this island was regarded by the ambitious Romans as a field in which
military honor might still be acquired. The Britons made one expiring
effort to recover their liberty in the time of Nero, taking advantage of
the absence of Paulinus, the Roman general, who was employed in subduing
the isle of Anglesey. That small island, separated from Britain by a
narrow channel, still continued the chief seat of the Druidical
superstition, and constantly afforded a retreat to their defeated
forces. It was thought necessary therefore to subdue that place, in
order to extirpate a religion that disdained submission to foreign laws
or leaders; and Paulinus, the greatest general of his age, undertook the
task.
The Britons endeavored to obstruct his landing on that last retreat of
their superstitions and liberties, both by the force of their arms and
the terrors of their religion. The priests and islanders were drawn up
in order of battle upon the shore, to oppose his landing. The women,
dressed like Furies, with dishevelled hair, and torches in their hands,
poured forth the most terrible execrations. Such a sight at first
confounded the Romans and fixed them motionless on the spot; so that
they received the first assault without opposition. But Paulinus,
exhorting his troops to despise the menaces of an absurd superstition,
impelled them to the attack, drove the Britons off the field, burned the
Druids in the same fires they had prepared for their captive enemies,
and destroyed all their consecrated groves and altars.
In the mean time the Britons, taking advantage of his absence, resolved,
by a general insurrection, to free themselves from that state of abject
servitude to which they were reduced by the Romans. They had many
motives to aggravate their resentment--the greatness of their taxes,
which were levied with unremitting severity; the cruel insolence of
their conquerors, who reproached that very poverty which they had
caused, but particularly the barbarous treatment of Boadicea, queen of
the Iceni, drove them at last into open rebellion.
Prasatagus, king of the Iceni, at his death had bequeathed one-half of
his dominions to the Romans, and the other to his daughters; thus hoping
by the sacrifice of a part to secure the rest in his family; but it had
a different effect; for the Roman procurator immediately took possession
of the whole, and when Boadicea, the widow of the deceased, attempted to
remonstrate, he ordered her to be scourged like a slave, and violated
the chastity of her daughters. These outrages were sufficient to produce
a revolt through the whole island. The Iceni, being the most deeply
interested in the quarrel, were the first to take arms; all the other
states soon followed the example, and Boadicea, a woman of great beauty
and masculine spirit, was appointed to head the common forces, which
amounted to two hundred and thirty thousand fighting men.
These, exasperated by their wrongs, attacked several of the Roman
settlements and colonies with success, Paulinus hastened to relieve
London, which was already a flourishing colony; but found on his arrival
that it would be requisite, for the general safety, to abandon that
place to the merciless fury of the enemy. London was therefore soon
reduced to ashes; such of the inhabitants as remained in it were
massacred; and the Romans with all other strangers to the number of
seventy thousand were cruelly put to the sword. Flushed with these
successes the Britons no longer sought to avoid the enemy, but boldly
came to the place where Paulinus awaited their arrival, posted in a very
advantageous manner with a body of ten thousand men. The battle was
obstinate and bloody. Boadicea herself appeared in a chariot with her
two daughters and harangued her army with masculine firmness; but the
irregular and undisciplined bravery of her troops was unable to resist
the cool intrepidity of the Romans. They were routed with great
slaughter; eighty thousand perished in the field, and an infinite number
were made prisoners, while Boadicea herself, fearing to fall into the
hands of the enraged victor, put an end to her life by poison. Nero soon
after recalled Paulinus from a government where, by suffering and
inflicting so many severities, he was judged improper to compose the
angry and alarmed minds of the natives.
After an interval, Cerealis received the command from Vespasian, and by
his bravery propagated the terror of the Roman arms. Julius Frontinus
succeeded Cerealis both in authority and reputation. The general who
finally established the dominion of the Romans in this island was Julius
Agricola, who governed it during the reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and
Domitian, and distinguished himself as well by his courage as humanity.
Agricola, who is considered as one of the greatest characters in
history, formed a regular plan for subduing and civilizing the island,
and thus rendering the acquisition useful to the conquerors. As the
northern part of the country was least tractable, he carried his
victorious arms thither, and defeated the undisciplined enemy in every
encounter. He pierced into the formerly inaccessible forests and
mountains of Caledonia; he drove onward all those fierce and intractable
spirits who preferred famine to slavery, and who, rather than submit,
chose to remain in perpetual hostility. Nor was it without opposition
that he thus made his way into a country rude and impervious by nature.
He was opposed by Galgacus at the head of a numerous army, whom he
defeated in a decisive action, in which considerable numbers were slain.
Being thus successful, he did not think proper to pursue the enemy into
their retreats; but embarking a body of troops on board his fleet, he
ordered the commander to surround the whole coast of Britain, which had
not been discovered to be an island till the preceding year. This
armament, pursuant to his orders, steered to the northward, and there
subdued the Orkneys; then making the tour of the whole island, it
arrived in the port of Sandwich, without having met with the least
disaster.
During these military enterprises, Agricola was ever attentive to the
arts of peace. He attempted to humanize the fierceness of those who
acknowledged his power, by introducing the Roman laws, habits, manners,
and learning. He taught them to desire and raise all the conveniences of
life, instructed them in the arts of agriculture, and, in order to
protect them in their peaceable possessions, he drew a rampart, and
fixed a train of garrisons between them and their northern neighbors,
thus cutting off the ruder and more barren parts of the island and
securing the Roman province from the invasion of a fierce and
necessitous enemy. In this manner the Britons, being almost totally
subdued, now began to throw off all hopes of recovering their former
liberty, and, having often experienced the superiority of the Romans,
consented to submit, and were content with safety. From that time the
Romans seemed more desirous of securing what they possessed than of
making new conquests, and were employed rather in repressing than
punishing their restless northern invaders.
CLEOPATRA'S CONQUEST OF CÆSAR AND
ANTONY
B.C. 51-30
JOHN P. MAHAFFY
(Several Egyptian princesses of the line of the Ptolemies bore the name
of Cleopatra, but history, romance, and tragedy are all illumined with
the story of one--Cleopatra the daughter of Ptolemy Auletes. Born at
Alexandria, B.C. 69, she ruled jointly with her brother Ptolemy from 51
to 48. Being then expelled by her colleague, she entered upon the
performance of her part in Roman history when her cause was espoused by
Julius Cæsar, whom she had captivated by her charms. Her reinstatement
by the help of Cæsar, as well as all that followed in her relations with
Roman rulers, was due primarily to personal considerations, rather than
political or military causes; and among women whose lives have vitally
influenced the conduct of great historic leaders, and thereby affected
the course of events, Cleopatra holds a place at once the most
conspicuous and most unique.
Like Cæsar, Mark Antony, at his first interview with Cleopatra,
succumbed to the fascinations of the "Rare Egyptian," and he never after
ceased to be her slave. Not long after Cæsar's death Antony had married
Fulvia, whom he deserted for the "enchanting queen." From this point to
its culmination in overwhelming disaster and the tragic death of this
celebrated pair of lovers, the romantic drama of Cleopatra's conquests
becomes even more important in literature than in history. This
extraordinary voluptuary, whose beauty and witcheries have interested
mankind for almost twenty centuries, has been the subject of some thirty
tragedies in various languages; and in _Antony and Cleopatra_--one of
his greatest plays--Shakespeare, closely following the narratives of
Plutarch and other classical writers, has invested her with a potency of
charm unparalleled among literary creations.
She matches Antony in qualities of intellect, while she dazzles him with
her coquettish arts. "A queen, a siren," says Thomas Campbell, "a
Shakespeare's Cleopatra alone could have entangled Shakespeare's
Antony." And Shakespeare alone, as declared by Mrs. Jameson, "has dared
to exhibit the Egyptian Queen with all her greatness and all her
littleness, all her paltry arts and dissolute passions, yet awakened our
pity for fallen grandeur without once beguiling us into sympathy with
guilt."
Yet the plain history of this "Sorceress of the Nile," with her
"infinite variety," as told by Plutarch and the other ancients, and
retold, with whatever advantages gained from critical research, by the
modern masters, makes the same impression of moral contrast and
inscrutability as that imparted by the greatest poet who has dramatized
the character of Cleopatra.)
Now at last Egypt, coming into close connection with the world's
masters, becomes the stage for some of the most striking scenes in
ancient history. They seem to most readers something new and
strange--the pageants and passions of the fratricide Cleopatra as
something unparalleled--and yet she was one of a race in which almost
every reigning princess for the last two hundred years had been swayed
by like storms of passion, or had been guilty of like daring violations
of common humanity. What Arsinoë, what Cleopatra, from the first to the
last, had hesitated to murder a brother or a husband, to assume the
throne, to raise and command armies, to discard or adopt a partner of
her throne from caprice in policy, or policy in caprice? But hitherto
this desperate gambling with life had been carried on in Egypt and
Syria; the play had been with Hellenistic pawns--Egyptian or Syrian
princes; the last Cleopatra came to play with Roman pieces, easier
apparently to move than the others, but implying higher stakes, greater
glory in the victory, greater disaster in the defeat. Therefore is it
that this last Cleopatra, probably no more than an average specimen of
the beauty, talent, daring, and cruelty of her ancestors, has taken an
unique place among them in the imagination of the world, and holds her
own even now and forever as a familiar name throughout the world.
Ptolemy Auletes, when dying, had taken great care not to bequeath his
mortgaged kingdom to his Roman creditors. In his will he had named as
his heirs the elder of his two sons, and his daughter, who was the
eldest of the family. Nobody thought of claiming Egypt for a heritage of
the Roman Republic, when the whole world was the prize proposed in the
civil conflict, for though the war of Cæsar and Pompey had not actually
broken out, the political sky was lowering with blackness, and the
coming tempest was muttering its thunder through the sultry air. So
Cleopatra, now about sixteen or seventeen years of age, and her much
younger brother (about ten) assumed the throne as was traditional,
without any tumult or controversy,
The opening discords came from within the royal family. The tutors and
advisers of the young King, among whom Pothinos, a eunuch brought up
with him as his playmate, according to the custom of the court, was the
ablest and most influential, persuaded him to assume sole direction of
affairs and to depose his elder sister. Cleopatra was not able to
maintain herself in Alexandria, but went to Syria as an exile, where she
promptly collected an army, as was the wont of these Egyptian
princesses, who seem to have resources always under their control, and
returned--within a few months, says Cæsar--by way of Pelusium, to
reconquer her lawful share in the throne. This happened in the fourth
year of their so-called joint reign, B.C. 48, at the very time that
Pompey and Cæsar were engaged in their conflict for a far greater
kingdom.
Cæsar expressed his opinion that the quarrel of the sovereigns in Egypt
concerned the Roman people, and himself as consul, the more so as it was
in his previous consulate that the recognition of and alliance with
their father had taken place. So he signified his decision that Ptolemy
and Cleopatra should dismiss their armies, and should discuss their
claims before him by argument and not by arms. All our authorities,
except Dio Cassius, state that he sent for Cleopatra that she might
personally urge her claims; but Dio tells us, with far more detail and I
think greater probability, "that at first the quarrel with her brother
was argued for her by friends, till she, learning the amorous character
of Cæsar, sent him word that her case was being mismanaged by her
advocates, and she desired to plead it herself, She was then in the
flower of her age (about twenty) and celebrated for her beauty.
Moreover, she had the sweetest of voices, and every charm of
conversation, so that she was likely to ensnare even the most obdurate
and elderly man. These gifts she regarded as her claims upon Cæsar. She
prayed therefore for an interview, and adorned herself in a garb most
becoming, but likely to arouse his pity, and so came secretly by night
to visit him."
If she indeed arrived secretly and was carried into the palace by one
faithful follower as a bale of carpet, it was from fear of assassination
by the party of Pothinos. She knew that as soon as she had reached
Cæsar's sentries she was safe; as the event proved, she was more than
safe, for in the brief interval of peace, and perhaps even of apparent
jollity, while the royal dispute was under discussion, she gained an
influence over Cæsar which she retained till his death. Cæsar
adjudicated the throne according to the will of Auletes; he even
restored Cyprus to Egypt, and proposed to send the younger brother and
his sister Arsinoë to govern it; but he also insisted on a repayment, in
part at least, of the enormous outstanding debt of Auletes to him and
his party.
A few months after Cæsar's departure from Egypt Cleopatra gave birth to
a son, whom she alleged, without any immediate contradiction, to be the
dictator's. The Alexandrians called him Cæsarion, and she never swerved
from asserting for him royal privileges. We hear of no other lover,
though it is impossible to imagine Cleopatra arriving at the age of
twenty without providing herself with this luxury. She was, however,
afraid to let Cæsar live far from her influence, and some time before
his assassination--that is to say, some time between B.C. 48 and 44--she
came with the young King her brother to Rome, where she was received in
Cæsar's palace beyond the Tiber, causing by her residence there
considerable scandal among the stricter Romans. Cicero confesses that he
went to see her, but protests that his reasons for doing so were
absolutely nonpolitical. Cicero found her haughty; he does not say she
was beautiful and fascinating. We do not hear of any political activity
on her part, though Cicero evidently suspects it; it is well-nigh
impossible that she can have preferred her very doubtful position at
Rome to her brilliant life in the East. She was suspected of urging
Cæsar to move eastward the capital of his new empire, to desert Rome,
and choose either Ilium, the imaginary cradle of his race, or
Alexandria, as his residence. She is likely to have encouraged at all
events his expedition against the Parthians, which would bring him to
Syria, whence she hoped to gain new territory for her son. The whole
situation is eloquently, perhaps too eloquently, described by Merivale,
for he weaves in many conjectures of his own, as if they were
ascertained facts.
The colors of this imitation of a hateful original [the oriental despot]
were heightened by the demeanor of Cleopatra, who followed her lover to
Rome at his invitation. She came with the younger Ptolemæus, who now
shared her throne, and her ostensible object was to negotiate a treaty
between her kingdom and the Commonwealth. While the Egyptian nation was
formally admitted to the friendship and alliance of Rome, its sovereign
was lodged in Cæsar's villa on the other side of the Tiber, and the
statue of the most fascinating of women was erected in the temple of the
Goddess of Love and Beauty. The connection which subsisted between her
and the dictator was unblushingly avowed. Public opinion demanded no
concessions to its delicacy; the feelings of the injured Calpurnia had
been blunted by repeated outrage, and Cleopatra was encouraged to
proclaim openly that her child Cæsarion was the son of her Roman
admirer. A tribune, named Helvius Cinna, ventured, it is said, to assert
among his friends that he was prepared to propose a law, with the
dictator's sanction, to enable him to marry more wives than one, for the
sake of progeny, and to disregard in his choice the legitimate
qualification of Roman descent. The Romans, however, were spared this
last insult to their prejudices. The queen of Egypt felt bitterly the
scorn with which she was popularly regarded as the representative of an
effeminate and licentious people. It is not improbable that she employed
her fatal influence to withdraw her lover from the Roman capital, and
urged him to schemes of oriental conquest to bring him more completely
within her toils. In the mean while the haughtiness of her demeanor
corresponded with the splendid anticipations in which she indulged. She
held a court in the suburbs of the city, at which the adherents of the
dictator's policy were not the only attendants. Even his opponents and
concealed enemies were glad to bask in the sunshine of her smiles.
When Cæsar was assassinated, she was still at Rome, and had some wild
hopes of having her son recognized by the Cæsareans. But failing in this
she escaped secretly, and sailed to Egypt, not without causing
satisfaction to cautious men like Cicero that she was gone. The passage
in which he seems to allude to a rumor that she was about to have
another child--another misfortune to the State--does not bear that
interpretation. As he says not a word concerning the young king Ptolemy,
we may assume that the youth was already dead, and that he died at Rome.
The common belief was that Cleopatra poisoned him as soon as his
increasing years made him troublesome to her. In her reign four years
are assigned to a joint rule with her elder brother, four more to that
with her younger, so that this latter must have died in the same year as
Cæsar.
Cleopatra, watching from Egypt the great civil war which ensued,
summoned and commanded by the various leaders to send aid in ships and
money, threatened with plunder and confiscation by those who were now
exhausting Asia Minor and the islands with monstrous exactions, had
ample occupation for her talents in steering safely among these constant
dangers. Appian says she pleaded famine and pestilence in her country in
declining the demands of Cassius for subsidies. The latter was on the
point of invading Egypt, at the moment denuded of defending forces and
_wasted with famine_, when he was summoned to Philippi by Brutus.
It was not till B.C. 41, after the decisive battle of Philippi, that the
victorious Antony, turning to subdue the East to the Cæsarean cause,
held his _joyeuse entrée_ into Ephesus, and then proceeded to drain all
Asia Minor of money for the satisfaction of his greedy legionaries and
his own still more greedy vices. Reaching Cilicia, he sent an order to
the queen of Egypt to come before him and explain her conduct during the
late war, for she was reported to have sent aid to Cassius. The sequel
may be told in Plutarch's famous narrative:
"Dellius, who was sent on this message, had no sooner seen her face, and
remarked her adroitness and subtlety in speech, than he felt convinced
that Antony would not so much as think of giving any molestation to a
woman like this. On the contrary, she would be the first in favor with
him. So he set himself at once to pay his court to the Egyptian, and
gave her his advice, 'to go,' in the Homeric style, to Cilicia, 'in her
best attire,' and bade her fear nothing from Antony, the gentlest and
kindest of soldiers. She had some faith in the words of Dellius, but
more in her own attractions, which, having formerly recommended her to
Cæsar and the young Cnaeus Pompey, she did not doubt might yet prove
more successful with Antony. Their acquaintance was with her when a
girl, young, and ignorant of the world, but she was to meet Antony in
the time of life when women's beauty is most splendid and their
intellects are in full maturity. She made great preparation for her
journey, of money, gifts, and ornaments of value, such as so wealthy a
kingdom might afford, but she brought with her her surest hopes in her
own magic arts and charms.
"She received several letters, both from Antony and from his friends, to
summon her, but she took no account of these orders; and at last, as if
in mockery of them, she came sailing up the river Cydnus, in a barge
with gilded stern and outspread sails of purple, while oars of silver
beat time to the music of flutes and fifes and harps. She herself lay
all along, under a canopy of cloth of gold, dressed as Venus in a
picture, and beautiful young boys, like painted cupids, stood on each
side to fan her. Her maids were dressed like sea nymphs and graces, some
steering at the rudder, some working at the ropes.[71] The perfumes
diffused themselves from the vessel to the shore, which was covered with
multitudes, part following the galley up the river on either bank, part
running out of the city to see the sight. The market-place was quite
emptied, and Antony at last was left alone sitting upon the tribunal,
while the word went through all the multitude that Venus was come to
feast with Bacchus, for the common good of Asia.[72] On her arrival,
Antony sent to invite her to supper. She thought it fitter he should
come to her; so, willing to show his good humor and courtesy, he
complied, and went. He found the preparations to receive him magnificent
beyond expression, but nothing so admirable as the great number of
lights, for on a sudden there was let down altogether so great a number
of branches with lights in them so ingeniously disposed, some in squares
and some in circles, that the whole thing was a spectacle that has
seldom been equalled for beauty."
[Footnote 71: There was no Egyptian feature in this show, which was
purely Hellenistic.]
[Footnote 72: How easily such a belief started up in the minds of a
crowd in the Asia Minor of that day appears from Acts xiv. 11 _seq_.,
where the crowd at Iconium, on seeing a cripple cured, at once exclaim
that the gods are come down to them in the likeness of men, and call
Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker,
bringing sacrifices to offer to the apostles.]