and uncalculating generosity.  The treasurer, more prudent than his master, wished to reduce the amount, but he did not dare directly to propose a reduction; so he counted out the money, and laid it in a pile in a place where Antony was to pass, thinking that when Antony saw the amount, he would perceive that it was too great.  Antony, in passing by, asked what money that was.  The treasurer said that it was the sum that he had ordered to be sent as a present to such a person, naming the individual intended.  Antony was quick to perceive the object of the treasurer’s maneuver.  He immediately replied, “Ah! is that all?  I thought the sum I named would make a better appearance than that; send him double the amount.”

To determine, under such circumstances as these, to double an extravagance merely for the purpose of thwarting the honest attempt of a faithful servant to diminish it, made, too, in so cautious and delicate a way, is most certainly a fault.  But it is one of those faults for which the world, in all ages, will persist in admiring and praising the perpetrator.

In a word, Antony became the object of general attention and favor during his continuance at Alexandria.  Whether he particularly attracted Cleopatra’s attention at this time or not does not appear.  She, however, strongly attracted his. He admired her blooming beauty, her sprightliness and wit, and her various accomplishments.  She was still, however, so young—­being but fifteen years of age, while Antony was nearly thirty—­that she probably made no very serious impression upon him.  A short time after this, Antony went back to Rome, and did not see Cleopatra again for many years.

When the two Roman generals went away from Alexandria, they left a considerable portion of the army behind them, under Ptolemy’s command, to aid him in keeping possession of his throne.  Antony returned to Rome.  He had acquired great renown by his march across the desert, and by the successful accomplishment of the invasion of Egypt and the restoration of Ptolemy.  His funds, too, were replenished by the vast sums paid to him and to Gabinius by Ptolemy.  The amount which Ptolemy is said to have agreed to pay as the price of his restoration was two thousand talents—­equal to ten millions of dollars—­a sum which shows on how great a scale the operations of this celebrated campaign were conducted.  Ptolemy raised a large portion of the money required for his payments by confiscating the estates belonging to those friends of Berenice’s government whom he ordered to be slain.  It was said, in fact, that the numbers were very much increased of those that were condemned to die, by Ptolemy’s standing in such urgent need of their property to meet his obligations.

Antony, through the results of this campaign, found himself suddenly raised from the position of a disgraced and homeless fugitive to that of one of the most wealthy and renowned, and, consequently, one of the most powerful personages in Rome.  The great civil war broke out about this time between Caesar and Pompey.  Antony espoused the cause of Caesar.