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Makers of History

CLEOPATRA

BY

JACOB ABBOTT






[Illustration: CLEOPATRA.]




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



[Illustration: Map--'Scene