Chapter I: Preface

Of all the beautiful women of history, none has left us such convincing proofs of her charms as Cleopatra, for the tide of Rome's destiny, and, therefore, that of the world, turned aside because of her beauty. Julius Caesar, whose legions trampled the conquered world from Canopus to the Thames, capitulated to her, and Mark Antony threw a fleet, an empire and his own honor to the winds to follow her to his destruction. Disarmed at last before the frigid Octavius, she found her peerless body measured by the cold eye of her captor only for the triumphal procession, and the friendly asp alone spared her Rome's crowning ignominy.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. THE VALLEY OF THE NILE

II. THE PTOLEMIES

III. ALEXANDRIA

IV. CLEOPATRA'S FATHER

V. ACCESSION TO THE THRONE

VI. CLEOPATRA AND CAESAR

VII. THE ALEXANDRINE WAR

VIII. CLEOPATRA A QUEEN

IX. THE BATTLE OF PHILIPPI

X. CLEOPATRA AND ANTONY

XI. THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM

XII. THE END OF CLEOPATRA

ILLUSTRATIONS

CLEOPATRA

MEETING OF CLEOPATRA AND ANTONY

CLEOPATRA TESTING THE POISON UPON THE SLAVES