Thus it may be said that the Egypto-Roman Empire of Cleopatra’s dreams came to be founded in actual fact, with this difference, that its monarchs were sprung from the line of Octavian, Cæsar’s nephew, and not from that of Cæsarion, Cæsar’s son. But while Egypt and Alexandria thus played such an important part in the creation of the Roman monarchy, the memory of Cleopatra, from whose brain and whose influence the new life had proceeded, was yearly more painfully vilified. She came to be the enemy of this Orientalised Rome, which still thought itself Occidental; and her struggle with Octavian was remembered as the evil crisis through which the party of the Cæsars had passed. Abuse was heaped upon her, and stories were invented in regard to her licentious habits. It is upon this insecure basis that the world’s estimate of the character of Cleopatra is founded; and it is necessary for every student of these times at the outset of his studies to rid his mind of the impression which he will have obtained from these polluted sources. Having shut out from his memory the stinging words of Propertius and the fierce lines of Horace, written in the excess of his joy at the close of the period of warfare which had endangered his little country estate, the reader will be in a position to judge whether the interpretation of Cleopatra’s character and actions, which I have laid before him, is to be considered as unduly lenient, and whether I have made unfair use of the merciful prerogative of the historian, in behalf of an often lonely and sorely tried woman, who fought all her life for the fulfilment of a patriotic and splendid ambition, and who died in a manner “befitting the descendant of so many kings.”
[Illustration: LAGOS. | +--------+ | FIRST HUSBAND. = BERENICE I., = PTOLEMY I., | grandniece | Soter I., | of Antipater | a General of | of Macedon. | Alexander the | | Great, afterwards | | King of Egypt. | | +----------------+ +-------+-----+ | | | MAGAS, = APAMA ARSINOE II., = PTOLEMY II., = ARSINOE I., King | of second wife Philadelphus, | first wife, of | Syria. and sister, King of Egypt. | daughter of Cyrene. | first | Lysimachos, | _married_ to | King of | Lysimachos, | Thrace. | King of Thrace. | | | +---------------+ +-------------+ | | BERENICE II. = PTOLEMY III., | Euergetes I., | King of Egypt. | +---------+-------+-------------------+ | | | ANTIOCHOS PTOLEMY IV., = ARSINOE III. MAGAS. the Great, Philopator, | King of King of Egypt. | Syria. | | | +-----+ +-------------+ | | CLEOPATRA I. = PTOLEMY V., | Epiphanes, | King of Egypt. | +-----+------------------+----------------+--------+ | | | | PTOLEMY VI., PTOLEMY VII. = CLEOPATRA II. | Eupator, Philometor, | | King of Egypt. King of Egypt. | | | | | | +----------------------------+--------+ | | | | PTOLEMY VIII., CLEOPATRA III. = PTOLEMY IX., | Neos Philopator, | Euergetes II., | King of Egypt. | King of Egypt. | | | +----------------+----------------+-----+ | | | | | N.N. = PTOLEMY X., = CLEOPATRA IV. SELENE. | Soter II., | | King of Egypt. | | | | +------------+-+----------------+--------+ | | | | | | CLEOPATRA V. = PTOLEMY XIII., = N.N. | BERENICE III. = PTOLEMY XI., | Neos Dionysos, | | | Alexander I., | “Auletes.” | | | King of Egypt. | | | | | | PTOLEMY, | | | King of | | | Cyprus. | | | PTOLEMY XII., | | Alexander II., | | King of Egypt. +-------+-------+ +-------+ | | | CLEOPATRA VI. BERENICE IV., | _married_ Archelaus, | High Priest of | Komana. | | +-----------+-------+--------------+----------+ | | | | PTOLEMY XV., | ARSINOE IV. JULIUS = *CLEOPATRA VII.* = MARCUS King of Egypt. | CÆSAR. | | ANTONIUS. | | | PTOLEMY XIV., | | King of Egypt. | | CÆSARION, | Ptolemy XVI., | King of Egypt. | | +-----------------------+----------------------+-----+ | | | ALEXANDER HELIOS, CLEOPATRA = JUBA, PTOLEMY. _married_ Iotapa SELENE. | King of of Media. | Mauretania. | +-----------+-------+ | ?| PTOLEMY, DRUSILLA. = ANTONIUS FELIX, King of | Procurator of Mauretania. | Judæa. | ^ ]