Cleopatra the Great (55 page)

221 ‘deviant masculinity'. Hales 2005, p.135.

222 ‘had rather thick soles to make him look taller'. Suetonius,
Augustus 73
, Graves trans., p.92.

222 ‘one did not realize how small a man he was, unless someone tall stood close to him'. Suetonius,
Augustus 79
, Graves trans., p.95.

222 ‘lacked glamour and panache, still more the vigorous masculinity of a Mark Antony. Puny, sickly, cowardly — the type is recognizable, as is the ruthlessness which often co-exists with physical cowardice. What commands admiration is high moral courage and a firm grasp of reality'. Earl 1968, p.192.

222 ‘You, boy, owe everything to your name'. Cicero, Philippics 13.24, in Walker and Higgs 2001, p. 190.

222 ‘Octavian is an excellent boy, of whom I personally have high hopes for the future'. Cicero,
Letter to Trebonius
, in Graves trans. I960, p.98.

223 ‘loathsome man! Equally loathsome as priest of a tyrant or priest of a dead human being!'. Cicero, Second Philippic, Graves trans., p. 149.

223 ‘a disgusting, intolerable sensualist, as well as a vicious, unsavoury crook'. Second Philippic in Graves trans., p. 109.

223 ‘uncovered his head and threw his arms round her neck. Depraved character!' Cicero, Second Philippic, in Graves trans., p.135.

224 ‘lauded, applauded, and dropped'. Cicero in Graves trans., p.96.

224 ‘raised, praised and erased' Matyszak 2003, p.215.

225 ‘that which gave them all the trouble was to agree who should be put to death, each of them desiring to destroy his enemies and to save his friends ... in the end, animosity to those they hated carried the day against respect for relations and affection for friends; Octavian sacrificed Cicero to Antony, Antony gave up his uncle Lucius Caesar and Lepidus received permission to murder his brother'. Plutarch,
Antony
, Dryden trans., p.754.

225 ‘when they were brought before him he regarded them joyfully, actually bursting out more than once into laughter . . . and ordered them to be hung up above the speaker's place in the Forum'. Plutarch,
Antony
, Dryden trans., p.754; for Fulvia's actions see Flamarion 1997, p.58.

226 ‘who gave your general his birth'. Plutarch,
Antony
, Dryden trans., p.754.

226 ‘lived again in his female offspring and inspired his daughter's words'. Valerius Maximus in Flaschenriem 1999, p.36.

226 ‘in honour of Julius Caesar'. Ashton 2003, p.143.

227 ‘Serapion, not waiting to consult Cleopatra, sent Cassius what ships they had'. Appian,
Roman History
IV.61, White trans., p.243.

227 ‘for the Red and Indian Seas'. Tarn in Goudchaux 2003 p.109.

228 ‘with a powerful fleet to assist them, in defiance of Cassius'. Appian
Roman History
V.8, in White trans., p.389.

229 ‘his conduct so disgusting to the remainder of the prisoners they courteously saluted Antony as their conqueror, but abused [Octavian] to his face with the most obscene epithets'. Suetonius, Augustus 13, Graves trans, p.57.

229 ‘though in ill-health at the time'. Suetonius,
Augustus
56 Graves trans., p.56.

229 ‘columns entrusting the city entirely to the goddess' guardianship as its Queen and Saviour'. Witt 1970, p.327.

229 ‘the unusual arrangement of hair or head-ornament may reflect the subject's involvement in a religious cult or suggest that she should be compared to a goddess'. Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, No.212, Rome Museo Capitolini 3356, p.231.

230 ‘erected a scaffold in plain sight above the theatre, and roofed with green boughs, like the ‘caves' built for Bacchic revels; on this he hung tambourines, fawnskins and other Dionysiac trinkets of all sorts, where he reclined in company with his friends and drank from early morning, being entertained by artists summoned from Italy, while Greeks from all parts assembled to see the spectacle ... he even shifted the place of his revels to the top of the Acropolis, while the entire city of Athens was illuminated with torches hung from the roofs. And he gave orders that he should be recognised as Dionysus throughout all the cities'. Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists
IV. 148, Gulick trans., pp.176-7.

231 ‘a woman of restless spirit and very bold'. Plutarch,
Antony
, Dryden trans., p.758.

231 ‘dressed up like bacchantes and the men and boys like satyrs and fauns, and throughout the town nothing was to be seen but spears wreathed about with ivy, harps, flutes and psalteries, while Antony in their songs was Dionysus the Giver of Joy'. Plutarch,
Antony
, Dryden trans., p.756.

Chapter 9

235 ‘set himself at once to pay his court to the Egyptian . . . advising her to go to Cilicia in her best attire'. Plutarch,
Antony
25, Dryden trans., p.756.

235 ‘adroitness and subtlety in speech'. Plutarch,
Antony
25, Dryden trans., p.756.

235 ‘many letters of invitation from him and his friends'. Plutarch,
Antony 26-21
in Rowlandson (ed.) 1998, p.39.

235 ‘she made great preparations for her journey, of money, gifts, and ornaments of value, such as so wealthy a kingdom might afford'. Plutarch,
Antony
25, Dryden trans., p.756.

236 ‘was to meet Antony in the time of life when women's beauty is most splendid'. Plutarch
Antony
25, Dryden trans., p.756.

236 ‘painted up beyond all measure'. Lucan,
Civil War
10.137-141 Duff trans., p.601

236 ‘a careful toilet will make you attractive, but without such attention, the loveliest faces lose their charm, even were they comparable to those of the Idalian goddess herself. Ovid,
Art of Love
III. 105-106, Lewis May trans., p.89.

236 ‘oesyspum' in Allason-Jones 1990, p.130; lead toxicity in Vitruvius,
De Architectura
VIII in Jackson 1988, p.45; non-toxic cream in Evershed et al. 2004; orchil in Parker 2002, pp.41-42.

236 Female stare like death blow or ‘loosening the knees' in Llewellyn-Jones 2003, p.263.

237 ‘The Royal'. Pliny
Natural History
XIII. 18, Loeb trans., p.109.

237 ‘that your oiled tresses may not injure your splendid silk dress, let this pin fix your twisted hair, and keep it up'. Martial,
Epigrams
XIV.24 in 1871 trans., p.608.

237 ‘with ivory combs in their hands . . . combing the goddess's royal hair'. Apuleius XI.9, Graves trans., p.275.

237 ‘I love to see it fall in floating tresses about your shoulders'. Ovid
Art of Love
III.235-8, in Lewis May trans., p.91.

238 ‘long thick hair fell in tapering ringlets on her lovely neck'. Apuleius, Graves trans., p.270.

238 ‘leave uncovered the top of your shoulder and the upper part of your left arm. That is especially becoming to women who have a white skin. At the mere sight of it, I should be mad to cover all I could touch with kisses'. Ovid,
Art of Love
III.307-310, Lewis May trans., p.93; Aphrodite's chiton revealing left shoulder in Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, p.312.

238 ‘to kindle in us the fires of love, dress is more potent than the dread arts of the magician'. Ovid,
Art of Beauty
35-36, Lewis May trans., p.114. 238 ‘white breasts'. Lucan,
Civil War
10.141, Duff trans., p.601.

238 ‘azure blue like a clear sky . . . water-green from the colour that it imitates, I could easily imagine that the Nymphs were clothed in such apparel'. Ovid,
Art of Love III
, 173-178, Lewis May trans., p.90; also Empereur 2002, p.29.

239 ‘in the whole of history . . . come down to her through the hands of the Kings of the East'. Pliny, IX.121-122, Loeb trans., p.243; references to ‘her gold, silver, emeralds, pearls' in Plutarch,
Antony
, Dryden trans., p.775.

239 ‘word went round that Aphrodite was coming to revel with Dionysos for the good of Asia'. Plutarch,
Antony
26-27, in Rowlandson (ed.) 1998, p.39.

239 ‘sailed up the river Kydnos in a gold-prowed barge, with purple sails spread, and rowed along by silver oars to the sound of the flute mingled with pipes and flutes. She lay beneath a gold-spangled canopy, adorned like Aphrodite in a picture, and young boys, like Cupids in pictures, stood on either side and fanned her. So too the most beautiful of her serving maids, wearing the robes of Nereids and of Graces, some stood by the rudders and some by the bulwarks. Wonderful scents from many types of incense permeated the riverbanks. Some of the populace escorted her on either side from the river mouth, and others came down from the city for the spectacle. The crowd in the market place poured out, until Antony himself, seated on his tribunal [seat], was left alone'. Plutarch,
Antony
26-27, in Rowlandson (ed.) 1998, p.39.

240 ‘a spectacle that has seldom been equalled for beauty'. Plutarch,
Antony 27
, Dryden trans., p.757.

240 ‘was amazed at her wit as well as her good looks, and became her captive as though he were a young man, although he was forty years of age'. Appian,
Roman History
V.8, White, trans., p.389.

240 ‘arranged in his honour a royal symposium, in which the service was entirely of gold and jewelled vessels made with exquisite art . . . overwhelmed with the richness of the display . . . quietly smiled and said that all these things were a present for him'. Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists
IV.147, Gulick trans., pp.174-5.

240 Cleopatra's defence of her actions in Appian,
Roman History
V.8, White, trans., p.389.

240 ‘on this occasion she provided an even more sumptuous symposium by far, so that she caused the vessels which had been used on that first occasion to appear paltry; and once used she presented him with these also. As for the officers, each was allowed to take the couch on which he had reclined; even the sideboards, as well as the spreads for the couches, were divided among them. And when they departed, she furnished litters for the guests of high rank, with bearers, while for the greater number she provided horses gaily caparisoned with silver-plate harness, and for all she sent along Ethiopian slaves to carry the torches'. Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists
IV.147-148, Gulick trans., pp.174-7.

241 ‘he was very desirous to outdo her as well in magnificence as contrivance; but he found he was altogether beaten in both, and was so well convinced of it that he was himself the first to jest and mock at his poverty of wit and his rustic awkwardness'. Plutarch,
Antony
XXVI, Dryden trans., p.757.

241 ‘without any sort of reluctance or reserve'. Plutarch,
Antony
XXVI, Dryden trans., p.757.

241 ‘the whole wide world under a woman's hand ruled and obeying everywhere shall stand . . . the Widow shall be queen of the whole wide world'.
Oracula Sibyllina
III.79 in Grant 1972, p.173.

241 ‘whatever Cleopatra ordered was done, regardless of laws, human or divine. While her sister Arsinoe was a suppliant in the temple of Artemis . . . Antony sent assassins thither and put her to death'. Appian,
Roman History
V, White trans., p.389.

242 ‘she gave him a magnificent reception . . . He went out only to the temples, the schools, and the discussions of the learned, and spent his time with Greeks, out of deference to Cleopatra, to whom his sojourn in Alexandria was wholly devoted'. Appian
Roman History
V.ll White trans., pp.393-5.

242 ‘exercised in arms, she was there to see'. Plutarch,
Antony
in Dryden trans., p.758.

242 ‘secret orders to the fishermen to dive under water and put fishes that had been already taken upon his hooks; and these he drew so fast that the Egyptian perceived it. But feigning great admiration she told everybody how dextrous Antony was and invited them next day to come and see him again. So when a number of them had come on board the fishing boats, as soon as he had let down his hook one of her servants was before hand with his divers and fixed upon his hook a salted fish from Pontus. Antony, feeling his line give, drew up the prey, when, as may be imagined, great laughter ensu(ed.) Said Cleopatra ‘Leave the fishing rod, general, to us poor sovereigns of Pharos and Canopus; your game is cities, provinces and kingdoms'. Plutarch,
Antony
Dryden trans., p.758.

242 ‘was over and over again disarmed by Cleopatra, and beguiled away, while great actions and enterprises of the first necessity fell, as it were, from his hands, to go with her to the seashore at Canopus and Taphosiris, and play about'. Plutarch,
Antony and Demitrius Compared
, Dryden trans., p.780.

242 ‘fast watering-place'. Milne 1916(b), p-78; ‘dizzy combination of Lourdes and St. Tropez'. Montserrat 1996, p. 164.

243 ‘people of the highest renown had faith and slept within it'. Strabo 17.801 in Milne 1916(b), p.78.

243 ‘Herakles in the picture where Omphale is seen removing his club and stripping him of his lion skin'. Plutarch,
Antony and Demitrius Compared,
Dryden trans., p.780.

243 ‘forgetting his nation, his name, his toga'. Floras II.21.2-3 in Walker 2003, p.197; Maehler 2003, p.213.

243 ‘cymbal player from Canopus'. Cassius Dio 50.27, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.54; portrait bust in Bankes Collection in Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, p.241.

243 ‘over-ready tongue and impudent wit'. Statius, Silvae V.5.66-68 in Maehler 2003, p.213, with a ‘taste for the grotesque and sexual that characterises other aspects of Alexandrian art'. MacLeod (ed.) 2002, pp.122-3.

243 ‘performer of improper dances'. Seneca in Grant 1972, p.179.

244 ‘performing a dance in which his naked body was painted blue and his head encircled with reeds, whilst he wore a fish's tail and crawled upon his knees'. Velleius
Paterculus
, 11.83.2 in Grant 1972, p.178.

244 ‘she played at dice with him'. Plutarch,
Antony
Dryden trans., p.758; counter game in Ward-Perkins and Claridge 1976, no. 239 and Walker and Higgs (eds) pp.316-17.