Part 133 (2/2)

The Psylli arrived, withimmune to snake poison, and able to suck the venom from a victims wound and revive hi a fuss and lingering over your aret for their attentions, because afrom the back of the mausoleum revealed Mardian, doubled up and unconscious They hovered around hiorously

In the ry and white-faced He us and stared down at you I thought he would never stop; his face was unreadable Finally he stepped back and said, but only to hirant the request”

He shook his head and only then looked around ”All dead?” he asked

”Sir, the Queen was already dead e got in,” said the head guard ”The wo here”--he pointed to the li the Queen's crown I seized her and said, 'Mistress, is this well done of your lady?' and she answered, 'Extres' Then she fell dead, too”

”She spoke the truth,” said Octavian He had an odd smile on his face, it was a s hihest respect

”Prepare theuard a note

He looked at you allanced over at the other sarcophagus ”You and your Antony will lie here together No, death will not separate you” Then he turned suards, ”there is this one fellow here who survives” And they carried Mardian around to Octavian, and laid hihed ”So this is all the efforts of the Psylli have achieved? He is of no use to me Nor to anyone, now Retire fro hiuards Then, abruptly, he turned to ht he had not even seen et the words you spoke to me in Rogest you forget theone

The Psylli left, and all the extra guards Morticians came in to ready the dead for burial, and I lookedwe look, eventually weare forced to do No a ever makes us ready to leave

But I could not live here, in the iven me a task My as yet to be done

Yes, it ell done, and fitting for the descendant of so rieve

Friend of e with you as well But Goddesses do not grow old

Chapter 2

From Olympos, to Olympos: As I have always kept the ious ious syste what I have found), so I will record briefly what happened in the tu the death of Octavian's last eneypt, Cleopatra the Great For she was truly the greatest of Egypt's rulers, a political genius who turned the weak country she inherited into so before which even Roenius of the first order would have thought of using Roypt as a free country Yes, these notes may be necessary someday, if only to offset the official version of events, preserve a different viewpoint

I secured the Queen's last scroll from where it rested near the tomb, neatly rolled up (how like her!), and took it home, where I read it, to my woe and wonder Mardian was transported to my house, where Dorcas and I nursed him His recovery was slow, but as I pointed out to him, it was his fat that saved hi, below the knee, and that the snake had already bitten three other people before hi low on venom! I have observed that fat people survive poisonous bites better than thin onespossibly the fat traps the poisons?

He was feverish and delirious for days,swelled and the skin stretched so taut it shone But at length it subsided, and he was able to recount those last hours in the mausoleum How the funeral feast was held, how the serpents had been sent froe inside the building There were two of theone? A mystery--both had vanished in the sands outside How they had planned it all, and how sone The note sent to Octavian was a request for burial rites Of course, as soon as he opened it, he knew Then he sent soldiers running to try to prevent it

The poison must have been very swift, since they had not allowed themselves much time to carry out the plan Mardian told me the asps were prize ones from Heliopolis, bred for their fast, fatal bites Even normal asps are used in Alexandria as the most humane and painless means of execution, so these must have been a step beyond even that

The funeral was royal and nificent, but only an echo of other celebrations in Alexandria's history The city waslost its proud Queen Silently its citizens stood watching the cortege, bidding farewell not only to Cleopatra but to their freedo cities Mardian and I stood with the rest, he leaning on crutches

Both Iras and Charmian were entombed beside their mistress, and Octavian erected a memorial tablet to thee and grace of the death scene in the mausoleum

As soon as the funeral was decently over, Octavian went sightseeing He visited Alexander's to at the conqueror, he insisted that the crystal cover be removed so he could touch him Evidently he was imbued with the idea that some poould pass froe, and both possessed of an enorreat an area as Alexander had Heuntoward happened: a piece of Alexander's nose ca Octavian, or giving him a precious relic? Likeinterpretations

Shortly thereafter Octavian ordered all of Antony's statues to be overthrown, but a timely bribe of two thousand talents by a loyal friend of Cleopatra's prevented hers fro throughout the land

Enemies must be punished: Canidius was executed, as were some senators who had adhered too closely to Antony's cause

Making a show of his restraint, Octavian was reputed to have taken nothing fro cup, an old possession of the Ptolereat store by But the victor can take his pick of whatever excites his fancy, large or s face, Octavian proceeded to his heinous deed, the one he had planned all along, as his words to me in the mausoleum revealed I er over it is to ache with helpless fury and sorrow

Using the swiftest ers, Octavian was able to reach Caesarion and Rhodon before they boarded the shi+p for India Money persuaded Rhodon in turn to persuade Caesarion that they must return to Alexandria, where Octavian wished toon the practical advice of his philosopher friend Areius, who paraphrased Ho,” Octavian had Caesarion killed

Of all the lost things in all the world, the things ill never know, this lost son of Caesar and Cleopatra'sWhat would he have been, what being would he have grown into, with the gifts he had from both of his remarkable parents? Octavian did not wish to find out--and so we never shall, either

Only one slint of mercy here: Cleopatra never knew of his fate; she closed her eyes and went into the dark believing that he was safe Isis had protected her to the last froe into the other world by grieving her spirit

Where was Caesarion buried? No one knows; I like to think it was beside Antyllus, wherever that was, and that the two boys are together, consoling each other over the fateful downfall of their parents Both were heirs whose potential challenge Octavian could not brook

Suchbeen taken care of, Octavian took his leave of Egypt, carrying his agate cup, his victory, and Cleopatra's three rerace his Triumph, he must make do with theht they were, with the departure of the Roations and involves out, drags on, and continuesintermittent, unexpected demands on our loyalties

Human decency and respect constrained me to follow the royal children and watch over them in Rome, if only fro to the Queen long beyond what I had iavein the heat of the su-suffering Octavia I could see them when I walked on the Palatine at sunset They looked content enough as they played gas, Antony's other children Octavia presided over a household of so hers and Fulvia's as well as the Egyptian ones Octavian's only child, Julia, ed froe six I did notit was better that way, but I hovered on the edges of their lives, spying from the path outside their house

Octavian had dallied,his way slowly overland It was not until March that he returned, and then he set about planning the details of his Triumph--or, rather, Triumphs, for there were to be three of them, on three successive days He chose the month that was called sextilis, the h the streets on the very day that the Queen's funeral procession had wound through Alexandria He liked things to be neat like that

In thehis arrival, the city busied itself thinking of honors for their master, and deeds to please hi Antony, declaring the day he had been born to be cursed, and forbade anyone to use the naether His name on all monuments was to be erased, as if he had not existed They declared the day that Alexandria had fallen to be a supremely lucky day in the calendar, and even proposed that henceforth all Alexandrians must celebrate it as the start of a new era, the first day of a refigured calendar They proposed that Octavian be granted tribunician power for life, and that he was to be prayed for at all banquets, public and private, and have libations poured to hiether His name on all monuments was to be erased, as if he had not existed They declared the day that Alexandria had fallen to be a supremely lucky day in the calendar, and even proposed that henceforth all Alexandrians must celebrate it as the start of a new era, the first day of a refigured calendar They proposed that Octavian be granted tribunician power for life, and that he was to be prayed for at all banquets, public and private, and have libations poured to him

Then our old friend Plancus, he of the blue body-paint and timely desertion, created a new name and title for G Julius Caesar Octavianus, divi filius: divi filius: Augustus, the Revered One It hinted at Godhood, but not so blatantly that it would offend old-line Republicans It was satisfyingly vague but majestical nonetheless Octavian was most pleased, and allowed it to be bestowed upon his laureled head He had now been transfor any coins, behind hiustus, the Revered One It hinted at Godhood, but not so blatantly that it would offend old-line Republicans It was satisfyingly vague but majestical nonetheless Octavian was most pleased, and allowed it to be bestowed upon his laureled head He had now been transfor any coins, behind him

Like Caesar, he must have a month named after him It was assumed that-- like Caesar--he would choose his birth month, which in his case was Septereat victory ust

And so, on the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth of August, the Triuh the streets They were ruil had both written laudatory verses in commemoration Bizarre African animals were to be shown for the first tiet these celebrations

How to describe them? As briefly and plainly as possible--I aet the the victory over the Illyrians, was a modest affair There was a parade of prisoners, with three chieftains as figurehead enemies, and the recaptured standards lost by Gabinius years earlier, and banners proclai the defeat of the Pannonians, Dalmations, Iapydes, and soins came out of the city to meet the Triumphal chariot and escort it into Roside the soldiers behind the chariot

The second, celebrating the naval victory of Actium, was more lavish Adroitly, no Ros--half of whoenius of rewriting history! Poor Adiatorix of Galatia and Alexander of Ehting Agrippa arded a blue banner for his achievement, and it was announced that henceforth the victory of Actiuames every four years, a sort of rival Olympics Beaks of the captured shi+ps, from ”fours” to ”tens,” would be mounted on a platform as a memorial in the Forum

And noe corandest The sains and senators and soldiers made up the parade, but they were dwarfed by the prizes exhibited A hippopota the Via Sacra Lines of Nubians eroaning with booty swayed along the stones I said that Octavian did not take anything from Alexandria, but of course he had helped hiet The aold transferred to Ro interest rates there from twelve percent to four

A representation of the Nile itself, complete with all seven yptian statues, snatched from the temples