An Emperor Who Was Made a God
A man is famous who has a town or a street named after him.
Will you ever do anything great enough to have even an alley named after you?
But just suppose a month, one of the twelve months of the year, was given your name!
Millions upon millions of people would then write and speak your name forever!
But I’m going to tell you about a man who not only had a month named after him but who was made a god!
After Cæsar had been killed, three men ruled the Roman Empire. One of these three men was Antony, the friend of Cæsar, who made the famous speech over his dead body. The second was Cæsar’s adopted son, who was named Octavius. The name of the third you don’t need to know now, for Antony and Octavius soon got rid of him. Then no sooner had they forced him out than each of these two began to plot to get the share of the other.
Antony’s share, over which he ruled, was the eastern part of the empire. The capital of this part was Alexandria in Egypt, and so Antony went there to live.
In Egypt Antony fell in love with Cleopatra, as Cæsar before him had done, and he finally married her.
Octavius, in the west, which was his share, then made war on Antony and Cleopatra together, and in the end beat them both. Antony felt so bad at being beaten by Octavius that he committed suicide.