Knowing herself weak, without genius and without mental force, she reckoned wholly on her lovers for the accomplishment of her designs, and it too often happened to this woman, fatal to others as to herself, to retard the execution of these, dominated, as she ever was, by the imperious desire of some entertainment or some pleasure. This queen had the recklessness of the courtesan; women of gallantry might have considered her their august and tragic ancestress. She only lived for love, pomp, and magnificence; wherefore, when her lover was slain, her beauty marred, her wealth lost, and her crown shattered, she found, to face death, the masculine courage which had failed her in life. No, Cleopatra was not a great queen. But for her connection with Antony, she would be forgotten with Arsinoë or Berenice. If her renown is immortal, it is because she is the heroine of the most dramatic love-story of antiquity. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES [1] Cicero to Atticus.—In this letter, dated from Brundusium, June 14, 706 A. U. C., Cicero speaks of the long sojourn of Cæsar at Alexandria. There is thought to be much trouble there, “valde esse impedimentum.” This “impedimentum,” of which Cæsar makes no complaint, was Cleopatra. [2] If this were true, Cleopatra would have been as fatal to Cæsar as she afterwards became to Antony. [3] We must not judge Antony wholly by the passionate attacks of Cicero. Plutarch quotes a number of clever retorts of this brave and excellent soldier; and, in another order of ideas, his letter to Octavius and Hirtius, from which we find long extracts in the “Third Philippic,” is the work of a skillful politician as well as a model of wit. [4] A curious inscription, discovered in Alexandria by M. C. Vescher, is as follows: “Antony the Great, the Inimitable.” [5] Pliny, IX. 35. The legend is not so much of a myth as it appears. Pliny relates that Octavius, having found the second pearl in the treasury of Cleopatra, had it cut in two, and with it adorned the ears of the Pantheon Venus. [6] Another incident, also related by Plutarch, says that Antony sometimes sought relaxation from the excesses of the “Life Inimitable” in more tranquil pleasures, such as angling. Vain even in trifles, and mortified if he caught nothing, he had fishes attached to his hook by a diver. The trick did not escape Cleopatra. The next day she had a salted fish fastened to his hook, which the triumvir drew gravely from the water amid shouts of laughter. From this time Antony renounced angling. [7] Appian says positively that Antony was in love with Octavia. [8] Like all the Ptolemies, the last of the Lagidæ was a great builder. [9] Antony also made a gift to Cleopatra of the 300,000 manuscripts of the library of Pergamos, to replace a part of the volumes burned at Alexandria. [10] Thirty-five drachmæ were given to each legionary, and a less sum to every soldier.