“We succeeded in joining Cleopatra, and heard that, spite of the hostility of our citizens, Caesar had occupied the palace of the Ptolemies and was engaged in restoring order.

“We knew in what way Pothinus, Achillas, and Arsinoe would seek to influence him.  Cleopatra had good reason to fear that her foes might deliver Egypt unconditionally to Rome, if Caesar should leave the reins of government in their hands and shut her out.  She had cause to dread this, but she also had the courage to act in person in her own behalf.

“The point now was to bring her into the city, the palace-nay, into direct communication with the dictator.  Children tell the tale of the strong man who bore Cleopatra in a sack through the palace portals.  It was not a sack which concealed her, but a Syrian carpet.  The strong man was my brother Straton.  I went first, to secure a free passage.

“Julius Caesar and she saw and found each other.  Fate merely drew the conclusion which must result from such premises.  Never have I seen Cleopatra happier, more exalted in mind and heart, yet she was menaced on all sides by serious perils.  It required all the military genius of Caesar to conquer the fierce hostility which he encountered here.  It was this, not the thrall of Cleopatra, I repeat, which first bound him to Egypt.  What would have prevented him—­as he did later—­from taking the object of his love to Rome, had it been possible at that time?  But this was not the case.  The Alexandrians provided for that.

“He had recognized the flute-player’s will, nay, had granted more to the royal house than could have been given to the former.  Cleopatra and her brother-husband, Dionysus, were to share the government, and he also bestowed on Arsinoe and her youngest brother the island of Cyprus, which had been wrested from their uncle Ptolemy by the republic.  Rome was, of course, to remain the guardian of the brothers and sisters.

“This arrangement was unendurable to Pothinus and the former rulers of the state.  Cleopatra as Queen, and Rome—­that is Caesar, the dictator, her friend, as guardian—­meant their removal from power, their destruction, and they resisted violently.

“The Egyptians and even the Alexandrians supported them.  The young King hated nothing more than the yoke of the unloved sister, who was so greatly his superior.  Caesar had come with a force by no means equal to theirs, and it might be possible to draw the mighty general into a snare.  They fought with all the power at their command, with such passionate eagerness, that the dictator had never been nearer succumbing to peril.  But Cleopatra certainly did not paralyze his strength and cautious deliberation.  No!  He had never been greater; never proved the power of his genius so magnificently.  And against what superior power, what hatred he contended!  I myself saw the young King, when he heard that Cleopatra had succeeded in entering the palace and meeting Caesar, rush into the street, fairly crazed by rage, tear the diadem from his head, hurl it on the pavement, and shriek to the passers-by that he was betrayed, until Caesar’s soldiers forced him back into the palace, and dispersed the mob.