Cleopatra — Chapter 5 Part 2
"The following morning my father saw several country people assembled before the secluded garden; but he did not have time to inquire what they wanted; for Timagenes, who shared the instruction in history--you know he was afterwards taken to Rome as a prisoner of war--rushed up to him, holding out a tablet which bore the inscription Epicurus had written on the gate of his garden: 'Stranger, here you will be happy;
here is the chief good, pleasure.'
"Cleopatra had written this notice in large letters on the top of a small table before sunrise, and a slave had secretly fastened it on the gate for her.
"This prank might have easily proved fatal to our beautiful companionship, but it had been done merely to make our game exactly like the model.
"My father did not forbid our continuing this pastime, but strictly prohibited our calling ourselves 'Epicureans' outside of the garden, for this noble name had since gained among the people a significance wholly alien.
Epicurus says that true pleasure is to be found only in peace of mind and absence of pain."
"But every one," interrupted Barine, "believes that people like the wealthy Isidorus, whose object in life is to take every pleasure which his wealth can procure, are the real Epicureans.
My mother would not have confided me long to a teacher by whose associates 'pleasure' was deemed the chief good."
"The daughter of a philosopher," replied Archibius, gently shaking his head, "ought to understand what pleasure means in the sense of Epicurus, and no doubt you do.
True, those who are further removed from these things cannot know that the master forbids yearning for individual pleasure.
Have you an idea of his teachings?
No definite one?
Then permit me a few words of explanation.
It happens only too often that Epicurus is confounded with Aristippus, who places sensual pleasure above intellectual enjoyment, as he holds that bodily pain is harder to endure than mental anguish.
Epicurus, on the contrary, considers intellectual pleasure to be the higher one; for sensual enjoyment, which he believes free to every one, can be experienced only in the present, while intellectual delight extends to both the past and the future.
To the Epicureans the goal of life, as has already been mentioned, is to attain the chief blessings, peace of mind, and freedom from pain.
He is to practise virtue only because it brings him pleasure; for who could remain virtuous without being wise, noble, and just?
--and whoever is all these cannot have his peace of mind disturbed, and must be really happy in the exact meaning of the master.
I perceived long since the peril lurking in this system of instruction, which takes no account of moral excellence; but at that time it seemed to me also the chief good.
"How all this charmed the mind of the thoughtful child, still untouched by passion!
It was difficult to supply her wonderfully vigorous intellect with sufficient sustenance, and she really felt that to enrich it was the highest pleasure.
And to her, who could scarcely endure to have a rude hand touch her, though a small grief or trivial disappointment could not be averted, the freedom from pain which the master had named as the first condition for the existence of every pleasure, and termed the chief good, seemed indeed the first condition of a happy life.
"Yet this child, whom my father once compared to a thinking flower, bore without complaint her sad destiny--her father's banishment, her mother's death, her sister Berenike's profligacy.
Even to me, in whom she found a second brother and fully trusted, she spoke of these sorrowful things only in guarded allusions.
I know that she understood what was passing fully and perfectly, and how deeply she felt it; but pain placed itself between her and the 'chief good,' and she mastered it.
And when she sat at work, with what tenacious power the delicate creature struggled until she had conquered the hardest task and outstripped Charmian and even me!
"In those days I understood why, among the gods, a maiden rules over learning, and why she is armed with the weapons of war.
You have heard how many languages Cleopatra speaks.
A remark of Timagenes had fallen into her soul like a seed.
'With every language you learn,' he had said, 'you will gain a nation.'
But there were many peoples in her father's kingdom, and when she was Queen they must all love her.
True, she began with the tongue of the conquerors, not the conquered.
So it happened that we first learned Lucretius, who reproduces in verse the doctrines of Epicurus.
My father was our teacher, and the second year she read Lucretius as if it were a Greek book.
She had only half known Egyptian;
now she speedily acquired it.
During our stay at Philæ she found a troglodyte who was induced to teach her his language.
There were Jews enough here in Alexandria to instruct her in theirs, and she also learned its kindred tongue, Arabic.
"When, many years later, she visited Antony at Tarsus, the warriors imagined that some piece of Egyptian magic was at work, for she addressed each commander in his own tongue, and talked with him as if she were a native of the same country.
"It was the same with everything.
She outstripped us in every branch of study.
To her burning ambition it would have been unbearable to lag behind.
"The Roman Lucretius became her favourite poet, although she was no more friendly to his nation than I, but the self-conscious power of the foe pleased her, and once I heard her exclaim 'Ah!
if the Egyptians were Romans, I would give up our garden for Berenike's throne.'
"Lucretius constantly led her back to Epicurus, and awakened a severe conflict in her unresting mind.
You probably know that he teaches that life in itself is not so great a blessing that it must be deemed a misfortune _not to live_.
It is only spoiled by having death appear to us as the greatest of misfortunes.
Only the soul which ceases to regard death as a misfortune finds peace.
Whoever knows that thought and feeling end with life will not fear death; for, no matter how many dear and precious things the dead have left here below, their yearning for them has ceased with life.
He declares that providing for the body is the greatest folly, while the Egyptian religion, in which Anubis strove to strengthen her faith, maintained precisely the opposite.
"To a certain degree he succeeded, for his personality exerted a powerful influence over her; and besides, she naturally took great pleasure in mystical, supernatural things, as my brother Straton did in physical strength, and you, Barine, enjoy the gift of song.
You know Anubis by sight.
What Alexandrian has not seen this remarkable man?
--and whoever has once met his eyes does not easily forget him.
He does indeed rule over mysterious powers, and he used them in his intercourse with the young princess.
It is his work if she cleaves to the religious belief of her people, if she who is a Hellene to the last drop of blood loves Egypt, and is ready to make any sacrifice for her independence and grandeur.
She is called 'the new Isis,' but Isis presides over the magic arts of the Egyptians, and Anubis initiated Cleopatra into this secret science, and even persuaded her to enter the observatory and the laboratory---- "But all these things had their origin in our garden of Epicurus, and my father did not venture to forbid it; for the King had sent a message from Rome to say that he was glad to have Cleopatra find pleasure in her own people and their secret knowledge.
"The flute-player, during his stay on the Tiber, had given his gold to the right men or bound them as creditors to his interest.
After Pompey, Cæsar, and Crassus had concluded their alliance, they consented at Lucca to the restoration of the Ptolemy.
Millions upon millions would not have seemed to him too large a price for this object.
Pompey would rather have gone to Egypt himself, but the jealousy of the others would not permit it.
Gabinius, the Governor of Syria, received the commission.
"But the occupants of the Egyptian throne were not disposed to resign it without a struggle.
You know that meanwhile Queen Berenike, Cleopatra's sister, had been twice married.
She had her miserable first husband strangled--a more manly spouse had been chosen by the Alexandrians for her second consort.
He bravely defended his rights, and lost his life on the field of battle.
"The senate learned speedily enough that Gabinius had brought the Ptolemy back to his country; the news reached us more slowly.
We watched for every rumour with the same passionate anxiety as now.
"At that time Cleopatra was fourteen, and had developed magnificently.
Yonder portrait shows the perfect flower, but the bud possessed, if possible, even more exquisite charm.
How clear and earnest was the gaze of her bright eyes!
When she was gay they could shine like stars, and then her little red mouth had an indescribably mischievous expression, and in each cheek came one of the tiny dimples which still delight every one.
Her nose was more delicate than it is now, and the slight curve which appears in the portrait, and which is far too prominent in the coins, was not visible.
Her hair did not grow dark until later in life.
My sister Charmian had no greater pleasure than to arrange its wavy abundance.
It was like silk, she often said, and she was right.
I know this, for when at the festival of Isis, Cleopatra, holding the sistrum, followed the image of the goddess, she was obliged to wear it unconfined.
On her return home she often shook her head merrily, and her hair fell about her like a cataract, veiling her face and figure.
Then, as now, she was not above middle height, but her form possessed the most exquisite symmetry, only it was still more delicate and pliant.
"She had understood how to win all hearts.
Yet, though she seemed to esteem our father higher, trust me more fully, look up to Anubis with greater reverence, and prefer to argue with the keen-witted Timagenes, she still appeared to hold all who surrounded her in equal favour, while Arsinoë left me in the lurch if Straton were present, and whenever the handsome Melnodor, one of my father's pupils, came to us, she fairly devoured him with her glowing eyes.
"As soon as it was rumoured that the Romans were bringing the King back, Queen Berenike came to us to take the young girls to the city.
When Cleopatra entreated her to leave her in our parents' care and not interrupt her studies, a scornful smile flitted over Berenike's face, and turning to her husband Archelaus, she said scornfully, 'I think books will prove to be the smallest danger.'
"Pothinus, the guardian of the two princesses' brothers, had formerly permitted them at times to visit their sisters.
Now they were no longer allowed to leave Lochias, but neither Cleopatra nor Arsinoë made many inquiries about them.
The little boys always retreated from their caresses, and the Egyptian locks on their temples, which marked the age of childhood, and the Egyptian garments which Pothinus made them wear, lent them an unfamiliar aspect.
"When it was reported that the Romans were advancing from Gaza, both girls were overpowered by passionate excitement.
Arsinoë's glittered in every glance; Cleopatra understood how to conceal hers, but her colour often varied, and her face, which was not pink and white like her sister's, but--how shall I express it?
----" "I know what you mean," Barine interrupted.
"When I saw her, nothing seemed to me more charming than that pallid hue through which the crimson of her cheeks shines like the flame through yonder alabaster lamp, the tint of the peach through the down.
I have seen it often in convalescents.
Aphrodite breathes this hue on the faces and figures of her favourites only, as the god of time imparts the green tinge to the bronze.
Nothing is more beautiful than when such women blush."
"Your sight is keen," replied Archibius, smiling.
"It seemed indeed as if not Eos, but her faint reflection in the western horizon, was tinting the sky, when joy or shame sent the colour to her cheeks, But when wrath took possession of her--and ere the King's return this often happened--she could look as if she were lifeless, like a marble statue, with lips as colourless as those of a corpse.
"My father said that the blood of Physkon and other degenerate ancestors, who had not learned to control their passions, was asserting itself in her also.
But I must continue my story, or the messenger will interrupt me too soon.
"Gabinius was bringing back the King.
But from the time of his approach with the Roman army and the auxiliary troops of the Ethnarch of Judea, nothing more was learned of him or of Antipater, who commanded the forces of Hyrkanus; every one talked constantly of the Roman general Antony.
He had led the troops successfully through the deserts between Syria and the Egyptian Delta without losing a single man on the dangerous road by the Sirbonian Sea and Barathra, where many an army had met destruction.
Not to Antipater, but to him, had the Jewish garrison of Pelusium surrendered their city without striking a blow.
He had conquered in two battles; and the second, where, as you know, Berenike's husband fell after a brave resistance, had decided the destiny of the country.
"From the time his name was first mentioned, neither of the girls could hear enough about him.
It was said that he was the most aristocratic of aristocratic Romans, the most reckless of the daring, the wildest of the riotous, and the handsomest of the handsome.
"The waiting-maid from Mantua, with whom Cleopatra practised speaking the Roman language, had often seen him, and had heard of him still more frequently--for his mode of life was the theme of gossip among all classes of Roman men and women.
His house was said to have descended in a direct line from Hercules, and his figure and magnificent black beard recalled his ancestor.
You know him, and know that the things reported of him are those which a young girl cannot hear with indifference, and at that time he was nearly five lustra younger than he is to-day.
"How eagerly Arsinoë listened when his name was uttered!
How Cleopatra flushed and paled when Timagenes condemned him as an unprincipled libertine!
True, Antony was opening her father's path to his home.
"The flute-player had not forgotten his daughters.
He had remained aloof from the battle, but as soon as the victory was decided, he pressed on into the city.
"The road led past our garden.
"The King had barely time to send a runner to his daughters, fifteen minutes before his arrival, to say that he desired to greet them.
They were hurriedly attired in festal garments, and both presented an appearance that might well gladden a father's heart.
"Cleopatra was not yet as tall as Arsinoë, but, though only fourteen, she looked like a full-grown maiden, while her sister's face and figure showed that in years she was still a child.
But she was no longer one in heart.
Bouquets for the returning sovereign had been arranged as well as haste permitted.
Each one of the girls held one in her hand when the train approached.
"My parents accompanied them to the garden gate.
I could see what was passing, but could hear distinctly only the voices of the men.
"The King alighted from the travelling chariot, which was drawn by eight white Median steeds.
The chamberlain who attended him was obliged to support him.
His face, reddened by his potations, fairly beamed as he greeted his daughters.
His joyful surprise at the sight of both, but especially of Cleopatra, was evident.
True, he kissed and embraced Arsinoë, but after that he had eyes and ears solely for Cleopatra.
"Yet his younger daughter was very beautiful.
Away from her sister, she would have commanded the utmost admiration; but Cleopatra was like the sun, beside which every other heavenly body pales.
Yet, no; she should not be compared to the sun.
It was part of the fascination she exerted that every one felt compelled to gaze at her, to discover the source of the charm which emanated from her whole person.
"Antony, too, was enthralled by the spell as soon as he heard the first words from her lips.
He had dashed up to the King's chariot, and seeing the two daughters by their father's side, he greeted them with a hasty salute.
When, in reply to the question whether he might hope for her gratitude for bringing her father back to her so quickly, she said that as a daughter she sincerely rejoiced, but as an Egyptian the task would be harder, he gazed more keenly at her.
"I did not know her answer until later; but ere the last sound of her voice had died away, I saw the Roman spring from his charger and fling the bridle to Ammonius--the chamberlain who had assisted the King from the chariot--as if he were his groom.
The woman-hunter had met with rare game in his pursuit of the fairest, and while he continued his conversation with Cleopatra her father sometimes joined in, and his deep laughter was often heard.
"No one would have recognized the earnest disciple of Epicurus.
We had often heard apt replies and original thoughts from Cleopatra's lips, but she had rarely answered Timagenes's jests with another.
Now she found--one could see it by watching the speakers--a witty answer to many of Antony's remarks.
It seemed as if, for the first time, she had met some one for whom she deemed it worth while to bring into the field every gift of her deep and quick intelligence.
Yet she did not lose for a moment her womanly dignity; her eyes did not sparkle one whit more brightly than during an animated conversation with me or our father.
"It was very different with Arsinoë.
When Antony flung himself from his horse, she had moved nearer to her sister, but, as the Roman continued to overlook her, her face crimsoned, she bit her scarlet lips.
Her whole attitude betrayed the agitation that mastered her, and I, who knew her, saw by the expression of her eyes and her quivering nostrils that she was on the point of bursting into tears.
Though Cleopatra stood so much nearer to my heart, I felt sorry for her, and longed to touch the arm of the haughty Roman, who indeed looked like the god of war, and whisper to him to take some little notice of the poor child, who was also a daughter of the King.
"But a still harder blow was destined to fall upon Arsinoë; for when the King, who had been holding both bouquets, warned Antony that it was time to depart, he took one, and I heard him say in his deep, loud tones, 'Whoever calls such flowers his daughters does not need so many others.'
Then he gave Cleopatra the blossoms and, laying his hand upon his heart, expressed the hope of seeing her in Alexandria, and swung himself upon the charger which the chamberlain, pale with fury, was still holding by the bridle.
"The flute-player was delighted with his oldest daughter, and told my father he would have the young princess conveyed to the city on the day after the morrow.
The next day he had things to do of which he desired her to have no knowledge.
Our father, in token of his gratitude, should retain for himself and his heirs the summer palace and the garden.
He would see that the change of owner was entered in the land register.
This was really done that very day.
It was, indeed, his first act save one--the execution of his daughter Berenike.
"This ruler, who would have seemed to any one who beheld his meeting with his children a warm-hearted man and a tender father, at that time would have put half Alexandria to the sword, had not Antony interposed.
He forbade the bloodshed, and honoured Berenike's dead husband by a stately funeral.
"As the steed bore him away, he turned back towards Cleopatra; he could not have saluted Arsinoë, for she had rushed into the garden, and her swollen face betrayed that she had shed burning tears.
"From that hour she bitterly hated Cleopatra.
"On the day appointed, the King brought the princesses to the city with regal splendour.
The Alexandrians joyously greeted the royal sisters, as, seated on a golden throne, over which waved ostrich-feathers, they were borne in state down the Street of the King, surrounded by dignitaries, army commanders, the body-guard, and the senate of the city.
Cleopatra received the adulation of the populace with gracious majesty, as if she were already Queen.
Whoever had seen her as, with floods of tears, she bade us all farewell, assuring us of her gratitude and faithful remembrance, the sisterly affection she showed me--I had just been elected commander of the Ephebi--" Here Archibius was interrupted by a slave, who announced the arrival of the messenger, and, rising hurriedly, he went to Leonax's workshop, to which the man had been conducted, that he might speak to him alone.
