Cleopatra: A Life

14. Dio slips in a bitter note: Dio, LI.vii.2–3.

15. “at such a time there is no use”: Flatterer, 69a.

16. “irresistible courage”: Appian, IV.112.

17. “set the whole city”: MA, LXXI (ML translation).

18. “to continue the struggle”: Dio, LI.vi.1.

19. Caesarion was hailed as pharaoh: Walker and Higgs, 2001, 175.

20. “for she hoped that even if”: Dio, LI.vi.6.

21. “amorous adventures” to “might be saved”: Ibid., LI.viii.2–3.

22. rank and file in check: Ibid., LI.iii.4.

23. “a woman who was haughty”: MA, LXXIII.

24. “thought it her due”: Dio, LI.viii.7. To C’s list of Roman conquests, Plutarch offhandedly and illogically adds Cn. Pompey, MA, XXV.4.

25. “to hang him up”: MA, LXXII.

26. “suited to her fallen fortunes” to “went away rich”: Ibid., LXXIII (ML translation).

27. “splendor, luxury, and sumptuosity”: Ibid., LXXI (ML translation).

28. “surpassingly lofty”: Ibid., LXXIV.

29. “that Antony and Cleopatra learned”: Dio, LI.v.2.

30. “realm was far too” and the welcome: JW, I.394–6. See also JA, XV.199–202.

31. “strange, wild life”: Macurdy, 1932, 221.

32. The account of C’s bribery: MA, LXXIV.

33. Octavian storming Pelusium: Dio, LI.ix.5.

34. “she expected to gain”: Ibid., LI.ix.6.

35. “Then, exalted by his victory”: MA, LXXIV.

36. “a mummy and a nothing”: Ibid., LXXV.

37. “that Cleopatra had betrayed”: Ibid., LXXVI (translation modified).

38. Now in a panic, the city: Paulus Orosius, The Seven Books of History Against the Pagans (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1964), 274.

39. “yet in his infatuation”: Dio, LI.x.5–6; Livy, 133.30; MA, LXXVI.

40. “O Cleopatra”: MA, LXXVI (translation modified).

41. “Never” to “speedier release”: Ibid., LXXVII.

42. On Gaius Proculeius: A may not have been entirely misguided about him; Proculeius displayed a remarkable generosity with his brothers, Horace, Ode 2.2. Tacitus (Annals, IV.40) further testifies to his character; Juvenal (Satire VII.94) mentions him as a patron of the arts.

43. “a man who had been his relation” to “in his replies”: MA, LXXVIII.

44. Burning A’s letters: Dio, LII.xlii.8.

45. “add greatly to the glory”: MA, LXXVIII.

46. “yet he was unwilling”: Dio, LI.xi.3.

47. “Wretched Cleopatra” to “ease and pleasure”: MA, LXXIX (translation reworked).

48. “in order that she should entertain”: Dio, LI.xi.5.

49. The massive Caesareum wall: Goudchaux estimates they were between 2.5 and 3.5 meters thick, “Cleopatra’s Subtle Religious Strategy,” in Walker and Higgs, 2001, 136.

50. For more on the ritual lamentations, Branko Fredde van Oppen de Ruiter, “The Religious Identification of Ptolemaic Queens with Aphrodite, Demeter, Hathor and Isis.” (PhD dissertation, The City University of New York, 2007), 274– 370.

51. “in sumptuous and royal” to “regarding her children”: MA, LXXXII.

52. “by far the richest”: Orosius, 1964, 274.

53. “inflict any irreparable injury”: Dio, LI.xvi.3–4.

54. “Her hair and face”: MA, LXXXIII.

55. “wonderfully became her”: Dio, LI.xii.1.

56. “for he was well worth beholding”: ND, 5.

57. “To be so long prey”: Cicero to Atticus, 206 (X.14), May 8, 49.

58. “she would lament and kiss” to “even in Hades”: Dio, LI.xii.3–7.

59. “to necessity and fear of Antony”: MA, LXXXIII.

60. throwing herself vigorously at all kinds of feet: Dio has her casting herself at Octavian’s knees, but then again Florus has the same in 48, on CR’s arrival, II.13.56, and again at Octavian’s, II.21.9.

61. “The charm for which she was famous”: MA, LXXXIII.

62. “musical accents” and “melting tones”: Dio, LI.xii.4.

63. “stealing away” to “more gentle?”: MA, LXXXIII (translation reworked).

64. “worse than a thousand deaths”: Dio, LI.xiii.2.

65. “more splendid treatment” to “deceived by her”: MA, LXXXIII.

66. “a certain tenderness” to “apart from you”: Ibid., LXXXIV (translation reworked). Cornelius Dolabella may have been the son of P. Cornelius Dolabella, C’s near-ally of 44–43, Prosopographia Imperii Romani, 2nd edition.

67. “The mischief”: MA, LXXXV. For more on the asp, Nicander, Poems and Poetical Fragments (London: Cambridge University Press, 1953).

68. “her most beautiful apparel”: Dio, LI.xiii.5. Descriptions of the couch and royal emblems, O. E. Kaper to author, March 18, 2010. The crook and flail, interview with Roger Bagnall, May 3, 2010.

69. “A fine deed” to “so many kings”: MA, LXXXV.

70. “Valor in the unfortunate”: Plutarch, “Aemilius Paulus,” XXVI.12. As was said of Alexander the Great’s mother—another suicide—the greatness of the son could be read in the death of the mother.

71. On the psylli: Lucan, IX.920–38; NH, VII.ii.13–5. Also Plutarch, “Cato the Younger,” LVI.3–4; Dio, LI.xiv.4.

72. Even Strabo: Strabo, 17.1.10.

73. “The truth of the matter”: MA, LXXXVI.

74. “sharp-toothed serpents”: Horace, Ode I.37.

75. “Cleopatra cheated the vigilance”: VP, II.lxxxvii (translation reworked).

76. both the date and the time: DA, L.

77. Instead he boasted: AA, 4.

78. “vexed at the death” to “lofty spirit”: MA, LXXXVI.

79. “excessively grieved”: Dio, LI.xiv.6.

80. “No craven woman”: Horace, Ode I.37 (Louis E. Lord translation).

81. “with royal splendor”: MA, LXXXVI (Modern Library translation).

82. The statues of Iras and Charmion: Lindsay, 1998, 337.

83. Cleopatra Selene’s crocodiles: NH, 5.51.

84. Ptolemy’s murder: Suetonius, “Caligula,” XXXV; Dio, LIX.25. For an intricate, speculative account of the death, Jean-Claude Faur, “Caligula et la Mauretanie: La fin de Ptolemee,” Klio 55 (1973): 249–71.

85. The death of A’s associates: Orosius, 1964, 274.

86. On Caligula’s alternate views: Dio, LIX.xx.1–2; Suetonius, “Caligula,” XXIII.1.

87. devotion was the talk of Alexandria: See Holbl, 2001, 249.

88. Octavian and the Alexander mummy: DA, XVIII; Dio, LI.xvi.5.

89. “the common terror”: Gallus dedication of April 15, 29, cited in Robert K. Sherk, Rome and the Greek East to the Death of Augustus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 94.

90. “in costliness and magnificence”: Dio, LI.xxi.7–8. On the children, Eusebius, 187–94.

91. a lumbering hippopotamus: Gurval, 1998, 29.

92. “the Roman empire was enriched”: Dio, LI.xvii.8. NH for the obelisk, XXXVI.xiv.70–