Chapter I: Preface

In selecting the subjects for the successive volumes of this series, it has been the object of the author to look for the names of those great personages whose histories constitute useful, and not merely entertaining, knowledge. There are certain names which are familiar, as names, to all mankind; and every person who seeks for any degree of mental cultivation, feels desirous of informing himself of the leading outlines of their history, that he may know, in brief, what it was in their characters or their doings which has given them so widely-extended a fame. This knowledge, which it seems incumbent on every one to obtain in respect to such personages as Hannibal, Alexander, Cæsar, Cleopatra, Darius, Xerxes, Alfred, William the Conqueror, Queen Elizabeth, and Mary, queen of Scots, it is the design and object of these volumes to communicate, in a faithful, and, at the same time, if possible, in an attractive manner. Consequently, great historical names alone are selected; and it has been the writer's aim to present the prominent and leading traits in their characters, and all the important events in their lives, in a bold and free manner, and yet in the plain and simple language which is so obviously required in works which aim at permanent and practical usefulness.

CONTENTS.

Chapter Page

I. THE VALLEY OF THE NILE 13

II. THE PTOLEMIES 35

III. ALEXANDRIA 61

IV. CLEOPATRA'S FATHER 87

V. ACCESSION TO THE THRONE 112

VI. CLEOPATRA AND CÆSAR 132

VII. THE ALEXANDRINE WAR 157

VIII. CLEOPATRA A QUEEN 181

IX. THE BATTLE OF PHILIPPI 200

X. CLEOPATRA AND ANTONY 225

XI. THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM 256

XII. THE END OF CLEOPATRA 286

ENGRAVINGS.

Page

MAP, SCENE OF CLEOPATRA'S HISTORY _Frontispiece._

MAP, THE RAINLESS REGION 21

MAP, THE DELTA OF THE NILE 29

THE BIRTH-DAY PRESENT 50

ANTONY CROSSING THE DESERT 107

CLEOPATRA ENTERING THE PALACE OF CÆSAR 135

VIEW OF ALEXANDRIA 162

CLEOPATRA'S SISTER IN THE TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION 190

THE ENTERTAINMENTS AT TARSUS 242

THE RAISING OF ANTONY TO THE UPPER WINDOW OF
THE TOMB 303

CLEOPATRA.