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At the news concerning Pelusium Antony returned from Paraetonium and went to meet Caesar in front of Alexandria, and attacking him with his cavalry, while the other was wearied from his march, he won the day.

Encouraged by this success, and because he had shot arrows into Caesar’s camp carrying leaflets which promised the men six thousand sesterces, he joined battle also with his infantry and was defeated.

For Caesar of his own accord personally read the leaflets to his soldiers, at the same time reviling Antony and trying to turn them to a feeling of shame for the suggested treachery and of enthusiasm for himself; the result was that they were fired by zeal through this very incident, both by reason of their indignation at the attempt made upon their loyalty and by way of demonstrating that they were not subject to the suspicion of being base traitors.

and she herself rushed suddenly into the mausoleum, pretending that she feared Caesar and desired by some means or other to forestall him by taking her own life, but really as an invitation to Antony to enter there also. He had a suspicion, to be sure, that he was being betrayed, but actually pitied her more, one might say, than himself.

and she now felt a certain confidence in Caesar, and immediately informed him of what had taken placed; still, she was not altogether convinced that she would suffer no harm. She accordingly kept herself within the building, in order that, even if there should be no other motive for her preservation, she might at least purchase pardon and her kingdom through his fear for the money.

Now Caesar was anxious not only to get possession of her treasures but also to seize her alive and to carry her back for his triumph, yet he was unwilling to appear to have tricked her himself after having given her a kind of pledge, since he wished to treat her as a captive and to a certain extent subdued against her will.

At any rate, when she expressed a desire to appear before Caesar and to have an interview with him, she gained her request; and to deceive her still more, he promised that he would come to her himself.

When, after this, Caesar entered, she leaped gracefully to her feet and cried: “Hail, master—for Heaven has granted you the mastery and taken it from me. But surely you can see with your own eyes how your father looked when he visited me on many occasions, and you have heard people tell how he honoured me in various ways and made me queen of the Egyptians.

That you may, however, learn something about me from him himself, take and read the letters which he wrote me with his own hand.” ¶ After she had spoken thus, she proceeded to read many passionate expressions of Caesar’s. And now she would lament and kiss the letters, and again she would fall before his images and do them reverence.

Such were the subtleties of speech and of attitude which she employed, and sweet were the glances she cast at him and the words she murmured to him. Now Caesar was not insensible to the ardour of her speech and the appeal to his passions, but he pretended to be; and letting his eyes rest upon the ground, he merely said: “Be of good cheer, woman, and keep a stout heart; for you shall suffer no harm.”

She was greatly distressed because he would neither look at her nor say anything about the kingdom nor even utter a word of love, and falling at his knees, she said with an outburst of sobbing: “I neither wish to live nor can I live, Caesar. But this favour I beg of you in memory of your father, that, since Heaven gave me to Antony after him, I may also die with Antony.

Would that I had perished then, straightway after Caesar! But since it was decreed by fate that I should suffer this affliction also, send me to Antony; grudge me not burial with him, in order that, as it is because of him I die, so I may dwell with him even in Hades.”

Such words she uttered, expecting to move him to pity, but Caesar made no answer to them; fearing, however, that she might destroy herself, he exhorted her again to be of good cheer, and not only did not remove any of her attendants but also took special care of her, that she might add brilliance to his triumph.

This purpose she suspected, and regarding that fate as worse than a thousand deaths, she conceived a genuine desire to die, and not only addressed many entreaties to Caesar that she might perish in some manner or other, but also devised many plans herself.

And so it came about. For as soon as the others and Epaphroditus, to whose charge she had been committed, had come to believe that she really felt as she pretended to, and neglected to keep a careful watch, she made her preparations to die as painlessly as possible. First she gave a sealed paper, in which she begged Caesar to order that she be buried beside Antony, to Epaphroditus himself to deliver,