Cleopatra the Great
Page 46
195 ‘dirty little Greek’. Grant 1972, p.64; ‘queen’ as term of contempt in Bingen 2007, p.45, also ‘Cleopatra is “Aegyptia”, “Egyptian”, for Romans who wanted to offend or stigmatise her’, p.60.
195 ‘charming in conversation, yet her conduct was appropriate. She kept house, she made wool’. Pomeroy 1975 p.199; with ‘no place for a woman in the strictly patriarchal Roman system of power’ (Bingen 2007, p.45), one ‘on display as head of state . . . was therefore in itself transgressive and untranslatable, except in terms of sexual availability’ (Hamer 1993, p.20); as symbol of equality male clothing ‘could not be worn by mature women with aspiration to power’. Davies 2005, p.128. 195 ‘our ancestors established the rule that all woman, because of their weakness of intellect, should be under the power of [male] guardians’. Cicero, Pro Murena 27 in Allason-Jones 1990, p.16.
195 ‘I hate the queen! And the man who vouches for her promises, Ammonius, knows I have good reason to do so; although the gifts she promised me were of a literary nature and not beneath my dignity — the sort I should not have minded proclaiming in public. Her man Sara too, beside being a rogue, I have found impertinent towards myself. Once, and only once, have I seen him in my house; and then, when I asked him politely what he wanted, he said he was looking for Atticus. And the queen’s insolence, when she was living in Caesar’s house in the gardens across the Tiber, I cannot recall without indignation. So no dealings with that lot!’. Cicero, in Grant 1972, p.96; ‘Sara’ as shortening of Serapion see Grant 1972, p.261.
196 ‘loathsome man’. Cicero, Second Philipic, Graves trans., p.149.
196 ‘phaikasion’. MacLeod (ed.) 2002, p.52.
196 ‘and also by the fashion of his dress. For whenever he had to appear before large numbers, he wore his tunic girt low about the hips, a broadsword on his side, and over all a large coarse mantle’. Plutarch, Antony, Dryden trans., p.749.
196 ‘Antonius started up and left them in the middle of their cause, to follow at her side and attend her home’. Plutarch, Antony, in Dryden trans., p.769.
196 ‘push-cart’. Soranus’, Gynaecology 11.45-54 in Allason-Jones 1990, p.38; Caesarion’s resemblence to Caesar in Suetonius, Caesar 52 in Graves trans., p.32.
197 ‘Cleopatra look’. Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, pp.143-44, 208-209.
198 ‘a beautiful image of Cleopatra by the side of the goddess’. Appian, Roman History 11.102, White trans., p.417; also Cassius Dio 51.22.3 in Scott-Kilvert trans., p.83.
198 ‘polite’ (based on ‘had even politely adorned his new temple of Venus with a statue of her’) in Grant 1969, p.217.
198 ‘open acknowledgement of marriage between a descendant of a prestigious dynasty and the daughter of a god’. Walker and Higgs (eds.) 2001, p.277.
198 ‘Vatican Head’ in Vatican Museum 38511 in Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, No.196, p.218; Brooklyn 1988, No.76, pp.184-6; Kleiner 2005, p.152, fig.9.8 etc.
198 ‘a lotus crown or uraeus, or even the remains of a large knotted lock of hair’. Higgs in Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, p.218; ‘top-knot’ in Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, no.337, p.320.
198 For ‘blemish’ as child’s finger see Bianchi 2003, p.19.
199 ‘slightly more flattering portrayal’. Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, p.220 referring to Berlin Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz Anti-kenmuseum 1976.10, in Brooklyn 1988 No.77, p.187, Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, No.198, pp.220-1, Hamer 1993, pi. 1.2, p.4 etc.
199 ‘perhaps the finest and most beautiful portrait sculpture’. Maehler in Smith and Hall 1984, p.96.
199 ‘speaks for itself... it is infinitely more beautiful than the unflattering coin portrait, and it does convey an image of the great queen’s personality’. Maehler 1983, p.8.
199 ‘great physical beauty’. Bowman 1986, p.25; Johansen 2003, p.77.
199 ‘whilst it does not flatter her, it bears a close relationship to the portraits of Alexander the Great’. Southern 2001, p.121.
199 Capitoline Head in Capitoline Museum Rome Inv.ll54/S in Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, pp.144-5, 217; same image on rings, see Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, p.217.
200 For Iseum Campense dedicated to Julius Caesar see Cassius Dio XLVII.15.4 in Maehler 2003, p.205; 1987 discovery of priest’s statue in Walker and Higgs (eds.,) p.329.
200 ‘temples, altars and divine images and a priest of his own cult’. Suetonius, Julius Caesar 76, in Graves trans., p.41.
200 ‘to the Unvanquished God’. Cassius Dio XLIII.45, in Goudchaux 2001, p.134.
200 Plans ‘to constrain the Tiber to tolerate Nile’s threats’ in Propertius III.11, trans., Shepherd 1985 in Maehler 2003, pp.209-10; canal to drain marshes in Seton-Williams 1978, p.10, Grant 1972, pp.89-90.
200 ‘as crowded, probably, as modern Bombay or Calcutta’. Storey 1997, p.976, referring to census of 69 BC which gave city’s population at 900,000.
201 It was said she ‘spread her disgusting gauze on Tarpeia’s rocks’. Propertius III.ll, trans., Shepherd 1985 in Maehler 2003, pp.209-10; scale as eastern tradition in Grant 1968, p.196.
204 ‘a son being subsequently born to himself. Suetonius, Caesar 83 in Graves trans., p.46, see also Chaveau 2002, p.32.
204 ‘a formidable guest, yet no regrets! For everything went very pleasantly indeed . . . On the 19th he stayed with Philippus until one o’clock and let no one in-I believe he was doing accounts with Balbus. Then he went for a walk on the shore. After two he had a bath . . . He had an oil-massage and then sat down to dinner. . . His entourage were very lavishly provided for in three other rooms. Even the lower-ranking ex-slaves and the slaves lacked for nothing; the more important ex-slaves I entertained in style. In other words, we were human beings together. Still, he was not the sort of guest to whom you would say, “do please come again on your way back”. Once is enough!’. Cicero in Grant trans., p.89.
204 Clues to second pregnancy based on Cicero’s comments in Letters to Atticus XIV.20, 2, Grant 1972 p.95, combined with provision for ‘a son being subsequently born to himself. Suetonius, Caesar 83 in Graves trans., p.46, also Chaveau 2002, p.32.
204 ‘only a king can conquer the Parthians’. Suetonius, Caesar 80, Graves trans., p.43.
205 ‘Parens Patriae . . . Father of the Fatherland’. Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, p.224.
205 ‘Long live the King!’. Suetonius, Caesar 79, Graves trans., p.43. 205 ‘it is likely that Cleopatra made her contribution, even if she was not present’. Goudchaux 2001, p.135.
205 ‘your colleague sat on the rostra, wearing his purple toga, on his golden chair, his garland on his head. Up you come, approaching the chair . . . you display a diadem. Groans all over the Forum! Where did the diadem come from? You hadn’t found it in the gutter. No, you’d brought it with you, a planned, premeditated crime. You made to place the diadem on Caesar’s head amid the lamentations of the people — he kept refusing it, and the people applaud(ed.) You had been urging Caesar to make himself king, you wanted him your master rather than your colleague’. Cicero, Philippics 2.XXXIV.85-86 in Heskel 2001, p.137; he also asked ‘where did this diadem come from? ... It was a premeditated crime in advance’. Cicero, Philippics 2.XXXI.85 in Goudchaux 2001, p.135.
206 ‘got up, took off his mantle and shouted that he was ready to have his throat slit if someone wanted to do it’. Plutarch, Antony 12 in Goudchaux 2001, p.135.
206 ‘a tendency to nightmares’. Suetonius, Caesar 45, in Graves trans., p.29.
206 ‘no doubt’. Grant 1972, p.93.
Chapter 8
207 ‘Brutus was elected consul when he sent the kings away, Caesar sent his consuls packing and Caesar is our king today’. Suetonius, Caesar 80, Graves trans., p.44.
297 ‘If only you were alive now!’. Suetonius, Caesar 80, Graves trans., p.44. 208 ‘no longer refuses to be called a tyrant, in fact he practically demands it, and that is exactly what he is’. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, in Grant 1968, p.148.
208 ‘either through the agencies of
his enemies, or of himself. Cicero, in Grant 1968, p.150.
208 ‘It is more important for Rome than for myself that I should survive. I have long been sated with power and glory; but should anything happen to me, Rome will enjoy no peace. A new civil war will break out under far worse conditions than the last’. Suetonius, Caesar 86, Grant trans., p.48.
209 ‘the best sort of death . . . ‘let it come swiftly and unexpectedly’. Suetonius, Caesar 87, Graves trans., p.48.
209 ‘the Ides of March have come’ . . . ‘Ay, they have come, but they have not yet gone’. Suetonius, Caesar 81, Graves trans., p.45.
209 ‘This is violence!’. Suetonius, Caesar 82, Graves trans., p.45.
210 ‘you too my son?’. Suetonius, Caesar 82, Graves trans., p.46.
210 ‘our heroes most splendidly and gloriously achieved everything that was in their power’. Cicero, Letter to Atticus, in Graves trans., p.91.
211 ‘armed neutrality, whilst Antonius carried on the government along Caesarian lines’. Southern 2001, p.151.
211 ‘a son being subsequently born to himself. Suetonius, Caesar 83, Graves trans., p.46 and Chaveaux 2002, p.32.
212 ‘modelled on the temple of Venus Genetrix’. Springborg 1990, p.204; for effigy turned by mechanical device see Toynbee 1996, p.58.
212 ‘did I save these men that they might murder me?’. Suetonius, Caesar 84, Graves trans., p.47.
212 ‘the torches which charred the very body of Caesar’. Cicero in Grave’s trans., p.141.
212 ‘divine forms, perhaps the Twin Brethren . . . javelin at hand and sword at thigh to set light to the pyre’ Suetonius, Caesar 84, Graves trans., p.47.
213 ‘I myself carried the man away, leaving only his image behind: what fell by the sword was Caesar’s shade’. Ovid Calendar 3.697-704 in Springborg 1990, p.205.
213 ‘we must give place to fortune; I think we must leave Italy and go to Rhodes or somewhere else. If the best happens we shall return to Rome. If ordinary fortune, we shall live in exile, if the worst, we shall employ the last resort’. Earl 1968, p.19-20.
214 ‘I am hoping it is true about the queen and that Caesar’. Cicero, Letters to Atticus XIV.20, 2 in Grant 1972, p.95; Caesar’s non-Roman ‘children’ in Lucan, Civil War 10.76 in Duff trans., p.595.
214 ‘I see nothing to object to in the flight of the queen’. Cicero, Letters to Atticus XIV.8.1 in Grant 1972 p.95.
214 ‘ricinium’ in Sebesta 2001, p.46; Homer’s description of Demeter’s mourning attire in Llewellyn-Jones 2003, p.306.
215 Cleopatra’s murder of brother in Porphyry FGH.260 and Josephus Contra Apion 11.58, both in Grant 1972, p.98; Josephus claimed she poisoned him, previous Ptolemy poisoning courtier in Diodorus XXVIII. 14, Walton trans., p.241.
215 ‘Isis lived with her brother [and husband] Osiris, and when he died she vowed she would never accept the partnership of another man. She avenged her husband’s murder and continued thereafter to rule entirely according to the laws. In sum, she was responsible for the most and greatest benefactions to all mankind’. Diodorus 1.27.1-2, in Rowlandson (ed.) 1998, p.50.
215 ‘I have acted as a man although I was a woman in order to make Osiris’ name survive on earth’. Pap. Louvre 3079 I, col.110 in Benard and Moon (eds.) 2000, p.228.
215 ‘she has made the power of women equal to that of men’. Witt 1971, p.110.
215 ‘in her role as supreme magician slaying Osiris’ enemies’. Etienne 2003, p.98; snake bracelets in D’Auria et al. 1988, p. 198; Ptolemies’ images on jewellery in Clark 1935; ring with Caesar’s portrait BM.GR.1873.10-20.4 m Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, p.223.
216 Cleopatra’s Needles in Grimm 2003, p.48, Empereur 1998, pp.111-23 (now in London and New York).
216 ‘the like of which had never been seen before’. John of Nikiou in el-Daly 2005, p.132.
216 ‘there is elsewhere no precinct like this temple, situated on an elevation facing the harbours renowned for their excellent moorage; it is huge and conspicuous, decorated on an unparalleled scale with dedicated offerings, surrounded by a girdle of pictures and statues in silver and gold, forming a precinct of enormous breadth, embellished with porticoes, libraries, chambers, groves, gateways, broad walks and courts and everything adorned with the beauty that the most lavish expenditure could provide’. Philo, Legatio ad Gaium XXII.151, in MacLeod (ed.) 2002, p.42.
216 ‘. . . when climbing the second staircase, below the right-hand portico, next to the temple of Venus, in which stood a marble statue of the goddess . . .’, in Grimm 2003, p.48.
217 ‘the image of the god Julius’. Suetonius, Augustus 17, in Graves trans., p.59; schist statue Berlin Staatliche Museen, Antikensammlung R.9 in Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, p.222.
217 ‘Cleopatra’s Baths’. El-Daly 2005, p.137, with Cleopatreion in Holbl 2001, p.310.
217 ‘on the orders of the female king and the male king’. Thompson 2003, p.33, stating in note 26 that the decree could refer to Alexandria or Leontopolis (Tell el-Yahudiya).
217 Lions’ entertainment in Aelian, De Natura Animalium XII, 6-7 in el-Weshahy 2002, p.1223; stela Copenhagen Museum A.756 dated to ‘the late Ptolemaic Period — more specifically the reign of Ptolemy XV and Cleopatra VII’. El-Weshahy 2002, p. 1230.
218 ‘Uniter of the Two Lands’. Ray 2003, p.9; for Cleopatra’s relationship with dead Caesar and arrangement of royal images see Bingen 2007, p.54-55.
218 ‘live, Osiris, live! May the listless one rise up — I am Isis! . . . Horus comes at your call Osiris, you will be placed upon his arms, you will be safe in your power’. Richards and Wilfong 1994, p.15.
218 Granite stela Turin Museum 1764 in Porter and Moss 1989, p.714, and Holbl 2001, p.240.
218 Caesar as Amun-Ra impregnating Cleopatra in Goudchaux 2001 p.133; stages of Hermonthis’ contruction in Arnold 1999, pp.223-4.
219 Figure protected by granite falcons identified as Caesarion by Goudchaux 2001, p.139.
219 ‘carries offmostly children up to age of 10’. Celsus in Jackson 1988, p.103.
219 ‘body lies in the sand, but his soul has gone to its own land’. Dunand and Zivie-Coche 2004, p.330.
219 ‘Isis, Great Mage, heal me and release me from all things bad and evil and belonging to Seth, from the demonic fatal illnesses, as you saved and freed your son Horus’. Ebers Papyrus, based on Witt 1971, p.187.
220 Tax decree in Thompson 2003, p.33, Bingen 2007, pp.141-54, Chaveau 2002, p.36.
220 Dioscurides Phakas in Galen XIX.63, in Grant 1972, p.181; stela in Foreman 1999, p.75.
220 ‘most explicit laments over death’. Lichtheim 1980 pp.59-60.
220 ‘do not weary of drinking, eating, getting drunk and making love — make holiday and follow your heart day and night!’. BM.EA. 147 after Reymond 1981, p.177; Lichtheim 1980 pp.59-60.
220 ‘perhaps the finest examples of private relief ever made in the Ptolemaic period’. Brooklyn 1988, p.231; ‘it is indeed strange that in the days of the last Ptolemies and the last Cleopatra there should have been produced native Egyptian sculpture in a quantity and of a uniformly high level of quality such as had not been known for nearly one hundred years’. Bothmer 1960, p.171.
220 Black statue head Brooklyn 58.30 in Brooklyn 1988, p.138; man with curls BM.EA.55253 in Walker and Higgs (eds) 2001, p.246; Tazza Farnese bowl Naples Museum 27611 in Dwyer 1992; bronze figurine of Greek-style Horus Cleveland 1972.6 in Berman 1999, p.474.
221 ‘had a very good and noble appearance; his beard was well grown, his forehead large, and his nose aquiline, giving him altogether a bold, masculine look that reminded people of the faces of Hercules in paintings and sculptures’. Plutarch, Antony, Dryden trans., p.749.
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.