[Solar-OpenOffice] s of misadventure, now to th

Wed Sep 2 09:16:58 CEST 2009

 a life; he adored Egypt with such ardour as to forget for it the nation
of his birth and the modest home of his boyhood. And then began the
great tragedy of his life, a tragedy not love-inspired, but political.
As the hold of Egypt strengthened on his mind, Cleopatra tried to
persuade him not to conquer Persia, but to accept openly the kingdom of
Egypt, to found with her and with their children a new dynasty, and to
create a great new Egyptian Empire, adding to Egypt the better part of
the provinces that Rome possessed in Africa and in Asia, abandoning
Italy and the provinces of the West forever to their destiny. Cleopatra
had thought to snatch from Rome its Oriental Empire by the arm of
Antony, in that immense disorder of revolution; to reconstruct the great
Empire of Egypt, placing at its head the first general of the time,
creating an army of Roman legionaries with the gold of the Ptolemies; to
make Egypt and its dynasty the prime potentate of Africa and Asia,
transferring to Alexandria the political and diplomatic control of the
finest parts of the Mediterranean world. As the move failed, men have
deemed it folly and stupidity; but he who knows how easy it is to be
wise after events, will judge this confused policy of Cleopatra less
curtly. At any rate, it is certain that her scheme failed more because
of its own inconsistencies than through the vigour and ability with
which Rome tried to thwart it; it is certain that in the execution of
the plan, Antony felt first in himself the tragic discord between Orient
and Occident that was so long to lac
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