The last representative of the dynasty of the Ptolemies, she seemed to possess an undue share of the evil propensities of an evil race; and, with this, the gift of rare beauty, added to very winning manners and remarkable powers of fascination.  In her constitution was blended a dangerous combination of varied charms and varied vices.  The learning of the Egyptian schools she had mastered; there were none of the then modern accomplishments of which she had not made herself mistress; wealth and regal honors were hers; and yet what a sad picture she presents!  Evil passions were allowed to rankle in her breast unchecked, till she became one of the vilest creatures, in a country become the vilest and basest of nations.  The powers of mind with which she was endowed, used for the benefit of her country, might have been the means of its salvation; but instead of appealing to the patriotism of her people—­if, indeed, they then possessed any—­she chose rather to court the favor of the rising Roman general, and gain by flattery and crime what might have been denied to virtue.  Though her kingdom was in danger, and her own position and the inheritance of her children were at stake, she reveled in sinful pleasure with the enemy.  By the power of her charms, she effected a compromise with the first Caesar, which left her in possession of Egypt; but not on honorable terms.  How could terms, dictated on the one side and agreed to on the other by base passion, be aught but shameful and humiliating?

Caesar in the west, and the Roman legions far away, Cleopatra paid no more regard to the treaty between them than if it had never been made.  Such a violation of contract the Romans never forgave; and Mark Antony, who had striven to rise to the supreme power after the assassination of Julius Caesar, as soon as he had leisure from his other ambitious schemes, bent his steps toward Egypt, to punish the faithless queen.  Again she had recourse to her personal charms.  The stern but vicious general, though in name a conqueror, became an easy victim of her wiles; and was himself in fact the conquered one.  If Cleopatra had been Mark Antony’s most bitter foe, she could not more surely have lured him on to utter, hopeless ruin.

At last, the crisis came.  Augustus Caesar had arrived upon the shores of Egypt to avenge his sister’s wrongs.  Mark Antony’s fate was sealed.  Once more the wretched woman tried her powers of fascination; but youth and sprightliness were gone.  She failed to captivate Augustus by her winning manners, or move him by a display of her distress.  Her power, she realized at last, was gone; but grace his triumph in Rome she was determined she would not.  As a crowned queen she had lived; as one she would die.  The deadly asp, it is said, became the executioner of her wicked will; and when the victor came to stay the act which would rob him of a part of his revenge, he found the work accomplished.  Cleopatra would try her wiles no more.