business when he was so intoxicated that it would be necessary
for friends to come to his assistance to conduct him away.  In some of his
journeys in the neighborhood of Rome, he would take a troop of companions with
him of the worst possible character, and travel with them openly and without
shame.  There was a certain actress, named Cytheride, whom he made his
companion on one such occasion.  She was borne upon a litter in his train, and
he carried about with him a vast collection of gold and silver plate, and of
splendid table furniture, together with an endless supply of luxurious
articles of food and of wine, to provide for the entertainments and banquets
which he was to celebrate with her on the journey.  He would sometimes stop by
the road side, pitch his tents, establish his kitchens, set his cooks at work
to prepare a feast, spread his tables, and make a sumptuous banquet of the
most costly, complete, and ceremonious character - all to make men wonder at
the abundance and perfection of the means of luxury which he could carry with
him wherever he might go.  In fact, he always seemed to feel a special
pleasure in doing strange and extraordinary things in order to excite
surprise.  Once on a journey he had lions harnessed to his carts to draw his
baggage, in order to create a sensation.

     Notwithstanding the heedlessness with which Antony abandoned himself to
these luxurious pleasures when at Rome, no man could endure exposure and
hardship better when in camp or on the field.  In fact, he rushed with as much
headlong precipitation into difficulty and danger when abroad, as into expense
and dissipation when at home.  During his contests with Octavius and Lepidus,
after Caesar's death, he once had occasion to pass the Alps, which, with his
customary recklessness, he attempted to traverse without any proper supplies
of stores or means of transportation.  He was reduced, on the passage,
together with the troops under his command, to the most extreme destitution
and distress.  They had to feed on roots and herbs, and finally on the bark of
trees; and they barely preserved themselves, by these means, from actual
starvation.  Antony seemed, however, to care nothing for all this, but pressed
on through the difficulty and danger, manifesting the same daring and
determined unconcern to the end.  In the same campaign he found himself at one
time reduced to extreme destitution in respect to men.  His troops had been
gradually wasted away until his situation had become very desperate.  He
conceived, under these circumstances, the most extraordinary idea of going
over alone to the camp of Lepidus and enticing away his rival's troops from
under the very eyes of their commander.  This bold design was successfully
executed.  Antony advanced alone, clothed in wretched garments, and with his
matted hair and beard hanging about his breast and shoulders, up to Lepidus's
lines.  The men, who knew him well, received him with acclamations; and
pitying the sad condition to which they saw that he was reduced, began to
listen to what he had to say.  Lepidus, who could not attack him, since he and
Antony were not at that time in open hostility to each other, but were only
rival commanders in the same army, ordered the trumpeters to sound, in order
to make a noise which should prevent the words of Antony from being heard.
This interrupted the negotiation; but the men immediately disguised two of
their number in female apparel and sent them to Antony to make arrangements
with him for putting themselves under his command, and offering, at the same
time, to murder Lepidus, if he would but speak the word.  Antony charged them
to do Lepidus no injury.  He, however, went over and took possession of the
camp, and assumed the command of the army.  He treated Lepidus himself,
personally, with extreme politeness, and' retained him as a subordinate under
his command.

     Not far from the time of Caesar's death, Antony was married.  The name of
the lady was Fulvia.  She was a widow at the time of her marriage with Antony,
and was a woman of very marked and decided character.  She had led a wild and
irregular life previous to this time, but she conceived a very strong
attachment to her new husband, and devoted herself to him from the time of her
marriage with the most constant fidelity.  She soon acquired a very great
ascendency over him, and was the means of effecting a very considerable reform
in his conduct and character.  She was an ambitious and aspiring woman, and
made many very efficient and successful efforts to promote the elevation and
aggrandizement of her husband.  She appeared, also, to take a great pride and
pleasure in exercising over him, herself, a great personal control.  She
succeeded in these attempts in a manner that surprised every body.  It seemed
astonishing to all mankind that such a tiger as he had been could be subdued
by any human power.  Nor was it by gentleness and mildness that Fulvia gained
such power over her husband.  She was of a very stern and masculine character,
and she seems to have mastered Antony by surpassing him in the use of his own
weapons.  In fact, instead of attempting to soothe and mollify him, she
reduced him, it seems, to the necessity of resorting to various contrivances
to soften and propitiate her.  Once, for example, on his return from a
campaign in which he had been exposed to great dangers, he disguised himself
and came home at night in the garb of a courier bearing dispatches.  He caused
himself to be ushered, muffled and disguised as he was, into Fulvia's
apartments, where he handed her some pretended letters, which, he said, were
from her husband; and while Fulvia was opening them in great excitement and
trepidation, he threw off his disguise, and revealed himself to her by
clasping her in his arms and kissing her in the midst of her amazement.

     Antony's marriage with Fulvia, besides being the means of reforming his
morals in some degree, softened and civilized him in respect to his manners.
His dress and appearance now assumed a different character.  In fact, his
political elevation after Caesar's death soon became very exalted, and the
various democratic arts by which he had sought to raise himself to it, being
now no longer necessary, were, as usual in such cases gradually discarded. He
lived in great style and splendor when at Rome, and when absent from home, on
his military campaigns, he began to exhibit the same pomp and parade in his
equipage and in his arrangements as were usual in the camps of other Roman
generals.

     After the battle of Philippi, described in the last chapter, Antony -
who, with all his faults, was sometimes a very generous foe - as soon as the
tidings of Brutus's death were brought to him, repaired immediately to the
spot, and appeared to be quite shocked and concerned at the sight of the body.
He took off his own military cloak or mantle - which was a very magnificent
and costly garment, being enriched with many expensive ornaments - and spread
it over the corpse.  He then gave directions to one of the officers of his
household to make arrangements for funeral ceremonies of a very imposing
character, as a testimony of his respect for the memory of the deceased.  In
these ceremonies it was the duty of the officer to have burned the military
cloak which Antony had appropriated to the purpose of a pall, with the body.
He did not, however, do so.  The cloak being very valuable, he reserved it;
and he withheld, also, a considerable part of the money which had been given
him for the expenses of the funeral.  He supposed that Antony would probably
not inquire very closely into the details of the arrangements made for the
funeral of his most inveterate enemy.  Antony, however, did inquire into them,
and when he learned what the officer had done, he ordered him to be killed.

     The various political changes which occurred, and the movements which
took place among the several armies after the battle of Philippi, can not be
here detailed.  It is sufficient to say that Antony proceeded to the eastward
through Asia Minor, and in the course of the following year came into Cilicia.
From this place he sent a messenger to Egypt to Cleopatra, summoning her to
appear before him.  There were charges, he said, against her, of having aided
Cassius and Brutus in the late war instead of rendering assistance to him.
Whether there really were any such charges, or whether they were only
fabricated by Antony as pretexts for seeing Cleopatra, the fame of whose
beauty was very widely extended, does not certainly appear. However this may
be, he sent to summon the queen to come to him.  The name of the messenger
whom Antony dispatched on this errand was Dellius.  Fulvia, Antony's wife, was
not with him at this time.  She had been left behind at Rome.

     Dellius proceeded to Egypt and appeared at Cleopatra's court.  The queen
was at this time about twenty-eight years old, but more beautiful, as was
said, than ever before.  Dellius was very much struck with her beauty, and
with a certain fascination in her voice and conversation, of which her ancient
biographers often speak as one of the most irresistible of her charms.  He
told her that she need have no fear of Antony.  It was of no consequence, he
said, what charges there might be against her.  She would find that in a very
few days after she had entered into Antony's presence, she would be in great
favor.  She might rely, in fact, he said, on gaining, very speedily, an
unbounded ascendency over the general.  He advised her, therefore, to proceed
to Cilicia without fear, and to present herself before Antony in as much pomp
and magnificence as she could command.  He would answer, he said, for the
result.

     Cleopatra determined to follow this advice.  In fact, her ardent and
impulsive imagination was fired with the idea of making, a second time, the
conquest of the greatest general and highest potentate in the world.  She
began immediately to make provision for the voyage.  She employed all the
resources of her kingdom in procuring for herself the most magnificent means
of display, such as expensive and splendid dresses, rich services of plate,
ornaments of precious stones and of gold, and presents in great variety and of
the most costly description for Antony.  She appointed, also, a numerous
retinue of attendants to accompany her, and, in a word, made at the
arrangements complete for an expedition of the most imposing and magnificent
character.  While these preparations were going forward, she received new and
frequent communications from Antony, urging her to hasten her departure; but
she paid very little attention to them.  It was evident that she felt quite
independent, and was intending to take her own time.

     At length, however, all was ready, and Cleopatra set sail.  She crossed
the Mediterranean Sea, and entered the mouth of the River Cydnus.  Antony was
at Tarsus, a city upon the Cydnus, a small distance above its mouth.  When
Cleopatra's fleet had entered the river, she embarked on board a most
magnificent barge which she had constructed for the occasion, and had brought
with her across the sea.  This barge was the most magnificent and
highly-ornamented vessel that had ever been built.  It was adorned with
carvings and decorations of the finest workmanship, and elaborately gilded.
The sails were of purple, and the oars were inlaid and tipped with silver.
Upon the deck of this barge Queen Cleopatra appeared, under a canopy of cloth
of gold.  She was dressed very magnificently in the costume in which Venus,
the goddess of Beauty, was then generally represented.  She was surrounded by
a company of beautiful boys, who attended upon her in the form of Cupids, and
fanned her with their wings, and by a group of young girls representing the
Nymphs and the Graces.  There was a band of musicians stationed upon the deck.
This music guided the oarsmen, as they kept time to it in their rowing; and,
soft as the melody was, the strains were heard far and wide over the water and
along the shores, as the beautiful vessel advanced on its way. The performers
were provided with flutes, lyres, viols, and all the other instruments
customarily used in those times to produce music of a gentle and voluptuous
kind.

[See Cleopatra's Barge: This barge was the most magnificent and
highly-ornamented vessel that had ever been built.]

     In fact, the whole spectacle seemed like a vision of enchantment. Tidings
of the approach of the barge spread rapidly around, and the people of the
country came down in crowds to the shores of the river to gaze upon it in
admiration as it glided slowly along.  At the time of its arrival at Tarsus,
Antony was engaged in giving a public audience at some tribunal in his palace,
but every body ran to see Cleopatra and the barge, and the great triumvir was
left consequently alone, or, at least, with only a few official attendants
near him.  Cleopatra, on arriving at the city, landed, and began to pitch her
tents on the shores.  Antony sent a messenger to bid her welcome, and to
invite her to come and sup with him.  She declined the invitation, saying that
it was more proper that he should come and sup with her.  She would
accordingly expect him to come, she said, and her tents would be ready at the
proper hour Antony complied with her proposal, and came to her entertainment.
He was received with a magnificence and splendor which amazed him.  The tents
and pavilions where the entertainment was made were illuminated with an
immense number of lamps.  These lamps were arranged in a very ingenious and
beautiful manner, so as to produce an illumination of the most surprising
brilliancy and beauty.  The immense number and variety, too, of the meats and
wines, and of the vessels of gold and silver, with which the tables were
loaded, and the magnificence and splendor of the dresses worn by Cleopatra and
her attendants, combined to render the whole scene one of bewildering
enchantment.

     The next day, Antony invited Cleopatra to come and return his visit; but,
though he made every possible effort to provide a banquet as sumptuous and as
sumptuously served as hers, he failed entirely in this attempt, and
acknowledged himself completely outdone.  Antony was, moreover, at these
interviews, perfectly fascinated with Cleopatra's charms.  Her beauty, her
wit, her thousand accomplishments, and, above all, the tact, and adroitness,
and self-possession which she displayed in assuming at once so boldly, and
carrying out so adroitly, the idea of her social superiority over him, that he
yielded his heart almost immediately to her undisputed sway.

     The first use which Cleopatra made of her power was to ask Antony, for
her sake, to order her sister Arsinoe to be slain.  Arsinoe had gone, it will
be recollected, to Rome, to grace Caesar's triumph there, and had afterward
retired to Asia, where she was now living an exile.  Cleopatra, either from a
sentiment of past revenge, or else from some apprehensions of future danger,
now desired that her sister should die.  Antony readily acceded to her
request.  He sent an officer in search of the unhappy princess.  The officer
slew her where he found her, within the precincts of a temple to which she had
fled, supposing it a sanctuary which no degree of hostility, however extreme,
would have dared to violate.

     Cleopatra remained at Tarsus for some time, revolving in an incessant
round of gayety and pleasure, and living in habits of unrestrained intimacy
with Antony.  She was accustomed to spend whole days and nights with him in
feasting and revelry.  The immense magnificence of these entertainments,
especially on Cleopatra's part, were the wonder of the world.  She seems to
have taken special pleasure in exciting Antony's surprise by the display of
her wealth and the boundless extravagance in which she indulged.  At one of
her banquets, Antony was expressing his astonishment at the vast number of
gold cups, enriched with jewels, that were displayed on all sides.  "Oh," said
she, "they are nothing; if you like them, you shall have them all." So saying,
she ordered her servants to carry them to Antony's house.  The next day she
invited Antony again, with a large number of the chief officers of his army
and court.  The table was spread with a new service of gold and silver
vessels, more extensive and splendid than that of the preceding day; and at
the close of the supper, when the company was about to depart, Cleopatra
distributed all these treasures among the guests that had been present at the
entertainment.  At another of these feasts, she carried her ostentation and
display to the astonishing extreme of taking off from one of her ear-rings a
pearl of immense value and dissolving it in a cup of vinegar, ^* which she
afterward made into a drink, such as was customarily used in those days, and
then drank it.  She was proceeding to do the same with the other pearl, when
some of the company arrested the proceeding, and took the remaining pearl
away.

[See Entertainments At Tarsus: The immense magnificence of these
entertainments, especially on Cleopatra's part, were the wonder of the world.]

(Footnote*: Pearls, being of the nature of shell in their composition and
structure, are soluble in certain acids.]

     In the mean time, while Antony was thus wasting his time in luxury and
pleasure with Cleopatra, his public duties were neglected, and everything was
getting into confusion.  Fulvia remained in Italy.  Her position and her
character gave her a commanding political influence, and she exerted herself
in a very energetic manner to sustain; in that quarter of the world, the
interests of her husband's cause.  She was surrounded with difficulties and
dangers, the details of which can not, however, be here particularly
described.  She wrote continually to Antony, urgently entreating him to come
to Rome, and displaying in her letters all those marks of agitation and
distress which a wife would naturally feel under the circumstances in which
she was placed.  The thought that her husband had been so completely drawn
away from her by the guilty arts of such a woman, and led by her to abandon
his wife and his family; and leave in neglect and confusion concerns of such
momentous magnitude as those which demanded his attention at home, produced an
excitement in her mind bordering upon phrensy.  Antony was at length so far
influenced by the urgency of the case that he determined to return.  He broke
up his quarters at Tarsus and moved south toward Tyre, which was a great naval
port and station in those days.  Cleopatra went with him.  They were to
separate at Tyre.  She was to embark there for Egypt, and he for Rome.

     At least that was Antony's plan, but it was not Cleopatra's.  She had
determined that Antony should go with her to Alexandria.  As might have been
expected, when the time came for the decision, the woman gained the day.  Her
flatteries, her arts, her caresses, her tears, prevailed.  After a brief
struggle between the sentiment of love on the one hand and those of ambition
and of duty combined on the other, Antony gave up the contest.  Abandoning
every thing else, he surrendered himself wholly to Cleopatra's control, and
went with her to Alexandria.  He spent the winter there, giving himself up
with her to every species of sensual indulgence that the most remorseless
license could tolerate, and the most unbounded wealth procure.

     There seemed, in fact, to be no bounds to the extravagance and
infatuation which Antony displayed during the winter in Alexandria. Cleopatra
devoted herself to him incessantly, day and night, filling up every moment of
time with some new form of pleasure, in order that he might have no time to
think of his absent wife, or to listen to the reproaches of his conscience.
Antony, on his part, surrendered himself a willing victim to these wiles, and
entered with all his heart into the thousand plans of gayety and merry-making
which Cleopatra devised.  They had each a separate establishment in the city,
which was maintained at an enormous cost, and they made a regular arrangement
by which each was the guest of the other on alternate days.  These visits were
spent in games, sports, spectacles, feasting, drinking, and in every species
of riot, irregularity, and excess.

     A curious instance is afforded of the accidental manner in which
intelligence in respect to the scenes and incidents of private life in those
ancient days is sometimes obtained, in a circumstance which occurred at this
time at Antony's court.  It seems that there was a young medical student at
Alexandria that winter, named Philotas, who happened, in some way or other, to
have formed an acquaintance with one of Antony's domestics, a cook.  Under the
guidance of this cook, Philotas went one day into the palace to see what was
to be seen.  The cook took his friend into the kitchens, where, to Philotas's
great surprise, he saw, among an infinite number and variety of other
preparations, eight wild boars roasting before the fires, some being more and
some less advanced in the process.  Philotas asked what great company was to
dine there that day.  The cook smiled at this question, and replied that there
was to be no company at all, other than Antony's ordinary party.  "But," said
the cook, in explanation, "we are obliged always to prepare several suppers,
and to have them ready in succession at different hours, for no one can tell
at what time they will order the entertainment to be served.  Sometimes, when
the supper has been actually carried in, Antony and Cleopatra will get engaged
in some new turn of their diversions, and conclude not to sit down just then
to the table, and so we have to take the supper away, and presently bring in
another."

Antony and Cleopatra at dinner.

     Antony had a son with him at Alexandria at this time, the child of his
wife Fulvia.  The name of the son, as well as that of the father, was Antony.
He was old enough to feel some sense of shame at his father's dereliction from
duty, and to manifest some respectful regard for the rights and the honor of
his mother.  Instead of this, however, he imitated his father's example, and,
in his own way, was as reckless and as extravagant as he.  The same Philotas
who is above referred to was, after a time, appointed to some office or other
in the young Antony's household, so that he was accustomed to sit at his table
and share in his convivial enjoyments.  He relates that once, while they were
feasting together, there was a guest present, a physician, who was a very vain
and conceited man, and so talkative that no one else had any opportunity to
speak.  All the pleasure of conversation was spoiled by his excessive
garrulity.  Philotas, however, at length puzzled him so completely with a
question of logic - of a kind similar to those often discussed with great
interest in ancient days - as to silence him for a time; and young Antony was
so much delighted with this feat, that he gave Philotas all the gold and
silver plate that there was upon the table, and sent all the articles home to
him, after the entertainment was over, telling him to put his mark and stamp
upon them, and lock them up.

     The question with which Philotas puzzled the self-conceited physician was
this.  It must be premised, however, that in those days it was considered that
cold water in an intermittent fever was extremely dangerous, except in some
peculiar cases, and in those the effect was good.  Philotas then argued as
follows: "In cases of a certain kind it is best to give water to a patient in
an ague.  All cases of ague are cases of a certain kind. Therefore it is best
in all cases to give the patient water." Philotas having propounded his
argument in this way, challenged the physician to point out the fallacy of it;
and while the physician sat perplexed and puzzled in his attempts to unravel
the intricacy of it, the company enjoyed a temporary respite from his
excessive loquacity.

     Philotas adds, in his account of this affair, that he sent the gold and
silver plate back to young Antony again, being afraid to keep them.  Antony
said that perhaps it was as well that this should be done, since many of the
vessels were of great value on account of their rare and antique workmanship,
and his father might possibly miss them and wish to know what had become of
them.

     As there were no limits, on the one hand, to the loftiness and grandeur
of the pleasures to which Antony and Cleopatra addicted themselves, so there
were none to the low and debasing tendencies which characterized them on the
other.  Sometimes, at midnight, after having been spending many hours in mirth
and revelry in the palace, Antony would disguise himself in the dress of a
slave, and sally forth into the streets, excited with wine, in search of
adventures.  In many cases, Cleopatra herself, similarly disguised, would go
out with him.  On these excursions Antony would take pleasure in involving
himself in all sorts of difficulties and dangers - in street riots, drunken
brawls, and desperate quarrels with the populace - all for Cleopatra's
amusement and his own.  Stories of these adventures would circulate afterward
among the people, some of whom would admire the free and jovial character of
their eccentric visitor, and others would despise him as a prince degrading
himself to the level of a brute.

     Some of the amusements and pleasures which Antony and Cleopatra pursued
were innocent in themselves, though wholly unworthy to be made the serious
business of life by personages on whom such exalted duties rightfully
devolved.  They made various excursions upon the Nile, and arranged parties of
pleasure to go out on the water in the harbor, and to various rural retreats
in the environs of the city.  Once they went out on a fishing-party, in boats,
in the port.  Antony was unsuccessful; and feeling chagrined that Cleopatra
should witness his ill luck, he made a secret arrangement with some of the
fishermen to dive down, where they could do so unobserved, and fasten fishes
to his hook under the water.  By this plan he caught very large and fine fish
very fast.  Cleopatra, however, was too wary to be easily deceived by such a
stratagem as this.  She observed the maneuver, but pretended not to observe
it; she expressed, on the other hand, the greatest surprise and delight at
Antony's good luck, and the extraordinary skill which it indicated.

     The next day she wished to go a fishing again, and a party was
accordingly made as on the day before.  She had, however, secretly instructed
another fisherman to procure a dried and salted fish from the market, and,
watching his opportunity, to get down into the water under the boats and
attach it to the hook, before Antony's divers could get there.  This plan
succeeded, and Antony, in the midst of a large and gay party that were looking
on, pulled out an excellent fish, cured and dried, such as was known to every
one as an imported article, bought in the market.  It was a fish of a kind
that was brought originally from Asia Minor.  The boats, and the water all
around them, resounded with the shouts of merriment and laughter which this
incident occasioned.

     In the mean time, while Antony was thus spending his time in low and
ignoble pursuits and in guilty pleasures at Alexandria, his wife Fulvia, after
exhausting all other means of inducing her husband to return to her, became
desperate, and took measures for fomenting an open war, which she thought
would compel him to return.  The extraordinary energy, influence, and talent
which Fulvia possessed, enabled her to do this in an effectual manner. She
organized an army, formed a camp, placed herself at the head of the troops,
and sent such tidings to Antony of the dangers which threatened his cause as
greatly alarmed him.  At the same time news came of great disasters in Asia
Minor, and of alarming insurrections among the provinces which had been
committed to his charge there.  Antony saw that he must arouse himself from
the spell which had enchanted him and break away from Cleopatra, or that he
would be wholly and irretrievably ruined.  He made, accordingly, a desperate
effort to get free.  He bade the queen farewell, embarked hastily in a fleet
of galleys, and sailed away to Tyre, leaving Cleopatra in her palace, vexed,
disappointed, and chagrined.