Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/292

278 resolved to abstain from eating; but this being known, her children were threatened with death, if she persisted in it. On Cæsar's visiting her, she attempted to ensnare his heart likewise, but failed as she had done once before with Herod, king of Judea, whose dominions she many times prayed Antony to give her.

Having private notice, soon after, that within three days she was to be carried to Rome, she caused herself to be bitten by an asp, brought to her concealed in a basket of figs; and of this she died, not, however, till she had performed some funeral rites to the memory of Antony, and shed abundance of tears on his tomb. Cæsar was extremely troubled at her death, which deprived him of the greatest ornament of his triumph. He ordered her a very magnificent funeral; and her body, as she desired, was laid by that of Antony.

Thus ended the life of this princess, after she had reigned, from the death of her father, twenty-two years, and lived thirty-nine. She was a woman of great parts, and spoke several languages with the utmost readiness; for besides being well skilled in Greek and Latin, she could converse with Ethiopians, Troglodites, Jews, Arabians, Syrians, Medes and Persians, without an interpreter; and always answered them in their own language. She was selfish and extravagant to the extreme of each quality. Her taste was luxury, and her wisdom cunning; but accompanied with unrivalled address and penetration into characters.

In her death ended the reign of the family of the Ptolemies in Egypt, after it had subsisted from the death of Alexander, two hundred and ninety-four years; for, after this, Egypt was reduced to a Roman province, and so remained for six hundred and seventy years,