Daughters of the Nile
Read Daughters of the Nile Online
Authors: Stephanie Dray
PRAISE FOR
Song of the Nile
“Selene has a fascinating history . . . Stephanie Dray has done a wonderful job bringing to life one of history’s lesser-known women, weaving magic, intrigue, and historical characters into a must-read novel for fans of historical fiction.”
—
Night Owl Reviews
“Author Stephanie Dray did a splendid job of re-creating Selene from vulnerable young woman to woman of great strength . . . Delicious prose, an exotic setting, and a heroine that will impress you with her unfailing courage and determination to reclaim what was once hers . . . historical women’s fiction at its finest.”
—
History and Women
Lily of the Nile
“Stephanie Dray’s
Lily of the Nile
is a spectacular blend of history and unforgettable fiction . . . a fresh and vibrant story of family, loyalty, political games, and love. It’s exquisitely written and left me begging for more. The only letdown was that it had to end.”
—
San Francisco Book Review
“In this account of the fate of Cleopatra’s daughter in the household of Augustus Caesar, Dray reveals the same events we’ve seen in
Rome
and
I, Claudius
from a very different perspective, that of a teenage girl. Cleopatra Selene has unusual gifts and problems, but her struggle to understand herself and her destiny is universal. The glimpses of the cult of Isis leave one wanting to know more, and the story keeps you turning the pages until the end.”
—Diana L. Paxson, author of
Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword of Avalon
“
Lily of the Nile
is graceful history infused with subtle magic and veiled ancient mysteries, at a time of immense flux and transition. Cleopatra Selene—regal, stoic, and indomitable daughter of the legendary Pharaoh-Queen Cleopatra—carries on the spirit of her mother, the goddess Isis, and the soul of Egypt itself into the lair of the conquering imperial enemy. Selene, whose skin speaks the words of queen and goddess in blood, channels the dynastic pride that is her birthright, and seals the fate of the Roman Empire. Meticulously researched, thoroughly believable, this is a different kind of book, and a true achievement.”
—Vera Nazarian, two-time Nebula Award–nominated author of
Lords of Rainbow
and
Mansfield Park and Mummies
“With clear prose, careful research, vivid detail, and a dash of magic, Stephanie Dray brings true life to one of Egypt’s most intriguing princesses.”
—Susan Fraser King, bestselling and award-winning author of
Queen Hereafter
and
Lady Macbeth
Berkley Titles by Stephanie Dray
LILY OF THE NILE
SONG OF THE NILE
DAUGHTERS OF THE NILE
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) LLC
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DAUGHTERS OF THE NILE
This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.
Copyright © 2013 by Stephanie Dray.
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BERKLEY
®
is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.
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Berkley trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-101-62723-5
An application to register this book has been submitted to the Library of Congress.
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley trade paperback edition / December 2013
Cover art by Alan Ayers.
Cover design by Judith Lagerman.
Interior text design by Kristin del Rosario.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Version_1
Contents
Berkley Titles by Stephanie Dray
To my sister, Jennifer, a daughter of the Nile without whom this journey would be unbearably lonely.
Dear Reader,
I’ve adopted some conventions that bear explanation. To start with, I’ve embraced the most familiar spellings and naming conventions for historical figures. For example, I’ve used Mark Antony for Marcus Antonius, Octavian instead of Octavius or Octavianus, and Cleopatra instead of Kleopatra. I’ve also used English words for Latin concepts whenever possible. One instance is my adoption of the word
lady
when the word
domina
may have been more accurate. Another is
book
instead of
codex
. Moreover, I’ve addressed Augustus as the emperor throughout the novel even though our modern understanding of the word differs greatly from the traditional Roman concept of an imperator. I stand by this choice because of his nontraditional use of
imperator
—a title he held lawfully in 43
B.C.
and should have relinquished that same year but did not.
I’ve tried to respect this work as a novel more than as a biography, and my choices and changes are explained in the author’s note at the end of this book. My heroine’s relatively uncritical acceptance of the idea that native peoples must be “civilized” is not an endorsement of the idea but a reflection of the historical attitude of the time. Moreover, I’ve unabashedly adopted the slant most favorable to Egypt, Selene, her family, and her religion; the biased perspective against Rome and Augustus reflects her views as I’ve imagined them, not my own.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, my thanks go to my wonderful husband for his patience, love, and support. Next, to my family, for their enthusiasm and encouragement. Then to sharp-eyed critique partners Sheila Accongio, Christi Barth, Gabrielle Carolina, Eliza Knight, Kate Quinn, Vicky Alvear Shecter, Kristen Stappenbeck-Baker, Stephanie Thornton, and Becky Wilson.
Many thanks too, to one of my literary heroines, Margaret George, for taking the time to read this manuscript before it was polished. Thanks also go to my fellow historical authors, Sophie Perinot, for moral support, and Teralyn Rose Pilgrim for help with the Vestal Virgins. I’m grateful to Kristianne Scalese Buker for help with flowers, Ana Beniquez-Sabo for help with interesting research tips on the Garamantes, Rachel Blackmun for various pieces of advice on writing in the ancient world and to Christine Rovet for information on plowing.
I must again thank Duane W. Roller, professor emeritus of Greek and Latin at Ohio State University for generously answering questions and offering advice. Historian Lindsay Powell also talked me through theories on Agrippa, and his book on Drusus the Elder was invaluable to me. Nevertheless, any mistakes in this manuscript are mine and mine alone, and should not be ascribed to anyone who helped me.
Mindful that footnotes are distracting in historical fiction and that my sources are too numerous to cite here, I would, nonetheless, like to credit several. For information on architecture, I consulted the writings of Vitruvius. For calculating travel times, I consulted Scheidel, W. and Meeks, E. (May 2, 2012). ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World at http://orbis.stanford.edu. And for information on Carthaginian architecture, I cite the work of Mark Dienekes on Historum.com. In my study of the Ara Pacis, I owe a debt of gratitude to Wayne Andersen’s
The Ara Pacis of Augustus and Mussolini
.
I am again indebted to other authors who have also tried to bring Selene’s world to life, including Andrea Ashton, Alice Curtis Desmond, Michelle Moran, and Vicky Alvear Shecter. Additionally, I cite W. W. Tarn’s scholarly paper titled “Alexander Helios and the Golden Age” as well as Duane W. Roller’s
The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene
, Margaret George’s
The
Memoirs of Cleopatra
, and the splashy Hollywood film
Cleopatra
, starring Elizabeth Taylor.
However, it was Beatrice Chanler’s 1934 novel
Cleopatra’s Daughter: The Queen of Mauretania
that inspired me most. My work is heavily influenced by her ideas, imagery, and lofty prose. In particular, Ms. Chanler’s book captured my imagination because of its unusual theory that Cleopatra Selene and her twin brother were religious symbols—a theory that I’ve extended into the fantastic.