L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 22 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear Readers, Cleo- patra, 69-30 B.C., queen of Egypt, and her "Italian Connec- tion" romances with "the greatest Roman of them all," Julius Caesar and with tall, dark and handsome Marc Antony, is my focus this romantic month of February. Cleopatra was Mace- donian Greek, a royal line descended from a general of Alexander the Great. She was strong-willed and ambitious. She longed to return her country to its former glory. She belonged to the Ptolemy family, whose origins were in the blood of one of Alexander's Greek generals. The Ptolemies had always remained essentially Greek. Of all the family, only Cleopatra bothered to learn the Egyptian language. Young King Ptolemy's advisors were stronger than Cleopatra and two years later they had driven her out of Egypt into Syria. Cleopatra raised an army and was prepared to fight to retake her throne in Egypt. Before the battle could begin it was inter- rupted by the arrival in Alexan- dria of Julius Caesar, the most powerful man in Rome, who had moved into the palace for a short visit. Her brother's advisors were afraid Cleopatra might return and win Caesar's support, so they had the palace surrounded by sol- diers. Cleopatra decided to sail to Alexandria. Anchoring her ship offshore she and her aide Apol- ladorus took a small boat and entered the harbor at nightfall. Once safely ashore, Apolladorus wrapped her up in a rug and car- ried her into the palace. He deliv- ered the roll to Caesar. Cleopatra, twenty when she met this great man, was hardly an awestruck girl. They met as equals. Cleopatra soon gained the assistance of Julius Caesar and after a six month siege,her broth- er Ptolemy's army was defeated and drowned in the Nile. Cleopa- tra was crowned once again queen and, as mistress of Caesar, had a son, Caesarion. Caesar should have hurried back to Rome, but he was eager to see more of Egypt. Cleopatra planned a cruise up the Nile for him. If Caesar were to marry this dazzling queen, between them they would control most of the known world. As her husband, he would become a divine king and their child, would rule after him. Caesar was enjoying himself so much that he stayed and stayed. His worried generals finally per- suaded him to get back to busi- ness. He returned to Rome, Cleopatra joined him there with her baby son, Ptolemy Caesar, whom she called Caesarion. Cleopatra moved into Caesar's country estate. This scandalized the people of Rome, for Caesar already had a wife. The city buzzed with rumors that Caesar was planning to make himself king with Cleopatra as his queen. Those who believed in the Republic were afraid of Cae- sar's ambition. Brutus and Cas- sius, two men whom Caesar knew and trusted, joined with over sixty other Senators and formed a conspiracy to assassi- nate him.The day they chose was March 15, called the Ides (or mid- dle day) of March, in the year 44 B.C. When Caesar arrived in the Senate, the assassins, many of them his friends, fell upon Caesar and murdered him. The hand of his trusted adopted son Brutus is considered the most famous of the classical betrayals. His will left everything to his 18 years old adopted grandnephew Octavian (later Augustus) and made no mention of his son Caesarion. Cleopatra seemed to have lost everything, the man she loved and all her grand hopes. Fearing she might also lose her life, she quickly returned to Egypt. Octa- vian, Caesar's heir, was jealous of Marc Antony, a great general and statesman who had won the loyal- ty of his soldiers and the admira- tion of the Roman people. Antony and Octavian arrived to a compromise. Together with another prominent Roman named Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, they agreed to govern the Roman terri- tories together, dividing them three ways. Antony took the east- ern provinces, Octavian took those in the west, and Lepidus was given Africa. Later, this three man rule (Called the triumvirate) began to break down. Octavian forced Lepidus out and took Africa. The ultimate struggle for supremacy was to be between Antony and Octavian. Marc Antony went to Egypt to straighten out the affairs of the Roman Empire. He soon suc- cumbed to the charms of Cleopa- tra. Antony found it hard to leave Egypt. Over the next ten years, Antony and Cleopatra had three children. Antony made a political marriage with Octavian's sister, Octavia. And yet, he considered his marriage to Cleopatra to be the real one. When Antony divorced Octavia, Octavian was outraged at Antony's shabby treatment of his sister. Cleverly, he did not declare war on Antony, a fellow Roman, but on Cleopatra, a for- eign queen. The decisive battle took place off the coast of Greece. Octavian's army was camped just outside the Gulf of Ambracia, so that Antony and his ships were trapped for many months. Shortly after noon of Septem- ber 2, 30 BC, Antony's fleet lined up and rowed out of the harbor. In the rear were sixty of the best Egyptian ships, which Cleopatra commanded. Antony's fleet, overwhelmed and demoralized, surrendered to Octavian, the army soon did the same. Marc Antony was killed in the battle of Actium in 30 B.C. and Cleopatra, seeing that her charms held no fascination for Octavian in whose power she was after the death of Antony, wished only to join Antony in death. Octavian allowed Cleopatra to give Antony a lavish funeral, as befitted a king. Then he ordered her to make ready for a voyage to Rome. She knew what would happen to her there. Octavian allowed her to visit Antony's tomb one last time. Then, laying a garland of flowers on his grave, she returned to her rooms, bathed, dressed with care and, reclining on her golden couch, enjoyed a sumptuous meal. A peasant arrived with a basket of figs for the queen. She had arranged for a poiso- nous asp to be smuggled in, hid- den among the figs and caused herself to be bitten by a snake. Cleopatra was only thirty nine when she died, in the year 30 B.C. She was buried with Antony, as she had wished, but no one knows what became of the tombs of Antony, Cleopatra or Alexan- der the Great. Egypt became part of the Roman Empire. Octavian, under the new name of Augustus Cae- sar, became the fist Emperor of Rome, bringing the republic to an end...

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