Famous Affinities of History | Page 2

his plays,
expressed its nature in the title "All for Love."
The distinguished Italian historian, Signor Ferrero, the author of many
books, has tried hard to eliminate nearly all the romantic elements from
the tale, and to have us see in it not the triumph of love, but the
blindness of ambition. Under his handling it becomes almost a sordid
drama of man's pursuit of power and of woman's selfishness. Let us
review the story as it remains, even after we have taken full account of
Ferrero's criticism. Has the world for nineteen hundred years been
blinded by a show of sentiment? Has it so absolutely been misled by
those who lived and wrote in the days which followed closely on the
events that make up this extraordinary narrative?
In answering these questions we must consider, in the first place, the
scene, and, in the second place, the psychology of the two central
characters who for so long a time have been regarded as the very
embodiment of unchecked passion.
As to the scene, it must be remembered that the Egypt of those days
was not Egyptian as we understand the word, but rather Greek.
Cleopatra herself was of Greek descent. The kingdom of Egypt had

been created by a general of Alexander the Great after that splendid
warrior's death. Its capital, the most brilliant city of the Greco-Roman
world, had been founded by Alexander himself, who gave to it his
name. With his own hands he traced out the limits of the city and
issued the most peremptory orders that it should be made the
metropolis of the entire world. The orders of a king cannot give
enduring greatness to a city; but Alexander's keen eye and marvelous
brain saw at once that the site of Alexandria was such that a great
commercial community planted there would live and flourish
throughout out succeeding ages. He was right; for within a century this
new capital of Egypt leaped to the forefront among the exchanges of
the world's commerce, while everything that art could do was lavished
on its embellishment.
Alexandria lay upon a projecting tongue of land so situated that the
whole trade of the Mediterranean centered there. Down the Nile there
floated to its gates the barbaric wealth of Africa. To it came the
treasures of the East, brought from afar by caravans-- silks from China,
spices and pearls from India, and enormous masses of gold and silver
from lands scarcely known. In its harbor were the vessels of every
country, from Asia in the East to Spain and Gaul and even Britain in
the West.
When Cleopatra, a young girl of seventeen, succeeded to the throne of
Egypt the population of Alexandria amounted to a million souls. The
customs duties collected at the port would, in terms of modern money,
amount each year to more than thirty million dollars, even though the
imposts were not heavy. The people, who may be described as Greek at
the top and Oriental at the bottom, were boisterous and pleasure-loving,
devoted to splendid spectacles, with horse-racing, gambling, and
dissipation; yet at the same time they were an artistic people, loving
music passionately, and by no means idle, since one part of the city was
devoted to large and prosperous manufactories of linen, paper, glass,
and muslin.
To the outward eye Alexandria was extremely beautiful. Through its
entire length ran two great boulevards, shaded and diversified by

mighty trees and parterres of multicolored flowers, amid which
fountains plashed and costly marbles gleamed. One-fifth of the whole
city was known as the Royal Residence. In it were the palaces of the
reigning family, the great museum, and the famous library which the
Arabs later burned. There were parks and gardens brilliant with tropical
foliage and adorned with the masterpieces of Grecian sculpture, while
sphinxes and obelisks gave a suggestion of Oriental strangeness. As
one looked seaward his eye beheld over the blue water the snow-white
rocks of the sheltering island, Pharos, on which was reared a lighthouse
four hundred feet in height and justly numbered among the seven
wonders of the world. Altogether, Alexandria was a city of wealth, of
beauty, of stirring life, of excitement, and of pleasure. Ferrero has aptly
likened it to Paris--not so much the Paris of to-day as the Paris of forty
years ago, when the Second Empire flourished in all its splendor as the
home of joy and strange delights.
Over the country of which Alexandria was the capital Cleopatra came
to reign at seventeen. Following the odd custom which the Greek
dynasty of the Ptolemies had inherited from their Egyptian
predecessors, she was betrothed to her own brother. He, however, was a
mere child of less than twelve, and was under the control of evil
counselors, who, in his