The Sisters | Page 2

growing up within its
precincts. I selected this alternative partly because the existing sources
of knowledge give us very insufficient information as to the duties that
might have been required of the twins, partly for other reasons arising
out of the plan of my narrative.
Klea and Irene are purely imaginary personages, but on the other hand I
have endeavored, by working from tolerably ample sources, to give a
faithful picture of the historical physiognomy of the period in which
they live and move, and portraits of the two hostile brothers Ptolemy
Philometor and Euergetes II., the latter of whom bore the nickname of
Physkon: the Stout. The Eunuch Eulaeus and the Roman Publius

Cornelius Scipio Nasica, are also historical personages.
I chose the latter from among the many young patricians living at the
time, partly on account of the strong aristocratic feeling which he
displayed, particularly in his later life, and partly because his nickname
of Serapion struck me. This name I account for in my own way,
although I am aware that he owed it to his resemblance to a person of
inferior rank.
For the further enlightenment of the reader who is not familiar with this
period of Egyptian history I may suggest that Cleopatra, the wife of
Ptolemy Philometor--whom I propose to introduce to the reader--must
not be confounded with her famous namesake, the beloved of Julius
Caesar and Mark Antony. The name Cleopatra was a very favorite one
among the Lagides, and of the queens who bore it she who has become
famous through Shakespeare (and more lately through Makart) was the
seventh, the sister and wife of Ptolemy XIV. Her tragical death from
the bite of a viper or asp did not occur until 134 years later than the
date of my narrative, which I have placed 164 years B.C.
At that time Egypt had already been for 169 years subject to the rule of
a Greek (Macedonian) dynasty, which owed its name as that of the
Ptolemies or Lagides to its founder Ptolemy Soter, the son of Lagus.
This energetic man, a general under Alexander the Great, when his
sovereign--333 B.C.--had conquered the whole Nile Valley, was
appointed governor of the new Satrapy; after Alexander's death in 323
B.C., Ptolemy mounted the throne of the Pharaohs, and he and his
descendants ruled over Egypt until after the death of the last and most
famous of the Cleopatras, when it was annexed as a province to the
Roman Empire.
This is not the place for giving a history of the successive Ptolemies,
but I may remark that the assimilating faculty exercised by the Greeks
over other nations was potent in Egypt; particularly as the result of the
powerful influence of Alexandria, the capital founded by Alexander,
which developed with wonderful rapidity to be one of the most
splendid centres of Hellenic culture and of Hellenic art and science.
Long before the united rule of the hostile brothers Ptolemy Philometor
and Euergetes--whose violent end will be narrated to the reader of this
story--Greek influence was marked in every event and detail of
Egyptian life, which had remained almost unaffected by the

characteristics of former conquerors--the Hyksos, the Assyrians and the
Persians; and, under the Ptolemies, the most inhospitable and exclusive
nation of early antiquity threw open her gates to foreigners of every
race.
Alexandria was a metropolis even in the modern sense; not merely an
emporium of commerce, but a focus where the intellectual and religious
treasures of various countries were concentrated and worked up, and
transmitted to all the nations that desired them. I have resisted the
temptation to lay the scene of my story there, because in Alexandria the
Egyptian element was too much overlaid by the Greek, and the too
splendid and important scenery and decorations might easily have
distracted the reader's attention from the dramatic interest of the
persons acting.
At that period of the Hellenic dominion which I have described, the
kings of Egypt were free to command in all that concerned the internal
affairs of their kingdom, but the rapidly-growing power of the Roman
Empire enabled her to check the extension of their dominion, just as
she chose.
Philometor himself had heartily promoted the immigration of Israelites
from Palestine, and under him the important Jewish community in
Alexandria acquired an influence almost greater than the Greek; and
this not only in the city but in the kingdom and over their royal
protector, who allowed them to build a temple to Jehovah on the shores
of the Nile, and in his own person assisted at the dogmatic discussions
of the Israelites educated in the Greek schools of the city. Euergetes II.,
a highly gifted but vicious and violent man, was, on the contrary, just
as inimical to them; he persecuted them cruelly