When Cæsar’s messengers reached the guards, they asked if all was well. ‘All is well,’ answered the soldiers, but ‘when they had opened the door they found Cleopatra stark-dead, laid upon a bed of gold, attired and arrayed in her royal robes, and one of her women, called Iras, dead at her feet, but her other woman, called Charmian, half dead and trembling, trimming the diadem which Cleopatra wore upon her head.
One of the soldiers seeing her, angrily said unto her, ‘Is this well done, Charmian?’
‘Very well,’ she said again, ‘meet for a princess descended from the race of so many noble kings.’ She said no more, but fell down dead, hard by the bed.
The queen’s last request was granted, for she was buried with royal splendour by the side of Antony.
CHAPTER CXXV
THE EMPEROR AUGUSTUS
The Roman Republic came to an end after the Battle of Actium.
Henceforth until his death Cæsar ruled over the great Roman Empire, and he was now known as the Emperor Augustus. His reign began in 30 B.C., and ended in 14 A.D.
If he did not add much to his great dominions, he saw to it that, during his long reign of forty-four years, those within his realm were able to live at peace with each other and with foreign peoples. Once again, and for the third time since Romulus built the city of Rome, the gates of the temple of Janus were closed.
The Emperor came to be adored by the people of Rome, because his rule was kind and just. His magistrates were not allowed to oppress or rob the poor, while his merchants’ ships were able to ply their trade without fear of pirates.