great-grandfather). He posed alternately as a descendant of each, depending on his agenda. It was easy to trip up under his reign, when sacrifices to celebrate Antony’s overthrow might be objectionable one day, the reluctance to offer sacrifices to Augustus’s victory the next.
* As ever, a capable woman was suspect. It would be whispered that Livia killed him. Curiously, she was said to have done so with poisoned figs.
* The practice of renaming months ended with Tiberius, who—urged to appropriate November—scoffed that all would become highly problematic if there turned out to be thirteen Caesars.
* She may well have known Aesop’s fable: As the lion said to the Man, “There are many statues of men slaying lions, but if only the lions were sculptors there might be quite a different set of statues.”
* Dante at least places her seven circles above her brother in hell. Her sin (lust) was against herself. Her younger brother’s (betrayal) was against another.
CLEOPATRA
STACY SCHIFF
LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY
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