Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt (39 page)

12
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
, 47: 31.5; Suetonius,
Divine Julius
, 52: 2–3.

13
This piece is discussed in J. P. V. D. Balsdon’s 1960 review of H. Volkmann’s
Cleopatra
, in
Classical Review
, 10: 1: 68–71. There are difficulties in translating the stela date, as both the Roman and Egyptian calendars were operating incorrectly at the time and it is possible to argue with some validity that this date should be read as September rather than June.

14
D. Devauchelle (2001), ‘La stèle du Louvre IM8 (Sérapéum de Memphis) et la prétendue date de naisance de Césarion’,
Enchoria
, 27: 41: 56 (27).

15
See D. Todman (2007), ‘Childbirth in Ancient Rome: From Traditional Folklore to Obstetrics’,
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
, 47: 82–5.

16
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
, 43: 27.3. Translated by E. Cary.

17
Cicero,
Letters to Atticus
, 15: 15.2. Translated by L. P. Wilkinson, quoted and discussed in Grant (1972): 96.

18
See E. Gruen (2003), ‘Cleopatra in Rome: Facts and Fantasies’, in D. Braund and C. Gill eds,
Myth, History and Culture in Republican Rome
, University of Exeter Press, Exeter, 256–74.

19
Cicero,
Letters to Atticus
, 14: 8.1.

20
Ibid., 14: 20.2.

21
See, for example, Chauveau (2002): 32–3; J. Carcopino,
Passion et politique chez les Césars
(1958) :37. Carcopino has suggested that Mark Antony may have been Caesarion’s father. Just one further piece of evidence can be cited in support of a late birth date for Caesarion. We have already noted the bronze Cypriot coin which shows Cleopatra suckling the infant Caesarion (page 61). Unfortunately, there is no firm date for this coin. If we imagine that it is a literal representation of Caesarion and his mother, we might also imagine that it was produced soon after Caesarion’s birth, at a time when Cleopatra ruled Cyprus. The first firm evidence for Cleopatra ruling Cyprus dates to 43. But, as Caesar is reported to have gifted Cyprus to Egypt in 48, it could equally well be argued that the coin was struck as early as 47, following Cleopatra’s union with Ptolemy XIV.

22
Speculation about this ‘second child’ abounds. See, for example, R. Ellis (2006),
Cleopatra to Christ
, Edfu Books, Cheshire, which identifies the phantom daughter of Cleopatra and Caesar as the grandmother of Jesus.

Chapter 5: The New Isis

1
Mond and Myers advertise for assistance in the
Geographical Journal
(1936), 87: 1: 95.

2
Flavius Josephus,
Antiquities of the Jews
, 15: 89. Translated by W. Whiston (1895, updated and republished 2001).

3
Tyldesley (2006).

4
The palette, recovered from Hierakonpolis, is today displayed in Cairo Museum.

5
Herodotus,
The Histories
, 2: 41. Translated by A. de Sélincourt (1954).

6
See R. E. Witt (1971): 20: ‘Isis was all things to all men. That was what made her so formidable a foe to Jesus and oecumenical Paul.’ Other serious rivals were Mithras and, to a lesser extent, Dionysos.

7
Plutarch’s version, adapted to fit with traditional Egyptian accounts of the same myth, has been used as the basis of this retelling which is adapted from J. A. Tyldesley (2004),
Tales from Ancient Egypt
, Rutherford Press, Bolton: 16–25.

8
Cleopatra’s Egyptian titulary is discussed in J. Tait (2003), ‘Cleopatra by Name’, in Walker and Ashton, eds (2003): 3–7.

9
A. B. Edwards (1877),
A Thousand Miles up the Nile
, George Routledge and Sons, London. The quotation is taken from page 122 of the 1888 edition.

10
The history of this curious piece has been reconstructed in A. Rammant-Peeters (1998), ‘L’Affaire Cléopâtre: ou comment la photographie servit de véhicule à l’imagination du XIX siècle’, in W. Clarysse, A. Schoors and H. Willems, eds,
Egyptian Religion the Last Thousand Years: Studies Dedicated to the memory of Jan Quaegebeur
, Peeters, Leuven: 1,449–57.

11
Lucius Apuleius,
Metamorphoses
, or,
The Golden Ass
, 11: 47. Translation adapted from W. Adlington (1566; 1639 published edition), ‘Imprinted at London in Fleatstreate at the sign of the Oliphante, by Henry Wykes’. Compare with the translation given by R. Graves (1950, revised edition 1990),
The Golden Ass
, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth.

12
Plutarch,
Isis and Osiris
, 5: 382. Translated by F. C. Babbitt (1936),
Moralia V
, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and Heinemann, London.

13
Diodorus Siculus,
Library of History
, I: 83.8. Translated by C. H. Oldfather.

14
The cult temples, situated in the cities, may be contrasted with the mortuary temples which were built in the desert as part of the king’s own funerary provision.

15
Translated by Ashton (2003): 105.

16
Translated by J. Quagebeur (1988), ‘Cleopatra VII and the Cults of the Ptolemaic Queens’, in
Cleopatra’s Egypt, Age of the Ptolemies
, Brooklyn Museum, New York: 41–54: 43.

17
Translation adapted from J. D. Ray (1976),
The Archive of Hor
, Egypt Exploration Society, London: 11–12 (text 1.11–18).

Chapter 6: Cleopatra and Mark Antony

1
Grant (1972): 84.

2
Seneca,
Quaestiones Naturales
, 4a2.16.

3
Flavius Josephus,
Against Apion
, 2: 60. Translated by W. Whiston.

4
Offering formulae were magical lists of food and other goods that the deceased might require in the tomb. The lists acted as an
aide mémoire
to the living who brought food to the tomb and the reading out of the list would cause the goods to magically and invisibly appear for the spirit of the deceased.

5
J. P. Lesley (1868), ‘A Classified Catalogue of Antiquities Collected by Mr Harris, and Now in his Museum in Alexandria, in Notes on Some of the Historical and Mythological Features of the D’Orbiney Papyri’,
Proceedings of the American Philological Society
10: 80: 543–82: 565.

6
M. Lichtheim (1990),
Ancient Egyptian Literature 3: The Late Period
, University of California Press, Berkeley and London: 63.

7
Plutarch,
Life of Antony
, 9: 3–4. Translated by B. Perrin.

8
See P. Walcot (1998), ‘Plutarch on Sex’,
Greece and Rome
, 45: 2: 166–87.

9
Discussed in more detail in K. Welch (1995), ‘Antony, Fulvia, and the Ghost of Clodius in 47 BC’,
Greece and Rome
, 42: 2: 182–201. Fulvia had also previously been married to Gaius Scribonius Curio.

10
Plutarch,
Life of Antony
, 10: 3. Translated by B. Perrin.

11
Appian,
The Civil Wars
, 4: 5.8. They may well have met in Alexandria, but it seems unlikely that Antony would have fallen so violently in love.

12
Plutarch,
Life of Antony
, 25: 3–4. Translated by B. Perrin.

13
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
, 48: 27.5. Translated by E. Cary.

14
Quoting Socrates the Rhodian: Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists
, 4: 29.

15
Plutarch,
Life of Antony
, 28. Translated by B. Perrin.

16
Pliny the Elder,
Natural History
, 19.59: 119–21.

17
For a fascinating account of experiments with pearls and sour wine, see B. L. Ullman (1957), ‘Cleopatra’s Pearls’,
Classical Journal
, 52: 5: 193–201. ‘When I boiled a pearl for thirty-three minutes the vinegar boiled off when I was reading a detective story. I can still smell that vinegar. The pearl seemed not to be affected, though I thought it looked a trifle peaked.’ I am grateful to the author for saving me the necessity of sacrificing my own somewhat insignificant pearl earrings in the interest of science.

18
Suetonius,
Divine Julius
, 43.

19
Pliny the Elder,
Natural History
, 21.12. The story of Lollia Paulina is told in 9: 117.

20
Discussed in A. Wright (2002), ‘Velleius Paterculus and L. Munatius Plancus’,
Classical Philology
, 97: 2: 178–84. It is apparent that Velleius is deliberately setting out to blacken Plancus’s name and the accuracy of his story must therefore be questioned.

21
Plutarch,
Life of Antony
, 10: 4. Translated by B. Perrin.

22
Athanaeus,
Deipnosophists
, 11: 85. Translated by C. D. Yonge.

23
Plutarch,
Life of Antony
, 29. Translated by B. Perrin.

24
H. Volkmann (1958), translated by C. J. Cadoux,
Cleopatra: Politics and Propaganda
, Elek Books, London: 72.

25
P. van Minden (2000), ‘An Official Act of Cleopatra (with subscription in her own hand)’,
Ancient Society
, 30: 29–34. The papyrus is today housed in Berlin Museum.

26
For further Ptolemaic correspondence, consult Rowlandson (1998).

27
Plutarch,
Life of Antony
, 36. Translated by B. Perrin.

28
Ibid., 36. 13. Translated by B. Perrin.