Page:Afterglow; pastels of Greek Egypt, 69 B.C. (IA afterglowpastels00buck).pdf/84

80 The city of Alexandria clamored beneath the full moon. From one end to the other, the mass of colonnades, temples and houses, from the Pharos to Rhacotis, quivered with a tide of life and movement, mingled with music and laughter. In the Royal Palace, the banquet hall of the Pharaohs blazed with lights and resounded, above the rumor of the city; for Ptolemy the Twelfth, Auletes Nothus Dionysos, was pleased to feast the elect of his kingdom.

Lying on the couches about the tables in the great hall were the chief priests of the city, priests of Isis, Amon, Serapis, Zeus and Aphrodite, teachers and philosophers from the schools, chief functionaries and officers, the most important visitors on the lists of the city, and a sprinkling of keen-eyed Romans. Auletes, in the prime of his life, quick, graceful, lay at a table slightly raised on a dais. At his