Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, -30 B.C.; Egypt -- History -- 332-30 B.C. -- Biography; Queens -- Egypt -- Biography
Mark Antony, when judged by our standards, was certainly, as well as
Ptolemy, a depraved and vicious man; but his depravity was of a very
different type from that of Cleopatra's father. The difference in the men,
in one respect, was very clearly evinced by the objects toward which their
interest and attention were respectively turned after this great battle.
While the contest had been going on, the king and queen of Egypt,
Archelaus and Berenice, were, of course, in the view both of Antony and
Ptolemy, the two most conspicuous personages in the army of their enemies;
and while Antony would naturally watch with the greatest interest the fate
of his friend, the king, Ptolemy, would as naturally follow with the
highest concern the destiny of his daughter. Accordingly, when the battle
was over, while the mind of Ptolemy might, as we should naturally expect,
be chiefly occupied by the fact that his _daughter_ was made a captive,
Antony's, we might suppose, would be engrossed by the tidings that his
_friend_ had been slain.
The one rejoiced and the other mourned. Antony sought for the body of his
friend on the field of battle, and when it was found, he gave himself
wholly to the work of providing for it a most magnificent burial. He
seemed, at the funeral, to lament the death of his ancient comrade with
real and unaffected grief. Ptolemy, on the other hand, was overwhelmed
with joy at finding his daughter his captive. The long-wished-for hour for
the gratification of his revenge had come at last, and the first use which
he made of his power when he was put in possession of it at Alexandria was
to order his daughter to be beheaded.
CHAPTER V.
ACCESSION TO THE THRONE.
At the time when the unnatural quarrel between Cleopatra's father and her
sister was working its way toward its dreadful termination, as related in
the last chapter, she herself was residing at the royal palace in
Alexandria, a blooming and beautiful girl of about fifteen. Fortunately
for her, she was too young to take any active part personally in the
contention. Her two brothers were still younger than herself. They all
three remained, therefore, in the royal palaces, quiet spectators of the
revolution, without being either benefited or injured by it. It is
singular that the name of both the boys was Ptolemy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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