A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Cleopatra
CLEOPATRA,
Was the eldest daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, King of Egypt. On his death, B. C. 51, he left his crown to her, then only seventeen years old, and her eldest brother Ptolemy, who was still younger, directing them, according to the custom of that family, to be married, and committing them to the care of the Roman Senate.
They could not agree, however, either to be married or to reign together; and the ministers of Ptolemy deprived Cleopatra of her share in the government, and banished her from the kingdom. She retired to Syria, and raised an army, with which she approached the Egyptian frontier. Just at this time, Julius Cæsar, in pursuit of Pompey, sailed into Egypt, and came to Alexandria. Here he employed himself in hearing and determining the controversy between Ptolemy and Cleopatra, which he claimed a right to do as an arbitrator appointed by the will of Auletes; the power of the Romans being then vested in him as dictator. But Cleopatra laid a plot to attach him to her cause by the power of those charms which distinguished her in so peculiar a manner. She sent word to Cæsar that her cause was betrayed by those who managed it for her, and begged to be allowed to come in person and plead before him. This being granted, she came secretly into the port of Alexandria in a small skiff, in the dusk of the evening; and to elude her brother's officers, who then commanded the place, she caused herself to be tied up in her bedding and carried to Cæsar's apartment on the back of one of her slaves. She was then about nineteen, and though, according to Plutarch, not transcendently beautiful, yet her wit and fascinating manners made her quite irresistible. Her eyes were remarkably tine, and her voice was delightfully melodious, and capable of all the variety of modulation belonging to a musical instrument. She spoke seven different languages, and seldom employed an interpreter in her answer to foreign ambassadors. She herself gave audience to the Ethiopians, the Troglodytes, Hebrews, Arabians, Syrians, Medes, and Parthians. She could converse on all topics, grave or gay, and put on any humour, according to the purpose of the moment. So many charms captivated Cæsar at once; and the next morning he sent for Ptolemy and urged him to receive Cleopatra on her own terms; but Ptolemy appealed to the people, and put the whole city in an uppoar. A war commenced, in which Cæsar proved victorious, and Ptolemy, while endeavouring to escape across the Nile in a boat, was drowned. Cæsar then caused Cleopatra to marry her younger brother, also named Ptolemy, who, being a boy of eleven, could only contribute his name to the joint sovereignty. This mature statesman and warrior, who had almost forgotten ambition for love, at length tore himself from Cleopatra, who had borne him a son, Cæesarion, and went to Rome.
After his departure, Cleopatra reigned unmolested; and when her husband had reached his fourteenth year, the age of majority in Egypt, she poisoned him, and from that time reigned alone in Egypt. She went to Rome to see Cæsar, and while there lodged in his house, where her authority over him made her insolence intolerable to the Romans. His assassination so alarmed her that she fled precipitately to her own country, where, out of regard to the memory of Cæsar, she raised a fleet to go to the assistance of the triumvirs, but was obliged by a storm to return.
After the battle of Philippi, Antony visited Asia, and, on the pretext that Cleopatra had furnished Cassius with some supplies, he summoned her to appear before him at Tarsus, in Cillcia. This she did in such magnificent state, and laden with such rich gifts, that Antony became her captive; and the impression her beauty and splendour had made on him was completed and rendered durable by the charms of her society. Her influence over him became unbounded, and she abused it to the worst purposes. At her request, her younger sister, Arsinoe, was assassinated; and she scrupled no act of injustice for the aggrandizement of her dominions. After Antony had spent a winter with her at Alexandria, he went to Italy, where he married Octavia. Cleopatra's charms, however, drew him back to Egypt; and when he had proceeded on his expedition against Parthia, he sent for her into Syria, where she rendered him odious by the cruelties and oppressions she urged him to practise. After his return, he bestowed upon her many provinces, by which he incurred the displeasure of the Roman people. When the civil war broke out between Antony and Octavianus, afterwards Augustus Cæsar, Emperor of Rome, Cleopatra accompanied Antony, and added sixty ships to his navy. It was by her persuasion that the deciding battle was fought by sea, at Actium. She commanded her own fleet; but her courage soon failed her, and before the danger reached her she fled, followed by the whole squadron and the infatuated Antony, who, however, was very angry with Cleopatra on this occasion, and remained three days without seeing her. He was at length reconciled to her, and, on the approach of Octavianus, they both sent publicly to treat with him; but, at the same time, Cleopatra gave her ambassadors private instructions for negotiating with him separately. Hoping to secure the kingdom of Egypt for herself and her children, she promised to put it into the hands of Octavianus; and, as a pledge for the performance, she delivered up to him the important city of Pelusium.
Near the temple of Isis she had built a tower, which she designed for her sepulchre; and into this was carried all her treasures, as gold, jewels, pearls, ivory, ebony, cinnamon, and other precious woods; it was also filled with torches, faggots, and tow, so that it could be easily set on fire. To this tower she retired after the last defeat of Antony, and on the approach of Octavianus; and when Antony gave himself the mortal stab, he was carried to the foot of the tower, and drawn up into it by Cleopatra and her women, where he expired in her arms.
Octavianus, who feared lest Cleopatra should bum herself and all her treasures, and thus avoid falling into his hands and gracing his triumphal entry into Rome, sent Proculus to employ all his art in obtaining possession of her person; which he managed to do by stealing in at one of the windows. When Cleopatra saw him, she attempted to kill herself; but Proculus prevented her, and took from her every weapon with which she might commit such an act. She then resolved to starve herself; but her children were threatened with death if she persisted in the attempt. When Octavianus came to see her, she attempted to captivate him, but unsuccessfully; she had, however, gained the heart of his friend, Dolabella, who gave her private notice that she was to be carried to Rome within three days, to take a part in the triumph of Octavianus. She had an asp, a small serpent, whose bite is said to induce a kind of lethargy and death without pain, brought to her in a basket of figs; and the guards who were sent to secure her person, found her lying dead on a couch, dressed in her royal robes, with one of her women dead at her feet, and the other expiring. The victor, though greatly disappointed, buried her, with much magnificence, in the tomb with Antony, as she had requested. She was in her thirty-ninth year at the time of her death; she left two sons and a daughter by Antony, whom she had married after his divorce from Octavia, besides her son by Cæsar, whom Octavianus put to death as a rival. With her terminated the family of Ptolemy Lagus, and the monarchy of Egypt, which was thenceforth a Roman province. Cleopatra was an object of great dread and abhorrence to the Romans, who detested her as the cause of Antony's divorce from Octavia, and the subsequent civil war. Her ambition was as unbounded as her love of pleasure; and her usual oath was, "So may I give law in the capitol." Her temper was imperious, and she was boundlessly profuse in her expenditures; nor did she ever hesitate to sacrifice, when it suited her own interest, all the decorums of her rank and sex. But we mast remember, also, that she lived in an age of crime. She was better than the men her subtle spirit subdued,—for she was true to her country. Never was Egypt so rich in wealth, power, and civilization, as under her reign. She re-constructed the precious library of her capital; and when the wealth of Rome was at her command, proffered by the dissolute Antony, who thought her smiles cheaply bought at the price of the Roman empire, Cleopatra remarked,—"The treasures I want are two hundred thousand volumes from Pergamus, for my library of Alexandria."