Part 26

LXV.[446] Now on that day and the three following days the sea was agitated by a strong wind which prevented an engagement, but on the fifth, there being no wind and the sea being quite calm, they came to an engagement. Antonius and Publicola commanded the right wing, and Coelius the left; and in the centre were Marcus Octavius and Marcus Insteius. Cæsar placed Agrippa on the left, and reserved the right wing for himself. Canidius drew up the army of Antonius, and Taurus that of Cæsar on the shore, and remained without moving. As to the two commanders-in-chief, Antonius visited all his vessels in a row-boat and exhorted his soldiers to trust to the weight of their ships and to fight as if they were on land, without changing their position, and he urged the masters of the ships to receive the shock of the enemy with their vessels as if they were quietly at anchor, and to avoid the difficult spots about the entrance of the bay: and Cæsar, it is said, while it was still dark, left his tent, and as he was going round to the ships, he met a man driving an ass, who being asked his name and knowing Cæsar, replied, "My name is Goodluck, and my ass's name is Victor." For this reason when Cæsar afterwards ornamented the place with the beaks of ships, he set up a bronze figure of an ass and a man. After observing the arrangement of the other part of his fleet, he went in a boat to the right wing and was surprised to see the enemy resting quietly in the straits; for the vessels had the appearance of being moored at their anchors; and as he was for a long time convinced of this, he kept his own ships at the distance of eight stadia from the enemy. It was now the sixth hour, and a wind beginning to rise from the sea, the soldiers of Antonius were impatient at the delay, and, trusting to the height and magnitude of their ships as making them unassailable, they put the left wing in motion. Cæsar, delighted to see this, ordered his right wing to row backwards with the design of drawing the enemy still further out of the gulf and the straits, and by surrounding them with his own light vessels to come to close quarters with the enemy's ships, which, owing to their size and the insufficiency of their crews, were cumbersome and slow.

LXVI. Though the two fleets were beginning to come together, they did not drive the ships against, nor strive to crush one another, for the ships of Antonius, owing to their weight, were unable to move forwards with any force, which mainly gives effect to the blows of the beaks, and those of Cæsar not only avoided meeting front to front the strong and rough brass work of the enemy, but did not even venture to strike against them on the flank. For the beaks would easily have been broken off by coming in contact with the hulls[447] of the enemy's vessels, which were protected by large square pieces of timber fastened to one another with iron. The battle therefore was like a land fight, or, to speak more exactly, like the assailing of a fortress; for three and four of Cæsar's ships at the same time were engaged about one of the ships of Antonius, and the men fought with light shields and spears and poles and fiery missiles; the soldiers of Antonius assailed them also with catapults from wooden towers. While Agrippa was extending the left wing with a view to surround the enemy, Publicola, being compelled to advance to meet him, was separated from the centre, which fell into confusion, and was also closely engaged with Arruntius. While the sea fight was still undecided and equally favourable to both sides, all at once the sixty ships of Cleopatra were seen raising their sails for the purpose of making off, and flying through the centre of the combatants; for they were stationed behind the large vessels and they caused confusion by making their way through them. The enemy looked on with wonder, seeing them take advantage of the wind and shape their course towards the Peloponnesus. On this occasion Antonius clearly showed that he was not governed by the considerations that befit either a commander or a man, or even by his own judgment, but, as some one observed in jest, that the soul of the lover lives in another person's body, so was he dragged along by the woman as if he had grown to her and moved together with her. For no sooner did he see her ship sailing away, than, forgetting everything, and deserting and skulking away from those who were fighting and dying in his cause, he got into a five-oared galley with only Alexas the Syrian and Skellius to attend him, and followed after her who had already ruined him and was destined to complete his ruin.

LXVII. Cleopatra, having recognised the vessel of Antonius, raised a signal; and Antonius accordingly, coming up to her and being taken into her ship, neither saw Cleopatra nor was seen by her, but advancing close to the prow he sat down by himself in silence holding his head with both his hands. In the meantime there were seen Liburnian ships[448] from Cæsar's fleet in pursuit; but Antonius, by ordering his men to turn his vessel's head towards them, kept them all in check, except the ship of Eurykles, the Lacedæmonian, who proudly pressed on, brandishing a spear on the deck, as if to hurl it at Antonius. Standing on the prow of his vessel Antonius asked who it was that was pursuing Antonius? The reply was, "I am Eurykles, the son of Lachares, and by the help of Cæsar's fortune I am avenging my father's death." Now Lachares had been beheaded by Antonius in consequence of being involved in a charge of robbery. However Eurykles did not fall upon the ship of Antonius, but he dashed against the other of the admiral-ships (for there were two) with the brazen beak, and made it spin round, and as the ship fell off from its course he took it, and also another ship which contained costly vessels for table use. When this assailant had retired, Antonius, again settling down in the same posture, remained without moving, and, after spending three days at the prow by himself, either because of his passion or that he was ashamed to see Cleopatra, he put in at Tænarus.[449] Here the women who were in attendance on Cleopatra first of all brought them to speak to one another, and next they persuaded them to sup and sleep together. And already not a few of the transport ships and some of their friends after the defeat began to collect around them; and they brought intelligence of the destruction of the navy, but they supposed that the army still kept together. Antonius sent messengers to Canidius with orders for him to retreat quickly through Macedonia with his army into Asia; and as it was his intention to cross over from Tænarus to Libya, he selected one of the store-ships which conveyed much money and many royal utensils in silver and in gold of great value, and gave them to his friends, telling them to divide the things among them and to look after their safety. As they refused and wept, he comforted them with much affection and kindness, and by his entreaties induced them to depart; and he wrote to Theophilus, his steward in Corinth, to provide for the safety of the men and to conceal them until they should be able to make their peace with Cæsar. This Theophilus was the father of Hipparchus, who had the greatest influence with Antonius, and was the first of his freedmen who went over to Cæsar, and he afterwards lived in Corinth.

LXVIII. Such was the condition of affairs with Antonius. At Actium the naval force, after resisting Cæsar a long time and being very greatly damaged by the heavy sea that set against them ahead, hardly gave up the contest at the tenth hour. The dead were said not to be more than five thousand, but there were taken three hundred ships, as Cæsar has recorded. There were not many who knew that Antonius had fled, and those who heard of it could not at first believe that he had gone and left them, when he had nineteen legions of unvanquished soldiers and twelve thousand horsemen; as if he had not often experienced fortune both ways, and were not exercised in the reverses of innumerable contests and wars. The soldiers longed and expected to see him, hoping that he would soon show himself from some quarter or other; and they displayed so much fidelity and courage that, even when his flight was well known, they kept together seven days and paid no regard to Cæsar's messages to them. But at last, when their general Canidius had stolen away by night and left the camp, being now deserted of all and betrayed by their commanders, they went over to the conqueror. Upon this Cæsar[450] sailed to Athens, and having come to terms with the Greeks, he distributed the grain that remained over after the war among the cities, which were in a wretched condition and stripped of money, slaves and beasts of burden. Now my great-grandfather Nikarchus used to relate that all the citizens[451] were compelled to carry down on their shoulders a certain quantity of wheat to the sea at Antikyra, and that their speed was quickened by the whip; they had carried, he said, one supply in this manner, and had just measured out another and were about to set out, when news came that Antonius was defeated, and this saved the city; for the agents and soldiers of Antonius immediately fled, and they divided the corn among themselves.

LXIX. When Antonius had reached the coast of Libya, and had sent Cleopatra forwards to Egypt from Parætonium,[452] he had his fill of solitude, wandering and rambling about with two friends, one a Greek, Aristokrates, a rhetorician, and the other a Roman, Lucilius,[453] about whom I have said elsewhere that at Philippi, in order that Brutus might escape, he had surrendered to the pursuers, pretending that he was Brutus, and his life being spared by Antonius on that account, he remained faithful to him and firm to the last critical times. When the general[454] to whom he had intrusted the troops in Libya had caused their defection, Antonius made an effort to kill himself, but he was prevented by his friends and conveyed to Alexandria, where he found Cleopatra contemplating a hazardous and great undertaking. The isthmus which separates the Red Sea from the sea of Egypt[455] and is considered to be the boundary between Asia and Libya, in the part where it is most contracted by the sea, and the width is least, is about three hundred stadia across; and here Cleopatra undertook to raise her ships out of the water and to drag them across the neck of land, and so bringing her ships into the Arabian gulf with much money and a large force, to settle beyond the limits of Egypt and to escape from slavery and war. But as the Arabs of Petra[456] burnt the first ships which were drawn up, and Antonius thought that the army at Actium still kept together, Cleopatra desisted from her design and guarded the approaches to Egypt. Antonius now leaving the city and the company of his friends, built for himself a dwelling in the sea, near the Pharos,[457] by throwing forward a mole into the water; and here he lived a fugitive from men, and he said that he was content with Timon's life and admired it, considering himself in like plight with Timon; for he too had been wronged by his friends and had experienced their ingratitude, and that therefore he distrusted and disliked all men.

LXX. Timon[458] was an Athenian, who lived about the time of the Peloponnesian war, as we may conclude from the plays of Aristophanes and Plato; for he is brought forward in them as peevish and misanthropical. Though he avoided and rejected all intercourse with men, yet he received in a friendly manner Alkibiades, who was a young audacious fellow, and showed him great affection. And when Apemantus wondered at this and asked the reason, he said that he liked the young man because he knew that he would be the cause of much ill to the Athenians. Apemantus was the only person whom he sometimes allowed to approach him, because he was like himself and imitated his mode of life. On one occasion, during the festival called Choes,[459] when the two were feasting together, Apemantus said, "How delightful the entertainment is, Timon;" "Yes, if you were not here," was the reply. It is said that when the Athenians were in public assembly, Timon ascended the bema and called for silence, which raised great expectation on account of the unusual nature of the circumstance: he then said, "I have a small plot of building-ground, men of Athens, and there is a fig-tree growing on it, on which many of the citizens have already hanged themselves. Now as I intend to build on the ground, I wished to give public notice that, if any of you choose, they may hang themselves before the fig-tree is cut down." After his death he was buried at Halæ, near the sea; but the shore in front of the place slipped down, and the sea surrounding the tomb made it inaccessible and unapproachable. The inscription on the tomb was:

Here from the load of life released I lie: Ask not my name: but take my curse, and die.

And they say that he wrote this inscription during his lifetime; but that which is commonly circulated as the inscription is by Callimachus:

Timon misanthropist I am. Away! Curse, an' thou will't, but only do not stay.

LXXI. These are a few things out of many about Timon. Canidius himself brought intelligence to Antonius of the loss of his forces at Actium, and he heard that Herodes,[460] the Jew, who had certain legions and cohorts, had gone over to Cæsar, and that the rest of the princes in like manner were revolting, and that none of his troops out of Egypt still kept together. However, none of these things disturbed him; but, as if he gladly laid aside hope as he did care, he left that dwelling on the sea, which he called Timoneium, and being taken by Cleopatra into the palace, he turned the city to feasting and drinking and distribution of money, registering the son of Cleopatra and Cæsar among the young men, and putting on Antyllus, his son by Fulvia,[461] the vest without the purple hem, which marked the attainment of full age, on which occasion banquets and revellings and feasts engaged Alexandria for many days. They themselves put an end to that famed company of the Inimitable Livers, and they formed another, not at all inferior to that in refinement and luxury and expense, which they called the company of those who would die together. For the friends of Antonius registered themselves as intending to die together, and they continued enjoying themselves in a succession of banquets. Cleopatra got together all kinds of deadly poisons, and she tried the painless character of each by giving them to those who were in prison under sentence of death. When she discovered that the quick poisons brought on a speedy death with pain, and the less painful were not quick, she made trial of animals,[462] which in her presence were set upon one another. And she did this daily; and among nearly all she found that the bite of the asp alone brought on without spasms and groans a sleepy numbness and drowsiness, with a gentle perspiration on the face, and dulling of the perceptive faculties, which were softly deprived of their power, and made resistance to all attempts to awake and arouse them, as is the case with those who are in a deep sleep.

LXXII. At the same time they sent also ambassadors to Cæsar into Asia, Cleopatra requesting the dominion of Egypt for her children, and Antonius asking to be allowed to live as a private person at Athens, if he could not be permitted to stay in Egypt. Through the want of friends and their distrust owing to the desertions, Euphronius, the instructor of the children, was sent on the embassy. For Alexas,[463] of Laodiceia, who at Rome had become known to Antonius through Timagenes, and possessed most influence of all the Greeks, who also had been the most active of the instruments of Cleopatra against Antonius, and had overthrown all the reflections which rose in his mind about Octavia, had been sent to King Herodes to keep him from changing; and having stayed there and betrayed Antonius, he had the impudence to go into the presence of Cæsar, relying on Herodes. But Herodes helped him not, but being forthwith confined and carried in chains to his own country, he was put to death there by order of Cæsar. Such was the penalty for his infidelity that Alexas paid to Antonius in his lifetime.

LXXIII. Cæsar would not listen to what was said on behalf of Antonius; but as to Cleopatra, he replied that she should not fail to obtain anything that was reasonable if she would kill Antonius or drive him away. He also sent with the ambassadors of Antonius and Cleopatra one Thyrsus,[464] a freedman of his, a man not devoid of judgment, nor, as coming from a young general, one who would fail in persuasive address to a haughty woman who was wonderfully proud of her beauty. This man, having longer interviews with Cleopatra than the rest, and being specially honoured, caused Antonius to have suspicions, and he seized and whipped him; and he then sent him back to Cæsar with a letter to the effect that Thyrsus, by giving himself airs and by his insolent behaviour, had irritated him, who was easily irritated by reason of his misfortunes. "But you," he said, "if you do not like the thing, have my freedman Hipparchus. Hang him up and whip him, that we may be on equal terms." Upon this Cleopatra, with the view of doing away with his cause of complaint and suspicions, paid more than usual court to Antonius: she kept her own birthday in a mean manner and a way suitable to her condition, but she celebrated the birthday of Antonius with an excess of splendour and cost, so that many of those who were invited to the feast came poor and went away rich. Agrippa[465] in the meantime called Cæsar back, frequently writing to him from Rome, and urging that affairs there required his presence.

LXXIV. Accordingly for the time the war was suspended; but when the winter was over, Cæsar advanced through Syria and his generals through Libya. Pelusium was taken, and it was said that Seleukus gave it up, not without the consent of Cleopatra. But Cleopatra surrendered to Antonius the wife and children of Seleukus to be put to death; and as she had a tomb and a monument constructed of unusual beauty and height, which she had built close to the temple of Isis, she collected there the most precious of the royal treasures, gold, silver, emeralds, pearls, ebony, ivory, and cinnamon, and also a great quantity of fire-wood and tow; so that Cæsar, being afraid about the money, lest Cleopatra becoming desperate should destroy and burn the wealth, kept continually forwarding to her hopes of friendly treatment while he was advancing with his army against the city. When Cæsar had taken his position near the hippodrome, Antonius sallied forth and fought gallantly, and he put Cæsar's cavalry to flight and pursued them to the camp. Elated with his victory, he entered the palace and embraced Cleopatra in his armour, and presented to her one of the soldiers who had fought most bravely. Cleopatra gave the soldier as a reward of his courage a golden breastplate and a helmet. The man took them, and in the night deserted to Cæsar.

LXXV. Again, Antonius sent to Cæsar and challenged him to single combat. Cæsar replied that Antonius had many ways of dying, on which Antonius, reflecting that there was no better mode of death for him than in battle, determined to try a land battle and a naval battle at the same time. And at supper, it is said, he bade the slaves to pour out and feast him cheerfully, for it was uncertain whether they would do that on the morrow or would be serving other masters, while he should lie a corpse and should be a nothing. Seeing that his friends shed tears at his words, he said that he would not lead them out to a battle from which he would seek for himself a glorious death rather than safety and victory. During this night, it is said, about the middle thereof, while the city was quiet and depressed through fear and expectation of the future, all at once certain harmonious sounds from all kinds of instruments were heard, and shouts of a crowd with Evoes[466] and satyric leapings, as if some company of revellers not without noise were going out of the city; and the course of the procession seemed to be through the middle of the city to the gate leading outwards in the direction of the enemy, and at this point the tumult made its way out, being loudest there. And those who reflected on the sign were of opinion that the god to whom Antonius all along most likened himself and most claimed kinship with was deserting him.

LXXVI.[467] At daybreak Antonius posted his troops on the hills in front of the city, and watched his ships, which were put in motion and advancing against those of the enemy; and as he expected to see something great done by them, he remained quiet. But when the men of Antonius came near, they saluted with their oars Cæsar's men, and as they returned the salute, the men of Antonius changed sides, and the fleet becoming one by the junction of all the ships, sailed with the vessels' heads turned against the city. As soon as Antonius saw this, he was deserted by the cavalry, who changed sides, and being defeated with his infantry he retired into the city, crying out that he was betrayed by Cleopatra to those with whom he was warring on her account. Cleopatra, fearing his anger and despair, fled to the tomb and let down the folding doors which were strengthened with bars and bolts; and she sent persons to Antonius to inform him that she was dead. Antonius, believing the intelligence, said to himself, "Why dost thou still delay, Antonius? fortune has taken away the sole remaining excuse for clinging to life." He then entered his chamber, and loosing his body armour and taking it in pieces, he said: "Cleopatra, I am not grieved at being deprived of thee, for I shall soon come to the same place with thee; but I am grieved that I, such an Imperator, am shown to be inferior to a woman in courage." Now Antonius had a faithful slave named Eros, whom he had long before exhorted, if the necessity should arise, to kill him; and he now claimed the performance of the promise. Eros drew his sword and held it out as if he were going to strike his master, but he turned away his face and killed himself. As Eros fell at his master's feet Antonius said, "Well done, Eros, though you are not able to do this for me, you teach me what I ought to do;" and piercing himself through the belly he threw himself on the bed. But the wound was not immediately mortal; and accordingly, as the flow of blood ceased when he lay down, he came to himself and requested the bystanders to finish him. But they fled from the chamber while he was calling out and writhing in pain, till Diomedes the secretary came from Cleopatra with orders to convey him to her to the tomb.