or in any case to sail to Spain. Cleopatra seeing
this caused the ships to desert and she herself rushed
suddenly into the mausoleum pretending that she feared
Caesar and desired by some means to destroy herself
before capture, but really as an invitation to Antony
to enter there also. He had an inkling that he
was being betrayed, but his infatuation would not
allow him to believe it, and, as one might say, he
pitied her more than himself. Cleopatra was fully
aware of this and hoped that if he should be informed
that she was dead, he would not prolong his life but
meet death at once. Accordingly, she hastened
into the monument with one eunuch and two female attendants
and from there sent a message to him to the effect
that she had passed away. When he heard it, he
did not delay, but was seized with a desire to follow
her in death. Then first he asked one of the
bystanders to slay him, but the man drew a sword and
despatched himself. Wishing to imitate his courage
Antony gave himself a wound and fell upon his face,
causing the bystanders to think that he was dead.
An outcry was raised at his deed, and Cleopatra hearing
it leaned out over the top of the monument. By
a certain contrivance its doors once closed could
not be opened again, but above, near the ceiling,
it had not yet been completed. That was where
they saw her leaning out and some began to utter shouts
that reached the ears of Antony. He, learning
that she survived, stood up as if he had still the
power to live; but a great gush of blood from his wound
made him despair of rescue and he besought those present
to carry him to the monument and to hoist him by the
ropes that were hanging there to elevate stone blocks.
This was done and he died there on Cleopatra’s
bosom.
[-11-] She now began to feel confidence in Caesar
and immediately made him aware of what had taken place,
but did not feel altogether confident that she would
experience no harm. Hence she kept herself within
the structure, in order that if there should be no
other motive for her preservation, she might at least
purchase pardon and her sovereignty through fear about
her money. Even then in such depths of calamity
she remembered that she was queen, and chose rather
to die with the name and dignities of a sovereign
than to live as an ordinary person. It should
be stated that she kept fire on hand to use upon her
money and asps and other reptiles to use upon herself,
and that she had tried the latter on human beings
to see in what way they killed in each case. Caesar
was anxious to make himself master of her treasures,
to seize her alive, and to take her back for his triumph.
However, as he had given her a kind of pledge, he
did not wish to appear to have acted personally as
an impostor, since this would prevent him from treating
her as a captive and to a certain extent subdued against
her will. He therefore sent to her Gaius Proculeius,
a knight, and Epaphroditus, a freedman, giving them
directions what they must say and do. So they