or submissive. She naturally resented the treatment she had received
and offered herself and the riches of which she seemed possessed to
one of the claimants of the Syrian throne, but only to meet the too
common fate, for the wife of the said Antiochus Grippus, her own sister
Tryphæna, caused her to be murdered. Some of the Egyptian princesses,
as has been narrated, went to Syria, and of them it is said that “they
show the usual features ascribed to Ptolemaic princesses—great power
and wealth which makes an alliance with them imply the command of large
resources in men and money; mutual hatred, disregard of all ties of
family and affection; the dearest object fratricide—such pictures of
depravity as make any reasonable man pause and ask whether human nature
had deserted these women and the Hyrcanian tiger of the past taken its
place.”
The history of the Jews is largely involved with that of Egypt during
many of the Ptolemy reigns, but it is not within the scope of this
small monograph to include these relationships in the more purely
personal story. The new king, to a greater or less extent, now held
the power, as testified to by the coinage bearing simply “the year
of Lathyrus” instead of his mother Cleopatra III. He appears in a
copper coin clad in an elephant skin, and there are also joint coins
of Cleopatra III and Alexander. The queen, indisposed to yield her
authority, succeeded in raising the populace against Lathyrus, so
that he fled to Cyprus, his brother Alexander returning from there
and sharing the throne with his mother. Lathyrus meanwhile was
attempting to set up a kingdom in Palestine, but the powerful queen
wrested it from him and added it to her own dominions. Ptolemy Apion,
an illegitimate son of Ptolemy Physcon, had been ruling in Cyrene
the home and possession of the former queen, Berenike II, which he
left on his death to the Roman people, who thus, whenever their other
warlike entanglements permitted, tightened their grasp on everything
Egyptian, but the Egyptian monarchs, busy with more personal and family
difficulties, did not interfere.
Ptolemy X, Alexander I, reigned with his mother till 101 B. C. when,
weary perhaps of her powerful hand, which kept him from full possession
of the throne, he murdered her. Possibly she would have done the
like to him, but it seems a shocking and ungrateful return for the
preference for him which she at first so evidently showed. Other
authorities throw some doubt on this matricide, but the weight of
opinion seems to certify to it.
The next queen is spoken of as Cleopatra, Berenike IV, or Berenike III,
and her name is sometimes associated both with Alexander, whom she
married, and the queen mother. She is believed to have been a daughter
of Sotor II (Lathyrus), and hence Alexander’s niece. This marriage may
not have been agreeable to the elder queen, who so evidently hated her
elder son, the father of the bride. This king is sometimes spoken of as
“Ptolemy, also called Alexander, the god Philometor.” In the midst of
these domestic quarrels and public difficulties, the king yet kept up
the usual habit of temple building and his name appears in connection
with several, especially Denderah. Says Mahaffy: “It is difficult not
to suspect in the continued building of the same temples by Philometor
and Euergetes II, of Sotor II, and of Alexander, the influence of the
great ladies who lived through the change of kings without stay or
intermittence of their royalty,” though, strange to say, the priests of
Edfu do not speak of them. Alexander appears in communion with the gods
and, triumphing over his enemies. “It is also certain that the crypts
of the temple of Denderah, finished by Cleopatra VI, were commenced
according to an ancient plan by the X and XI Ptolemies.”
After the murder of Cleopatra III the people rose against Alexander and
recalled Lathyrus, who, upon regaining the crown, pursued his brother,
who was slain in a naval battle, thus leaving his widow Berenike III to
share with her father the Egyptian throne. She seems to have lived at
peace with him after his return and is regarded by some as co-regent or
ruler, by others as not assuming power till after his death.
Lathyrus is considered as among the gentler and better members of
the Ptolemy family. Even so he put down a rebellion of the native
population with great severity and razed Thebes to the ground. Dying,
at about the age of sixty, he left the kingdom in the hands of his
daughter, Cleopatra IV, Berenike III, who reigned for some six months,
when Alexander, son of Alexander I, by another marriage, returned
from Rome and was accepted as king, under the title of Alexander II,
Ptolemy XII, sharing the throne with Berenike, the queen. Though his
stepmother, there was probably no great disparity in their years,
and it was by the suggestion of the Roman dictator, Sylla, that he
contracted this strange alliance. But the abhorrent connection was of
brief duration, for Alexander II murdered his wife and was himself
murdered in turn by her household troops, within a month. As queen or
regent she had been associated with the royal power for a number of
years, and this prompt avengement of her death seems to prove that she
had her share of popularity.
At this period, and indeed for a long time, what the Alexandrians
willed seems to have been law to the whole country.
The Ptolemy queens were women, as a rule, presumably handsome,
certainly able and sagacious, ambitious and brave, daring and cruel.
To differentiate them accurately, particularly the latter members of
the family, who were on the throne briefly, and in quick succession,
requires a more extended knowledge of the subject than has yet been
secured, either by the researches of students or the “finds” of
archaeologists.
The deaths last mentioned extinguished, it is said, the claim of
legitimate Ptolemy heirs to the Egyptian throne, but other writers
assert that this is probably a Roman invention to justify their
ultimate seizure of the country and that princes were living who
would be recognized elsewhere as legal successors. Be this as it
may, Ptolemy, familiarly known as Auletes (the flute player), son of
Lathyrus, with the bar sinister, now came from Syria and assumed the
crown, under the title of Ptolemy XIII. (Neos Dionysus, Philopater III,
Philadelphus II), in 81 B. C. This was evidently with the consent of
the Egyptians themselves and the tacit permission of Rome, to whom some
even claim that Alexander had willed his kingdom. The Senate, however,
did not give him official recognition, though he made great efforts
and offered many bribes to secure it. A stele speaks of a high priest
“who placed the uræus crown on the head of the new king of Egypt, on
the day that he took possession of Upper and Lower Egypt. He landed at
Memphis, he came into the temple of Qe, with his nobles, his wives and
his children.”
The sons of the Egyptian princess Silene also came from Syria to
Rome to assert a better right to the Egyptian succession, but were
unsuccessful. The Romans engaged in other wars and interests, for the
time being, concerned themselves little with the Egyptian question.
Tryphæna, Cleopatra V, possibly a sister of the king, was his legal
consort and his eldest daughter, Berenike IV, was probably born 77
B. C. The last Cleopatra about 68 B. C., and later another daughter,
Arsinoe, and two sons. Berenike was so much older than the other
children that some suppose a second marriage, of which, however, no
official record has been found. The imputation of illegitimacy has been
thrown both on the king and his celebrated daughter, but the Romans,
as previously stated, may, for their own purposes, have accepted or
disseminated the idea. The first Ptolemy had in a sense wrested the
country from its native rulers, and his successors were only receiving
in their turn what they had meted out.
Like his predecessors, Ptolemy XIII built on the temples, and there are
pictures of him between two goddesses in the favorite mode and in other
situations. In spite of this he is spoken of as the “most idle and
worthless of the Ptolemies.” His life “idle, worthless, devoted to the
orgies of Dionysus (whence his title), and disgracing himself by public
competitions on the flute (whence his nick-name), he has not a good
word recorded of him.” And Cicero says he was plaintive and persuasive
when in need, but worthless and tyrannous when in power. The direct
testimony of Cicero and Diodorus Siculus (which we possess) in regard
to this period is of great value.
It was the debasing of the coinage that especially caused the revolt
that obliged Auletes to flee the country, in addition to the fact that
he lent no help to his brother at Cyprus, overpowered by the Romans.
Auletes had assumed the crown in 81 B. C., and kept possession for a
number of years, but a revolt of the Alexandrians, for the reasons
given above, forced him to fly in 58 B. C.
When he was thus driven from the country Cleopatra V, Tryphæna (whom
some call his wife and some his eldest daughter), with the spirit of
that dominant race of women, at once assumed the crown, of which,
however, death deprived her within the year. She was followed by
Berenike IV, possibly her daughter, certainly that of Auletes, who
ruled for two years, marrying first Seleukos of the royal house of
Syria (whom she put away, finding him weak and unsatisfactory), and
substituted Archelaos, the high priest of Komana. Seleukos is supposed
to have been the person who stole the golden coffin of Alexander the
Great and replaced it by a glass one.
From subsequent events it is quite evident that Berenike IV possessed
the usual characteristics of the Ptolemy women, both in capacity and
ambition, having no intention of handing back the authority she had
assumed to its previous possessor, her father though he might be.
But Auletes, either by persuasion or bribery, secured the powerful aid
of the Romans, whom Egypt was no longer strong enough to resist. The
Roman general Gabinius invaded Egypt and conquering in the battle put
the husband of Berenike IV to death, restored Auletes and left him to
mete out further retribution as he would.
No pleadings for mercy, no claims of relationship ever stayed the
bloody hand of a Ptolemy from executing his will, and, doubtless
regarding her as a traitor, Auletes put his daughter to death, of which
details are not given. There then remained two daughters, Cleopatra
and Arsinoe, and two sons merely called Ptolemy. Restored in 55 B. C.
Ptolemy XIII only lived till 51 B. C. and died, bequeathing his kingdom
jointly to his eldest daughter and son and disregarding the fact that
he had virtually mortgaged it to the Romans he adjured them to carry
out his intentions, calling all the gods to witness. A double copy
of his will was made, the one being sent to Rome, the other kept in
Alexandria.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.
CLEOPATRA VI.
We have shown how the Persian rule in Egypt was followed by that of the
Ptolemies, and at first the union between prince and people was close
and satisfactory. From Ptolemy I to Cleopatra VI the rulers identified
themselves with the interests, and especially with the religion of
the nation, with whom they were not allied by blood, built cities and
temples and, the earlier members of the dynasty at least, wrought for
the general good. In the case of most of the later kings, however, they
were more cruel and oppressive, and revolts were more common than at
first.
The architecture, especially the portrait sculpture of the Ptolemy
period, was inferior to some of earlier date, but in the encouragement
of literature, the building of libraries and other public edifices, and
the extending of commerce the race distinguished itself.
As regents or independent rulers their queens held sway. The family
intermarried to an extent shocking to Christian ideas, and Ptolemy
after Ptolemy took his sister or other near relatives, usually called
Arsinoe, Berenike or Cleopatra, to wife. These close relationships,
however, did not seem to strengthen the family affections—it is a
blood-stained history, and the murders were almost as numerous as the
unions. Various towns were built and called after the queens, Arsinoe
and Berenike, but though Cleopatra seems to have been a favorite name,
and there were, six or seven of them in succession, this name was not
so often used as the cognomen of a town.
There are a few names in the world’s history that stand alone. Many
may share in the same, but to speak them is to call up one dominating
image. In this sense there was but one Caesar, but one Washington, but
one Eve, but one Semiramis, and to this class belongs Cleopatra. There
are others, such as Helen or Troy and Mary Stuart, who have shared with
these high reputation, but in these cases further identification is
needed than the single name. Cleopatra stands among the few daughters
of Eve pre-eminent for wit, charm, power and perhaps beauty, and to
this must be added ambition and vice.
“The laughing queen who held the world’s great hands,” having won the
heart of the world’s greatest rulers, yet lays her magic touch upon the
centuries. Artists and writers have never tired of limning her personal
charms and special characteristics. No colors have been too bright,
none too dark to be used. Shakespeare, has pictured her with his
immortal genius, and hundreds of others, with more or less skill, have
attempted the same task. Protean in shape, no two perhaps resemble each
other. In the conception of some, she is slender, graceful, exquisitely
beautiful, and at the other extreme, as in the old tapestry in the New
York Museum, she is like a fat Dutch woman, a decadence from Rubens’
overblown beauties; so each land has pictured her according to its own
ideal.
Some have denied her pre-eminent beauty and the conventional portrait
of her which still exists upon the wall at Denderah, as well as her
face upon the few battered coins of her time which have come down to
us, scarcely suggest it. But the woman who made men her slaves at a
single interview surely lacked no charm that nature could bestow.
Unbridled both in passions and ambitions, she knew no limit to either
and grasped at universal empire.
The greatest men of her time bowed at her feet, and she changed the
fate of battle with the turning of her vessel’s prow. She was over
twenty when she captivated Caesar, over thirty when Antony became her
slave. Of her numerous lovers, Antony was the chosen of that wayward,
passionate heart. She refused to survive his defeat and death and
perished by her own hand. Though not, strictly speaking, Egyptian
queens, the Ptolemy race were yet queens of Egypt—and thus ended the
long line of female royalties, extending from the dim ages of mythology
to the Roman period.
Cleopatra VI has been described by a late novelist, his picture drawn
perhaps from some historical source, as having “a broad head, wavy
hair, deep-set eyes, full, eloquent mouth and a long, slender throat.”
Charm and talent of the highest order are generally credited to her.
She had a musical voice and was a linguist of ability, skilled in Greek
and Latin and could converse with Ethiopians, Jews, Arabians, Syrians,
Medes and Persians and was proficient in music. Tennyson says of her:
“Her warbling voice a lyre of wildest range,
Struck by all passions.”
And another writer, disputing the fact that she is sometimes depicted
as swarthy, says she was “a pure Macedonian of a race akin to and
perhaps fairer than the Greeks.”
Ptolemy XIII, the so-called Auletes, came to the throne in a sense
under the protection of the Romans, and again took possession of the
kingdom. It was at this time that Antony first saw Cleopatra, a girl of
fifteen, and was struck with her beauty, he being Master of Horse to
the conquering general, Gabrinus. But the acquaintance, if such it was,
and not merely a glimpse on Antony’s part, went no further then, and
neither probably anticipated their subsequent relations.
Auletes’ will, demanding that his eldest son and daughter should
succeed him, was accepted by the mixed populace of Alexandria, and in a
degree by the whole country, and for the moment Rome did not interfere.
It was a youthful pair to have laid upon them or undertake such a grave
responsibility—a mere girl and a child. Cleopatra was but sixteen,
Ptolemy only ten. But though young in years, Cleopatra soon showed that
she had both the capacity and ambition of an older woman. The direct
heritage perhaps from one or other parent included beauty and charm,
but a worthless father had but little in the way of character or mental
abilities with which to endow his children, and perhaps it was rather
from her mother that she derived her superior characteristics. With
such paternity and the traditions of the entire race we can hardly
wonder at the instances of vice and cruelty which we find recorded of
this last royal member of her family. That her story is so interwoven
with Roman affairs gives us a clearer knowledge of it than of much of
the previous history, which was included only in that of Egypt and
Syria.
So Cleopatra, a mere girl of sixteen or seventeen, and her brother of
ten, succeeded to the throne and were accepted by the Alexandrians.
But the boy was persuaded by his counsellors to oust his sister, who
was forced to yield and fled to Syria. That she had both adherents and
means, however, is proved by the fact that she did not tamely submit
to this violation of the agreement, but promptly raised an army, and
this alone seems to indicate that, young as she was, she already showed
remarkable abilities and returned to recover her lawful heritage. To
live at peace with each other seemed beyond the power of most of the
Ptolemy race.
At this point Pompey, seeking for allies, turned toward Egypt, and
the father of the young king having been under obligations to him he
made overtures to the boy sovereign. But the party in power, who for
the time being were “the power behind the throne,” decided to receive
him with apparent friendliness, and then treacherously murdered him,
hoping thereby to secure the more powerful friendship of his adversary,
Caesar. Meanwhile the armies of the young king and his sister lay
opposite to each other. Caesar at once came to Egypt and was revolted
at the treacherous deed, but was not in a sufficiently strong position
to punish the murderers. He was received somewhat coldly and had to
proceed with caution, but summoning his legions he remanded that the
youthful contestants for the crown should appear before him and discuss
their claims peacefully, rather than by force of arms.
This was Cleopatra’s opportunity; her strongest weapons were her
personal charms rather than her military powers. At twenty years
of age she must have been in the perfect bloom of her beauty, with
exquisite eyes and coloring, the sweetest of voices, a fascinating
manner, ample powers of wit and rare conversational abilities. To
these she trusted, and not in vain. Her position, her very life was at
stake; her adversaries, who could probably hope for no consideration
at her hands should she again come into power, would no doubt have
been glad to assassinate her had opportunity afforded. Fearing this,
it is said, and time seems to give credit to the story, she hid
herself in a bale of carpet and caused it to be carried to Caesar’s
palace by night. No device which her fertile brain and keen wit could
invent, we may be sure, was lacking in the accessories of the toilette
to produce the effect she desired, to move his pity and secure his
assistance. She played a great stake, perhaps with confidence, perhaps
with trembling of heart, but she won, for from that time forward till
his death Caesar, elderly man though he was, between fifty and sixty
years of age, became her fervent admirer. Rarely, if ever, had woman
accomplished so much in a single interview. She must have been elated
with triumph and renewed confidence in her powers. Yet Caesar did not
attempt to make her sole monarch; he lost his heart, so to speak, but
not his head, as Antony subsequently did. He decreed that the will of
Auletes should be carried out, restored Cyprus to Egypt and proposed
that the younger brother and sister, Ptolemy and Arsinoe, should be
made its governors. He even insisted that the money Cleopatra’s father
had pledged to Rome should be paid. For this purpose it is said the
young king’s plate was ostentatiously pawned.
The king’s chief counsellor, Pothinos, not realizing the strength that
Caesar could command, nor the personal ability of the man with whom he
had to deal, recalled the army and virtually declared war. Cleopatra’s
troops had either been hired mercenaries, who deserted or whose time
had expired, and who went over to what they considered the winning
side, or they had been defeated, for in this emergency she seems to
have been able to afford little support to Caesar. In defending himself
he set fire to the ships in the harbor, and it is even reported that
the great library was burnt, but as various authors make no mention of
it this last disaster is questioned.
Caesar put to death the councillor, Pothinos, and kept with him in
the fortress his new love, the beautiful Cleopatra, and the two boys,
the young king and his brother. The Princess Arsinoe, probably also
beautiful and attractive, and, young as she was, realizing perhaps the
character and ambition of her elder sister, fled to the Egyptian camp,
thus refusing to put herself under the protection of the conquering
Roman, though it was to him she owed her position as ruler of Cyprus;
but distrust was natural and perhaps not unfounded. The Egyptians then
demanded the young king, and Caesar, though virtually master, was not
yet in a sufficiently strong position to refuse, so, knowing that this
mere boy could do him no harm, he released him. It was, however, but
the poor youth’s death warrant, for in the subsequent attack upon the
Egyptians they were driven into the river, and the royal boy came to
his end by drowning, saved by this possibly from even a worse fate.
The Egyptians, disheartened, now gave up the contest. Caesar treated
them with comparative leniency, set Cleopatra with the youngest Ptolemy
as her nominal husband over them and carried the poor Princess Arsinoe
to Rome, where, led in chains, she was among the captives to grace
the triumph. She did not prove to have the power of her sister’s
fascinations to melt his hard heart. Caesar may have considered that
she was in debt to him and had proved ungrateful and treacherous, but
this was an act unworthy of his character and is attributed to the evil
influence of Cleopatra. There is no direct proof of this, though his
subsequent treatment of her sister gives color to the idea.
After Caesar’s departure a child was born to Cleopatra, whom she stated
to be his son, gave him the name of Caesarion, or some say the name
was given by the Alexandrians, and always upheld his royal prerogative
even as against later children of the more beloved Antony. These
irregularities and evil doings seem to have been calmly accepted by the
people, and in inscriptions the boy is entitled, “Ptolemy, also Caesar,
the god Philopator Philometor.” He is to be numbered among the young
princes who came to an untimely end; a brief life and a sad one, yet it
is possible, even probable, that it had its periods of the pleasure and
joy natural to his age, if no prolonged happiness.
Some time between 48 and 44 B. C. Cleopatra left Egypt with her brother
and joined Caesar in Rome. Probably he summoned her to come to him,
more probably it was of her own motion, fearing that out of sight was
out of mind, or might prove so, and that her presence was necessary
to retain over him the influence she had gained. It was a shameful
connection, as Caesar already had a wife, Caepurnia, and caused much
scandal, even in scandalous Rome. She is mentioned by Cicero and
others, but it is not her beauty and her grace that he dwells upon, but
her haughtiness. Knowing full well probably how she was regarded, she
returned the latent contempt which she divined in her visitor, even if
he did not make it apparent, with a proud and supercilious demeanor.
She had nothing to gain from him and she did not seek to charm and
conciliate as she had done with Caesar. She is, however, said to have
promised him books from the Alexandrian library, which seems to suggest
that there was some part of it yet remaining even if it had suffered
damage by fire, but failed to perform her promise.