Vatican.]
[Photograph by Anderson.
OCTAVIAN.
He was about to set sail for Alexandria when news seems to have reached him that the troubles in Rome were coming to a head, and that his brother Lucius Antonius, and his wife Fulvia, were preparing to attack Octavian. He must therefore have hesitated in deciding whether he should return to Rome or not. He must have been considerably annoyed at the turn which events had taken, for he knew well enough that he was not then in a position to wage a successful war against Octavian; and he was much afraid of being involved in a contest which would probably lead to his own downfall. If he returned to Italy it was possible that he might be able to patch up the quarrel, and to effect a reconciliation which should keep the world at peace until the time when he himself desired war. But if he failed in his pacific efforts, a conflict would ensue for which he was not prepared. It seems to me, therefore, that he thought it more desirable that he should keep clear of the quarrel, and should show himself to be absorbed in eastern questions. By going over to Egypt for a few weeks, not only would he detach himself from the embarrassing tactics of his party in Rome, but he would also raise forces and money, nominally for his Parthian campaign, which would be of immense service to him should Octavian press the quarrel to a conclusive issue. Moreover, there can be little question that to Antony the thought of meeting his stern wife again and of being obliged to live once more under her powerful scrutiny was very distasteful; whereas, on the other hand, he looked forward with youthful enthusiasm to a repetition of the charming entertainment provided by Cleopatra. Antony was no great statesman or diplomatist; and jolly overgrown boy that he was, his effective actions were at all times largely dictated by his pleasurable desires. The Queen of Egypt had made a most disconcerting appeal to that spontaneous nature, which, in matters of this kind, required little encouragement from without; and now the fact that it seemed wise at the time to keep away from Rome served as full warrant for the manœuvre which his ambition and his heart jointly urged upon him.
Early in the winter of B.C. 41, therefore, he made his way to Alexandria, and was received by Cleopatra into the beautiful Lochias Palace as a most profoundly honoured guest. All the resources of that sumptuous establishment were concerted for his amusement, and it was not long before the affairs of the Roman world were relegated to the back of his genial mind. In the case of Cleopatra, however, there was no such laxity. The Queen’s ambitions, fired by Cæsar, had been stirred into renewed flame by her success at Tarsus; and she was determined to make Antony the champion of her cause. From the moment when she had realised his pliability and his susceptibility to her overtures, she had made up her mind to join forces with him in an attempt upon the throne of the Roman Empire; and it was now her business both to fascinate him by her personal charms and, by the nature of her entertainments, to demonstrate to him her wealth and power.
“It would be trifling without end,” says Plutarch, “to give a particular account of Antony’s follies at Alexandria.” For several weeks he gave himself up to amusements of the most frivolous character, and to the enjoyment of a life more luxurious than any he had ever known. His own family had been simple in their style of living, and although he had taught himself much in this regard, and had expended a great deal of money on lavish entertainments, there were no means of obtaining in Rome a splendour which could compare with the magnificence of these Alexandrian festivities. His friends, too, many of whom were common actresses and comedians, had not been brilliant tutors in the arts of entertainment; nor had they encouraged him to provide them so much with refined luxury as with good strong drink and jovial company. Now, however, in Cleopatra’s palace, Antony found himself surrounded on all sides by the devices and appliances of the most advanced culture of the age; and an appeal was made to his senses which would have put the efforts even of the extravagant Lucullus to shame. Alexandria has been called “the Paris of the ancient world,”[90] and it is not difficult to understand the glamour which it cast upon the imagination of the lusty Roman, who, for the first time in his life, found himself surrounded by a group of cultured men and women highly practised in the art of living sumptuously. Moreover, he was received by Cleopatra as prospective lord of all he surveyed, for the Queen seems to have shown him quite clearly that all these things would be his if he would but cast in his lot with her.
Antony quickly adapted his manners to those of the Alexandrians. He set aside his Roman dress and clothed himself in the square-cut Greek costume, putting upon his feet the white Attic shoes known as phæcasium. He seems to have spoken the Greek language well; and he now made himself diplomatically agreeable to the Grecian nobles who frequented the court. He constantly visited the meeting-places of learned men, spending much time in the temples and in the Museum; and thereby he won for himself an assured position in the brilliant society of the Queen’s Alexandrian court, which, in spite of its devotion to the pleasant follies of civilisation, prided itself upon its culture and learning.
Meanwhile he did not hesitate to endear himself by every means in his power to Cleopatra. He knew that she desired him, for dynastic reasons, to become her legal husband, and that there was no other man in the world, from her point of view, so suitable for the position of her consort. He knew, also, that as a young “widow,” whose first union had been so short-lived, Cleopatra was eagerly desirous of a satisfactory marriage which should give her the comfort of a strong companion upon whom to lean in her many hours of anxiety, and an ardent lover to whom she could turn in her loneliness. He knew that she was attracted by his herculean strength and brave appearance; and it must have been apparent to him from the first that he could without much exertion win her devotion almost as easily as the great Cæsar had done. The Queen was young, passionate, and exceedingly lonely; and it did not require any keen perception on his part to show him how great was her need, both for political and for personal reasons, of a reliable marriage. He therefore paid court to his hostess with confidence; and it was not long before she surrendered herself to him with all the eagerness and whole-hearted interest of her warm, impulsive nature.
The union was at once sanctioned by the court and the priesthood, and was converted in Egypt into as legal a marriage as that with Cæsar had been. There can be little doubt that Cleopatra obtained from him some sort of promise that he would not desert her; and at this time she must have felt herself able to trust him as implicitly as she had trusted the great Dictator. Cæsar had not played her false; he had taken her to Rome and had made no secret of his intention to raise her to the throne by his side. In like manner she believed that Antony, virtually Cæsar’s successor, would create an empire over which they should jointly rule; and she must have rejoiced in her successful capture of his heart, whereby she had obtained both a good-natured, handsome lover and a bold political champion.
In the union between these two powerful personages the historian may thus see both a diplomatic and a romantic amalgamation. Neither Cleopatra nor Antony seem to me yet to have been very deeply in love, but I fancy each was stirred by the attractions of the other, and each believed for the moment that the gods had provided the mate so long awaited. Cleopatra with her dainty beauty, and Antony with his magnificent physique, must have appeared to be admirably matched by Nature; while their royal and famous destinies could not, in the eyes of the material world, have been more closely allied.