Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/681

 CLEOPATKA CLEPSYDRA 669 tions of the triumvirate's politics ; but in the ' year 37 the necessity of preparing for another j campaign against the Parthians called him again into the East. No sooner was he sepa- rated from Octavia than the old love for Cle- opatra returned in its full force. Immediately after he had landed on the Syrian coast, he sent a trusted messenger to her, and she hastened to meet him at Laodicea. The old life began again, and, as though to atone for his neglect, he heaped favors upon her, adding province after province to her kingdom, in spite of the complaints of the Romans. Com- j pletely reconciled, she returned to Alexandria, while Antony pressed on into Asia, upon his disastrous Parthian expedition. On his return Cleopatra met him on the coast with aid and provisions for his army ; and now again he ac- companied her to Egypt, and remained there through the next winter, planning a new cam- paign for the spring. This was more success- ful, and through it he conquered Armenia. But the decisive struggle with Octavius was not to be longer delayed, and Antony now seemed determined to hurry it on. Returning to Alexandria (34), he celebrated an arrogant triumph, at which Cleopatra was declared a supreme ruler, or " queen of kings;" her son by Caesar was proclaimed legitimate, a direct attack on Octavius's pretensions to power ; and Antony's own sons by Cleopatra were made the possessors of rich Roman provinces. Shortly after this he divorced Octavia, though he did not formally publish the fact till later. He seemed deliberately to attempt to insult the Roman people ; yet they looked upon Cle- opatra as the author of all that he did, and con- centrated their anger upon her. The conflict between Antony and Octavius broke out early in 32, but it only became general when the Roman senate, a little later, declared war, not against Antony, who had passed the previous year with Cleopatra in the old revelries at Ephesus, Samos, and Athens, but against the Egyptian queen herself, who remained by him, aiding his preparations, and urging him to hasten the decisive conflict. The winter of 32-31 passed without event, but in the spring Octavius began with energy those movements which led to the massing of his troops at Actium, and to the decisive battle of the war. Cleopatra seems to have induced Antony, against his bet- ter judgment and that of his generals, to take the fatal step of forcing, by an imprudent move- ment, the engagement at Actium (Sept. 2, 31) ; but whether she was guilty of positive treachery when, in the midst of the battle, she gave the signal for retreat and set sail for the Egyptian coast, or whether she acted from momentary cowardice, is disputed. Escaping through an opening in the enemy's line of galleys, she made her way to sea, and Antony, abandoning the battle and deserting his troops, sailed after her with all speed to Egypt. All chance of successful resistance to Octavius was now lost ; the winter passed away in preparations for de- fence, in the old life of excesses, and in attempts made by Antony to preserve the allegiance of his troops and generals, many of whom went over to the enemy. Cleopatra seems to have retained her energy, while Antony gave him- self up to despair. Many stories of this time are told by ancient authors, in which it is diffi- cult to separate the truth and fiction of a so- ciety, " the companions in death," in which the two revellers gathered their old associates; of Cleopatra's experiments to find the easiest way to die ; of Antony's moody withdrawal from all companionship for a time, until he suddenly plunged into greater excesses than ever. In the spring Octavius appeared before the city. The last struggles Antony was able to make were soon over, and both he and Cleopatra seemed about to fall into the hands of the conqueror. As Antony and his troops fled into the city from their last attempt at re- sistance, the queen gave up all for lost ; and hastening to an immense mausoleum she had had constructed some time before, she locked herself in it, accompanied only by two of her women, Iras and Charmian. Antony, return- ing to the palace, received either at her wish or by accident the report that she had ended her life. Determined not to be separated from her, he attempted to kill himself, but only inflicted a mortal wound. As he lay dy- ing, he heard that Cleopatra lived ; he had himself carried to the mausoleum, and there, when the queen and her two women had with great difficulty raised him to the only way of entrance left unclosed, he expired in Cleopatra's arms. Octavius now entered Alexandria. In spite of her precautions, the queen was captured in her mausoleum, and brought before him. He assured her that no harm should befall her; but beyond this she could obtain no intimation in regard to her future fate. The fascination that had con- quered Caesar and Antony had no effect upon him, and after trying all her power of charming, Cleopatra at last saw that she was only allowed to live to grace the conqueror's triumph. She was carefully watched, lest she should put an end to her own life ; but she successfully eluded the vigilance of her guards by a skilful device. A countryman bringing her figs brought with them an asp in his basket, and thus furnished her the means of death. Causing Iras and Charmian to array her in her most splendid royal robes and in her crown, she placed the asp in her breast and died from the poison of its bite. Her women imitated her, and the soldiers of Octavius found them lying by her, dead. CLEPSYDRA (Gr. /c^e^pa, from KMTTTEIV, to steal, and vdup, water), a hydraulic clock in use among the ancients, which measured time by the quantity of water that escaped from a small orifice in a reservoir. The simplest kind consisted of a transparent vase, filled with water, graduated, and having a small opening in its bottom. As the liquid gradually escaped,