The Washington herald., 1913-05-18

| was also a strong fortress and tn,
| Roman commander was the greatest gen
| eral of his age. Re-enforcements n
| length arrived. the enemy was defeated
! and young Ptolemy drowned himself i!
| the Nile
For quite a while thereafter Caesar
remained at the Egyptian court. and
Cleopatra bore him a son, who va!
called Caesarion. Another brother Of
hers. only fourteen years old. was placed
en- the throne with her for reasons Of
political expediency, but she got rid OF
him by poison In the meantime the
Roman commander was reduced TO such
a condition of infatuation that he ne
elected everything for his royal mis-.
tress, devoting himself with her to q
life of luxurious idleness, and his friends
in the city by the Tiber could not even
get a letter from him.
At length the murmurs in the Roman
Senate became so loud that Caesar re-
turned TO Rome. But he took Cleopatra
with him-this being in the year IS be-
fore the Christian era-and established
her in a villa of his own on the right
bank of the Tiber. There, in the fol-
lowing summer. she witnessed his four
triumphs, and saw her younger sister
Arsinoe (who had espoused the cause
or her enemies in war; walking in gol-
den chains at the head of the train of
captives.
Cleopatra was by no means popular n
Rome-mainly because it was deemed IN
becoming that Caesar should be the
lover of an Egyptian woman. The fact
that she was in reality a Greek of pure
blood was not considered. Furthermore,
he insulted the gods by placing a gol-
den statue of her in the temple of Venus
Respecting her personal charms. how
ever, there was but one opinion. 1t does
not appear that she was of a supreme
beauty, but she possessed an extraordi-
nary seductiveness. Victor Hugo once
said of a famous actress. "She is not
pretty; she's worse" 1t was much the
same with Cleopatra. Plutarch remarked:
by the charm of her physiogmony, the
grace of her whole person, Cleopatra
left a sting in the soul"
So remarkable was her power of fasci-
nation that the term "enchantress" was
often applied to her. She was an accom-
plished musician. spoke Greek and Latin
fiuently, and could converse with Eth
opians, Jews, Arabians, Syrians, Modes,
and Persians without an interpreter
A short time later Caesar was assas-
sinated, and his royal mistress, then only
p years of age. Immediately took her
departure from Rome. The blow to her
must have been most deadly, but she
was still Queen of Egypt. and, having
to Alexandria, she made up her
ambitious mind to lure Marc Antony,
whose star was then in the ascendant,
into her tolls. Her meeting with him on
the River Sydnus which was so Won
ierfully stage-managed, and wherein she
assumed the character of Venus, with
naked children playing the part of SPORT |
we Loves, is described by Shakespeare
At that time Antony and Octavian (the |
after destined later to rule over Rome as
he Emperor Augustus) together practi- |
ally controlled the affairs of the civil |
zed world. Octavian's sister was the |
wife of Antony, and 1t was his action in |
,utting her aside, in order that he might /
levote himself to Cleopatra, which i
brought about the final breach between /
he two men. But meanwhile many things |
lad happened. Antony and Octavian had
efeated Brutus and Cassius at Phil
ppi. and the former had taken up a life
4 foolish and extrayagant dissipation
With the Egyptian Queen at Alexandria.
Cleopatra's wealth was enormous, and