of Rome's eastern empire, he was also older and more experienced, more 

 popular and robust. Antony, in turn, needed money to pay his veterans. 

 He summoned me to meet him in Tarsus, on the Cydnus River in Cilicia, 

 southeastern Anatolia. I planned my approach carefully. Antony had styled 

 himself, or so I had heard, as an incarnation of Dionysos. I, then, would 

 dazzle him as Isis! I sailed along the river in a gilded ship with silver oars and 

 a splendid purple sail. Flutes, pipes, and lutes played on deck, and potent 

 incense perfumed the air. Dressed in my divine robes, I reclined beneath a 

 gold-spangled canopy, attended by beautiful boys dressed as cupids. The 

 people of Tarsus flocked to watch the spectacle, leaving Antony alone and 

 disconcerted in the marketplace. 



When Antony sent an invitation to dine, I declined, declaring that he should be 

 my guest. We ate that night in a room decorated regally, where I served delicious 

 food on gold plates inlaid with precious stones. I feasted with Antony, as I had 

 feasted with Caesar, but I bargained with him too. I offered him the money that 

 he so desperately needed, if he, in return, agreed to protect my crown. That 

 protection included murder of my last living sibling, Arsinoe. 



Satisfied, I returned home. Antony followed a month later, and we 

 enjoyed a carefree winter in Alexandria. Together we formed a society we 

 called The ( )nes with Matchless Lives, which met nightly to drink, least, play 

 dice, hunt, and wander the streets in disguise, playing tricks on the citizens. 

 In the fullness of time I gave birth to twins, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra 

 Selene. Antony had already left Alexandria, and did not make any effort to see 

 his children lor three and a half years— an arrangement that suited me well. 



Ruling an increasingly prosperous Egypt, my day s filled with 

 administrative tasks, I knew little of Antony's life at that time. I Ic still 

 believed he had a future working alongside Octavian. Only when Antony 

 realized that could never be did he enter my life again. Then he told me of 



Julius Caesar, 

 who sought to 

 have Cleopatra 

 rule alongside her 

 brother Ptolemy XIII 



October 2008 naiuhai history | 45 



