Cleopatra the Great (59 page)

314 ‘having had by her a list of her treasure, she gave it into his hands . . . women's toys . . . but in fact, was himself deceived'. Plutarch,
Antony,
Dryden trans., p.778

314 ‘she, seeking to die more nobly, showed no womanish fear of the sword . . . resolved for death, she was brave inde(ed.) She was no docile woman but truly scorned to be taken away in her enemy's ships, deposed, to an overweening triumph'. Horace, Ode 1.37.21-32, in Maehler 2003, p.207.

314 ‘pure wine and fragrant oil of spikenard, balsam too, and crimson roses', based on Ausonius, Epit. XXXI, in Toynbee 1971, p.63.

314 ‘no further offerings or libations expect from me; these are the last honours that Cleopatra can pay your memory . . . But if the gods below, with whom you now are, either can or will do anything, suffer not your living wife to be abandoned; let me not be led in trumph to your shame, but hide me and bury me here with you, since amongst all my bitter misfortunes nothing has afflicted me like this brief time that I have had to live without you'. Plutarch,
Antony
, Dryden trans., p.778.

315 ‘she put on her finest robes'. Cassius Dio, 51.13, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.74.

315 ‘no one knows for certain by what means she perished'. Cassius Dio, 51.14, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.74; death discussed by Griffith 1961 and Whitehorne 2001, chapter 15; effigy of Cleopatra as Isis with snakes on arms in Etienne 2003, p.98.

315 ‘what really took place is known to no-one'. Plutarch,
Antony
, Dryden trans., p.779.

315 ‘the pair of asps in wait for her'. Virgil,
Aeneid
VIII.697 in Grant 1972, p.227; Dryden trans., p.223.

315 ‘handled fierce snakes, her corporeal frame drank in their venom'. Horace,
Odes
1.37.26-28, in Maehler 2003, p.207.

315 ‘an asp was brought in amongst those figs and covered with the leaves . . . ‘ “So here it is” and held out her bare arm to be bitten'. Plutarch,
Antony
, Dryden trans., p.779.

316 ‘asp' defined in Holbl 2003, p.293.

316 ‘which without convulsion or groaning brought on a heavy drowsiness and lethargy with a gentle sweat on the face, the sense being stupefied by degrees; the patient, in appearance, being sensible of no pain, but rather troubled to be disturbed or awakened like those that are in a profound natural sleep'. Plutarch,
Antony
, Dryden trans., p.774.

317 Cobra suggested by Spiegelberg in 1925 for ‘an end which was not indeed the easiest, but yet the most sacred'. Griffiths 1961 p.113; ‘while the introduction of one snake is perhaps credible, the mind soon begins to boggle at this Medusa-like proliferation of reptiles'. Whitehorne 2001, p.192.

317 ‘kept in a vase, and that she vexed and pricked it with a golden spindle till it seized her arm'. Plutarch,
Antony
, Dryden trans., p.779.

317 ‘two-headed serpent capable of bounding several feet in the air'. El-Masudi in Hughes-Hallet, 1990, p.72.

317 Poisoned ointment mentioned by Strabo XVII.296 in Grant 1972, p.226.

317 ‘she had smeared a pin with some poison whose composition rendered it harmless if the contact were external, but which, if even the smallest quantity entered the bloodstream, would quickly prove fatal, although also painless; according to this theory, she had previously worn the pin in her hair as usual'. Cassius Dio, 51.14, Scott-Kilvert trans., pp.74-5.

318 ‘it was also said she carried poison in a hollow bodkin, about which she wound her hair'. Plutarch,
Antony
82, Dryden trans., p.779.

318 Hairpins in sculpture see Bartman 2001, fig.10, p.12; in mummy hair see Bowman 1996, pl.6; Roman attitude to female hair in la Folette 2001, p.57, Sebesta 1997, p.535.

318 ‘Cleopatra's hair-dressing girl'. Plutarch,
Antony
, Dryden trans., p.770.

318 ‘with majestic grace, took in her hands all the emblems of royalty'. Cassius Dio 51.14, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.74.

318 Hairpins' ability to pierce skin in Ovid,
Art of Love
III.240-245, Lewis May trans., p.91; Apuleius VIII, Grant trans., p.191.

318 ‘made a small scratch her arm and caused the poison to enter her blood'. Cassius Dio, 51.14, in Scott-Kilvert trans., p.75; ‘she bit herself and then poured the poison of a viper into the wound'. Galen,
De Theriads ad Pisonem 7
, in von Wertheimer 1931, p.318.

319 ‘lying upon a bed of gold, set out in all her royal ornaments. Eiras, one of her women, lay dying at her feet, and Charmion, just ready to fall, scarce able to hold up her head, was adjusting her mistress's diadem'. Plutarch,
Antony
82, Dryden trans., p.779.

319 ‘Was this well done of your lady, Charmion?' . . . and as befitting the descendant of so many kings'. Plutarch,
Antony
85, Dryden trans., p.779; Rowlandson (ed.) 1998, pp.40-1.

Chapter 12

320 ‘he was so anxious to save Cleopatra as an ornament for his triumph'. Suetonius,
Augustus
17, Graves trans., p.59.

320 ‘the only marks that were found on her body were tiny pricks on the arm'. Cassius Dio 51.14, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.74.

320 ‘only something like the trail of it was said to have been noticed on the sand by the sea, on the part towards which the building faced and where the windows were'. Plutarch,
Antony
82, Dryden trans., p.779.

320 ‘actually summoned Psyllian snake-charmers to suck the poison from her self-inflicted wound, supposedly from the bite of an asp'. Suetonius
Augustus
17, Graves trans., p.59.

320 ‘if sent for immediately, to suck out the venom of any reptile before the victim dies'. Cassius Dio 51.14, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.75.

320 ‘Will the patient live or die?'. After Nunn 1996, p.188.

321 ‘not only came to see her body, but called in the aid of drugs ... in an attempt to revive her'. Cassius Dio 51.14 Scott-Kilvert trans., p.75.

321 ‘the poison does not enter the heart here, nor burn the breast here . . . Osiris' sword destroys the poison, it cools the burn, when the snakes — merbu, wartet, ketet — come out!' After Andreu et al. 1997, p.204.

321 ‘I will not be shown in a triumph'. Livy CXXXIII.54, trans., Schlesinger 1959, p.223.

321 ‘was bitterly chagrined on his own account, as if all the glory of his victory had been taken away from him'. Cassius Dio 51.14, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.75.

321 ‘were both embalmed in the same manner and buried in the same tomb'. Cassius Dio 51.15, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.75.

321 ‘full of ghosts'. Pausanias 10.32.17, in Witt 1971, p.66.

322 ‘her women also received honorable burial by his directions'. Plutarch,
Antony
, Dryden trans., p.779.

322 ‘with royal splendour and magnificence'. Plutarch,
Antony
85, Dryden trans., p.779.

322 ‘great quantities of treasure were found in the palace'. Cassius Dio 51.17, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.78.

322 ‘a single agate cup'. Suetonius,
Augustus
71, Graves trans., p.90.

322 ‘the rate of interest fell from 12 to 4%'. Earl 1968, p.55.

322 ‘seduced the army with bonuses, and his cheap food policy was successful bait for civilians. Indeed, he attracted everybody's goodwill by the enjoyable gift of peace . . . war or judicial murder had disposed of all men of spirit'. Tacitus,
Annals
1.2, Grant trans., p.29-30.

322 Interregnum mentioned by Clement in Skeat 1953, pp.98-100; Whitehorne 2001, p.197.

323 ‘it is bad to have too many Caesars'. Plutarch,
Antony
, in Grant 1972, p.229, paraphrasing Odysseus' speech in Homer,
Iliad
11.204, Graves trans., p.45.

323 Bust identified as Antonia Minor on basis of hairstyle, ‘always a precious clue regarding identity'. Goddio and Bernard 2004, p.135.

323 ‘Archibius, one of her friends, gave [Octavian] two thousand talents to save them'. Plutarch,
Antony
82, Dryden trans., p.779; interpretation in Goudchaux 2001, p.129.

324 ‘the Memphite dynasty was extinguished at the same moment as the House of the Ptolemies'. Reymond and Barns 1977, p.14.

324 ‘gold and silver ornaments with protective amulets of all sorts of genuine precious stones'. BM.EA.188. in Reymond 1981, p.218.

324 ‘would not go out of his way, however slightly, to honour the divine Apis bull'. Suetonius,
Augustus
93, Graves trans., p.100.

324 ‘to worship gods, not cattle'. Cassius Dio 51.16, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.77.

324 ‘deranged . . . demented'. Juvenal,
Satires
XV.l-2, 2-8, 44 in Maehler 2003, p.212; similarly ‘yapping Anubis'. Propertius III.11, trans., Shepherd 1985 in Maehler 2003, p.209-210; ‘monstrous gods and barking Anubis'. Virgil,
Aeneid
VIII.698-700 in Maehler 2003, p.208.

324 ‘the angry priests'. Lindsay 1970, p.485, deliberately omitting cartouche from Buchis Stela No.13 in Mond and Myers I p.14, II pp.11-12; Tarn 1936 p.188; Brooklyn 1988, no.107, p.213.

325 ‘both lamp-lighters in the temple of Serapis, most great god, and of the Isis shrine there, and Paapis son of Thonis and Petorisris son of Patoiphos, both lamp-lighters in the temple of Taweret, most great goddess, at Oxyrynchos. All four swear by Caesar, god and son of a god, to the overseers of the temples in the Oxyrynchos and Kynopolitye nomes, that we will superintend the lamps of the above named temples and will supply proper oil for the daily lamps burning in the temples signified from Thoth 1 to Mesore 5 of the present year 1 of Caesar in accordance with what was supplied up to the 22nd which was year 7 of Cleopatra; and we the aforesaid are mutually sureties and all our property is security for the performance of the duties herein written'. Oxyrynchus Papyrus, after Lindsay 1970, p.485-6.

325 ‘high priest of Alexandria and all Egypt'. Dunand and Zivie-Coche 2004, p.211-13.

325 ‘like those of horses, the whites being larger than usual'. Pliny,
Natural History
XI.143, Loeb trans., p.521; bronze statue GR 1911.9-1.1 in Bosanquet 1911, p.69; Huskmson (ed.) 2000, p.289.

325 ‘beloved of Ptah and Isis'. Witt 1971, p.63.

326 ‘the Roman . . . Caesar the god, son of the god'. Rowlandson (ed.) 1998, p.50.

326 ‘he whose power is incomparable in the City par excellence that he loves, Rome'. Dunand and Zivie-Coche 2004, p.201.

326 ‘took a leaf from Alexander's book when [he] decided to keep Egypt under strict surveillance'. Arrian III.6, de Selincourt trans., p.155; Octavian's Egyptian policy in Cassius Dio 51.17, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.77.

326 ‘praefectus Aegypti et Alexandreae'. Berman 1999, p.465.

326 ‘caused a list of his achievements to be inscribed upon the pyramids . . . circulated much disparaging gossip'. Cassius Dio 53.23, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.146.

326 ‘second Cleopatra'. Reeves 2326, p.36; suppression of defeat in Hus-kinson (ed.) 2000, p.288.

327 ‘even wrenched from their bases the statues of Caesar'. Strabo in Bosanquet 1911, p.70.

327 ‘all the processions presented a striking appearance on account of the spoils of Egypt'. Cassius Dio 51.21, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.82.

327 ‘an effigy of the dead Cleopatra lying on a couch, so that in a sense she too, together with the live captives, who included her children . . . formed a part of the pageant'. Cassius Dio 51.21, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.82.

327 ‘I've seen the sacred adders' fang upon her bosom close and hang, and her whole body slowly creep on the dark road to endless sleep', Propertius III.ll.51-54 in Grant 1972, p.227; also Maehler 2003, p.210.

327 ‘Now is the time to drain the flowing bowl, now with unfettered foot to beat the ground with dancing, now with feasting to deck the couches of the gods, my comrades!' Horace, Ode 1.37.1-4, Bennett trans., p.99; compare with sombre Epode IX ‘After Actium', Bennett trans., p.387-9.

328 ‘cost me about 100,000,000 sesterces',
Res Gestae
in Earl 1968, pp.101-2.

328 ‘the largest mass of rock crystal ever seen', Pliny,
Natural History
XXXVII, 23-29, Loeb trans., p.183.

328 ‘at great expense, without any inscription of my name'
Res Gestae
, in Earl 1968, pp.101-2.

328 ‘cut in two pieces, so that half a helping of the jewel might be in each of the ears'. Pliny
Natural History
IX.59.119-121, Loeb trans., p.247; see also Hales 2005, p.137.

328 ‘the buildings could be imagined as having sexual intercourse'. Montserrat in Huskinson (ed.) 2000, p. 169.

328 ‘I found Rome built of sun dried bricks — I leave her clothed in marble'. Suetonius,
Augustus
28, Graves trans., p.66.

329 ‘all that men of old and new times thought, with learned minds, is open to inspection by the reader'. Ovid,
Tristia
III. 1.63, in Earl 1968, p.103.

329 ‘the biggest clock of all time'. Hamer 1993, p.22.

329 Octavian's mausoleum in Toynbee 1996, fig.14; Cestius' pyramid in Toynbee 1996, pl.33.

330 ‘when glorious Rome had founded been, by augury august'. Suetonius,
Augustus 7
, Graves trans., p.54.

330 ‘Isis Augusta'. Witt 1971, p.81; ‘the title “Augustus” definitely connoted monarchical power. We might paraphrase as “His Majesty'”. White's commentary in Appian,
Roman History
1.5, White trans., p.13, note 1.

330 ‘that the month renamed in his honour should be the one in which he brought down Cleopatra'. Hamer 1993, p.xvii; discussion of ‘Augustan' in Hamer 1996, p.81.

330 ‘I added Egypt to the empire of the Roman people'.
Res Gestae 27.1
in La'da 2003, p.158.

331 ‘were enough to safeguard embarrassing facts and dangerous sentiments'. Reymond and Barns 1977, p.30.

331 Coins' durability in Walker and Higgs (eds) 2001, p.240; Antonius' claim that ‘the way to carry noble blood through the world was by begetting in every place a new line and series of kings' in Plutarch, Antony 36.3-4, Dryden trans., p.761.