C L E O P A T R A

I.

The sand swirled in the desert wind scraping the sides of a makeshift village for two exiled royal sisters. It was a harsh and angry environment that mirrored the way the events that placed them here. The land was strange and volatile, they were no longer within the safe walls of the gilded golden palaces of Alexandria, Egypt. This night, under the flickering flames of burning cauldrons and lanterns of oil, brought great anxiety and added worry to both sisters. There was news the traveler they had been waiting for all night had returned from the border with answers to important questions. These answers could finally put the plans for their return to Egypt in motion. 

In this protected and well-guarded fortress in the Syrian a treacherous game of chess was being played within a battling royal family, this behavior was not unfamiliar. The games of secrecy by means of careful espionage was in their DNA. Their father and their father’s father before built this dynasty on deception and betrayal; trust within blood relatives was as safe as the open mouth of a crocodile fresh from the Nile river.

Each sister had a different motive to return home: the eldest a beautiful 27-year-old woman was fueled by her pure fiery ambition, the younger, aged 24, only desired a reunion with her homeland promised to her by her elder sister.

As the two sisters awaited the news from the traveler, the swaths of fabric that formed their tent swiftly swung open as if a wild wind had blown over them. A large man standing guard held a person in a blue cloak, the two dirty from a scuffled outside before they entered the room that held the two sisters who were lounging in the comforts of silk cushions fanning themselves from the depressive desert heat. It was the traveler they awaited. The elder sister stood up on her knees from her comfortable cushion and held out her hand to the large guard she called “Apollodorus”, and asked him to bring the traveler closer.

After all, the traveler was an expected guest of Princess Arsinoë of Egypt and her older sister, the statuesque, olive skinned beauty the deposed queen Cleopatra VII.

Cleopatra looked over at her sister who then turned and looked at the person standing in the room still shrouded in a thick dark blue woolen cloak covering the face with only eyes peeping through a 3-inch gap. The person stood with Apollodorus' hands firming clutching the left arm. They realized who’s presence they were in and slowly bowed down to their knees.

Arsinoë’s face changed shape, twisting with concern, fearing something deadly was a miss. 

“What say you?” Cleopatra asked of the visitor sternly. She had been waiting for days for this arrival. 

“The seed is planted.” A woman’s voice said in a whispery tone from deep inside the blue cloak.

“And the troops? Are they well-armed? Do they know what they’re fighting for?” Cleopatra said shooing away Apollodorus and walking over to the woman who was still bowing in the center of the room below a giant cauldron with fire that bathed the space in a golden tone.  

“They are armed, and they do understand. They fight for the right and purpose of your highness to return to Egypt and take her seat on the thrown where she is rightfully co-heir.” The woman said as if she had rehearsed it.

“Co-heir.” Cleopatra said to herself as if annoyed by the word.

“And Ptolemy? Ask her about our younger brother.” Princess Arsinoë asked impatiently. 

“Simoné, stand.” Cleopatra ordered the woman referring to her by name. “What of our young brother King Ptolemy? You said the seed was planted. How can you be sure?” Cleopatra questioned, to a confused Arsinoë. 

Simoné stood up and removed the cloak from around her mouth, it fell revealing a beautiful woman with dark eyes and mocha skin. Her lips were like two rubies clasped together. She lifted her eyes from the floor and looked at Cleopatra then over to Arsinoë who was still sitting alertly on the cushions. 

“His Majesty, your brother Ptolemy, still insists you attained power illegally and that your banishment is purely on the circumstance that you and Princess Arsinoë pose a threat to the wellbeing of Egypt through your involvement in the uprising that caused the civil war.” The spy Simoné said in a matter of fact tone.

Cleopatra scoffed and sat back down next to Arsinoë. 

“Have you ever heard such a thing sister? How can two hereditary 'co-rulers' of one thrown take power illegally?” Cleopatra said. “He’s lost his mind.” She added.  

“I have no claim to the throne.” Arsinoë reminded her elder sister with an eye lifted.

“And nevertheless you’ve been exiled too. What does that say about our dear brother? He’s in over his head if you ask me and trembles with the thought of our return. Our troops will prevail.” Cleopatra said as she fiddled with a tassel on one of the cushions.

“How can you be so sure? He has a powerful army behind him, whatever troops you—we—have amassed can’t be enough to return us—you—to power. That is the underlying objective, isn’t it?” Arsinoë asked.

“It is. But you should know me better by now. What our brother Ptolemy knows is only a fraction of what is about to happen, the future is ours, no matter what.” Cleopatra said confidently reaching for a group of sparkling green grapes. 

“Aren’t you afraid of that? He’s never one to take heed of reality. He’s hot headed and temperamental. This could all backfire, and then where would we be. Here!? Still seated on the floor of a desert eating grapes?” Arsinoë spoke with ruthless frustration of her predicament. 

“Simoné, thank you for what you’ve done. You may go rest. I’ll call on you in the morning.” Cleopatra said excusing the tired traveler. 

The stoic one-time queen of Egypt smirked and grabbed another bunch of grapes from the cluster. She played with the loose ones in her feminine soft hands and looked over at her sister who was staring at her. 

“You fear something. What is it?” Cleopatra asked.

“Cleopatra you’re acting without thought first. This can’t end well. You know it can’t.” Arsinoë said.

Cleopatra furrowed her brown and sat up on the cushions. 

“Why do you doubt me? Why do you push aside everything that has been done to us and pretend this isn’t your war too? I wasn’t the only daughter forced to leave her home and reside in a desert for the rest of her days. What I’ve done, I’ve done for us. You and I…we’re the future of our dynasty without us, Ptolemy is nothing, and he knows it. Don’t you see? He’s trying to erase us from all we know… all we’ve ever known. I will not be underestimated this way.” Cleopatra lectured.

“And what exactly have you done?” Arsinoë asked as the air in the room filled with the aroma of sage and lavender. 

“Are you sure you want to know? Sometimes knowing the truth of what’s around you is more painful then missing the lie you never knew existed.” Cleopatra said rubbing her fingers on the edge of the grape bowl.

“Lie? What lie?” Arsinoë asked concerned.

Cleopatra sat back on one of the larger red and golden cushions and took a deep breath preparing herself for any kind of reaction her sister would have. They were close at one time and used to share everything with each other, as sister do, but the war with their brother had taken it’s toll on their sisterly relationship. Cleopatra was stripped of the right to co-rule Egypt with her younger brother Ptolemy when a rumor surfaced that she had planned on having him killed thus creating her sole Pharaoh of Egypt, a pure act of treason. The rumor also stated that Arsinoë, the middle sibling, assisted in the plot to overthrow their younger brother and grab power for themselves.

Cleopatra denied it all, but fate was sealed for both sisters who were forced to flee for the safety of the Syrian desert, severing their ties with Ptolemy and Egypt for what seemed like forever.

But ever the cunning and creative force, Cleopatra had a way back in, but it would only work if their brother, gullible in his youth, believed every word of it.

“Go on…tell me what have you done?” Arsinoë pressed knowing she may not like the answer.

Cleopatra smirked and looked up from her seat, dressed in white layers of sheer cloth, jewels around her neck, her hair thick black and crowned with a single golden halo encrusted with tiny red and jewels. 

“Alliances will be formed, alliances that will determine our future and our place in history. Remember, I do this for us. I do it so that we’ll never have to worry about being taken for granted ever again.” Cleopatra said reaching for Arsinoë’s hands in an effort to calm her.

Cleopatra squeezed her sister’s hands as if she were attempting to press the words into her skin. Seeing that it was having little effect on Arsinoë, Cleopatra smiled again and reached into the bowl in front of them and picked off one of the fattest green grapes from the vines. She looked at it and then pointed at her sister’s face. She closed one eye and threw it at her sister as if a bulls-eye was on her. 

Cleopatra burst in laughter. Arsinoë, was not amused but then grabbed a cluster of grapes and began pelting Cleopatra with them playfully. Cleopatra let out a scream of glee and jumped up from the attack of grapes. In a moment of innocence and childlike play, Arsinoë let it all wash over her and chased her elder sister Cleopatra around the room throwing grapes, laughing and playing. 



In what seemed to be a world away in Egypt a message was being sent, but this time to Cleopatra and Arsinoë’s younger brother the Pharaoh Ptolemy who was all but 17 years old. He paced back and forth in his champers. The cool desert night breeze filled the room lifting the thin cloth that hung around his bed. He was unsure of himself. Was the war against his sister something he was ready to complete? And if it came down to it, was he prepared to have his sisters executed for their supposed betrayal? The truth was he hadn’t seen much proof of any kind of assignation plot his sisters were accused of, he only took the word of his most trusted adviser, the eunuch Pothinas. 

“Are you well?” A voice said from a distant part of the champers where a secret door had been opened. It was Pothinus, checking in on his master. 

“There’s so much death. Every day we hear more and more about the troops at the border who’ve been killed over this war with Cleopatra. It pains me.” Ptolemy said turning to Pothinus. 

“What would make you sure that obliterating those two viperous usurpers from this earth for good would be the right thing to do?” Pothinus asked removing his hands from inside his robe, the right hand holding a scroll.

“Proof. Something of substance and stone. All I have is your word, Pothinus. Nothing else.” Ptolemy said sitting on a chair carved out of golden gazelles. 

“Has my word no merit?" The adviser asked with a lifted eye brow.

"You know what I mean." The king responded.

"When I told you of the assimilation plot, it was to keep you safe. I only wish for you a long and prosperous reign, sire." Pothinus said to an amused king.

"Your majesty, I am at your service and I am your mostly humble and obedient adviser, so I do understand the need for something ...to…cling to as it were.” Pothinus said in his deep voice. “Perhaps this will help, it came to the palace this evening. Apparently, it has been on route here for many days. It comes from Rome.” Pothinus added lifting the scroll in his hand. 

“Rome? From Caesar?” The young Pharaoh said suddenly sitting up from the chair, his white robe swishing back down to his feet.

Pothinus nodded and bowed confirming the note’s author.

“It states there was a coup attempt in Rome by General Pompey against Caesar—unsuccessfully. The Roman’s say Pompey was working an alliance with Cleopatra. He is headed for Alexandria to seek refuge and, as the message suggests, has no idea we are aware of his treasonous work with your sister.” The adviser Pothinus explained.

“What do they want me to do when he arrives here?” The untested king asked.

“Kill him.” Pothinus said in a voice that was unnerved. 

The young king got up from his golden chair and grabbed the scroll from Rome with Caesar’s signature and seal. He felt the broken wax that locked the scroll in place and thought about what they were asking of him. Killing another man. It wasn’t something he was afraid of, as King, he knew that punishing traitors and thieves and enemies against the state was common and a necessity, but this, this killing, was at the behest of the Roman Empire, an empire that Egypt was in great debt to. 

“Do you think Cleopatra would do it?” The young king said turning to his adviser suddenly.

“Cleopatra only looks out for Cleopatra, not for the whole of Egypt. I doubt she would see past the reflection in the mirror. You are a great leader sire, this could be the catalyst of what brings an end to Rome’s hold over Egypt.” Pothinus growled.

“Really? You believe this could help lift some of the debt my father owed to Rome?” The young king thought for a second. “Very well, when Pompey comes ashore here in Alexandria have him met with royal guards. Have it be done and bring me his ring and his head. This shall please Caesar. This shall please the gods.” Young king Ptolemy said as Pothinus bowed and grinned and walked backwards out of this king’s chambers leaving the King alone in the gilded room with just the scroll from Rome and his thoughts. His nervous teenaged thoughts. 




In a small bedroom filled with dimming torches Princess Arsinoë slept. She lay in her bed with the finest silk sheets Egypt had to offer am exiled member of the royal house of Ptolemy. She slept but not soundly. She tossed and turned and struggled to find her way into deep solid sleep. Her dreams weren’t the sweet happy dreams like those she had before the traumatizing banishment by her brother, the king. They were torments and night terrors that showed her the dead and dying men at war fighting against her brother’s army on her and her Cleopatra’s behalf in the deserts of Egypt fighting the sand, fighting the sun and fighting their own fears. The nightmares showed her the reality and desperation of her situation. How much longer could they live out in the depths of Syria hiding away from their home and the rest of their family. 

Arsinoë woke in a heap of sweat, gasping for air as the dreams she was having started to become too real. They were, in fact, real, she could smell the death. As the tears welled up in her eyes she looked around the shared room for her sister. 

Cleopatra was not in her bed.

In another part of the protective fortress in Syria, Cleopatra sat on the cold floor playing with a little black kitten. The kitten’s blue eyes were dazzled by the dangling string Cleopatra was teaser her with. She pulled it across the floor and the kitten gave chase. She dragged it up her leg and the kitten jumped to Cleopatra’s lap and clawed at the string to Cleopatra’s late night delight. As she sat there elated by her furry friend’s antics, her bodyguard Apollodorus walked in and bowed his head.  

Apollodorus was a large tan skinned bald man with a square jaw huge muscular build and thick black beard that was trimmed close to his face. He was brought up through the years by several other Ptolemaic bodyguards who’s families for generations had guarded the royals. He was chosen special to protect Cleopatra. She was fond of him. She knew he’d die before she was hurt. His love for her too, went beyond Queen and subject, deeper than Cleopatra would ever return.

"Don't look so glum, things are starting to change quickly, you'll see." Cleopatra said with a grin to Apollodorus' serious face.

"You always say that." He said very informally. Their relationship behind closed doors was always more equal than queen and her subject.

"Where's Simoné?" Cleopatra asked, as she continued to tease the little kitten on the floor.

Apollodorus turned and pulled back the curtain behind him and brought in the special messenger Cleopatra called for.

“Your majesty, Simoné.” The large Apollodorus said as he stood to the side and Cleopatra’s mysterious messenger entered the room after a long rest from her trip from Egypt. 

“Sit, sit!” Cleopatra said gathering up the kitten and sitting to the side on more cushions, this time light ice blue and gold, matching her gown.

“Your majesty.” Simoné said bowing. 

“Go on then, tell me what you did. Tell me who you saw.” Cleopatra said eager to hear the story.

“Late this evening, I received word from a connection in Alexandria. They traveled very late over many miles to deliver this news to me.” Simoné informed.

“Go on…” Cleopatra pressed still playing with the black kitten in her lap.

“The news of Pompey’s defeat by Julius Caesar and his hope to escape Caesar’s wrath in Egypt was true, and is in line with what your majesty expected to happen. My connection in Alexandria says that Pompey is on his way there and that your majesty’s message was received today.” Simoné explained. 

“Ptolemy believed the letter?” Cleopatra questioned. 

“My source says yes. The letter you sent as Caesar worked…King Ptolemy believes it and plans to take matters into his own hands and execute Pompey in the name of Caesar.” Simoné explained further.

Cleopatra grinned from ear to ear. Now that her brother believed that Caesar had personally requested that the rogue General Pompey be killed, Ptolemy would jump at the chance at pleasing the man he and his country owned millions to. Cleopatra spun her web and all the flies were slowly flying into it, sticking to the first part of her trap perfectly. 

Julius Caesar was ruthless but he wasn’t reckless. In times of war he would stop at nothing to end the life of a foe that threatened his power, such as Pompey, but there was a thick layer of scandal surrounding what Cleopatra had just manipulated her brother into doing. 

Pompey wasn’t just any ordinary man trying to take over the Roman empire, he was also Caesar’s widowed son-in-law. Caesar’s beloved daughter had been married to Pompey but died in childbirth, Caesar still saw Pompey as family, albeit estranged and killing him for no reason could be detrimental to the murderer. 

Egypt, a nation that owed millions in debt to Rome was under a strict Roman conservatorship until the debt was paid off and this crucial act of violence would change Ptolemy’s position in Rome’s eyes forever and if Cleopatra’s gamble should pay off, it would re-seat her on the thrown as sole ruler. If it failed it could also mean Cleopatra’s own doom. It was a gamble she was willing to take.

II.

The sun burned in a turquoise sky that reflecting the bright blue Alexandrian harbor. Five days after Cleopatra's forged letter reached her brother Ptolmey, thousands would gathered when they heard the Roman General Pompey and his family would soon dock and come ashore to meet with King Ptolemy. Pompey sought refuge and safety for himself and his family but most of all he sought an alliance. Pompey’s coup attempt on Caesar just a month before failed and he was now persona-non-grata in any Roman circle. But what could the young, inexperienced Egyptian king offer him? 

Pompey looked out onto shore and saw the people eagerly awaiting his arrival. They waved and sang and screamed his name. There were thousands standing on the stone docks cheering as if he was some kind of home grown war hero. A confidence brewed inside him as he began to take his first steps onto Egyptian soil. 

From his large royal residence on a hill just overlooking the harbor, King Ptolemy sat and watched the proceeding events unfold like a falcon staring down on a high waiting for the right moment to swoop down and snatch the neck of his prey.

The crowds began to swell around Pompey as he greeted the Egyptian people. He walked out alone first; his family staying aboard the ship while he greeted the crowd. He grabbed at every hand that stuck out to him while he made his way up to the King’s perch. They screamed his name “Pompey! Pompey! Pompey!” They kissed the end of his short leather Roman cape. They grabbed at his chest, just for a quick touch to feel the body of the man that they knew took on the mighty Caesar and lived to tell the story. 

And still the crowd swelled more, so much so that it started to become more and more difficult for Pompey and his two guards to maneuver their way around. Confusion began to set in. The crowds began to squeeze themselves too close and surround the three Roman defectors. 

“Please! Please! Calm! Stay calm!” Pompey shouted to the crowd. 

They continued to cheer and chant his name, his words drowning in what was quickly becoming a strange adoration for him. 

Then a man, shrouded in a dark cloth made his way through the crowds. He walked with a cane and slowly pressed his way through the thousands of men and women to the front of the line. His face obscured the whole time by a large cloth. The man began to shout from above the cheers that Pompey was here to occupy the city. That he was there to further the Roman empire. That King Ptolemy himself was to be removed from power and that no one should praise this man, for her was an intruder.

His words spread throughout the crowd like a virus infecting everyone it touched, the excitement turned to confusion then anger, then outrage. 

Pompey continued with his guards up the path, never knowing what was to come next.

The crowd that surrounded Pompey started to come closer, so close  he could see the expressions on their faces; things weren’t what they appeared to be. The crowd’s cheers and adoration swiftly shifted to jeers and anger. A Roman soldier coming into the land, the city, the realm of Pharaoh as if he were the King was now insulting, and the old man who started the story quickly moved to the back of the angry mob. As he became more unnoticed he removed his cloak to reveal a grinning Pothinus, the Kings trusted vizier. 

The Egyptian people smelled blood and they now wanted nothing to do with Pompey and his supposed hopes to occupy Egypt, as the contagious rumor spelled out. They started to grab at him. They started to pull at him. They grabbed and pulled at his men too, all visible from the ship where the rest of Pompey’s entourage could see it all happen. His new wife stood on the ship’s deck and screamed for him to come back seeing that the crowds were becoming unruly, but her words were suffocated by the screams of the citizens of Alexandria.

From his perch above the sparkling docks on the Alexandria waterfront, King Ptolemy watched it all.

Pothinus, who had just entered the palace after his turn as the old man in the crowd, entered, sweaty and hoping the plan had worked. Ptolemy needed it to work if they wanted to please Caesar and get him on their side. 

“Where were you?” Ptolemy asked Pothinus dabbing the sweat off his forehead.

“I apologize your majesty, I had something I needed to attend to. It will not happen again.” He said.

“Look, the crowd is getting agitated. Should we send guards?” Ptolemy wondered. 

“I think, sire, that you should allow the people of Alexandria to deal with Pompey the way we would any traitor, especially one of Caesar, we want to win his favor, do we not?” Pothinus said pushing Ptolemy more and more into the deep end of Cleopatra’s trap. 

Ptolemy nodded in agreement but remained silent with concern. 

“What do you think they’ll do to him?” Ptolemy questioned now speaking from his golden thrown.

Pothinus rolled his eyes. The young king’s apprehension was starting to weigh on him. 
Pothinus could smell power inching closer into his own grasp, especially now that Caesar needed something from Egypt like eliminating Pompey, but with Ptolmey constantly questioning everything, manipulating him would begin to be problematic. 

“They’ll do exactly what Caesar’s letter requests us to do, kill him.” Pothinus replied coldly. 

“But my people, Caesar must know that this is my will. I did this. This is for him and I did this for him.” The young king blathered.

“Of course, your majesty. Of course.” Pothinus said with a bow to pacify his king. 

Down on the docks the scene became darker. The people had already pulled off the belts holding the daggers the men were carrying. They three men were now trapped in a circle on guard with no weapons panicking as the crowd seemed to want their blood spilled. Sandals were thrown at them, rocks too. Then handfuls of sand and dust thrown in their faces and in a split second as the three men coughed and spit out the sand, the crowed attached punching kicking ripping and tearing at the three Romans. 

Pompey’s men were dragged off to a different part of the dock’s while Pompey was beaten where he stood. He was bludgeoned and trampled on. His new wife screaming from the boat. His other men locked in place; shocked at the scene just across from them, they stood there powerless and Pompey’s life slowly taken as the beatings continued to rain down on him from a mislead and manipulated crowd. 

Soon, the beaten and bloodied Pompey lay on the floor, gasping for air, choking on his own blood. 

Finally, Egyptian soldiers from the fortress of the king who was watching arrived. They cut the ropes that tied Pompey’s ship to the docks and watched as the men and Pompey’s wife drifted back into the ocean. 

The crowds soon began to calm with the soldier’s presence and quickly dispersed. Pompey still lay in a pool of his own blood. 

“What do we do with him?” One soldier asked another.

“Orders from the king.” The other said as he dragged his finger across his throat. 

The first soldier nodded and with Pompey’s own dagger that lay just feet from his body lifted Pompey’s head up by his hair and began to slice through removing Pompey’s head then placed it, dripping droplets of red blood in the yellow sand, inside a golden ern for King Ptolemy. 

20 minutes later a messenger from below arrived at the palace and spoke in hushed tones in Pothinus’ ear of the event.

“It is done, your majesty.” Pothinus announced.

“Are you sure?” The king replied in a solemn tone. 

“I am.” Pothinus replied. 

“Have a letter sent to Caesar in Rome telling him what we have done in his name and that we hope it pleases him.” The king said as Pothinus snapped his fingers for a servant to quickly get the note out to the Roman leader. 

The King got up from his thrown and turned around to his look his adviser Pothinus in the eyes. His breath shallow, his eyes watery with emotion.

“Why were they so angry?” The king asked.

“The crowds? Well, your majesty, he was a foreign soldier trampling on to Egyptian soil as if he were in conquest. No doubt they felt threatened.” Pothinus said neglecting to add that he himself had spread the rumor of Egyptian annexation throughout Alexandria.

“What if Caesar is not pleased? What if he didn’t…” Ptolemy doubted before being interrupted by Pothinus. 

“Your majesty mustn’t question his own actions. This was Caesar’s request, we read it for ourselves in his letter sent to us. You must stop these doubts. Don’t forget that your sister Cleopatra awaits any sign of your weakness to invade and take Egypt back and rule alone. What you’ve done here today is show your authority. Caesar will see that, and he won’t forget it.” Pothinus assured. 

Ptolemy took a deep breath, still feeling discomfort in the situation he had just witnessed but deep down he knew that in some respects Pothinus might be was right. His young reign was fragile, and he had to do everything possible to make sure no one, not even Cleopatra, would shatter it including killing Pompey to show his strength and please Caesar who was still the temporary arbiter of Egyptian affairs. 

King Ptolemy waked out of the room and in a loud voice towards Pothinus and the other servants around him “I want to be alone!!!!” His voice echoed, the emotion of the event starting to creep in.

Pothinus smirked evilly as he looked down on the docks where Pompey’s headless body was being thrown in the crocodile infested waters and only replied “As you wish sire.” 

III.

Days after the death of the former Roman General Pompey, in a busy room of wall to wall marble and stone sat the leader of the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar. He poured over maps and papers and wrote notes and studied and did everything a powerful man with the world at his fingers tips did while ruling with an iron fist. 

As the great leader studied his paper work an iron double door burst open with a flow of several Roman guards including the two highest ranking and Caesar’s heirs, Mark Antony and Augustus. Caesar and his wife Calpurnia who was sitting on a sofa across from Caesar’s desk, looked up towards the coming commotion in utter confusion. 

“What’s this?” he whispered to himself as he sat back in his regal chair.

“Caesar forgive the intrusion, we know you are busy with matters of state but we just received this from the front in Egypt.” Mark Antony said handing over a battered scroll. 
“What is it?” Caesar said without reading it first.

“Something has happened on the shores of Alexandria.” Augustus said in a strange tone.

Caesar looked perplexed. What on earth could have happened in Egypt that would garner such a reaction from this two highest ranking generals. He knew that there was a bitter feud between two royal siblings, Cleopatra and Ptolemy, which plunged their country into a civil war, but with Cleopatra in exile, he was under the impression the war and the sibling rivalry was calming. 

“What have they done this time.” Caesar joked as he unfurled the letter. 

His jovial nature soured soon after as he began to read the words on the torn and withered paper. The news was grim. The news was horrific. The news was of the death of Caesar’s former son-in-law, the man who tried to stage a coupe and failed, the man Caesar brought into his family when his daughter married him before her own untimely death was now dead himself; beaten to a pulp and beheaded on the docks of Alexandria, Egypt just days ago. 

“This is a lie.” Caesar said handing the scroll to a curiously concerned Calpurnia who gasped when she read it herself. “Pompey cannot be dead.” Caesar added.

“We’re afraid it is no lie, there are witnesses, Roman, that delivered the scroll and say it happened. They saw it from the ship that carried them back here to safety. Two soldiers were also murdered.” Augustus explained.

“Why? Why would Ptolemy do this. This is madness.” Caesar said sternly.
“We haven’t heard any reasoning other than King Ptolemy says he did it for you.” Mark Antony explained in a surprised voice.

“For Caesar?” Calpurnia questioned also confused.

“After the failed coup attempt by Pompey he sought refuge in Alexandria, the king felt that you’d prefer Pompey dead, not safe.” Mark Antony explained further.
“That is insane. Pompey and I had our differences and his rivalry with me was of his own making, that I know, but I would never ever consider having him killed for no reason. He lost his fight and death did not come on the battlefield. I have accepted that. Who authorized this killing?” Caesar asked.

“The king.” Augustus replied.

“Antony, arrange for three barges with soldiers for me to take to the shores of Alexandria at once. It’s time I finally get to the bottom of this family nightmare once and for all. With Cleopatra out on the vine and Ptolemy running amok murdering people for no reason I have to finally take on this beast.” The Roman leader expressed.

“You’re going to Egypt?” His wife Calpurnia interjected. 

“I have to! It’s part of my role as their arbiter; to make sure Egypt is running according to the will left by Ptolemy and Cleopatra’s father, and until that nation repays its debt to Rome. The senseless murder of a man I once considered family will only bring on more chaos in this already very peculiar situation. I won’t be long.” He said placing his hand on Calpurnia’s alabaster cheek.

Caesar was a tall and muscular for a man in his mid-50’s. His hair was a curly, deep golden brown that despite the receding at his forehead, was still lush and thick. Calpurnia looked into his hazel eyes and tanned skin and only saw a man who was tired and frustrated with the title he so much respected. Something inside of her told her that this trip to Egypt, no matter it’s importance, would alter their lives forever. 

Calpurnia lifted her hand and placed it on his bronze cheek, his hand still rested on her cheek. They looked at each other in a brief pause and then she shook her head and spoke. 
“I want to agree with you and say you should go figure it all out, but I can’t. I can’t in good conscience allow you to step foot off of Roman soil, Caesar, I can’t. It doesn’t seem safe. Look what they’ve done to Pompey!” She said with water building in her eyes.

“Calpurnia, please, there is no time for an argument. Antony, go on, make the arrangements for the ship to take me and some soldiers to see Ptolemy, we must handle this matter before it escalates.” Caesar ordered as he broke free from Calpurnia’s gaze.

“And what of Pompey’s family? They returned to shore here in Rome after his death. They have nowhere to go and are afraid of returning to Egypt.” Mark Antony questioned.

“Augustus? Suggestions?” Caesar said turning to the younger general.

“I….well, I think…” Augustus stammered, “perhaps imprisonment of some kind? We can’t have them freely roaming the streets trying to create another uprising against us. Yes! Imprisonment.” Augustus finished pleased with his answer even though his own insecurities in decision making were showing. The perils of being a novice general. 

“Very well, they shall be allowed to disembark and given their old home and kept under house arrest. Now, get the ships ready I leave for Egypt at once.” Caesar stated.
The two generals beat the armor over their chests once in unison and bowed then left husband and wife alone in the marble room.

“I don’t know what to think of this, all I can do is worry. To me, this isn’t the right thing to do.” Calpurnia said as the doors closed. 

“You worry too much.” Caesar answered.

“How can I not? The man who lead an uprising against you was just murdered in the city you want ships to take you to, how should I feel?” She replied.

“Wife, the only thing you need to worry about is whether our spring storms will ruin your garden. You’ve worked very hard on it.” Caesar patronized. 

“Don’t be ridiculous, you know exactly what I’m talking about and you know full well that putting yourself in danger where you should not is a foolish idea.” Calpurnia replied to a stunned Caesar. 

“I will have you know I am the leader of this great Empire and nothing, nothing, will keep me from making sure my obligations to it are fulfilled. I was entrusted by the late King of Egypt to make sure his son and daughter ruled appropriately or until I saw that they could rule alone, obviously with their infighting and Ptolemy banishing his sister there is no intention of taking my advice from afar …. trust me wife, my meddling is for the good of this region and most of all for the good and safety of Rome. Once I broker some kind of peace between Cleopatra and young Ptolemy, I’ll return.” Caesar explained.

“How is this good for Rome?” Calpurnia countered with cynicism. 

Caesar slowly walked back to his desk and shuffled papers around. He pulled one out of the pile and placed it down face up. It was a map of places that had been charted in Egypt that harbored the greatest amounts of riches the world had ever seen. He smiled as he looked down at the map but didn’t say a word. 

“I’m going to Egypt Calpurnia, nothing you can say or do can stop me. This is my duty.” Caesar said turning back around and kissing his wife on the forehead before leaving her alone in the room. 

She took a deep breath and sighed. She knew just how pig-headed he could be at times—most of the time in fact. All she could do is hope for the best. She walked towards the desk where all the maps and papers were and looked down at them. She couldn’t make much sense of the hieroglyphics but did notice one thing. The peculiar drawings. Egyptian faces, figures and creatures all painted on the sides of the maps. One of the figures a beautiful queen sitting on a thrown with several maids fanning her while she sat crowned with a golden falcon on her head. The Queen’s body shape and stance mimicking the Egyptian goddess Isis. 

Calpurnia ran her fingers over the drawings and felt every bump of dusty grain used to create them and a chill ran up her spine.  All she could do was hope. Hope and wait. 

IV.

The sands of time passed. The waves of the Mediterranean sea crashed and splashed on the shores of the roman empire and the great Egyptian shore. Pompey's death had been past by a week and Caesar's mission to Alexandria had come in the form of giant Roman barges pushing the waters of the shore in Alexandria up in high waves. The people of the city could tell this was something much bigger than their last visit from Rome. Caesar was a giant among men entering a city that was volatile, corrupt at times, and in most cases deadly for anyone unfamiliar with its mysterious beauty and dangerous streets. Caesar was unafraid. He had time, power and the might of Rome at his fingertips. He knew that the only way he’d get control of the massive mess the royals created with their civil war was to enter and take control himself. 

The Romans disembarked and marched into Alexandria to the paralyzed gaze of its citizens. 

“What fresh hell is this?” One merchant said from his stand where he sold pottery to a shrugging customer.


The royal palace at Alexandria was a buzz with movement. The newly arrived Romans had already taken charge of much of the city and palace and pushed aside Ptolemy’s court. There was a new man in charge and after the murder of Pompey, Caesar was in no mood to play any games with the young Pharaoh. 

In a glittering room overlooking the glorious Alexandrian harbor Caesar and his men talked about their coming meeting with the scandalous Pharaoh. There were many talking points that needed to be ironed out before Egypt could be returned to Ptolemy’s full control, but Pompey’s killing was the first thing on the list to discuss.

“Why can’t Caesar just annex this whole region in the name of Rome? The king and his exiled sisters have already done enough against the word and will of their deceased father, you’d be in your right to do so.” General Rufio counseled.  

“He’s right!” General Ezros agreed.

“There’s too much at stake at this point to just take full control. Once everything has settled down and I can figure out what has…” Caesar spoke just before two giant double doors were pushed open by King Ptolemy’s vizier Pothinus and 6 massive servants carrying the king on a golden thrown. 

“What is the meaning of this intrusion?” Caesar whispered to himself as they made room for the spectacle to enter. 

“His majesty, the Pharaoh, son of Ra, golden eye of Egypt has come to pay mighty Caesar a visit….” Pothinus announced. “Since Caesar won’t see the king in his throne room, we thought it best to bring the throne room to Caesar.” Pothinus added wickedly. 

“Your highness, I am greatly pleased by your visit, but this is not the best time. My generals and I have been discussing matters that concern Egypt and as arbiter I believe having you here can cause a bit of a distraction.” Caesar responded respectfully. 

“I think talking is important. You can’t talk about Egypt’s future without me. I am Egypt.” Ptolemy said wisely remembering his place as king.

“With all due respect again, sir, the future of this nation has now been placed in quite the predicament. You’ve exiled your co-ruler, the queen Cleopatra and murdered a Roman statesman!” Caesar exclaimed.

“Cleopatra is a murderess. She should be happy I didn’t have her head brought to me on a silver platter.” Ptolemy hissed.

“Your majesty.” Pothinus whispered uncomfortably trying to remind the king to mind his manners.

“And of Pompey, was he a murderer too?” Caesar challenged.

“He tried to remove you from power!” Ptolemy said confused at Caesar’s annoyance.  “You defend him? I was under the impression that this would please you.” The young king said looking around his entourage. “Has it not?” 

“Please me? The man was once my son-in-law, the widowed husband of my late daughter. As you know from experience, sir, families have their differences but outside of a battlefield I would not have wished for this assassination. What you’ve done has gone beyond the pale. I have it in good mind to annex the entire nation and keep it as bequeathed to me by your dead father.” Caesar responded angrily. 

“Out of the question!! I am Pharaoh! I am!” Young Ptolemy said coming down off his in his mobile throne and walking up to Caesar face to face, leader to leader.

Caesar’s men tensed up. The room began to fill with testosterone and hungry eyes, eyes that could smell the blood of battle. One side shocked by the other side’s complete disarray and incompetence and ruling. For Caesar’s part, his hope at brokering peace between siblings Cleopatra and Ptolemy was slowly eroding into a different direction as Ptolemy seemed to be becoming more unhinged. 

Caesar slowly walked up to the golden thrown, his hands behind his back, his chin high and chest fully out. Confidence and power poured from his every movement while the King of Egypt’s breaths became shallower and tiny beads of sweat started to peek from under his golden crown.

“I will ask you, sir, to stand back.” Caesar said coldly.  

“I ask that Caesar allow his majesty be taken back to his quarters before something he will regret comes.” Pothinus said placing his scepter in between the two men. 
“I will not be treated like a child!” The king said in a childlike tone.

“Yet you are.” Caesar sneered. 

The king snarled at Caesar but acquiesced to Pothinus’ instructions and took his seat again on the mobile thrown and clapped his hands, a sign for the servants to lift his throne on their shoulders again, yet his eyes never left the gaze of Caesar’s. The room was still with silence as the Pharaoh’s show began its retreat into the royal apartments. 

“Oh, before we go, we were to give you this gift, after all this was our intention of our meeting here anyway, unfortunately, things often go astray. Nevertheless, a gift to Caesar from the King of Egypt.” Pothinus said as two more servants rolled in a large clay ern.
The double doors closed leaving only Caesar, his two generals and the large ern. The three men looked at each other, their curiosity filling the room to the it’s brim. 

Caesar slowly walked over to the ern and grabbed the handle of its lid and quickly lifted it expecting a cobra or any other kind of poisonous serpent to jump out and strike him but it was much worse. Inside the stone ern, the gift Ptolemy had for Caesar was the bloodied severed head of his once son-in-law Pompey. 

Caesar gasped and quickly shut the lid. He covered his moth and walked over to a chair to take his breath while the other two generals went over and looked for themselves. 

“Ghastly.” Ezros said coughing with disgust. 

“He’s mad. He actually thought this would please you?” Rufio said hypothetically. 

Moments later, as Caesar continued to wonder what he was going to do with Egypt and how this gruesome “gift” would factor into his decision there was another knock on the great double doors of his room. General Rufio jumped up from his seat and drew his sword. 

“There are guards out there Rufio.” Caesar said reminding Rufio they were safe.

Rufio continued to the door prepared to fight whatever was on the other side, his trust from the treachery of this palace was slimming by the minute. He opened the door and standing in the hallway between several of Caesar’s own soldiers was a tall, handsome, olive skinned man carrying a rolled up luxurious red carpet with golden tassels on the ends.  It was Cleopatra’s closest advisor, Apollodorus. 

“State your business.” Rufio growled. 

“I am Apollodorus. I have a gift for the mighty Caesar from….” Apollodorus said before being interrupted

“Caesar has had enough gifts from the Pharaoh today. Go away.” Rufio said closing the door as Apollodorus placed his foot in the way jamming the closure. 

“This is not from Pharaoh, I bring a gift from her majesty Queen Cleopatra welcoming Caesar to her home country.” Apollodorus said as he pushed his way through.

The three Roman men became instantly intrigued as soon as Apollodorus mentioned Cleopatra’s name, a name that not only sparked intrigue but scandal and mystery all in one.
“A Carpet. How interesting. Go on. Unfurl it.” Caesar said to Apollodorus who stood in the center of the room with the carpet still rolled up in his arms.

“I cannot.” He responded.

“What? Why?” Caesar asked coming up to Apollodorus.

“The Queen has instructed me that this carpet must first only been seen in by your eyes when it is finally revealed. The message and story woven in it, is special.” Apollodorus said looking around the room at the two Generals. 

“Interesting. Alright, then leave it, I’ll remove it’s straps myself once I am alone.” Caesar countered.

“No, I must do it for you sir.” Apollodorus answered giving more rules to the carpet presence. 

“Queen Cleopatra has a very interesting manner of sending gifts, doesn’t she? Lots of Rules. Very well, gentlemen, please leave me with this young man while I take in the beauty of a carpet sent to me by the Queen.” Caesar said in a joking voice.

“Caesar I must object, you cannot be alone here with this stranger. What if…” Rufio insisted.

“I agree sir, this is…this is strange.” Ezros said.

Caesar smiled and reached for Ezros’ sword that hung tightly to his belt. He picked it up, the light from outside shined on its glittering handle, Caesar’s reflection shown in the blade. 

“Happy? I won’t be alone. I’ll have this with me. Now, go on. Just wait outside for a moment. I’ll call when I’m ready.” Cesar said as the generals left. “Apollodorus, please, show me this carpet.” He added as the doors finally closed. 

Apollodorus bowed and slowly knelt down to the floor carefully removing the tightly bound straps on either end of the glorious carpet. As the straps came off the carpet loosened in shape. Apollodorus then grabbed the end one of side of the carpet that was tucked perfectly pulled under and pulled, and as the carpet rolled it’s length all the way to Caesar’s feet, finally the mystery of the carpet was solved. 

Rolled up inside was the Queen herself, smuggled in so that her brother’s guards would never be the wiser. The Queen, dressed in a layers of teal sheer cloth, a golden snake wrapped around her fore arm and eyes that stung like the desert sun looked up from at Cesar from his feet. She smiled her bright 25 year old white smile, her black wavy raven hair tickling her shoulders. She slinked over to Caesar and kissed the top of his right foot.
“Hail Cesar.” She said in a sultry tone.

“Stand up! Stand up young woman!” Caesar said motioning with the sword. “What a creative entrance, but I assumed something strange was afoot when I had to be alone with a carpet.” Caesar said.

“You’ll have to forgive my covertness, but as you can imagine, my brother wishes me dead. This was the only way I could come and talk to you and not be seen.” The queen answered articulately. 

“And how did you know I was in Alexandria? From what I was told, your majesty, you were banished to the deserts of Syria. Quite a-ways to travel just to say hello, isn’t it?” Caesar said sarcastically. 

“When it matters to my nation, I will go and do anything. Its in my blood to go where the fire burns the hottest.” The queen answered as she got to her feet.

“Well, you’re here now. What say you?” Caesar asked annoyed with the whole situation.

“I can tell you’ve already met my brother and you’ve already seen what incompetence he and his whole court are capable of. That is not how it should be, and you, of all people, should know that this is not how my father would have wanted his nation to be led. That, Caesar, is why I am here.” Cleopatra explained.

“Your brother is young and has an interesting way of attempting to please people, that I can attest to. But what would you have me do? Your father desired you to co-rule.” Caesar questioned.

“I intended to rule alongside him, but as you can see he’s had a different approach. I can rule better than my father, better than my brother. I intent to bring Egypt, a land I love more than that breath in body back to her glorious days. I know those days. I remember them as a girl just before my own father bankrupted us and began to borrow from your great empire. Only my vision for this nation can withstand time and at the same time repay it’s debt to Rome. After all, that is what you want most, is it not? Your money.” Cleopatra said assertively. 

“Direct. I like direct. However, you except me to just denounce your brother and place you on the throne? Alone?” Cesar said in shock that Cleopatra would so brazenly suggest this.

“Yes. Why do you seem surprised?” She said sitting down on one of the luxurious sofas and crossing her legs seductively. 

Cesar found her to be completely beguiling. She was a woman like no other. She had an idea and risked her own life to bring it to him wrapped in a carpet. For Caesar, there was a strange male like bravery in her that he did not expect, she radiated something almost otherworldly, ethereal, and at the same time dangerous. 

Cleopatra had always known of her place in the world, and the place of a woman, but she railed against it. For Cleopatra, the place of a woman had been given to them, not earned, and all she wanted was to break that rule and earn her place as one of the most powerful people in the world, no matter who she had to step on, and no matter how she had to convince them. After all, it was how men did it. 

“Putting it simply, Caesar, my brother is mad. He is untested and mad. If you need to be reminded take a look in that ern again. What sane man would kill another man unprovoked, and one he is not at war with? Does that show you or give you the sign that he is well in his mind?” Cleopatra asked.

“You come into this palace and say things like that of him? Your own brother?” Caesar questioned.

“This is my palace.” Cleopatra sternly reminded him. 

Caesar nodded in agreement as to not cause any inflammation to the conversation then sat down across from her on another sofa. 

“Your argument seems to be a valid one. You would do well as a Roman Senator.” Caesar said joking of the often-passionate debates in the Roman Senate. 

He looked in the direction of the urn carrying Pompey’s head and closed his eyes in disgust.
 “Your brother Ptolemy seems to be very easy coerced by people around him, connived, I’d even dare say. But that still does not give me the full authority to pronounce you sole queen.” He explained.

Cleopatra grinned and stood up, she walked over to a tray that had a wine pitcher and two golden goblets. She poured the wine into one and sipped from it then walked back over to the sofa where Caesar was now sitting.

“Apollodorus, will you kindly leave Caesar and I to discuss things further.” Cleopatra requested of her trusted servant. 

“My lady, I am sworn to your safety, I cannot in good conscious leave you alone here.” Apollodorus answered in a worried voice.

“This is my home. Caesar is my guest, and I’m sure he understands that when one is a guest in another’s home one does not slit the host’s throat. Isn’t that right Caesar?” Cleopatra joked as Caesar chuckled and agreed leading Apollodorus no choice but to bow and remove himself from the room.

“You don’t trust me.” She said in a whisper of a voice to Caesar now that they were alone.
“I don’t know you.” Caesar replied.

“But you will. And you should. Caesar, I’m willing to offer you something that can help create one of the greatest alliances this world as ever seen. But only if I am queen of this country.” She explained.

“And how do you expect to accomplish this?” Caesar questioned with a grin. 

“I have my ways.” She answered. “With me as queen, Rome will be repaid its dues, and then some. That I can promise you. With my brother, the mad child on the throne, you can only expect more and more disaster; war and debt, crisis after crisis that Rome and you as arbiter of Egypt must clean up.” Cleopatra further explained as she sat down next to Caesar on the sofa. 

“How are you so sure? I see no signs that your brother will not repay Rome what it is owed.” Caesar questioned.

“Really? In the last few months of my brother’s rule what has he done to show you that he intends to repay? All he’s been able to do is exile my sister and I, start a civil war and kill a man that you once called a son. You’ll return to Rome in disgrace with Egypt squarely at the epicenter of that disgrace. It wont bode well for you with your Senate, and you know it.” The queen responded.

Cleopatra was now only inches away from Caesar. Their two bodies slowly moving closer and closer to each other. The heat from her skin warming his exposed thy. Caesar took a breath of air and stood up she was looking at him directly in the eyes, it seemed as if she was attempting to place him under a spell with just a look. Her lips plump and ripe, she knew what she was doing, she needed him to feel her desire, however real or feigned it was, she needed him to want it.

“I want to trust what you’re saying. But Rome is my number one focus, by keeping Egypt on a tight leash I can avoid absorbing its inner chaos and you haven’t shown me that having you as queen will be any better for Rome.” Caesar said.

Cleopatra then saw glimmer of something in his eye. Something she knew she needed to latch on to before it was extinguished, this mystical door to Caesar’s heart was opening and she was either going to enter and take what she wanted now or forever languished to the deserts of Syria. Caesar wanted to be ‘shown” her capabilities. 

She quickly got up from the sofa and walked over to Caesar and put her hand on his face.
“Together I’m sure we can come up with some kind of parallel rule. I here, as the sole queen of Egypt and you from Rome until this arbitration ends. Egypt is full of riches, Caesar, beyond your wildest dreams and they can benefit Rome, only If, and when, I am crowned queen. I guarantee this.” Cleopatra said looking deep into Caesar’s hazel eyes. 

“You should go.” Caesar said nervously. “I'll see to it that my men keep you safe.” Caesar added walking over to the double doors and opening them as Cleopatra followed. 

Cleopatra had him in her crosshairs even if his first reaction was to rebuff her. She made a slow simmering line to the door. As she past Caesar she dragged her hand across his chest and stood between 6 Roman soldiers and Apollodorus behind them. Her Eyes like two amber jewels fixed on his. Her hair and skin shined like the goddess she was believed to be. There was a small sly smirk on her face in Caesar’s direction, a look that swallowed him whole and spit him back out. 

The Soldiers all stood at attention and turned to escort Cleopatra as instructed. 
“Take her majesty to a suitable apartment and guard her door as you would mine.” Caesar added.

Cleopatra stood in the center of these guards then turned from Caesar’s gaze and faced forward.

“Gentlemen, these corridors are dark, but don’t worry. I am with you.” She said with a wink as they all marched off. 

 V.

The night was thick with heat. Caesar tossed and turned in his soft bed shrouded in sheer coverings that blocked him from the wild Alexandrian night air. His sleeping mind filled with images of Pharaohs and flames and desert and screams and knives and pain. But what he saw was not Egypt, what he saw was Rome. The people of Rome falling to terror, falling to war all because of him. It was His fault. The dead were reaching out and telling him something but the message wasn’t clear. All he could do was stand in the center of this destruction and scream but he was mute. 

Not a single sound came out his mouth. 

As Caesar slept cloaked figure appeared from a secret door no one knew about. A door that was built into the walls of the palace room. It wasn’t a strange thing, many of Cleopatra and Ptolemy’s palaces had these secret doors that allowed them to enter and flee at any given moment without anyone knowing the wiser. What the cloaked person didn't know, however, was that they were being followed through the secret passages within the palace walls. 

The cloaked female figure, barefoot and small in stature removed the cloak and entered the bed nude and chilled while the follower slowly kept a quiet pace behind. Her body pressed up against Caesar who’s naked flesh was like fire to the touch. She placed her hands on his chest and lay her head down, the sensation woke Caesar from this nightmare. 

He opened his eyes and looked down, it was Cleopatra.

“You’re hot like the sun.” Cleopatra whispered, her arms now reaching over his head and clasping at the hands, her body on top of his, like the coolness of the moon soothing his feverish body.

He looked at her again, in her amber eyes, they were like pieces of dark gold speckled with emeralds deep inside her iris. She was an exquisite woman who’s lips were pouty and red. She kissed him. He kissed her back. His mind went blank and only the surrounding smells of lavender and burning oils could be sensed. She allowed him to make the next move, if her gamble paid off, he would take her for his own, and she could move on to the next step of her covert domination. She waited as he held his breath and continued to stare deeply into her eyes. 

He then rolled over and lay on top of her, their eyes never breaking gaze. They kissed again deep and passionate and allowed the world around them to stand still as they made love.
But they were not alone.

The hidden wall then quietly slid open again revealing the same secret chamber behind room Caesar's personal bedroom. As the wall pulled aside once more, a second female figure stepped forward into the room, hidden in the shadows of the various potted plants. Her large eyes peeked through the leaves of the plant she hid behind to witness something that shocked her. Her heart felt as if it was about to explode. Caesar and Cleopatra were intertwined in an alliance of the flesh. It felt like a personal betrayal, a cold and calculated move by her elder sister that had no been explained to her. But Cleopatra knew the ways of the world, she knew the truth of how men operated and knew that the only way to get a man as powerful and influential as Caesar was to offer him something he would never turn down.

Arsinoë could not believe what she was watching. She had ideas of what Cleopatra was capable of but this felt strange, this felt wrong, this felt like it was going against everything they had discussed while in exile in Syria. Despite Cleopatra’s promise to Arsinoë that all her motives were intended to better both sisters’ lives, all Arsinoë could feel inside was a disgust that felt like a fire burning her insides, watching her sister make love to Caesar was a dagger to her heart, as if Cleopatra was handing the whole of Egypt over to a man Arsinoë saw as the barbaric leader of a hostile regime. 

But it went deeper than that, Arsinoë’s ego was even a little bruised. Jealous even. 
Arsinoë quickly, and quietly rushed back to the secret door and replaced it, once again hiding in the walls of the palace. In Arsinoë’s confused and jealous state she felt that Cleopatra had deceived her and was going to keep everything for herself now that she had Caesar so easily in her clutches. 

In the younger sister’s mind the Kingdom, the crown, and now the love and ear of Julius Caesar was surely to bring everything Cleopatra ever wanted, there would be no room for Arsinoë.

It was threatening, and all she could do was remember how everyone warned her about Cleopatra's treachery. Arsinoë could feel her blood boil like molten lava building up inside a great volcano. She did not know where to turn or whom to turn to, her whole world felt like it was crumbling all around her. There was a sense of panic, a sense of urgency in her body to figure a way out for herself now that she could tell she could not count on her older sister Cleopatra. 

As she made her way through the darkened marble halls of the Palace and past several flicking cauldrons of fire that lit the corridors as her only beacons of guidance, she felt her heart sink. In her eyes, Cleopatra was now literally in bed with the enemy. 

Suddenly, as Arsinoë passed two large marble columns and huge potted green palm, she was grabbed by the arm and pulled into a shadowy area just off to the side of one of the corridors. She opened her mouth to scream but a hand reached from behind and covered her mouth, muffling her attempt. She tried to move but could not, her assailant’s other arm was latched on around her waist lifting her off the ground so she could not make a move.
“Shhhh. I will not hurt you, calm yourself.” The voice said slowly placing her down.

Arsinoë thought she recognized the voice but wasn’t sure, her body went limp and calmed and once it did so, the assailant lowered her to the floor and turned her around to face him. She squinted in the dark, the face in the shadows was familiar and concealed.
“Come closer. Into the light.” She said, then a man came forward. It was Pothinus, her brother’s closest advisor.  Arsinoë stepped back startled unsure of if Pothinus would call out to the guards.

“Do not be startled. I will not harm you. I’ve been searching for you for hours now, princess. It seems my luck has finally turned.” Pothinus with a lisp in his voice.

“What do you want?” She asked in a whisper.

“Now, now, that is my job; the question is what do you want? I know that there is much disappointment being third in line for the throne of Egypt, and now with your sister bedding that Roman, who knows, perhaps you’ll become 4th than 5th in line. Lower and lower you drop.” Pothinus mused. “So I ask again, what does Princess Arsinoë want?” 

“How did you know about Cleopatra and Caesar?” Arsinoë questioned as the orange light of the fires lit to brighten the palace halls reflected on her golden skin. 

“You’re not the only one who knows of the secrets n these walls. What Cleopatra has done is treason, treason against the thrown of Egypt and to all of the house of Ptolemy. There is only one way for all of this to be settled and adjusted so to please the gods.” Pothinus answered.

“How?” The princess said, her eyes widening with intrigue. 

“Hand your brother the rope that’ll hang him first. Once he discovers Cleopatra’s disgusting betrayal, he’ll confront Caesar who will not take to his accusations kindly. Once Ptolemy is out of the way, Cleopatra will be exposed for what she is and Caesar will have no choice but to distance himself from her and place you on the thrown in their place for his own political survival.” Pothinus shrewdly explained.

Arsinoë, took a deep breath and stepped back. She looked away from Pothinus who’s eyes seemed hungry for more power. His attempt at a power grab was so strong the princess could almost smell it, it was the stench of agonizing ambition and greed, but it was an intoxicating smell none the less. She knew, in her heart, that Ptolemy would never welcome her back into Egypt with open arms and she sensed Cleopatra was about to turn on her too…the choice was made.

“Very well.” She said in a whisper of a voice.

“You agree to expose your sister to the king?” Pothinus said asking for Confirmation.
“Take me to Ptolemy, I’ll tell him everything.” Arsinoë answered back, her back stiff, her chin up. 

Pothinus grinned darkly, his rotting yellow teeth reflected the shine of the large torches of fire then he extended his hand to escort Arsinoë to King’s room and she took it. 

As they walked together down the dark halls on their way to King Ptolemy’s private apartment, she grabbed on tightly to his arm. 

“You’re afraid.” He said.

“I don’t want to die.” She said softly.

“Once your queen, you will be immortal and everything will change, I will guide you. Trust me.” Pothinus said in a creepy calm manner.  

VI.

As the sun rose over the desert sand, the heat began to enter the palace. Caesar and a few of his generals huddled in room looking over documents and maps as per their usual daily activity. Then without notice the large double doors towards the front of the room burst open. King Ptolemy, Pothinus and several palace guards entered while Roman soldiers in the hall quickly came with swords drawn. 

“I have not received noticed you sought an audience with me.” Caesar said angrily as he rose from his chair at the end of a large table.

“Where is she?” Ptolemy asked in a furious tone.

“Where is whom?” Caesar questioned.

“Enough of this! I know Cleopatra is here, and I know that you plan to put her on the throne usurping me, and I will not stand for it Caesar, I will not!!” The Ptolmey cried. 

“Cleopatra is not in this room, that I can say honestly. And how did you hear of this?” Caesar questioned back to the confusion of his generals in the room.

“This is my palace, I am told who enters and who departs. Even if that entrance is made in secret. Let me be very clear, Roman, she is an enemy to this State and you are harboring her. That is punishable by Egyptian law by death.” Ptolemy said as Caesar’s guards turned to king with tension in their stance.

“Pothinus, I would ask you to please take his majesty back to his apartments before he says something he will not be able to take back, there are several witnesses to what he just did, and as his advisor, you would advise him from speaking any further.” Caesar said with an eyebrow raised.

“His majesty has it on good authority that you are harboring his exiled sister Cleopatra who entered the palace last night under cover of darkness. That is a threat on his life and he has every right to seek the kind of justice afforded to him by his own law.” Pothinus answered. 

Caesar began to walk up to the two Egyptians who were now taking shallow breaths. Their eyes meeting Caesar’s who amusement on the whole situation was starting to thin. 

“Pothinus, are you saying that I have placed a threat on the king’s life? Is that what your advisor has told you your majesty? That is a very powerful accusation, one that I am not sure you really want to be making.” Caesar said warning both men.

“Well…..” Ptolemy started nervously as he looked around the room that was starting to fill with Roman soldiers. “…I am! I am making that accusation here in my own palace.” He finished, his now voice shaky with nerves. 

As the men argued in the center of the room putting on a show of masculine aggression machismo, Cleopatra peeked in from the entrance to the bedroom. She could see that tensions in the room were starting to boil hotter than a pool of water sitting in the Egyptian sun. It was a strange situation. She had not made herself known yet to Ptolemy’s people, how could they have already known she was in the palace? She slowly peeked again, this time extending her head around the entrance to the bedroom further and looked out to see the other’s in the room. Off in the distance towards the back of the room behind a mixture of Roman and Egyptian palace guards, to Cleopatra’s shock and surprise was her sister Arsinoë who had not stayed back in hiding as Cleopatra had asked her to until things were certain to go in her favor. 

Arsinoë’s face read like a guilty conscious, just the night before she made a pact with Pothinus who himself had set this trap for Ptolemy. 

This was a game, and Cleopatra and Ptolemy were being used as pawns to get someone else in the spot light of power. The games that were being played were treacherous and the smallest mistake could bring the entire operation tumbling down, and Cleopatra knew this. 

Her alliance was not with the weak Pothinus who’s power grab came in the form of jealous younger princess, it was with Caesar himself, who would want nothing to do with anyone connected to the backstabbing trouble maker Pothinus. Arsinoë’s plan to remove her brother and taint her sister was about to blow up in her face.

“I will ask you one more time, your majesty, are you accusing me of something? And if so, what are you accusing me of?” Caesar said, Cleopatra watching in the wings knowing full well the counter-trap Caesar was laying.

“You have allowed my enemy to enter this palace and are harboring her. That is a threat on my life and I will have you put to death.” Ptolemy said stupidly and openly threatening the life of the most powerful man on the planet who was also occupying the palace as his own.
All Caesar had to do was say the world and the entire confrontation would end, and he did. He looked at his generals and nodded his head twice. The Generals removed their swords, a sign to the other Roman soldiers who quickly grabbed hold of all the Egyptians in the room including Arsinoë who stood in the back trying to stay out of the way.

“Unhand me!” The king said as the two Roman soldiers grabbed his arms. “What are you doing? Why are you all just standing there?” he then screamed as his own trapped guards.

“You’ve stated your case your majesty, and I am judge and jury. I am finding that as of this very moment, this nation, entrusted to me by your father to arbitrate a treaty between you and Queen Cleopatra and to refund the Roman Empire of the dues has reached an impasse and cannot move forward under the leadership it's currently under. Therefore I am removing you and placing you under arrest for your own safely. That goes for all other loyalists here at this very moment, Pothinus included.” Caesar explained as he looked directly into the shocked eyes of Pothinus. 

“Outrageous! Caesar, this is absurd you cannot do this!” Pothinus yelled.

“He can’t do this!!!” The king parroted from behind.

“I can and I have. Take them away.” Caesar said to the guards.

Ptolemy argued and fought the force of the Roman guards that outnumbered his own the entire way out of the room passing his sister Arsinoë who was waiting her turn to be removed. She was shocked. She couldn’t believe what was happening. Pothinus’ plan to remove Ptolemy and see Cleopatra as an assassin and threat to everyone did not work and now she too was arrested.

Pothinus then passed Arsinoë who reached out for him with her hand but it was slapped down by the Roman guard holding her. 

“Caesar! Please let us talk about this!” Pothinus was heard screaming down the hall, as Cleopatra still stood standing in the doorway to the bedroom she shared with Caesar the night before.

Casear then ordered to the room to be cleared so that he could rest. His two generals, Rufio and Ezros remined. All three still in disbelief at what had just happened. Caesar feeling tired sat down on the sofa facing the window and took a deep breath.

“Did we just arrest the King of Egypt?” Ezros asked confused about the entire situation but Caesar did not answer.

“We’ll have to start building secure borders within the country before we can leave. Along this route.” Caesar said pointing to the maps they were looking at and clearly avoiding the question asked.

“Caesar, we’ve just arrested the king of this country, I believe the Roman Senate will demand an explanation, are you sure we’re doing the right thing?” Rufio questioned. 

“Ptolemy is out of control. You saw it here, right in front of you. It’s time we change the narrative of what is happening here in Alexandria and throughout the whole of Egypt, it is for the better of Rome.” Caesar explained to the generals’ agreement. 

“That still leaves Egypt without a head of state. Are you thinking of Annexing the entire region in the name of Rome as discussed by the Senate?” Rufio asked.

“Egypt has their queen.” Cleopatra said now dressed and walking down out of the private bedroom.

The two generals were surprised at who they saw coming out of the room and looked at each other perplexed and after the awkward moment passed they both bowed their heads.

“Queen Cleopatra has come out of hiding and has promised to stand by Rome during this change. I find it in Rome’s best interest in creating an alliance with her rather than something that could cause a public outcry on both sides.” Caesar explained.

“Gentleman, I can assure you, my brother’s illness of the mind would cause an even deeper crisis within the walls of this capital and the rest of this country; which is something I, and Caesar, cannot afford to allow to happen. There is much work to be done, I intend on accomplishing it….as sole queen.” Cleopatra stated.

“When would this change take place?” Ezros asked.

“I’ve already sent a letter back to Rome announcing it this morning before our meeting. The Coronation of Queen Cleopatra will take place tonight.” Caesar explained. 

Caesar then handed papers of plans for the coronation to the two generals who were instructed to have it all carried out word for word.

Cleopatra, now alone with Caesar sat down on the sofa and poured herself wine.

“This was the right thing to do Caesar. You will not regret it.” She said as she sipped from the glass, her amber eyes looking over the rim at him like a cheetah eyeing her prey. 

VII.

There was gold everywhere and people from all over the city and surrounding areas came to witness the hastily put together coronation of Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt. Large glittering banners with her golden eagle symbol held by muscled royal guards walked in to parallel lines up an isle flanked by palace advisors, royal courtiers and members of Alexandria’s most powerful families. At the end of the long isle stood Caesar crowned in his laurel wreath next to an empty gold and black throne awaiting the soon to be queen’s arrival. 

After the guards finished their entrance and marched around the queen’s coronation stage, a flock of Roman trumpeters sounded their horns announcing the queen’s entrance. 

In the front row, nearest the stage, more Roman soldiers and Caesar’s closest Generals: Rufio and Ezros shooting worried looks at each other: Caesar’s decision to meddle in this manner within the royal family feud would not go over well with the senate back home.

The trumpets sounded again, and a large purple curtain at the end of the aisle slowly opened. A little person drenched in golden attired from head to toe emerged bare foot and twinkling like a tiny golden bobble, her sparkling dress so tight she could barely walk. 

She made her way up the red and pink flower petal covered aisle accompanied by 25 ladies in waiting throwing more petals into the air as they walked. Cleopatra’s arms were crossed over her chest firming grasping her Pharaoh’s crook and flail so tightly that her grasp her knuckles were turning white, as if she felt any kind of release would somehow cause the entire spectacle to vanish into thin air. 

Caesar smiled as she continued her way up the aisle towards him. She looked beautiful and no one could deny that, but there were still people in observance who doubted her sincere love of the nation, her sincere connection to the people and her sincere attempt at unifying Egypt. Her task would be to make these doubters believe and having the leader of the Roman Empire at her side during her coronation seemed to start her reign on an awkward foot.

As she finally came up the small two steps to her coronation throne she and Caesar’s eyes met. He smiled again at her but did not smile back, her face a stoic and regal her gaze on him; serious and powerful. She was a perfect golden queen that would not break for anyone, but inside she was elated.

She then turned to the crowd and one of Egypt’s high priests stepped up and sat her on the throne. He turned to his assistant and poured oil into a pan and pressed his thumb into it. With this oiled thumb, he anointed Cleopatra’s lips then pressed into the center of her forehead a small dot of the remnants of the oil anointing her mind. The high priest then sprinkled a sand like substance into a golden chalice of liquid. As soon as the substance hit the liquid a dark blue smoke began to billow from the cup. He blew the smoke into Cleopatra’s face. The smoke, meant to be a protection from evil thoughts and the evil eye that swirled around Cleopatra. The priest then turned and grabbed the second half of Cleopatra’s crown and raised it over her head.

“By the grace of Amun-Ra and by the powers of his all mighty hand, I crown you: Cleopatra VII, queen of upper and lower Egypt, controller of the Nile, protector of the ancient scribes of the ancestors, bearer of all the sands of the deserts.” 

As the crown lowered onto Cleopatra’s head the entire crowd of what seemed like thousands fell to the floor and extended their arms flat to the ground. She stood up from her thrown slowly, the light from sun beamed down through a rectangular opening in the ceiling casting her in silhouette.  

Rufio and Ezros looked around as they and the entire Roman army still stood, but then something shocking. Caesar kneeled at the foot of Cleopatra. The two generals were in shock.  Caesar stared at them with an angry look and they too reluctantly and slowly kneeled where they stood.

Then to break the silence of the coronation, a large gong sounded and all the people stood on their feet and cheered for their new queen.

“May your new queen and this alliance with Rome bear the fruit of good fortune and prominence.” Caesar shouted to a gleeful audience. 

While the audience in the palace’s upper chambers and thrown room cheered with glee, and some trepidation, a woman dressed in several layers of dark veils made her way down a damp and cold dungeon hallway. Rats scurried to hide as she invaded their space of dark corners and smelly halls. The woman carried a small bundle of food and water for a specific prisoner. 

"What is your business here?" A tall beefy guard said blocking the veiled woman as she attempted to enter the corridor towards the cells.

"I was given specific instruction to bring this to his majesty." She replayed with her eyes down on the floor.

"By whom?" The guard said crossing his arms.

"Her excellency, queen Cleopatra." The woman said now lifting her eyes to look the guard in his face.

He seemed skeptical, but there was nothing truly out of the ordinary in the woman, he let out a deep sign and stepped aside for her to enter.

"Make it quick." he grumbled as she quickly made her way down the dingy dungeon corridors. 

Towards the end of the path sat a solitary prisoner locked away. He was surrounded by limestone rock dripping with water from an unknown source and shackled to the walls. The stench of human dedication infected the air all around them. The veiled woman walked up to the shackled prisoner and dropped the sack of food.

The man, filly and tired looked up from the ground and then down to the bundle.

“Finally.” King Ptolemy said painfully reaching for the sack. “What bring you?” he asked the woman who dropped it for him. 

The former king, imprisoned by Caesar just the day before for the threat on his life, was famished and quickly began to eat the food in the bundle. He tore through fish and beans and swallowed quickly. He drank from the wooden cup of water that the veiled woman brought to wash it down then sat back on the floor of his cell with food still falling from his mouth.

“Has she been crowned?” The king asked of the woman who brought the good.
Still veiled and hiding her face, she nodded yes.

“The traitor. When I am released, I’ll have her head. Like Pompey. Worse even!” The unstable former teenage king yelled. 

The woman slowly walked up to the cell's entrance and placed her hands on the iron shackles locking him in. She looked at how tight they were then released them to ground. The king was confused and unsure of who was standing before him. 

She removed her cloak revealing the face of Cleopatra’s most trusted lady, Simoné.

“Has the king had his fill?” She asked of him wondering if he was finished with his food.

He looked at her strangely, that face. That beautiful face was not unfamiliar to him and suddenly a feeling of panic shot up through his spine and up into brain forcing up on to  his feet.

“You! I know you. I’ve seen you before. What are you called?” He asked as he shook up in his filthy robes. 

“Has the king had his fill?” She asked again.

The former king looked at the floor and saw the mess of whatever food was left. He looked back up at Simoné. Then a tightening came around his throat that started to feel like someone’s hands had started to squeeze. He gasped for air then rushed the bars and reached for Simoné who backed away.

The former king began to turn blue and gasp for air. He looked around his cell for something to help him but there was nothing. He was like a fish out of water gasping and gasping and choking reaching for someone or something to save him from the pressure around his throat. 

“Has the king had his fill?” Simoné asked again now coming back to the front of the cell as the Ptolemy fell to the floor twitching and gasping and then slowly breathing. 

Moments later he fell silent. His eyes still open and a small speck of blood oozing out from his nose. He was dead. Simoné replaced the hood of her cloak around her head and slowly walked up the damp dungeon corridor. She had secured the first of two facets of Cleopatra’s unchallenged reign. 



“That was quite the spectacle.” Caesar said as Cleopatra undressed in her private quarters after the coronation. 

“The people need to see that I mean to rule with all our traditions intact, and that not even this Roman occupation can change that.” She said as she removed the heavy crowns from her head with the help of her ladies in waiting. 

“Occupation? Rome has not occupied Egypt!” Caesar insisted. 

“Haven’t you? You’re in the capital city still marching around my palace like you own it, I would say you’ve occupied something.” Cleopatra joked.

“You must know that there is more to ruling a nation that just looking good while you do it; there are actual occupational hazards that I think I should warn you about.” Caesar said pulling the queen in close for a kiss but was pushed away to his surprise.

“Like what? Raising an army to battle the person who has exiled you to a life in the desert? Removing you from your god given, rightful place? Sneaking your way into a treacherous palace using secret passages no one else knows about to confront the one man who could possibly help in reverse everything off course? I think I’ve covered the occupational hazards, don’t you?” Cleopatra said with a wink.

“Very fine tricks, but what of policy? And rule of law? Have you any of those?” Caesar said condescendingly. 

“You worry about your rule of law, and I worry about mine that’s what we agreed on.” The queen answered to Caesar’s irritation.

He reached over and grabbed her by the arms and planted a frustrated kiss on her still oily lips. They kissed for what seemed to be forever when she finally pushed him back. She smiled, she could see that she’d dug her nails into him and that he’d be find it hard letting her go that easily. 

“Was that so hard?” He said as he looked into her amber eyes.
She smiled and sat herself down as her ladies in waiting removed the heavy clothes on her body from the coronation. 

“When I return from Rome, we can discuss our alliance further. I look forward to it.” Caesar said grabbing at her bottom as the ladies in waiting blushed. 

“Return from Rome?” She said with a grin from his tickle, then slapping away his hand. “You’re already going back to Rome?” She prodded further. 

“I am, since you’re queen, the mission to stabilize Alexandria under one ruler is complete, hasn’t it?” Caesar explained. 

Cleopatra oddly felt a sense of uneasiness. Even though she was ready to take on the throne as she was born to do, she didn’t understand why he had to leave so quickly. Caesar leaving so soon after her coronation put things in a potentially dangerous spot. Who would protect her from another uprising? Who would stand by her side showing a united front should another army rise against her?

“Like a falcon learning to soar in the sky, I too must reach for the heavens alone at some point. I just didn’t expect it to be so soon.” Cleopatra surmised. 

“Rome needs to see it’s leader again, home and in person. The senate will have to hear from me what we’ve done here.” Caesar further explained.

“They rule over you more than you rule over yourself and your own heart. That must be quite the fruitless battle. Where do you turn when your own conscience speaks louder than the senate of Rome?” Cleopatra challenged. 

“I have my friends, my advisers, Mark Antony, Augustus. I have Calpurnia.” Caesar said running his fingers through Cleopatra’s raven hair.

“Calpurnia. What a beautiful name.” Cleopatra said turning to the window facing the glorious delta ripe with sounds of the ships docking into its harbors. 

“Cleopatra…. come with me. The world of Rome should see you for who you are and understand that you are now the ruler of this great land. That’s the only way you can rid yourself of all those terrible rumors.” Cesar confessed.

“Rumors?” Cleopatra asked.

“There are rumors.” Caesar said surprised at her sincere questioned.

“Why would there be rumors?” Cleopatra said turning in confusion to his words.

“Your brother hasn’t been the most complimentary to say the least.” Caesar explained. “The Roman senate feels this land and it’s leaders have gone rogue, and the only way you can unite them in favoring your autonomy is to meet them yourself.” He continued with a raised eyebrow. 

 “I just think that…” she started to say just before there was a knock on the door to her private room. “Enter.” She finished.

“Your majesty.” Simoné said as she walked in and quickly bowed to both Caesar and Cleopatra.

Cleopatra quickly walked over to her assassin and grabbed her by the cloak and kissed each other cheeks and as she did so pulled her in close to whisper:

“Well?” 

“He is no more.” Simoné whispered back. 

Cleopatra pulled back from her Simoné and looked into her face as if she was trying to detect some kind of deception, but there was no sign of lies, it was true. Her brother Ptolemy, the former king of Egypt was dead. Cleopatra’s rule was now that much closer to being solid and safe.

In a split-second Cleopatra’s life flashed before her eyes. Her childhood, her growing up next to her brother playing in bright memories that soon turned dark once they were both pitted as rivals for their dead father’s throne. After civil wars, bitter betrayals and exiles it had all come down to this. A single tear fell from Cleopatra’s eye that she quickly wiped away. 

“Very well.” Cleopatra said as Simoné rushed out of the room.

“What was that?” Caesar questioned.

“The queen’s business has already begun. Shall we?” Cleopatra said mysteriously as she extended her hand to escort Caesar one last time to her bed before he rushed back to Rome and his wife Calpurnia.

“Well, will you come?” Caesar asked again.

It would be difficult for her to leave Alexandria, the safety of the walls of her home city had always made her feel invincible, but her larger plan needed to succeed and that seemed to include convincing the Senate of Rome that Egypt’s ruler could only be one person, and that was her. 

“I will.” She smiled. “But, I have to follow you. There are a few things I must handle before I leave. Rome will meet this rogue queen in a few days. You can wait, can’t you?” She teased.

Caesar smiled and kissed her hand. Their last moments together in Egypt were romantic and passionate. They caused a spark that lit their bodies like torches in midnight darkness. They were connected by a bond that mixed lust and power that not even Caesar had ever experienced. When he was around Cleopatra was under a trance, something otherworldly and without explanation filled his body to the rim and he was addicted at first kiss.

Later that evening she watched from her palace window as tiny ant like Roman soldiers boarded ships heading back to their homeland carrying with them the great Julius Caesar, a man twice her age that she narrowly convinced to become her ally. It was a dangerous attempt that she had succeeded at, but what was more dangerous was being alone in Egypt knowing that at any minute something or someone could take a dagger at her and end her reign within seconds.

There was a constant, paranoia in her mind. She was well protected but infiltration of her protected zone wasn’t out of the question. Betrayal and treachery were the two most common traits that ran in her own family, and there was still one low branch on her family tree that had already fallen for the muddled-up schemes of Pothinus: her sister Arsinoë. 

This worried Cleopatra, a worry that sunk deep into her bones and ached her mind. 
She knew what she had to do, she had no doubt that if she left Arsinoë to plot and scheme her way out of her prison cell, Cleopatra would be threatened forever, only cutting off this branch would end it, and It had to happen before she too embarked on a small trip across the sea to Rome from Alexandria. 

Plots and schemes were an all too natural and common thread in the pursuit of power within her family; eliminating those who sought to eliminate you was the family trait Cleopatra hated most, but it was for her own survival. 

Cleopatra’s mind was wracked with thought. Could she do to her sister as she did to her brother? Could she now not trust the sister that lived with her in exile? Was their mutual suffering not a strong enough bond for Arsinoë to keep her loyalty? Her brother Ptolemy was different, he wanted both his sister dead and even went to war with him. But Arsinoë was her best friend, her closest relative…and now a traitor. 

The difficult decisions she had to make kept filling her mind, Cleopatra was at a place she never wished for herself or for anyone else. The guilt washing over her about Arsinoë’s future had to be shuttered. It was now or never. 
Arsinoë had to die. 

The night wore on, and Cleopatra called for her two most trusted servants Apollodorus and Simoné. They both came in and bowed to their queen. Cleopatra handed Apollodorus a written letter with instructions that she wanted taken to Alexandria with her in the morning. These were specific and very precise instructions that had to be followed to the letter to insure her arrival in Rome in the following months was met with much excitement by all Romans, not just Caesar’s subjects who would no doubt fall in love under the queen’s spell, but her critics as well.

“Go on, Apollodorus, we don’t have much time in this late hour, I need this letter to get to Rome safely, they need to know the date of my arrival.” She instructed as he bowed and quickly exited the room to meet with the messengers. 

“Yes your majesty.” Apollodorus answered.

“Did you bring what I asked Simoné?” Cleopatra asked.

“Your basket my queen.” Simoné answered.

“Thank you.” Cleopatra said as she covered her hair with a white veil and grabbed Simoné by the hand and started off towards the prison cells to find Arsinoë.

The two women and three guards made their small trip down the darkened palace halls that smelled of burning oils and jasmine. The palace pillars stood proud and strong as desert breeze swirled through Cleopatra’s sheer white veil that covered her head and mouth only exposing her amber colored eyes.

When they entered the stone carved walls of the dungeon, the guards below all fell in genuflect as their queen past them. Cleopatra's eyes darted around the damp dungeons, her heart rate began to speed up, her mind began to race then the hanging and tortured body of Pothinus who had been killed hours before caught her eye. Cleopatra turned her face and grimaced at his bloody body. 

Further down the muddy dungeon halls was Arsinoë’s cell, a large slab of rock locked her in. Cleopatra, hand in hand with Simoné, motioned for one of the guards that came with them to remove the stone door to reveal her sister. Arsinoë sat on the floor still dressed as she was the last time Cleopatra saw her. Her once beautiful completion now filthy, her big brown eyes lost and sad. Her clothes in tatters. 

“Let me see your eyes closer.” Cleopatra demanded of the sister who betrayed her to King Ptolemy.

Arsinoë looked up.

“I’ve been crowned queen of Egypt by Caesar, everything has worked out the way I imagined it would so far. You could have been seated next to me, sister, you could have been right there with me.” Cleopatra said slowly stepping into her sister’s cell.

“So, then you have what you came for: the throne of Egypt. You must be so proud.” Arsinoë said in a tired voice. “I wonder how much you’ve paid for it.” She added slyly. 
“Paid?” Cleopatra asked.

“Whatever Caesar has promised you, you’ll have to pay back two-fold. None of this is for free, none of it Cleopatra. Just look how our father and brother paid.” Arsinoë said with a stern voice.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Cleopatra said looking behind her back to see if they others had heard.

“I know enough.” Arsinoë answered with a shortness in her voice.

“And do you know what I know? I know that my beloved sister tried to usurp me by betraying me and my plan to, of all people, that vial creature Pothinus. I trusted you! I would have done anything for you. I would have given you so much had you never given me up. That was the true test of our love, and you failed. You failed me.” Cleopatra said falling to her knees. 

Cleopatra grabbed her sister’s cold hands and clutched them in hers as if to warm them with her own body heat. She removed the veil from her face and grabbed Arsinoë’s face so that their eyes would meet. They both had tears welling in their eyes, both filling with emotions of what could have been had Arsinoë never betrayed Cleopatra. Together, as princess and Queen they could have made it.

“Why? Why did you do this?” Cleopatra begged, as if any answer would change her mind.

"For the same reason you wanted to remove Ptolemy from power. After you were crowned how much longer would I have been safe? I know just as well as you how things work in this way of life.” Arsinoë responded.

“No…no! He wanted both of us dead, he sent us both away to die in the desert. You and I were one. Sisters. United!” Cleopatra as tears fell from her eyes.

“You say that now, but time was not on my side. You know that deep in your heart, it was always just a matter of time. I had to act.” The princess responded with tears down her face as well. “A girl is not safe in this world of men, and then she’s not safe when another woman acts like the men.” Arsinoë continued. 

Cleopatra shook her head. She couldn’t believe how defeated her sister was. The words were like hot coals in her eyes, stinging and burning. 

“I will never allow someone to use me like Ptolemy and Pothinus did you. They used you against me, sister against sister. Woman against woman. That is not the way.” Cleopatra scolded back.

“And yet, here you are….” Arsinoë said almost interrupting Cleopatra. “What will become of me?” She wondered. 

“You know what I have to do, don’t you?” Cleopatra said after a brief moment of silence and tears.

Arsinoë looked at her sister, the newly crowned queen of Egypt who was now standing up in front of her. The writing was on the wall, Cleopatra handed the basket of figs to Princess Arsinoë. 

“Eat from this basket and sleep. Tomorrow, you will be in paradise.” Cleopatra said wiping her face and stepping out of the cell. 

The stone slab closed behind Cleopatra who grabbed Simoné’s hands tightly.

“Take me from here, I cannot bare to hear her screams.”

Inside potent poisoned figs lay in the basket staring up at Arsinoë. Her face covered in black stains from her eyes her mouth trembling. She reached for one fig, and peeled the skin back. It was either die in her sleep from the poison which she knew was in the figs, or wait for the rats in the cell to eat her alive, bit by bit. She took a bite and instantly felt the burning of poison go down her throat and into her stomach. Her lips went numb. Her eyes watered. She then grabbed another fig and ate it too. Two figs to make sure she didn’t wake up when the sun rose. Arsinoë began to feel the effects of the poison scratch down into her body like the claws of a jaguar. The pain began to rip at her insides. She screamed in pain, and her sister’s name then fainted on floor. Never to wake again.

Only the sound of the foaming poison seeping out of her nose and mouth remained. 
The second part of Cleopatra’s clear path to unrivaled rule was now gone.

VIII.

Three months that followed Arsinoë’s forced suicide, there was great progress in the land of the Nile. The people were happy, the nation was beginning to see a sort of resurgence of unity and peace. Cleopatra had encouraged more expression and education within her people and a large national library was built in the center of Alexandria. A place Cleopatra loved with all hear heart. It was a library filled with scrolls that told the history of Egpyt and connected the past to the present. It was one of her most sacred possessions in all her kingdom. 

Cleopatra had also began to pay back the debt her father had incurred to Rome, but there was still much to repay and the clock was ticking on when Rome would come calling for it's dues. Cleopatra's strategy to gain access to the Roman's and win their favor through Caesar had worked this far but had now turned to returning a promise she had given Caesar the night he left Alexandria. She needed to meet the Roman senate-face-to-face and hopefully build a relationship with them too that would eventually end the debts she inherited. IT was the only way she could continue her progress. 



A large crowed of Roman citizens gathered on docks of the Tiber River in Rome as news had spread around the capital that the newly crowned Queen of Egypt would set foot in the city to be presented to the Roman Senate by Caesar himself, the man who had seemingly brokered her rise to power and the fall of her “mad” younger brother Ptolemy. 

Those in Caesar’s orbit weren’t too keen on the Egyptian Queen’s arrival and had doubts about her true motives. It seemed Cleopatra’s reputation had proceeded her and she had much to do to clean up what rumors and gossip had already started. 

At his villa, Caesar and his wife Calpurnia dressed him in his finest golden armors for Cleopatra’s stately arrival. Calpurnia, always the dutiful wife, arranged his armor neatly on her husband’s body. She tied the straps of his sandals and shined the golden eagle across his chest.

“Brighter than the sun.” She said with a smile looking at the eagle glistening in the room’s light. 

Caesar smiled and kissed her cheek and turned to tie on his belt and dagger.

“What is she like?” Calpurnia asked out of the blue.

“Cleopatra?” Caesar asked even though he fully knew who his wife was talking about. “She’s an interesting figure. Beguiling to be honest.” He continued.

“Beguiling!” Calpurnia repeated, surprised at his word choice.

“She has had a lot of back and forth with her family and still she’s been able to control it all. She’s a force of nature, really.” Caesar beamed.

“You seem to have gotten along well. Do you think I’ll meet here while she’s here?” Calpurnia said putting her arms around Caesar’s neck.

Caesar hesitated.

“I’ll see what I can do.” He said removing Calpurnia’s arms.

The gesture and Caesar’s cold reactions to Calpurnia turned her stomach. She had not known what had happened in Egypt but she was a woman whose intuition was more powerful that even she really understood. As Caesar continued to prepare himself for Cleopatra’s entrance into Rome and her subsequent introduction to the Senate, his general and heir Augustus entered the room with General Rufio. 

“Hail Caesar!” they said in unison.

“Enter, enter! Where’s Mark Antony?” Caesar said asking his men to enter.

“With the soldiers at the docs awaiting the Egyptian delegation. We haven’t been told which of the new Queen’s ambassadors we are to meet there and bring up to the palace, however. Mark Antony said he’d await whomever emerged and bring them here.” Augustus explained.

“There will be no ambassador. The Queen herself is coming.” 

The men looked at each other confused. 

“The queen Caesar?” Rufio asked. “I was unaware she would actually be coming herself.” He added feeling like Caesar had misled him, Rufio, who was in Alexandria with Caesar was left out of that little part of the plan.

“That’s right. She’ll be her shorty I assume and ready to be introduced to the Senate.” Caesar said with a smile as Calpurnia gulped in embarrassment behind him.

“Has there been preparations set up for …her majesty?” Augustus asked forcing himself to properly address Cleopatra as a head of state.

“We haven’t…” Calpurnia said before being interrupted by her husband.

“Augustus, please. Don’t worry about any of that. Cleopatra will be set up in her own Villa just near here. Now what news do you bring me of the eastern states of the empire?” 

Caesar said brushing off Augustus’ question on Cleopatra and sitting himself at the head of a table.

Augustus let out a sigh of frustration.

“Caesar, I have to interject before we move on, the situation in Egypt has yet to be explained to any of us. The Senate will implore us to tell them our actions there and I feel that we should have the annexation all planned out and explained to win their favor. I do wish we could have had more time.” Augustus stated in a surprising change of nervous attitude as he sat next to Caesar at the table.

“There will be no annexation. Queen Cleopatra has stated that now as the only ruler of Egypt with claim to the throne she will pledge allegiance to me and to all of Rome and repay the debt owed, an annexation was not necessary.” Caesars explained to a shocked room.

“Caesar, I beg your pardon, but that was not what the Senate is expecting, nor was that our intentions before you left for Egypt. How could this have occurred?” Augustus said clearly in the dark. 

“You did not see or experience the insanity that is going on in Egypt at this very moment. The unrest in their civil wars have caused the nation to split, one side for Ptolemy and the other for Cleopatra. Now that she is the only ruler, and there are no more takers, the nation will heal its civil rift and finally get back on it’s feet. Cleopatra is a born leader, I can see it in her.” Caesar explained.

“And what of Princess Arsinoë? I assume she still has claim to the throne.” Rufio asked.

“I received word just a day ago, that the princess was arrested in the plot against me with her brother and while imprisoned committed suicide.” Caesar explained.

“Suicide!!” Augustus scoffed in disbelief. 

“I trust then Queen at her word, you should too Augustus.” Caesar warned to Calpurnia’s continued announce and discomfort with all things Cleopatra. 

“You’ve had many deep conversations with her then?” Augustus said to room that was beginning to feel heavy. 

Caesar’s brow furrowed and he looked over at the shamed Calpurnia. The air in the room, still thick plumes of uneasiness began to ripen with tension. Caesar’s hands balled up into fists as they lay across the cold table top.

“The Queen and I discussed many topics, topics that concerned matters of state. What questions are these?” Caesar asked as Augustus started to sense the annoyance coming from the head of the table.

“Forgive me Caesar, I was only trying to put this puzzle back together in my own mind, I meant nothing by…” Augusts said as General Ezros entered the room.
“Hail Caesar!” he said to the room. “The barge is headed towards Rome, we have eyes on them now.” 

“Well, it’s time to meet our newest ally.” Caesar said as he lifted himself up and patted Rufio on the back and grabbed Calpurnia’s hand to leave the room.

As Caesar, a bewildered Calpurnia and Ezros left the room, Rufio and Augustus lagged behind in a cluster of whispers.

“What is the meaning of all this, you went with him to Rome, what happened? The members of the senate are not expecting an introduction to this whore queen. They’ll want an explanation why we haven’t taken over completely. Go on! Tell me!” A concerned Augustus asked Rufio.

“It was odd to say the least. She was smuggled into the palace the first night we were there wrapped in a rug to see Caesar himself. She stayed the night with him at one point. Then her brother, the king tried to threaten Caesar and Caesar had him locked away. The next day she was crowned queen.” Rufio explained.

“She …. she stayed the night?” Augustus asked in confusion and concern, but Rufio only nodded his head.  “The senate must be warned of this beforehand. Find Cassius and Brutus, make them aware of what you know before Caesar arrives in the Senate.” Augustus said leaving Rufio to his job. 


Rome was alight with anticipation. There was gossip and stories of what was about to happen in front of their very eyes. The Queen of Egypt was about to enter the gates of Rome under a cloud of intrigue, excitement and suspicion, and there was no one more intrigued than Mark Antony who took it upon himself to await Cleopatra as her barge came in. And did it come in!

From a crowd of on-lookers, Mark Antony quietly hid himself away as 5 large barges came strolling in on the river from the sea. The front barges carried cargo, strange cases of things that were to be gifts from the Nile nation to give to the Roman people. The final barge then peeked out from behind another it was much larger and much more elaborate. 

As the 5th and final barge came closer, the crowd could tell this must be the barge carrying Queen Cleopatra. The people began to cheer and squeeze closer to the edge of the bank of the Tiber river pushing and shoving Mark Antony who was just as entranced as they were.
The final barge was enormous, golden, sparkling in the sun. It had ornate golden images on either side depicting Cleopatra as the goddess Isis, the pyramids of Giza and the Sphynx with giant lion paws that seemed to reach on forever. The Ship carrying the queen was one of the most opulent things Mark Antony had ever seen. It was remarkable, like a jewel that shined so bright it blinded him.  

Suddenly a tiny figure of a person stood up at the top of the barge and looked down on the crowd. It was her. Her thick black hair pulled in the Roman breeze. She gave one small wave and a wink to the audience and the crowd went wild, then she went below again to prepare for her entrance. Mark Antony smirked, she was a true entertainer then tightened his armor around his waist to dash over to the official designated area for Caesar and his generals to receive the queen of Egypt.  

At the same time the spectacle was about to commence. General Rufio was visiting with Senators Cassius and Brutus to discuss what he had seen, what he had heard and what he knew about the interesting and potentially dangerous relationship Caesar had with the entering queen. 

Cassius and Brutus had at one time been Caesar’s closest allies in the senate but in the last few months their relationship with the leader of Rome had become strained. Caesar’s interjection in the civil war between the Egyptian royal siblings Ptolemy and Cleopatra made them uncomfortable even if the out-come of it all would give Rome riches beyond their wildest dreams. Now it seemed their leader had been placed under a spell and the sorceress was about to enter the gates of the city at free will. 

 Each senator felt uneasy, there was a gnawing at the pit of their stomachs. What Caesar was doing, mixing power and pleasure with this woman, a woman that none of them trusted could topple the empire. It was a risk, they decided after the information from Rufio, they were not willing to take.  

The crowds were continued to swell around the entrance to Rome where everyone eagerly awaited her majesty Queen Cleopatra. Mark Antony made it just in time to meet Caesar who was standing on the steps of the great temple with his entourage. 

“You’re late!” Caesar said of Mark Antony who bowed his head in apology. 

“Forgive me.” Antony answered as he turned to his wife Octavia, who was seated behind the men with her mother Julia and Calpurnia, and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“It’s starting.” One of the generals said off to the side as the giant gates the held in the city opened wide for a sight the entire Empire would never forget.

Like a magic show, a giant puff of blue smoke went into the air at the opening of the gates. Suddenly 6 dancers dressed as golden falcons burst from inside the cloud of smoke and began to dance a rhythmic style dancing flapping their wings as if they were about to take flight. Then from behind 10 more dancers wearing golden costumes with black wigs that were made of black beads came through doing a completely different dance with veils and long sheer bits of cloth to the sounds of the musicians that walked alongside them playing pipes, banging drums and plucking harps. Then the parade shifted to giant walking golden trees and men dressed as giant walking giraffes and elephants, and rhinos, all depicting the graces and beauty of the African Sahara to the delight of the Romans. 

After the animals came 12 thick men dressed in gold and white carrying long sticks with a padded white cloth ball on the end. They also carried small bundles around their waist that they dipped their stick into and then like dragons they breathed on to it fire, flames that lit the air around them while female dancers covered in lavender veils circled them gyrating to the beat of the drums and music that was swirling in the air. 

The elaborate introduction continued as 20 marchers carrying banners that depicted many of the names of Egyptian gods and goddesses clasped on to giant golden poles with golden eagles crowning each pole began to march into the roman square, trumpeters followed them, and more dancers dressed in all white, carrying river lily’s that they threw into the audience. 

Finally, the climax. Twenty strong men dressed as pharaohs began to pull a giant pyramid shaped wooden barge into the square, wheeling it past the screaming audience. On top were 8 beautiful ladies with large golden banners on poles shading a specific area of the wooden pyramid. 

As the wooden pyramid came close to it’s final resting place, the music suddenly stopped.  
Caesar’s face was lit like a million suns. Mark Antony’s eyes were riveted squarely on the images he was seeing. The whole of Rome fell silent awaiting it’s the next big reveal.
Then it came, new trumpeters burst out from under the pyramid and sounded their horns. The golden banners from the 8 women were pulled upward revealing golden sphynx. The women holding the banners quickly, one by one, pulled open small doors built into the sphynx revealing a golden clad, queen, crowned as the goddess Isis, It was Cleopatra. Serene, regal and with an emotionless expression to show her power. She was otherworldly and exotic to the Roman people who were gobsmacked, she seemed like an alien to the romans but intoxicating none the less. 

The 20 men pulling the barge began to walk and the other dancers and performers moved to the side as Cleopatra made her way into the center of Rome to a screaming of crowd and at the end of the route, a man that changed her life and another that would upend her life like never before. 

IX.

The intense excitement of the crowd was overwhelming. The people were chanting Cleopatra’s name as bits of gold leaf fell from the top of the giant mobile pyramid came to a rest at the end of the path that lead to the steps of the temple where the senate would meet. Cleopatra was helped down a carefully crafted staircase inside of the sphynx. When she emerged she was guarded by her closest confidants, Apollodorus and Simoné, who were dressed in the crispest, whitest of clothes. The three Egyptians were then met by Caesar, Mark Antony, Rufio, Ezros, and a slew of eager Roman senators. 

The group was then escorted up the long staircase that lead into the senate temple, leaving the crowd screaming in happiness. In that crowd Caesar’s wife Calpurnia, Mark Antony’s wife Octavia, and Octavia’s mother Julia stood the end of the steps looking at each other in a frozen stupor of what they just saw: the most powerful men in Rome falling over themselves to get the first glimpse of the exotic queen of the Nile. 

“She is beautiful.” Octavia uttered.

“Beauty is only a mask worn by someone hiding an inferior personality.” The older more jaded Julia bristled to the surprise of the other two women.

“They say she’s staying in one of Caesar’s villas.” Octavia retorted, trying to sense the temperature of the conversation with Calpurnia who just saw her husband rush off with another woman. 

“What does she want? What does she want with Rome?” Calpurnia asked almost rhetorically to herself out loud.

“She isn’t looking to Rome for anything other than an alliance, I heard. That is what Caesar can offer her isn’t it? Imagine being in her position she has to constantly look out for the next trap set for her.” Octavia answered.

“Alliance?” Calpurnia scoffed, feeling there was more to it than that.

“She is a creature of ambition. One that will stop at nothing until she gets what she wants. I’ve seen the kind before. Men will fall before her true desire reveals itself. Mark my words” Julia said cryptically.

“Why would you say that mother, please!” Octavia said in embarrassment. 

“Julia is right, Cleopatra has already proven this Octavia. She can be a formidable manipulator. I heard she killed her brother, or had him killed. And now she’s here, rustling up an ‘alliance’ for herself and her country just waiting to get her hands something more tangible. No, Julia is right, there’s something I just don’t trust. So, tell me whom exactly should be safe from whom?” Calpurnia said.

“I don’t see her as someone who …well, I just hope we can all figure out where her place is before, or if, something should happen to anyone.” Octavia responded, attempting to keep the positive in the air. 

“Calpurnia, as you can imagine, being married so young my daughter often times forgets that there is more out here in the real world that wants to hurt you than wants to help you. It’s a childlike fantasy, isn’t it?” Julia said condescendingly about Octavio. “Cleopatra needs to be watched.” Julia added.

“Watched? Look around you Julia, she’s the most watched woman in Rome. No one alive hasn’t set their eyes on her. How many more eyes do we need on her to know her true motivation here?” Calpurnia answered frustrated with everything and everyone around her. 

“Perhaps she’s just trying to find her place here.” Octavia said innocently. 

Calpurnia turned to her friend and took a breath then responded. “Is she? I can show her her place? It at the bottom of the Nile.” 

“I have to agree. I can only see disaster with this woman here. She does not belong…again, I would not trust a thing she has to say.” Julia continued to offer.

Caesar’s wife’s facial expression was marked with deep concern and mistrust. Everything she had seen so far was all a show; smoke and mirrors, and everyone had fallen for it including her own husband; a man she saw as cunning, and precise in his judgement.  

“Calpurnia, whatever you think or whatever you’re feeling remember this is all just a matter of work and duty. As soon as the senate understands Cleopatra stance with Rome they’ll figure out some kind of formal treaty between our two nations and send her on her way back to Alexandria on the boat she floated in on. You don’t have to worry yourself.” Octavia said trying to comfort her mistrusting friend.

“Forgive my daughter,” Julia said hugging Octavia at the side. “She believes the sun always burns hottest in a clear sky, but forgets it’s scold when covered by clouds, Cleopatra is a cloud over Rome and she will scorch the path she travels on.” Julia added. 

“I am not one to bring dishonor on any other woman, especially a queen of royal blood, but this one has something deep inside her that I feel …it does not sit right in my heart. I know it.” Calpurnia said as she motioned for her ladies in waiting. 

On Calpurnia’s departure Julia and Octavia were left at the bottom of the Senate staircase among the rest of the celebratory crowd. Octavia’s hissed at her mother’s behavior and the things she said about Cleopatra, clearly trying to manipulate the situation. 
“You should have used more discretion, mother, she’s obviously distressed over this visit.” Octavia said.

“I know.” Julia said with a smirk.

“Then why would you say those awful things about Cleopatra if you knew it would make Calpurnia uncomfortable? Just to incite something in her?” Octavia asked.

“My darling, you are the wife and sister of the two heirs to Caesar, and I am the mother and mother-in-law to those same heirs…. whatever happens to Caesar from here on out is only good for our family and trust me, it will not be good for Caesar. He has made his bed...rather he has made Cleopatra’s.” Julia said as she took her daughter’s hand and walked off into the distance away from the senate building.



Inside the grand meeting room of the Temple where the Senate would meet and deliberate, the noise was of high pitched laughing, arguing could be heard. The men discussed various topics of interest but most of all ogling Cleopatra who seated on a golden throne next to Creaser himself. 

Cleopatra’s introduction went as well as her grand entrance into Rome. Cleopatra had them all eating in the palm of her hand, except for Brutus and Cassius who had earlier heard from General Rufio of Caesar’s elicit exploits with the queen while he was in Egypt. The rest of the evening the two men did all they could to spread the word of the cavorting Caesar and his mistress queen so much so that this scandal finally seemed to pierce Caesar’s popular bubble with his senators. Whispers began to sift through the senate floor like smoke from a torch while Cleopatra mingled and met anyone who’d be brave enough to step close and gaze into her mysterious amber eyes, but those eyes, beneath the makeup and the golden crowns were fixated on someone else, someone who was burning holes in her just as hot from across the room. 

“You’re making an impression.” Caesar whispered to Cleopatra noticing Mark Antony’s watchful eye.

“Who is he?” She asked motioning towards Antony.

“Mark Antony. One of the great men of Rome, and one of my heirs. You’ll get to know him soon enough.” Caesar said. 

“Great? How is he great?” Cleopatra asked.

“What do you mean how?” Caesar asked not understanding.

“A man must have done something revolutionary in his life to make him great, does he not? Or do you Romans bestow this type of title on just anyone. I assume, you do. So, tell me, what has Mark Antony done?” Cleopatra demanded.

Caesar seemed entertained by the question. He sat back on his matching throne next to Cleopatra and put his finger over lip in thought, and just before he answered he changed his mind and stood up. 

“Antony!” Caesar called.

“Hail Caesar!” Antony replied from across the noisy meeting room that soon hushed.

“Her majesty has asked me a poignant question. A question who’s answer I feel should represent any man in this senate. I described you as great. What do you believe makes you great?” Caesar asked.

“Sir?” Antony asked confused.

“Go on, tell us, tell the room, what is it about you that makes you a great man?” Caesar challenged.

Antony thought for a moment then: “My love for this empire, My loyalty to you and my love for Rome. I will defend it and defend anyone who’s honor deserves it.” 

“Anyone?” Cleopatra responded to a hushed surprised audience.

“Anyone.” Antony replied to a pleased Cleopatra. 

The younger and much more handsome Antony was like a sparkling diamond within the group of older statesmen. To Cleopatra he was beaming directly into her mind like she had not ever seen. His muscular arms and olive skin seemed to be created by an artist who designed him to perfection. His hair in wavy dark-brown curls that touched the tops of his ears. His eyes an emerald green that could be seen from across the room. She felt goose bumps all over her body when he spoke but tried to hide her attraction from Caesar who was sitting right next to her. 

There was indeed something about this new, younger man, he was like a vision of Caesar’s younger ghost. It was almost how Cleopatra imagined Caesar 35 years younger, her own age. True, she cared for Caesar and they shared a very passionate time months ago in Alexandria, but with him she found protection and an alliance. The luster of their tryst had faded in a way and was now purely something she used to solidify her right to rule. 

With Antony she felt a new attraction that was almost carnal and spiritual.   

Cleopatra stood up from the golden throne she was given while the senators began to speak again and excused herself without ever taking her eyes off Mark Antony. Her gaze beginning to enrapture him too, like a scorched arrow directed at his heart.

Caesar kissed her hand, and gave instructions for his savants to take Cleopatra and her entourage to one of his villas then excused himself back to his own villa leaving the senators alone in the meeting room to mingle.

Brutus and Cassius whispered and pointed to what had just occurred, the strange adoration of their leader for this foreign queen.

“Caesar seems to have lost all regard for Rome. He’s completely under the control of this…of this being!” Brutus stated to a few other senators in the corner of the temple.

“She’s put him under for sure. Maybe it’s some kind of Egyptian witch craft. How can he continue to lead if he’s not thinking correctly, he’s acting like a boy in love. Should he be allowed to continue to rule in this fashion?” A Senator said.

“What he does, what he orders, in her favor, can be catastrophic to the empire. How long did he wait from his return to Rome after the truth of Pompey’s murder was revealed? What took him so long?” Cassius questioned with a conspiracy theory. “I agree he cannot be allowed to continue to lead, not this way.” He added.

“That display of ridiculousness out there…preposterous. If we annex Egypt like we had all planned months before all of this making it one of our most eastern provinces, we won’t have to put up with any Cleopatra’s pomp and circumstance. Reimbursement of funds given to her father is what we seek, not a show!” Brutus said angrily. 

“How do we convince Caesar of this?” A fourth senator asked.

“We cannot over-rule him. We’d have to remove him. Only the emperor can decide on invading a nation and annexing.” Cassius explained.

Brutus looked at the men and slowly removed a dagger from the inside of his belt. He showed it to them, the light shined down from one of the fires lighting the room. 

“There is only one way. And if you’re all with me, Caesar will be removed. Once and for all.” Brutus explained.

“What are you saying?!” The third senator asked in shock.

“With Caesar out of the way, Augusts and Mark Antony will take up rule. Augusts, will roll over Antony quickly. Augusts is on our side. He’ll do what we need him to do to crush Cleopatra in any way shape or fashion. It’s the only way.” Cassius said.

“Enough of his vanity wars. Enough of his opulent living while his empty promises to make this empire the biggest and most powerful the world has ever seen. Once he’s gone we can make all of that a reality, for us and for Rome!”  Brutus said while two more senators joined the conversation. 

The tide had turned. Caesar’s men were beginning to conspire against him. They saw him now as someone who was working for his own desires and not for the good of Rome. A woman had placed herself as his equal and in their eyes was tearing down the very fabric of their way of life. This, was something they would not allow. They could see the end of his power over them, they could see it and they could taste it. The next few days would escalate quickly. It was now only a matter of time before the storm would break within the walls of Rome and the survivors would be tested to their limits. 

X.

Like a moth to a flame, Antony made his way to Cleopatra’s secluded villa in Rome after her introduction to the senate. The guards pulled open the large iron front gates and he entered through a willowy garden courtyard with only the sound of the trickling water from a center fountain speaking its unique language to the willows above. 

Inside Egyptian guards watched as the strong and handsome Antony made his way through the marble hallways of the villa, a villa that Antony knew very well. It used to be Caesar before he took control and moved into the grand palace. It was, in fact, the villa that Mark Antony once called home and where he grew up under Caesar’s watchful eye as a child.  

As he came to the threshold of a wide door, he could hear movement inside. He pulled on the golden door handle and walked in. In a large steamy bath riddled with rose petals and oils lay Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. Mark Antony averted his eyes.

“There’s no need to feel awkward.” Cleopatra said washing her body with the rose and oil. 
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were undressed.” Antony said.

“Come in.” She said as she stood in the water and a handmaiden placed a white robe around her body that still had rose petals sticking to her wet skin. Cleopatra then slithered her way to a sofa where she sat down and had wine and water poured into glasses.

“What is it that you’ve come here for?” She asked coyly. “I’m assuming it is on Caesar’s behalf.” She added.

“Actually, I’ve come on my own. The truth is, and forgive me for being so forward but, I want to know what exactly your intentions are here in Rome. Why have you come, and what has Caesar promised you?” Mark Antony said assertively to Cleopatra’s surprise. His suspicions were as real as anyone else’s in Rome after all.

“As the new queen, I’ve come to Rome to pay respects to an empire that has given my nation so much over these last 8 months, also, I’m here to honor an alliance I swore by when Caesar came to Alexandria. It's an alliance we need if we want to survive.” Cleopatra answered just as assertive back.

“An alliance? Is your alliance with Rome or with just Caesar himself?” Antony asked.

Cleopatra felt the line of questioning was beginning to switch to the more personal, she sensed it like a snake smelling its prey in the dark. Antony had his own plans in mind. He was carefully wording his questions, painting a picture for her that told her he wanted something but Caesar might be in his way.

“Aren’t they one in the same? Caesar is Rome as I am Egypt. You can correct me if I’m wrong, but we all want one thing: autonomy. You see, the Romans have taken control of so much land in and around the Mediterranean, taking what they will, converting those who live there, changing money and language as if the people’s right to who they are means nothing. I want Egypt to mean something, even with Rome involved. I will do everything in my power to make sure Egypt stays the way it should, it’s a nation without Roman influence.” Cleopatra said planting the seed.

Mark Antony tilted his head in thought as she slowly picked rose petals off her arm. 

“At times, you’re correct. And at times you are not. What I want from you, is a promise, a pledge that Egypt will turn over the money your father owed to the empire. It’s a debt that needs to be repaid.” Antony said, speaking on terms the senate had been wanting Cesar to speak on for months.

“Is that all!” She joked.  “Of course, it will be repaid. And what of what I said? Autonomy? Can Caesar promise me that?” Cleopatra asked as she poured wine for Antony. 

“I cannot speak for him, the Senate would have to give you that.” He answered.

“You know we might have more in common than you imagine.” She added.

“How so?” 

“I can see that you’re someone of honor. You’re here, on behalf of your leader, strong, passionate. You have the sense of righteousness about you. I can relate to that. I can also relate to the fact that other’s have often spoken for me, even when I was saying the words myself, but you see, I learned quickly that the words that come out of my mouth should be beholden to what I believe in, not someone else. What do you believe in?” She asked handing him the wine, her body still wet from the bath.

“Are you in search of always being righteous and true? That can be a dangerous game. Not everyone sees you as that, especially here in Rome. As for me, I pledged my honor to Caesar and to this senate. I plan on keeping those pledges.” He said, knowing of the rumors that she had killed her brother and her sister. 

“I do what is best for Egypt. First and foremost." She replied.

"Egypt is you, and you are Egypt." Antony replied smartly, using her own words.

She smirked noting his sly catch.

"My people are my main concern and will be forever. No matter what you’ve heard.” She answered with a wink.

“My people were impressed by your spectacle this afternoon. You must have known that would go over well.” Antony said sipping from the wine.

“My intention was for a good introduction, I hope it worked.” She answered.

“They found it fascinating.” He said.

“And how did you find it…. Antony?” She asked back quickly a beguiling smirk at the corners of her red lips peeking through. 

Antony could feel her gaze on him, deep and connected. She did not move one inch or bat one eye. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. She then leaned, a rose petal that was stuck to her neck from the bath had dried and fell to table, Antony’s eyes followed it.

“Well?” she quizzed. 

“I did. It was fascinating. You are…. fascinating.” he said nervously. 

She smiled and picked up the petal from the table and began to play with it in her hands. 

“Rome is a beautiful place, I do enjoy it but there’s nothing like Alexandria. You must come see it some time, you’re more than welcome.” Cleopatra said still playing with the petal.
He smiled back and stood up. “Thank you, But I should go.” He said.

“So soon? Are you hungry? I could have someone bring something for us. Fruit? More wine?” She said as she too stood up, the robe slipping from her shoulder.

“I should go.” he answered. 

He turned to say good bye and she was directly behind him. He could feel the heat from her body that had escalating from the warm bath, her hair slick and wet dripping down her body. She was a woman who knew what she wanted but also understood the powers of what she desired. He had come there for a reason, he had come there to iron out things for the senate, so he said, but there was an animalistic aura around both of them that they could not deny. It was carnal, it was in their blood. Cleopatra would not resist whatever it was pulling her towards him no matter what she had promised Caesar. 

She stepped closer, the servants all noticing, and feeling awkward quietly leaving the room.

“What are you?” She whispered as she got even closer to his body. “You’re a statesman? A soldier? You are…’great’.” She said speaking with the word Caesar said of him. “What are you?” She repeated. 

“I am Caesar’s closest confidant.” He said in a breathy voice, face to face with Cleopatra.

“You are loyal.” Cleopatra answered. 

He looked at her in the eyes, she was looking up at him, waiting for him to say something but he did not, the attraction was mutual and they could no longer fight their urges, he grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her passionately on the lips removing her robe then picking up her slippery body and laying her down on one of the sofa’s. The bodies interlocked. Their minds escaping all reality for those moments. This was more than just an alliance Cleopatra needed to survive. This seemed to be love at first sight.  


The morning sun burned through the clouds quickly. It had been three weeks since Cleopatra’s introduction to Rome and her first encounter with Mark Antony; still there was no answer as to what she would truly offer to the empire without being under full control of them. The Roman senate was still deliberating and awaiting Caesar's final decision on what to make of Egypt and it's queen. 

Cleopatra's desire for autonomy was something the senate wasn't favoring but it was what Caesar had promised the woman who stole his heart. Caesar had to go to the senate to act on behalf of their alliance, and it was no telling how that would turn out. 



At her villa Caesar arrived at dawn, Mark Antony was there too, what Caesar hadn’t known was that he had been spending his nights there for weeks. The two exchanged pleasantries and followed each other out to the sunny courtyard where Cleopatra was being entertained by dancing roman children and music.

“Ah! Your majesty! Thank you for seeing me this morning.” Caesar said as he walked out with Mark Antony and kissed her on both cheeks.

“Good morning Caesar…. Antony.” She said nodding to her other lover.

“I’ve just come to inform you of today’s events later this evening at the Senate meeting, but perhaps Antony has already done so?” Caesar asked thinking Antony had arrived earlier than he had.

“Uhh, Yes, he did. Somewhat, but please by all means, I’d like to hear it from you as well.” She said nervously. 

“Well then, later this evening the Senate will meet to discuss what to do about the debts your nation owes Rome. To find repayment, we can annex the nation and take over its coffers and make sure we are repaid …or…as you and I have devised, allow you to rule on your own and have you re-pay in other goods along the way. According to our personal alliance.” Caesar said grinning at Cleopatra like a cat eyeing its prey. 

“Very well, I hope that we can have this resolved soon so that I can be on my way back to Alexandria, awaiting this long endless discussion has made me home sick. I've been feeling out of sorts the last few days.” The queen said visibly uncomfortable with Antony and Caesar staring at her. 

"Are you not feeling well?" Caesar asked concerned.

"Just a little lightheaded, but it's fine, It'll pass." She answered, looking at Mark Antony who hadn't known she was ill.

The guilt of her secret affair with Antony had began to settle in, the stress was unbareable. She had thought it would have been easy to face Caesar and that perhaps he would even understand that she was in love with Antony but something in Caesar’s voice, something in his face told her that he was keen on keeping their own love affair going even after months of not being able to be together the way they were when he first met her. 

Even so, Cleopatra's alliance with Caesar was as solid as she wished.

“Antony, would you please leave her majesty and I to speak alone, thank you.” Caesar asked of Mark Antony who reluctantly bowed his head and ushered all the children into the villa from the courtyard.

“What is it?” Caesar asked cold tone of voice once everyone was inside.

“I don’t understand.” She said coyly.

“You’re different. You’re behaving differently. I know I have not seen you in a few days, maybe even a week or so, but I am Caesar! I have other things to do then entertain a young queen. I have been lobbying senators on your behalf since your arrival, and when I come to pay you a visit, you act strangely and distant. So, what is it?” 

Cleopatra’s heart sank deeper. She couldn’t tell him, she couldn’t openly say she had fallen in love with his heir Mark Antony over the the past weeks she had been in Rome, it would destroy everything. Caesar would be humiliated by both his mistress and his younger protégé. 

 All that Cleopatra had gone through to get to this point would have been for nothing if Caesar were to discover the truth, it would all be over for the Egyptian queen. The Senate would be allowed to turn Egypt into a province of Rome and her hold on power would be extinguished. 

Cleopatra had to return to the game she had played since the beginning. She smiled at him and put her hands around his neck then kissed his lips. They looked at each other in the eyes, her exotic beauty was no match for his suspicions.

“I miss home. I miss my palace. I miss my bed. Please, don’t be angry with me.” She said smiling and rubbing the tip of her nose on his. 

“Aren’t you comfortable here?” He asked now feeling sorry for her.

“Of course, but Caesar, I not queen of ‘Caesar’s Roman Villa’, I am Queen of Egypt. That is where I belong. The sooner everything is settled here I can return home and begin to get return money Rome is owed. Wouldn’t the please your senate?” She answered.
He smiled and kissed her neck. 

“Alright." He answered seeming pleased with her excuse.  "Once things are settled with the senate tonight I will send for Mark Antony to bring you to me. We’ll celebrate together.” Caesar said as he quickly dashed off into the villa and went on his way to his own palace. 

Cleopatra was left in the courtyard alone, her hair flowing in the quite breeze while the fountain continued to trickle and sing. From inside Antony had seen the whole thing. They looked at each other, he inside and she still standing in the sunny courtyard. She felt the awful feeling of guilt again. But it had to be done. Caesar could not know their secret. 

Mark Antony need to prepare himself for the senate meeting too. He smiled sweetly at her and let her know he’d return as soon as the meeting was over. Cleopatra returned the smile and he quickly left the villa feeling deflated at seeing Cleopatra and Caesar kiss but still very much in love. 

"Your majesty?" Simoné said coming on to the terrace once the men left. "You seem flush." She continued.

"I hold many terrible truths inside that I have not expressed." Cleopatra explained.

Simoné grabbed the queen's hand and placed it on her heart. Cleopatra could feel the thumping every beat and pump of blood her hand began to heat up. Cleopatra's eyes began to water. Simoné was more than just Cleopatra's friend and secret assassin. She was a mystical woman with unexplained powers. 

Cleopatra's touch on Simoné's heart told a story. Simoné removed Cleopatra's hand from her chest, the palm print leaving a white mark on her mocha skin. 

Simoné looked her queen in the eye and confirmed: "You're with child." 

XI.

Later that evening, Rome was filled with more anticipation, Caesar would meet with the senate this to discuss his actions in Egypt, in which, they all expected him to announce Egypt’s annexation as a part of the Roman Empire. But things were very different in Caesar’s mind. The Queen of Egypt had successfully propositioned him to keep her in place as Queen and had promised her loyalty to his dictatorship. It could prove to be a perfect union, or it could prove to be a disaster. 

Cleopatra’s power over men, although proving to be dangerous and more work than she bargained for, was still her secret weapon, on both Caesar and Mark Antony. 

At Caesar’s palace, Calpurnia had an uneasy feeling since the day Cleopatra came in to Rome under the golden pomp and circumstance. Earlier that evening, as the sun set, Calpurnia drifted into a sleep that would do all but unravel her nerves. Her head filled with terrors, her mind filled with visions of things she could not be unseen. A murder. Blood curdling screams. Violence and stained robes. There was arguing in her dreams and a struggle. The flashing shine of a blade. Caesar’s bloody face. She awoke in a cold sweat and looked around her bedroom. Caesar was in the changing room to prepare for his meeting with the senate. She quickly got out of bed, and ran down the hall barefoot in a panic to catch him.

Calpurnia found Caesar standing in a brightly fire-lit room with his arms extended out allowing a few servants to dress him in his golden armor garbs. She stood back, her heart beating out of her chest with the remnants of her night terrors slowly creeping back into her mind. 

“Caesar.” She said softly.

He turned around and smiled. “Yes?” He said. 

“Please, listen to me. I think you should stay here, stay home and do not leave today for the senate. I don’t feel well.” Calpurnia pleaded.

“You’re ill? What’s the matter?” Caesar said walking away from the servants who were dressing him.

“I had a dream, a nightmare and I don’t feel well about today. Promise me you’ll stay home today.” She explained.

“A dream? So you’re not sick? You just had a bad dream?” He said putting his hands on her shoulders and looking deep into her eyes. 

She looked back at him, his face had aged, she thought, but he was still the handsome man she loved so much. She could see in his eyes concern and confusion about what she was saying but she knew in her heart that there was something in the air. Evil.

“It was a dream about you and about what might happen tonight. Whatever you do, do not go there. Do you promise?” Calpurnia pleaded.

“Now, Calpurnia, I have to go. This is an important event. Whatever you dreamt I’m sure meant nothing. Dreams have these strange ways of allowing us to bring what we fear most into reality when the reality is it’s all just a meaningless dream. Nothing more.” Caesar explained.

“But my dream was horrible, they were going to…” Calpurnia began to reveal.

“The other night I dreamed that I was a falcon flying over all of the empire. Does that mean I’m going to suddenly sprout wings and fly? Calpurnia, you’ve been very stressed. You’ve been tired. You’ve had a lot to worry about, no thanks to me, why don’t you just rest yourself some more. Go on…take the rest of the night and just rest.” Caesar said dismissing his pleading wife. 

“You want me to just ignore something that has terrified me? Everything I say or do recently you just brush aside. Would you behave the same way if I were Cleopatra? You seem to do and abide by everything the queen desires. Should I place a golden crown upon my head so that you’d listen to me?” She yelled back.

“Calpurnia….” Caesar began speaking being cut off. 

“That is not the way I want to be treated. I want you to listen to me and I want you to listen to me now!” She said stomping her foot. 

This got Caesar’s attention and he turned back around and bowed his head to his wife, the mother of his children who was so blatantly starved for his attention.

“Go on then.” He said softly and sat down on a sofa facing her devoting all of his attention to her.

“Tonight, in the senate, in my dream …” She said, “I saw violence and I saw blood. I saw your face and I saw blood. It was like a storm of anger or some kind of murderous brawl. Caesar, someone means to kill you. I can feel it in the depths of my soul. Do not go to the senate tonight.” Calpurnia warned.

Caesar’s face turned somber. Calpurnia had often had these types of premonition dreams but they had never been this serious and often never came true. The ones that did come true could mostly be chalked-up to coincidence. This one, detailed as it was, seemed farfetched, even for her, however he took her words into consideration. He walked over up and grabbed her close.

“I will take extra precautions at the senate, I promise, but I must go.” Caesar said kissing her on the cheek. He moved her aside and as she followed him down the hall way in shock of his dismissal of her tears began to fall from her eyes. She knew it in her heart, this would be the last conversation she would ever have with her husband. 




That night the senate meeting on the future of Egypt went on as planned. Caesar arrived at the Senate to a round of applause. He walked up the front steps and shook hands and chatted with a few of the men who came to see him. A crowd began to surround him and slowly close in. The men in charge of keeping Caesar safe began to feel overwhelmed by the crushing senators. Then someone spoke out of tern. 
Brutus.

“So tell us good Caesar, your plans for the annexation of Egypt. We’ve been awaiting this for some time, and being that the Queen herself is still here in Rome, we’ve been expecting the announcement for over two weeks.” Brutus said placing the trap. 

“YES! Tell us of Egypt!” Another senator said from behind.

“Go on!” a third man hollered. 

“My good men, as you know, Egypt’s loyalty to Rome is paramount to it’s existence and the arbitration I have been in charge of since the death of Cleopatra and Ptolemy’s father has ended. I have decided that Egypt will not be annexed to Rome, but will remain as its own sovereign state. Queen Cleopatra has pledged her loyalty to Rome and I am confident in that pledge.”

“That is not what we were promised. The goods of Egypt were to benefit Rome. That is what you said Caesar, that is what you promised.” Cassius spoke from the crowd.

“And they will be.” Smiled Caesar.

“How, through your so-called truce and alliance with the Queen? A woman we know very little about and a woman you yourself have mentioned in the past as a traitor to her own father?” Cassius added.

Caesar’s expression turned serious. What was he hearing? This was a dissent that felt strange to him. This debate, a debate he had anticipated had the makings of something much more sinister, a debate that he did not feel he should be challenged on. He was dictator. He made the law.

“Senator Cassius sounds a bit frustrated with the way things are going. What say you Brutus?” Caesar asked the other Senator who he felt would stand by him.

“I believe Caesar has fallen on his will to rule. This was not what we were promised.” Brutus said, the crowed now getting tighter around the dictator.

Caesar began to feel cornered. Something was off, something wasn’t right. It was like the walls were coming in on him and there were whispers and angry faces, faces filled with expressions of seething evil and twisted truths. Caesar stepped back off the step and forget he was on stairs and tripped. He quickly stood back up and the wall of Senators had tightened around him even more. He was now locked in a circle of angry men who were out for more than just his place for Cleopatra’s Egypt.

Over the heads of the Roman senate, at the very top of the steps he saw the door way to the temple where he expected to meet Augustus and Mark Antony, they had not yet emerged. 

“This is not the way….” Caesar said but quickly cut himself off when he was distracted by what he thought was a flash of bright light near the waist of one of the senators. 

Like when light hits a blade.

“You’ve betrayed Rome.” Brutus growled.

Caesar was confused. What did they know? What did they believe? 
But the writing was on the wall. The Senators had heard enough of Caesar’s empty promises forced him to go back on his word, and in their eyes put Rome in a dangerous place.

The crowd of Roman senators closed in continuing to argue their points of view with powerless Caesar. They were furious. They were confused at his sudden change of heart. Cassius then signaled Brutus. It was time strike!

Up in the temple, Mark Antony and Augustus were kept busy as to not intervene. Yet they both continued to keep their eyes open for Caesar, they had expected him to arrive but he had yet to come in. 

“I don’t see him. Where is he? He’s never this late.” Antony asked Augusts who began to feel uneasy.

“I haven’t seen him either.” Augustus replied feeling that the rumors he had heard from other senators perhaps was coming true now that Caesar was suspiciously absent. 

From deep inside his robe Brutus removed a dagger. Cassius did too. Then another senator, then another senator. The arguing and debating carried on and one by one the senators plunged their daggers into Caesar’s back, slicing through his robes and deep into his skin.
Caesar’s eyes locked on Brutus, his lips parted as if to say something to him as he fell backwards on the steps of the Senate. He reached for Brutus as he fell backwards but only grabbed on to a Brutus’ golden medallion, snapping its cord in the fall.

As the crowd disbursed, the commotion outside filled into the Senate hall. Screams of people describing the blood shed of what had just occurred. Mark Antony was shocked and quickly ran out of the temple followed by a not-so-surprised Augustus. 

 When Antony and Augustus finally appeared at the top of the steps and exited the Senate building they saw a river of blood and a body in the center of the steps.  They rushed down together to the fallen dictator. Augustus lay on the body, not believing that his fellow men would commit this crime and clamored to plug all the wounds. Antony screamed at the audience in tears demanding to know what happened. His questions fell on def ears. 
No one said anything. 

All they could do was watch as a river of blood flowed from Caesar’s body and trickled down each step like out like the mouth of a river into the sea. 

Caesar’s eyes began to go blank and all he could hear were footsteps and shouts all around him. It began to grow cold, his skin, his body…then the fog of silence and death came soon after.

Caesar was no more.  

XII.

The chaos and shock of Caesar’s association had begun to spread like wild fire throughout the capital. Inside her villa Cleopatra waited for word, she had heard nothing. She had stayed at the villa with her entourage as was requested of her until she was summoned. The summons never came.

Then one of Cleopatra’s maidens came into the room and looked worried. She bowed and came over to Cleopatra who was sitting on a large plush sofa. The maid put her head on Cleopatra’s leg.

“What is it?” She asked the maiden as she played with her hair.

“Simoné, she’s having one of her visions.” The maiden said.

Simoné often had dreams that turned out to be premonitions. Her mind was like a vortex, powerful and mysterious. Most of her premonitions were positive and often painted whatever situation in a good light, but there were those varied dark dreams that terrified her, and when Cleopatra would hear of them would send Simoné to one of the high Priests to remove the dark energy from her mind, thus bringing back the light energy that Cleopatra desperately craved to be constantly be surrounded by. 

“Where is she now?” Cleopatra asked worried.

The maid only pointed to a door that lead Cleopatra to Simoné.

Cleopatra, dressed in a craped white and gold dress, slowly pushed open the door her maiden pointed out to her. The room was filled with the strong sent and smoke of sandalwood incense. The room was dark, except for the small flames from the burning incense. 

“Simoné…wake up! Wake up!!” Cleopatra said rushing into the room and shaking Simoné’s body.

Simoné came to, and looked around the room as if she had no idea where she was, when she finally came to, she grabbed both sides of Cleopatra’s face and began to cry.

“What did you see?” Cleopatra asked, anticipating the worst. “Tell me girl, what did you see!”

“A river of blood. It poured out of many wounds from the body of a king.” Simoné said unaware of what had just happened at the Senate. 

“Wounds? Who is this king?” Cleopatra asked.

“All I could see was an eagle. A golden eagle drenched in blood.” Simoné said mentioning Caesar’s symbol.

Cleopatra got up slowly from the floor in the dark room where Simoné slept. Her face was serious and expressionless. She walked backwards out of the room, her face still stern and full of fear. Could the bloody eagle be Caesar? Was Caesar dead? 

Suddenly Mark Antony burst into the room rushing towards Cleopatra.

“Antony!!!” She screamed as she jumped into his arms. “What has happened? There is something dark in this villa and it is haunting the dreams of one of my ladies. Why is she dreaming of blood?” Cleopatra said petrified of the answer.

“Caesar was assassinated at the Senate.” He said with a pale face. “There are rumors of a conspiracy against him because of his alliance with you, senators were angry. The conspirators have gone on the run now. But it’s not safe Cleopatra!” she said in a rushed tone of voice. 

“Did you—did you know this was going to happen?” The queen asked, her face a reflection of horror from what she had just heard.

“What! Of course not!” Antony said, but Cleopatra now was terrified and had no idea who to trust. 

“She said there was blood. Lots and lots of blood. A king covered in blood.” Cleopatra, her body frozen in shock, her mind void of all thoughts except what Simoné had just described in her dream. 

The walls began to feel as if they were closing in on Cleopatra. The one man she felt she could use to stay protected in all her endeavors was now dead. Now what of her. 

“You should go. GO!” She screamed at Mark Antony as she wiped away tears and prepared to make her next move now that Caesar was dead.

“I came to help you.” He said softly.

“What?” Cleopatra asked confused turning back to him.

“We have to make sure you are kept safe, what happened at the Senate shows the tide is turning. And you are not safe.” Antony explained to a shocked Cleopatra.

“What must I do? Who will lead Rome??” she questioned, a small glimpse of panic in her voice trying to perhaps appeal to the newest leader of the empire.

“I told you…his nephew Augustus and myself are Caesar’s heirs; his empire will be split between us now. I can keep you safe, but I don’t see Augustus doing the same. He’ll align himself with the more influential Senators, who see you as an ultimate threat.” Mark Antony explained.

“Why would you do this for me?” She questioned in all sincerity. “After everything you saw today with Cesar and I, after everything you know of me, why?” 

“None of that matters. None of that.” He said as she stroked her hair.

“There was an alliance, I was willing to sign a truce with Rome and things were to be better. This cannot be happening, it cannot!” She said, her mind racing, her grief switching to anger as she turned from Antony and slammed her fist into a table.  “What is Caesar to them if he’s dead?” she added.

“This must have been planned for some time. It seemed too calculating, rehearsed almost. Cleopatra, I must remind you, you are not safe in Rome now. Whatever autonomy you want for yourself and your nation will not come easy after this, there will most likely be no treaty. What Caesar promised you will not be.” He said in an urgent tone of voice.

“And you? You said you were one of Caesar’s heirs, can’t you do something now that he is gone?” She said panicking for a way out of this dilemma.  

“Cleopatra, there is no time for this, we have to make sure you are kept out of harm’s way. How many soldiers do you have with you?” Antony asked.

“Sixty.” She replied. “Antony….I never wanted this to happen, never. Caesar and I, we…he…I cared for him but…” she paused.

“But what?” he said again in a rushed voice.

“It wasn’t meant to be, do you understand? I think it’s you. I think you are the one I was to meet. You are the answer to everything!” She said looking in his eyes. 

He smiled at her and grabbed her by the arms and kissed her passionately. It was something sudden, something inside that did not die with the events of the evening, they were in love and although evil had shown it’s face that night, they were not going to deter their feelings for each other. This was the path they were meant to follow.

“Have your guards stay with you until I can get you all out before the sun goes up, we’ll have…” Mark Antony began to say before he was interrupted by Apollodorus, Cleopatra’s personal bodyguard and confidant.

“Your majesty, just down the road…Calpurnia comes.” He said notifying her of the approaching widow. 

Cleopatra looked at Mark Antony who had no idea what to do next. Calpurnia had just lost her husband hours before and was on her to see Cleopatra, but for what? 

As the new angry widow entered the villa things began to take new shape, she was no longer the woman behind the man; she was the widow of a man who had bedded another Queen. It made no difference to Calpurnia, a bed was a bed was a bed, no matter what political attachments it had. To Calpurnia, Cleopatra had Caesar murdered by proxy, she blamed the Egyptian queen pure and simple and she wanted her to see the pain and anger in her eyes. Face. To. Face. 

Calpurnia entered the villa with 4 Roman soldiers and 4 handmaidens all following her in at a quick pace heading towards the room Cleopatra and Antony were in.
“Quickly!” Cleopatra said ushering Antony outside to hide in the shadowy courtyard, just seconds after Calpurnia entered. 

Cleopatra turned slowly to the door, meeting Calpurnia’s burning blue eyes. 

There was a second of shock and silence in the room that seemed like it went on for hours. The two women in a face-off of sorts. Wife meeting mistress. Calpurnia, her eyes puffy from crying stepped down in the lowered main room of the villa, her soldiers and handmaidens standing behind. Cleopatra stood tall and held her breath. 

“I am very sad and horrified to hear the news of your husband, the great Julius Caesar.” Cleopatra said as she bowed her head towards Calpurnia. 

“He’s my husband now? I thought he was your lover, then my husband in that order. How kind of you to relinquish him back to me now that he’s dead.” Calpurnia said to a stunned Cleopatra.

“I don’t know what you….” Cleopatra began before Calpurnia interrupted.

“Innocence does nothing for you Cleopatra, I know you more than you think I do. It doesn’t take a person of great mind to know what you are made of; someone only looking out for herself at the risk of endangering others, no matter the cost. My husband was just another stepping stone in your quest for, well, whatever it is you’re in search of. Power? Riches? Men? I hope you find it. I hope whatever it is you need this badly that you come in and destroy things for your own personal gain makes it all worth it, including my husband. Because of you he was murdered on the steps of the Senate!” Calpurnia scolded.

Cleopatra, lifted an eye brow, this was not going to be a regular conversation of pleasantries between two women no matter the dirty situation, it was all out on the surface and Cleopatra was not going to allow herself to be demonized, it didn’t matter how true or false Calpurnia was speaking.

“Have you ever worked for something that you were groomed for, just to see it all slip away because of the gender you were born with? Have you? Have you ever been removed from your family or from your world just because men, in your own family, see you as a threat to their own existence only on the basis that you exist too? Calpurnia, you must understand the root of all of my passions. You are a woman. You and I have the same powers and the same weaknesses, but only because men give them to us and not because we earn them on our own merit. What I’ve done in my life is because I don’t believe in that. I want to follow my own destiny, not because a man says I can, but because I say I can. I love a man too, I understand the power of that emotion, but I also know that I am destined to be something larger and greater …my nation believes in me and I intend of delivering this belief to reality.” Cleopatra responded as she stepped closer to Calpurnia fully confident in her position in the room.

Calpurnia stayed silent at first. She was full of anger but the only words that she could muster were a soft: “You loved my husband?”

Cleopatra took a breath and saw the sorrow building in Calpurnia’s eyes. “He was kind, and I cared for him, but he is not the man I am in love with.”

“You sit here and tell me all of this after the man I did love is dead? You may be a queen but you have the heart of something else.” Calpurnia bristled turning her head slightly to the opened terrace door. There she saw just the small edge of a foot hidden behind a pillar. Odd to her at first, but then she thought perhaps it was one of Cleopatra’s many bodyguards.

 “You mistake me for someone who wishes ill on others, I never have. Everything I have had to do was to serve a greater purpose. My own destiny. My connection to Caesar was real and true, but it was formed on one of these necessities. The bond was over mutual respect, understanding, and purpose. If that is a form of love, then yes, I can say I too did love him, in that form.” Cleopatra explained to an unfazed and burning with emotion Calpurnia. 

“You should not have loved him in ANY form!” Calpurnia yelled. “I will have you removed from Rome at once. You are no longer welcome in this city. They are already fortifying and collecting men to build an army to take over your country as they wanted all along, and what Caesar had promised them. Antony and Augusts have already been named his heirs and will rule the empire together…they will do the senate’s bidding. I suggest you leave now before they behead you before the entire city.” Calpurnia warned.

“Egypt will not fall to anyone’s threats, not even yours. Caesar and I had an agreement. The senate should keep his word to me.” Cleopatra stated to an annoyed widow Calpurnia.
“Leave.” Calpurnia growled as she began to turn away to leave but then a face peeped from behind the pillar on the terrace that was attached to the foot she believed was one of Cleopatra’s bodyguards. It was Mark Antony clearly hiding from her. 

“As you wish.” Cleopatra said allowing the widow to vent her anger out. 

“By the way, Antony is married too, I know that’s something of an aphrodisiac to you, your majesty.” Calpurnia said loudly so Antony would hear and with a sarcastic grin. Calpurnia’s mind quickly jumped to a new conclusion that surely, fate had offered.

“Calpurnia…” Cleopatra said as Caesar’s widow was about to leave. “I never meant for any of this to happen. Please believe me.” 

 “They will destroy you Cleopatra. They will make sure you do not survive. This I can promise you, because I will see to it. So, leave Rome, leave tonight and take every last thing that will remind this empire you ever existed.” Calpurnia said as she turned and stormed off with her entourage feeling she had said enough.

Leaving Cleopatra alone in the villa, Mark Antony came out of his hiding spot and rushed over to Cleopatra’s waiting arms. They hugged and kissed despite the news Calpurnia dropped of his marriage. Cleopatra spoke of a man she loved, and Mark Antony was it. She loved him, her heart beat just for him. It was like they were connected from the beginning no matter who else came and went in these last few months, they were meant to be. But the danger of it all was still present.

“She’s right. The senate will do everything in their power to make sure that they get what they want and what they want is Egypt being incorporated into the Roman empire…and you out of power.” Antony confirmed.

“Can’t you stop them?” Cleopatra asked.

“The decisions must be agreed upon by both Augustus and myself, and he will not vote against the senate. He knows too well their treachery. We must get you out of Rome before it’s too late.” Mark Antony warned. 

“You must come with me. The minute they realize you helped me it you won’t be safe for you as well. Please, you must come with me!” Cleopatra begged.

“But there’s so much I must do here. I can’t ….” Mark Antony began before Cleopatra interrupted.

“Mark Antony, they will kill you. They will do what they did to Caesar in possibly a worse way. I cannot allow that to happen and live my life knowing and dreaming of what could have been. If you do not come back to Alexandria with me, I will refuse to leave Rome and take on whatever comes my way.” Cleopatra said putting her foot down.

Mark Antony realized there was no stopping her. She was a woman of her word, if he did not go with her to Egypt she would surely stay and that would be the end of their lives, and the end of whatever dreams they had of being together. Antony agreed to leave and Cleopatra summoned Apollodorus and Simoné to gather her things and prepare her barge for the four-hour trip across the Mediterranean to Egypt’s capital, Alexandria.  


The seas were rough and angry. There was an aroma of fear and chaos in the air in Rome as Mark Antony quickly got Cleopatra onto her giant barges before anyone had noticed her gone from the Villa. The servants gathered the queen's belongings as she was rushed down into below one of her barges and placed in a secure room Apollodorus stood guard at the door.

"Where is he? Why is he taking so long?" Cleopatra asked as she waited for Mark Antony to board.

As she waited she felt the barge began to move and disembark from the dock. She jumped to her feet and pushed past Aplollodorus who quickly ran after her.

The barge was moving from the dock and quickly out to see.

"STOP! STOP!!!" Cleopatra screamed as she came up from below the barge. "We're leaving without Mark Antony, Apollodorus I order you to turn this ship around." 

Apollodorus did nothing.

"Are you listening? We cannot leave Mark Antony!" Cleopatra screamed as the boat slowly drifted away, Mark Antony still standing at the docs.

Cleopatra began to scream and rushed over to the side of the ship, Apollodorus grabbed her before just at the edge. She screamed and reached for her lover who simply lifted his hand to her.

"He has asked us to go ahead your majesty. Please! Stay calm!" Apollodorus explained.

"Antony!!!" Cleopatra screamed as tears fell from her eyes. 




At Caesar’s palace, Calpurnia arrived to a busy room filled with Generals talking about their next step now that the empire’s territories had been split half according to Caesar’s will. The western empire would go to Augustus, and the East (which included Egypt) to Mark Antony.  There were whispers too, many Generals wondering what the fall out of Caesar’s murder would mean for the empire as a whole but mostly about where Mark Antony was, as he was now the co-ruler with Augustus, but only Augustus was in the room.

Calpurnia quietly made her way around the group of arguing men and finally saw Augustus sitting with a stone face not knowing what to do next. He was out of sorts, confused and unsure of his position and suspicious of the men around him. A young leader now thrust into the position of making decisions without Caesar’s input or Mark Antony’s help.
Calpurnia sensed his ill-at-ease body language. 

“It’s times like these we see who are real men and who are just boys in armor.” She said to him.

“I am sorry for your loss Calpurnia. After your daughter’s death, I am sure this is just another dagger in your heart.” Augustus consoled while the generals argued on what to do about the Egyptian queen and her nation. 

“It stings every time I breath, and worse to discover Mark Antony’s deception and his collusion and conspiracy with that savage Cleopatra.” Calpurnia replied.

“Collusion.? Conspiracy??” Augustus questioned now fully attentive. 

“It's true! They conspired together Augustus, this was all their doing, to anger the senate so much that they’d not only take power from Caesar after he’d gone against the senate but then also have him killed and take power from you too. They’re fleeing back to Egypt as I speak, together like thieves in the night. This was all their doing.” Calpurnia said smoldering in her words.

“Together? They’re together?” Augustus asked, his voice raised loud quieting the surrounding generals.

“I was at her villa. I saw him there with own two eyes…hiding in the courtyard as she and I spoke.” Calpurnia confessed. 

“What is this of Cleopatra and Antony I hear?” General Rufio asked overhearing the conversation.

“The honorable Calpurnia has given me news of Mark Antony. He is currently leaving Rome with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. It seems the moment he was bequeathed half of the Empire to co-rule alongside me in Caesar’s death, meant that he had received what he and she wanted. They’re fleeing with whatever morsel of power and empire they have.” Augustus answered to a listening audience. 

“That can’t be. Mark Antony was loyal to Caesar and to this empire, he wouldn’t just give all that up! Caesar Raised him after all!” Rufio said to an agreeing group of generals.

“Give it up? The Eastern part of the Empire is his! It’s been given to him in Caesar’s death. This is what they wanted! To rule half of the Roman Empire which now will include the fruitful and riches of Egypt. Together!” Calpurnia answered.

“No!” One general said in shock.

“It can’t be!” said another. 

“This is high-treason Calpurnia, what proof have you?” Rufio questioned.

“As I just said to Augustus, I went to see Cleopatra myself. And he was there. They were there, together, as seemingly husband and wife. They were already planning to leave Rome. It’s all done.” Calpurnia said adding to the story.

“Then it’s settled. Men, gather all the soldiers we have in Rome and call for all of those in the surrounding areas to come prepared. Rome will enter Egypt by morning and take back what is ours. This wicked Queen will no long place spells on the men of Rome and she will finally taste the blood of war on her own door step.” Augustus said to a rushing crowd of Roman soldiers. 

Rufio stood in shock of the news of Mark Antony’s defection, but agreed. Cleopatra has sunken her claws into another Roman leader, and it seemed it was one too many. 
For her part, Calpurnia had planted the seed of revenge for all the pain Caesar had caused with Cleopatra.

Calpurnia left and went into a side room where the other women were waiting. She entered and Julia and Mark Antony’s wife Octavia were there too. Octavia’s face burned with anger and she quickly stepped into Calpurnia’s path.

“Octavia!” Julia called to her daughter-in-law as she chased her.
The two women stared at each other in the room. Everyone was silent. Octavia lifted her hand and slapped Calpurnia across the face.

“You’ve sentence Antony. YOU’VE SENTENCE ANTONY!!!” Octavia screamed.

“You’ve lost everything, and your anger is with me? Where is your husband!” Calpurnia yelled back noting Mark Antony had left to Egypt with another woman.

“This was not the way.” Julia said to Calpurnia holding Octavia’s arms down from behind.

“It was the only way; my husband is dead. May yours find a way out of this tangled web far better.” Calpurnia said pushing past Julia and Octavia who was now crying in Julia’s arms and over to her ladies in waiting to convene on the state funeral for Caesar. 

XIII.

In a secret Villa by the sea hidden away in obscure Roman village long after Cleopatra's midnight escape from Rome, Mark Antony paced back and forth. His mind was in constant state of worry.  He and his wife and a few of their personal servants had been in hiding, as he and Augustus built an army to soon face off.  

But Antony was plagued by doubt of his own actions. Had he made the right decision? Would he be able to keep control over the eastern part of the empire now that Caesar was dead? 

He knew that in the several months since Caesar death, the split of the empire and Cleopatra's escape, Augustus had already placed his army near the western border of Egypt to invade. If Antony wanted to protect his portion of the empire, that included Egypt, something had to be done and Augustus would try and use Antony's hand in Cleopatra's escape to Egypt against him. 

All he had was a small ration of Roman soldiers and the weakened Egyptian forces across the sea to protect his hold. The uncertainty was overwhelming.

“You’re worried.” Octavia,  his wife said entering the back of the room. 

“I’m concerned. It's been months and we haven't seen any action from Augustus. I know him, and I know what he can do, this is a very serious situation.” Antony said.

Octavia walked over to him and out her hands around his neck and kissed him. He did not reciprocate. She felt the awkward sting of his rebuff. There was more to Antony's worry than the waiting of what Augusts would do next, she could see it in his eyes. It had been months since Cleopatra left, and all he could do was plot and scheme and wonder about her. It was all too much for him, and it was now all becoming too much for Octavia.

"Tell me something, tell me why she's so important to you?" Octavia asked point blank.

"What?" Mark Antony asked, surprised by her questioning.

"We haven't even seen the woman or uttered her name in months since she left in under the cover of darkness yet all you do is think of her in secret. Do not act like you don't, because I can tell. I see it in your eyes. What hold has she over you?" Octavia asked emotionally.

"I cannot answer that." Mark Antony replied. 

"She has come between you and Rome, you and Caesar, will you let her come between you and I?" Octavia asked again.

"It is more than that, there are so many facets to this entire ordeal that I cannot truly explain to you for you to understand." Antony said.

Octavia sat and buried her face in her hands. She cried and finally realized her mother Julia was right. Cleopatra had a hold over Caesar and now she had a hold over Antony that not even months of apart could erode. 

"What ever you do, just remember I loved you. Go to her. Go to Alexandria and protect your side of this empire. Go." Octavia said.

It was as if the flood gates had opened. Her blessing, albeit painful and tearful, was what he needed to step up and take back what was his. She knew that. And when Octavia lifted her head from her tear stained hands, Antony was gone.

XIV.

It had been months since Cleopatra had seen Mark Antony. Her nightmares were constantly the same every night. Her screaming on the deck of her barge while she watched him get smaller and smaller and further and further away. She was asleep  now, it had been a long night. 

Her bedroom was quiet and still. The wind blew in from the shores cooling the hot air. There was danger and horror on the horizon but still she slept. She was exhausted. A lady-in-waiting stood beside Cleopatra's bed busily fiddling with something in the corner next to a beautiful ornate sculptor of Cleopatra as the goddess Isis. The lady-in-waiting pulled away from her work for a second to reach for clean white linens and there, just below in matching perfectly woven golden baskets were two beautiful babies. A boy and a girl. They had been born in the months after her daring escape. They were the children of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.

The boy named: Alexandra Helios, his name that represented the sun.

The girl named: Selene, her name represented the moon.

As Cleopatra slept, her body still healing from childbirth, Simoné walked in quietly.

"Are they ready?" She whispered to the lady-in-waiting who nodded they were.

Simoné quickly picked up the two baskets that were woven together and slowly made her way out of the quiet room.

"Wait."Cleopatra whispered. "Bring them to me." She said.

Simoné complied. 

Cleopatra looked into the baskets and at her beautiful new born children. Their eyes glistened with brightness and joy. She kissed each one on the lips and smelled the tops of their heads one last time.

"Do not disappoint me." She said to Simoné who nodded.

Simoné quickly made her way through the palace and came to a secret passage door that lead her through another dark corridor. She slowly slipped through the halls, her blue cloak flapping  behind her then through an exit that lead her to a small waiting boat with two men and a woman inside. Simoné handed the woman the basket with the children. 

"The Goddess Isis protect you and these children from now until forever. They are of royal blood. Keep them safe." 

The group in the boat looked around and agreed. Then as if they had never been there rowed into the distance down the Nile river never to be seen again. 

               XV.

More ships came to the Alexandrian shore. More soldiers dropped from those ships. Were they friends or were they foes? The soldiers all marched up the main streets of Alexandra, stoic and powerful, never once batting an eye to those in the streets. The people of the city were already petrified that Augustus was on his way into Egypt from the west and invade. Was this the invasion they were expecting.

The marching of Roman soldiers, a few hundred, went all the way up to the palace where Cleopatra came out in a beautiful ruby red gown, a glittering crown on her head that made her look like a living breathing sphinx and her closets and most trusted servants Apollodorus and Simoné. 

"Now what is this?" Cleopatra said as more of her own soldiers came out of the palace to stand guard. 

As the soldiers got close, the man leading them on a horseback came up in front and jumped off. The man threw the reins over to a soldier and walked over, thick with power, mighty arms and a chest that seemed to be made of solid granite. Cleopatra walked forward.

"Your majesty!" Apollodorus said in a panic as she slipped through his grasp.

As the Roman soldier and Cleopatra made their way to each other in the center of a large opening in the center of palace walls, he removed his helmet revealing Mark Antony. He had made is safely to Alexandria and brought soldiers to protect the border from Augustus' impeding invasion. 

Cleopatra's eyes filled with elation, and she jumped into his happy laughing arms. 

"You came!!! You came to me!!" She screamed.

Inside the palace after Mark Antony was given a proper meal by the servants and bath by his lover Cleopatra, the reality of all that was happening began to set in. War was coming and there was no saying what would happen in the next few days.

"I'm glad to see you're well. I have thought of you over and over since you left me 7 months ago." Mark Antony said kissing Cleopatra's lips.

"It's been almost 9." She corrected.

"But who's counting." he joked.

"I have been expecting to see Roman soldiers take over the shores of my city or marching through the desert for months and months, but I must admit, I was expecting to see Augustus arrive here before you." Cleopatra said as she played with Antony's hair.

"He's buying his time. The wars in west have taken a lot of men from him. His army has been slowly building. No mistake, he is on his way." He said.

 “This is your empire too. With Caesar's death you were handed the east. Why would Augustus want to stop you from having what is rightfully yours?" Cleopatra asked innocently.

"Augustus is young, but he has the mind of Caesar. They were connected in that way. Both ruthless and both keen to make sure what was taken from them is returned no matter the cost. He believes that I had something to do with Caesar's death, and you are the reason I had did it." Antony answered getting up from the comfort's of Cleopatra's arms to stare out onto the sea.

"He wants you dead, and there's nothing you can do." She said coldly. "You cannot control all men." She said grimly, knowing that there was always a limit to her own powers.

“I control everything around me, there is nothing that I do not make decisions on.” Antony said brushing off Cleopatra’s assessment. 

“That’s what you think.” Cleopatra said again with another grin. “Men don’t always rule with their mind and are easily broken when they are tempted with the things they desire; it makes them want more, even when they know they shouldn’t. Like when a cat chases a mouse. The mouse is faster and more astute, the cat is all muscle and wants what it wants when it wants it.” She said.

“I always catch my mice!” Antony replied, their bodies burning next to each other.

Cleopatra smiled again knowing that he may see himself as the cat and she the mouse but she was the one who laid the bait, she was the trapper watching it all unfold around her. 
She pulled away from him just slightly and looked at him staring at her longingly despite his worry of what was to come. She knew that her path had brought her to this point, a point where she was the one and only ruling Queen of Egypt, a place she was born and bred for, but at a large price. Her family was gone, her lover was dead, her new lover was a man who’s conscious was weighing heavily on him causing her to doubt his strength in carrying out their future. 

For the first time, she was seeing a weakness and a cracking in him that could be detrimental to them both.  

“You don’t seem to believe in destiny, Antony. Everything we’ve done, everything we’ve thought has already been written for us in the book of life. We are but players in the drama that is our world, drones meant to follow the path that has already been laid out for us. There is no changing destiny; all we can do is allow it to happen and watch it unfold.” Cleopatra said in a philosopher’s tone.

“What are you saying, that we don’t have our own free will? That we cannot change the outcome of things?” Antony asked sounding a bit outraged that she believed life was controlled by destiny.

“What I’m saying is that whether you are allowed to rule this part of the empire or not, is not up to you. It’s already done. You must let the pieces of this story fall where they fall. I know where my place in history will be. A woman in my position will always be seen as the agitator, the harlot who’s come for the men and used herself to gain more power. That is, of course, because men try and alter things to their gain. It’s in their nature. I don’t try and change it, I try and flourish within it.” Cleopatra explained.  

“I can’t just allow people to do as they will and not fight back, I will not cower to any pressure from Augustus should he come on the shores of Alexandria with a million Roman soldiers. I thought that’s what you wanted, I thought you wanted to fight to keep yourself as Queen of Egypt.” Mark Antony questioned not seeing what Cleopatra was trying to say.

She smiled at him and put her hand on his cheek and lifted herself on her tip-toes to give him a kiss. Their eyes met, four sparkling falling stars. They were in a deep love, but on different levels. Cleopatra understood life on a metaphysical level. She understood how the world saw her and how history would be written about her no matter how much good she did in these moments she would always be seen as the whore who brought down Caesar. Her ambition would be seen as a negative, rather than if she were a man. Mark Antony on the other hand, saw things at face value which, for Cleopatra, would be a dangerous way to look at the world; she knew from experience that nothing is ever as it seems.

“Just trust in what you understand in your mind as the truth and not what you see and what you hear from things all around you. That will be your only salvation.” Cleopatra said after their kiss. “We can rule this part of the world together if you do, that is the only true way.” She added 

As they spoke intimately, a sudden burst came from the door to the room. It was Apollodorus and two other male servants in a rush to get to the queen. 

“What’s the meaning of this?” Cleopatra said turning to the commotion. 

“Your majesty, I beg forgiveness for the intrusion, but there is movement at the shore.” Apollodorus said.

“What do you mean?” She questioned. 

“Roman ships were seen from the lighthouse, they are coming this way.” One of the servants answered.

“Augustus.” Mark Anthony whispered. “Do you know how many?” Antony also asked.

“We were unable to count them all.” Apollodorus said to a worried Antony.

“It seems destiny is at our door step.” Mark Antony said to Cleopatra cynically. “I need to round up all the soldiers we can. Get me the names of the Egyptian generals and any remaining Roman guards who have served at the highest levels. Have them meet me on the main terrace where I can survey the situation and contemplate our move.” Antony continued quickly marching out of the room with the one of the servants leaving Cleopatra and Apollodorus alone.

“My people must not suffer.” Cleopatra said, her heart now icing over.

“There is much hunger in the streets. Most of the food was taken from our people and sent to Rome before we left.” Apollodorus answered.

“Open the royal vaults. Take everything you can and spread it among the people. Grains, fruits, anything that we have to spare, send it. They must not endure anymore of this, no matter what may happen today and the following days.” Cleopatra ordered. 

“Go on, you heard the queen!” Apollodorus said to the remaining male servant.

“It seems this will be the moment history marks my demise.” Cleopatra said to her faithful man servant.

“You believe that?” Apollodorus asked.

“It doesn’t matter what I believe, it matters what I do next.” She answered.

“Does it really matter what history says of you my queen? We all know the type of person you are. How caring you have been. That is what matters, does it not?” Apollodorus questioned.

She smiled and shook her head. “It should.” She replied feeling a bit of defeat. 

Cleopatra then walked off and went into a private room just off the side of the bedroom she was in. She sat down in a large area covered in draperies and pillows, then she was reminded of her sister Arsinoë and what she had to do to seize and protect her own power on the throne. It was a hurtful moment. Her eyes welling up with tears in the quiet room where she was alone. There was no sound. Just a small breeze filling the room and blowing the sheets and draperies. It was as if she could sense a washing of her misdeeds. A forgiveness coming in the form of the wind.  Then another favorite servant of Cleopatra’s and sometimes assassin Simoné entered in from a secret door just off to the side. 

“Your face is worn.” Simoné said bowing down at the feet of Cleopatra.

“There is much to worry over, even though I try not to.” Cleopatra said lifting Simoné from the ground.

“Do you have a plan?” Simoné asked.

“Yes, I think I do, and I will need you to carry it out for me in the event something dire should occur, you understand, don’t you?” Cleopatra asked of the agreeing Simoné.

Cleopatra reached over to a large table that had some withered paper and she grabbed a slice of charcoal. There she scrolled out a letter then she folded it and handed it to Simoné. 

“When the time comes, and you will know the time, give this letter to Mark Antony. This may only be seen by him.” Cleopatra said. 

Simoné took the folded paper and placed it inside of her shall, then left Cleopatra on her own in the private room to contemplate. 


The Roman ships were large, long and deadly. Alexandria wasn’t prepared for the siege. As the ships docked Roman soldiers quickly disembarked and flowed into the city streets blocking passages, moving citizens aside and making a B-Line for Cleopatra’s palace where the queen and Mark Antony were hold-up.

Augustus, leading the pack on horseback was caught in a conflict of interest. He was Antony’s closet friend and family as Antony was married to Augustus’ sister Octavia, but was also the rightful heir of the murdered Caesar. Augustus’ main objective was to remove Cleopatra from hear seat of power and take Egypt and all its riches for Rome as a Roman province; an act that would please the blood thirsty Roman senate. 

Antony, beguiled by the queen, was standing in his way. 

“Do you think we’ll make sense to him?” General Rufio asked Augustus as he tightened the reigns around the horse’s mouth.

“I can’t say for certain, but whatever this woman had over Caesar she now has over Mark Antony. She’s influenced him to make this choice, to come back here against our wishes. It’s time Antony falls back in line with the Roman way.” Augustus stated.

“Follow the men, they’ve been given orders to take these streets here that will lead you to the palace where Cleopatra is, that is probably where Antony has been as well.” Rufio explained using his familiarity of Alexandria during his time there with Caesar. 

Augustus nodded and pulled his horse and moved on, a concerning ghostly expression frozen on Rufio’ s face.

Augustus’ dilemma was grave: what would he do with his friend and brother-in-law once taken? Could he bare to have him killed? Was Antony’s execution necessary? Nevertheless, his hope was to avoid it all together and get Mark Antony back to Rome and allow him to rule the eastern part of the empire as he was entrusted to by Caesar’s Will. But if it came to it, if Antony would not leave Cleopatra’s side, his death warrant would be written, his conviction: Treason. 

As the soldiers marched one by one in long parallel lines directly from the ships flanked by others on horseback, a large group of Egyptian and rogue Roman soldiers lead by Antony stood on a hill top overlooking the invaders. 

“Steady….” Antony said to his men.

The sound of pulling and tightening rope echoed in the warm air. Large arrows with tips of poison raised high into the air awaiting word for deployment. The clock was ticking.

“Wait for them to reach closer…. wait, just wait.” Antony said his eyes targeting Augustus. 

“Careful now…. raise them high.” He ordered as his men raised up their arrows.

“Now!”

Then like rain the flying arrows came down on the Roman squad in the streets mixed in with the innocent citizens of Alexandria from above. The Battle had begun. 

The Roman soldier’s, as fast as they could, hollered to their fellow men to squat and lift their shields. The arrows fell like daggers into their shields with powerful thuds, some slicing into flesh, poking holes and spraying blood all over the street. As soon as the arrows hit their targets Mark Antony gave the word to pour down the hilltop above at the Romans and attack with all their might. 

“Leave no life!!!” He yelled, sword high above him pointed in the air.

The fight would be bloody as both Antony and Augustus swatted would-be attackers with their mighty arms, slicing and cutting their way through the thicket of bodies to get to each other. There was blood, broken arrows, sliced off limbs, pain and suffering all around. The Egyptian army, with their Roman rogue friends were outnumbered. More and more Roman soldiers spilled out from the docked ships overwhelming Mark Antony’s men. It was a blood bath, and Cleopatra watched it all high above her perch at the palace. She knew this too was destiny telling her the time was near and she would have to fight in her own way to remain the Queen of Egypt. 

Cleopatra calmly walked back to her main room where her official ministers were waiting for her with forms and papers to sign. She looked down at the papers and thanked them for coming.

“My people, your people, will remember this of you.” She said to her ministers as she slowly marked the forms with her approval.

“Your majesty,” one minister asked concerned, “how will we be sure that should the Romans concur, they will abide what we have here on these papers?” 

“They cannot allow our people to go hungry and to ruin the natural beauty of this city. I have marked here in this letter to whomever, that should Alexandria fall, they will not take from our people the necessities they deserve. But I have faith that our soldiers will prevail, so don’t worry. These forms are only a precaution.” Cleopatra said truly not knowing what the result of the battle would.

“Do you really believe if Alexandria falls Rome will comply?” A minster asked, his eyes dark with black coal.

“They may seem like animals now, tearing through the city, but in truth they are quite humane and I believe will abide by my will for my people.” Cleopatra answered, hoping her words would not come back to haunt her. 

The ministers smiled nervously and were ushered out to make sure the laws that were just signed would protect the Egyptian people from any kind of mongering and pillaging by would-be invaders. That the only changes and hardships they would suffer would be that their queen was no longer queen. It was a strange and selfless attempt by Cleopatra to keep her people free from as much oppression as she could knowing that the possibility of her destruction was eminent. 

Cleopatra walked around her personal apartments in a strange calming daze as a fierce battle raged outside and just below her palace walls. The man she loved was fighting for everything they had but she knew war, she knew it’s ramifications and she knew when to pick her battles. The Romans were here for blood, her blood and she only had a small window of time to make sure they never got it. She grabbed a basket full of figs and reached in and removed three. She then took the basket and brought it to a room where her handmaidens were resting. As Cleopatra walked in they all scattered and bowed in the presence of their queen. She looked around and found Simone sitting by a fountain playing in the water ripples with her back turned and had not seen Cleopatra enter. 

“Simoné.” Cleopatra said, her arm stretched out with the basket of figs.

“Your majesty?” Simoné asked, quickly standing up taking the basket of figs confused.

“Go down to the pits where we had Arsinoë and Ptolemy. There are asps there. I need one to be placed within this basket. In 30 minutes, I need you to take the letter I gave you to Mark Antony and then bring him and the basket back to my temple to Isis. Do you understand?” Cleopatra instructed.

Simoné said she did, and quickly made her way to the depths of the palace where deadly asp snake lurked in the dark dungeons. 

Simoné carefully stepped in the dark with only a torch lighting her face and her hair, searching, listening and hoping she would come across the asp Cleopatra needed. It was the same type of snake who’s venom was used to kill Arsinoë and Ptolemy. The request for this reptile in particular from Cleopatra was not at all strange, but the timing was. 

It did not take long. In the corner, hissing a fierce vile hiss, a golden asp with it’s mouth gaping. Simoné turned her torch to the hissing creature to blind it with the light of the fire and like a tiger on a gazelle quickly grabbed it by the back of the head and stuffed its twisting and coiling body quickly into the bottom of the basket of figs and covering it. She took a deep breath and wiped her brow. Her job was done. 

“What are you doing down here!?” Apollodorus asked after following her.

“The queen’s business it is nothing you need to concern yourself with.” Simoné responded.

“You’re in search of the asp, I know, but why? What is her plan for it this time?” Apollodorus questioned knowing Cleopatra’s history with the animal well.

“The queen has requested it of me and I have done the job, I do not ask her intentions and neither should you Apollodorus.” Simoné responded. 

“Are you that blind Simoné? Don’t you see what is afoot? She is planning on…” He said before Simoné interrupted.

“Enough…this is what she wants and this is what she has asked me to do, I will not go against her wishes. That isn’t our place, but if you try and stop me from bring back this basket to her, I cannot be held accountable to what happens to you.” Simoné said in a fierce hiss of her own.

Apollodorus knew what the assassin Simoné was capable of. She was able to sneak her ways around murdering men twice his size without ever touching the bodies, in a way she was much more effective at being a bodyguard to Cleopatra than he was. He took a deep breath and stood aside allowing Simoné to pass him. His eyes watered as he watched her go up the darkened path with the torch and the snake.

The battle between Augustus’ men and Antony’s men raged on. Death was on every corner. The dying lay bleeding and asking for mercy, mercy from another to take them out of their misery. Augustus advanced and saw the palace of Cleopatra on the horizon. It was now or never. He quickly whistled for his closest men to accompany him and they all obliged and quickly marched and went up the hill to her palace. 

The battle in the distance behind them was like a wild fire eating away and brush. Killing everything that moved, and as the wild fire of a battle continued, Antony too, saw the writing on the wall. Things were not going well for his men. They were dwindling. The fight was proving to be too much for them. 

Antony turned to see if there was a possibility to retreat and as he did saw the small group of men going up the hell towards the Palace where Cleopatra was. He saw Augustus. The rage in his eyes burned, he knew exactly what he had to do, there was no way he was going to allow Augustus to get to Cleopatra. 

He grabbed the reigns of his horse, and rode off, quick and fast, using his sword to cut through men like a man cutting through the thick vines of jungle. Faster and faster his horse ran trying to catch up and cut Augustus off at the pass, swishing and pushing by the fight as he went, finally reaching the bottom of the hill, and with his horse’s last ounce of power thrust up the hill and cut off Augustus, his horse lifting to legs and neighing a power and regal neigh halting Augusts and his men in their tracks. 

“Go no further!” Antony screamed at the Romans.

“Mark Antony, move aside, this is over! Look around you, there is no more Cleopatra, she has lost, you have lost! I am here to take back what Rome was promised and that is final.” Augustus shouted.

“There was no promise.” Antony spoke back atop his horse.

“You and I know that is not true, Cleopatra has done something to you to make you forget what we have always expected and what the Senate of Rome had always expected. Cleopatra must pay for what she has done. All this destruction was of her actions, please, I beg you, as a brother, remove yourself from her clutches and take me to her.” Augustus pleaded. 

“She has done nothing of the sort. Cleopatra has made me see what we are—invaders! We come to take land from people that do not wish to be conquered and do not wish to be used in this way. She is the ruler here.” Antony said. 

“Is that what she has made you believe? Then her sorcery is more powerful than even I had imagined. She set her sights on Caesar and took you both from your wives and now you believe that she can somehow take control of this nation and make it…. make it what?” Augustus asked cynically. 

“Your cynicism makes me sad for you, Augustus. You cannot see further that what you have been told is real. Perhaps that will be your undoing one day, but it will not be mine.” Antony answered.

“If that is my undoing, what is yours? Falling for the lies and the manipulation of a woman who’s’ greed outshines your own? You’re only here because of what Egypt has to offer you personally. Foolishly you don’t realize you would have had it either way had you not run away after they murdered Caesar.” Augustus said.

“I am no coward!” Antony screamed back.

“You are.” Augusts said pulling the reigns of his horse and lunging at Antony who quickly blocked Augustus bloody sword. 

The mettle of their two weapons sparked as they came in contact, they fought ferociously on horseback, but Augustus’ might was still more powerful and knocked Antony from his horse after a power blow. Antony, on the ground gasping for air after losing in in the fall was then surrounded by Augustus and his men. They noticed a small stain of blood from Antony’s mouth. He was not just knocked off his horse, Augustus’ sword had contact with his body and ripped through his armor piecing his flesh deep into the chest. 

“For you, a man of Rome, this was not the way you should have died. I will not do you the honor of allowing you to see me take your life. You will lay here, in the Egyptian dirt and die as the blood slowly makes you cold. Men, on your horses, to the palace!” Augustus said jumping back on his horse with his men. 

Antony lay in face down in the dirt, his breath puffing up mounds of dust. As he puffed he was startled by two hands reaching around his body and turning him over. Antony’s first reaction was to reach for his sword but then stopped when he noticed the face of Apollodorus, Cleopatra’s close servant. 

“I could not come any faster sir, I apologize.” Apollodorus said weeping from one eye as Antony lay dying.

“Cleopatra.” Antony said in a soft fading voice.

“We must go quickly. I am afraid for her and what she may do next.”  The large and strong Apollodorus said grabbing Mark Antony by one arm and hoisting his crumbling, bleeding body over his shoulder. 

XVI.

The palace was besieged by Roman soldiers ransacking everything around them that would lead them to clues of Cleopatra’s whereabouts. They pushed aside the weaker more passive Palace guards and shoved away maidens in waiting who were trying harder than that guards to protect what they saw as the queen’s property. Room by room these soldiers, headed by Augustus, searched for the missing queen, but she was nowhere to be found.

Augusts, Rufio and Ezros then entered the throne room. It was dark and empty with only one caldron of fire burning in the corner. Their shadows danced across the walls mixing with the Egyptian fresco painted on the wall depicting Cleopatra’s coronation. The golden statue of Isis loomed over them, the powerful and strong symbol of Cleopatra's absolute power. 

“The mouse may be faster than the cat, but the cat is hungry.” Augustus said looking up at the painted Cleopatra.

“Where could she be? We’ve searched everywhere.” Rufio questioned as he too stood and gazed up at the 10-foot-tall Isis statue. 

“This palace has secret passages and corridors all over it. My guess is that she escaped somehow and left on a barge.” Ezros interjected.

“No. She wouldn’t have left Antony. She’s somewhere close possibly plotting one last maneuver, unfortunately for her, she’s out of maneuvers, this is the end.” Augustus growled.

As the three Roman’s spoke, a small door at the back of the throne room opened. It was a secret door hidden in the corner of the room where two stone walls met. It was so deceptive and secretive that no one had even thought to look. The door opened and out walked Simoné cloaked in royal blue, Cleopatra’s letter to Mark Antony clutched in her hand. Her mission was to get the letter to Antony no matter what.

She removed her sandals from her feet as to not make noise behind the talking men across the room. She carefully tip-toed towards the main exit of the throne room. Inch by inch, her body tight and tense, any amount of noise would expose her. The sweat began to drip slowly down the side of her face. She pressed her royal blue clock up against the sweat drop so it would become absorbed, wiping it away. She was just feet away from the exit now, closer and closer, time was of the essence and she knew she had very little of it left, in fact she had no idea just how little. With just a few more feet to go before she was free to exit the throne room, Rufio turned around and saw her.

“You there! Stop!” He screamed removing his sword and dashing off to block Simoné’s path. 

Ezros and Augustus turned as well to see the slithering woman.

“Remove your vail and show us your face.” Rufio demanded, sword sternly pointed at her throat. 

Simoné did not move a muscle and clutched the letter close to her chest.
“Did you hear what I said? Remove the veil!” Rufio demanded.

Simoné’s eyes darted back and forth from Rufio and the approaching other two men, her sweat again began to drip down, slowly like a snail over rocks winding down the back of her neck.

She slid her foot forward testing the waters but the tip of Rufio’s sword slightly poked her cheek, not cutting it, but just enough that if she moved any closer she would be pierced in the face.

“What do you have there? Hand it over!!” Rufio yelled.

She did not.

“I said hand it over woman!” Rufio ordered as he reached for her arm and pulled it. Simoné struggled with Rufio as the other two approached. He pulled and finally over powered her by tossing her to the floor tearing the letter in half in the process.

“Read it.” Augustus ordered looking down at Simoné whose face was now revealed after the scuffle. 

Rufio put the two pieces of paper with Cleopatra’s handwriting together and read it to himself. He looked up at Augustus, eyes wide as saucers.

“It’s from Cleopatra…to Mark Antony." Rufio said as he read the note.

"What does it say?" Augustus asked.

Rufio's face turned ashen, his eyes did not blink. He was frozen and handed over the note to Augustus so that he could read it himself.

"What? Children?? They are children?" Augustus said shocked of Cleopatra's secret confession to Mark Antony.

"GET UP!" Rufio screamed at Simoné. "Where is your mistress?" He added

Simoné turned her face and tried to hold it in.
"Speak now and tell us, or I'll cut your eyes out where you stand." Augustus said, the note still trembling in his hand. 

Simoné was caught, she had no choice now. Death was inevitable.

"She’s hiding in the temple of Isis. She’s waiting for Antony.” She explained.

Augustus reached down and lifted Simoné to her feet with one hand and with the other grabbed her sandals and threw them at her. 

“Put these on, you’re taking us to the temple.” He told her.

“No.” she responded quickly.

“That was an order, I was not asking. Do you understand?” Augustus replied.
“I said no.” She darted back.

Augustus’ eyes narrowed. He was growing very tired of the resistance all around him and Simoné was just one more person blocking his path. He stepped up to her and with a swift and forceful back hand slapped her across the face. 

“Take me to the temple!” He demanded.

Simoné, shocked at the force of his slap was hunched over. She reached into her royal blue shall and grabbed a handful of something that she clenched in her fist.

“I take orders from one mistress, the queen of Egypt and daughter of the goddess Isis, CLEOPATRA!” She said forcefully and with that declaration she opened her fist and blew a white powder at Augustus’ face. 

Augustus backed away and Ezros stepped in front of the cloudy dust that instantly began to burn his skin and eyes as if a boiling pot of water had been poured all over him. He fell to the floor in agony while Rufio grabbed Simoné’s hands and tied them off with a rope he had at his waist subduing her. 

Augustus knelt next to the ailing and smoldering Ezros, his skin falling from his face like a melting candle. 

“Sorcery!” He said as he looked up at the defiant Simoné. “Another reason to have you killed. Let me tell you this, if you won’t take us to the temple, someone else will. Someone who doesn’t have your queen’s best interest at heart. I can find anyone who will betray her for two pieces of gold without even thinking twice. So, either you take us there now and I keep you alive, or I slit your throat here and now for this sorcery and have someone much less inclined to keep Cleopatra safe. You have 2 seconds to decide.” Augustus said removing his sword expecting Simoné to choose death.

She took the 2 seconds and answered: “I’ll take you.” 

“Guards!!!” Augustus called to the rest of the Roman guards awaiting them in the hall outside the throne room. “Take General Ezros away, he’ll need to be bandaged. He’s been burned.” He added as he, Rufio and the tied up Simoné went off to find Cleopatra and Antony at the Temple of Isis. 


High above the desert sand, gazing out of an opening in the temple, Cleopatra saw her beloved Alexandria fall to the Roman forces. She stood at this opening, with tears in her eyes and an aching in her heart as the city burned in the name of war. Even the sacred library. A place that held so much history and honor in her world had gone up in flames. Her whole life she had prepared for the time when she would rule over the land of the Nile but nothing could have foretold what was in store for her with the Roman interference. 
Her ladies in waiting sat alongside her dressed in the purest of white while Cleopatra, drowned in emerald green and gold with a look of in despair and heartbreak across her beautiful face.

“Such cruel irony that it has come to this. Everything I have worked for crumbling in front of my vary eyes. Do you think this is punishment for the things I have done in my life?” Cleopatra said turning to one of the ladies in waiting.

“I cannot answer that your majesty.” The lady said looking down at the floor.

“Of course you can! Has all my ambition been for nothing? If I were a man would everything I have done looked upon as desire to destroy and to interfere or would it be just like any other King’s reach for power over their own realm. Wars are fought over and over with men on the throne and no one bats an eye at their reasoning, but a Queen has more to answer for, hasn’t she? Not only does she answer to her subjects and her enemies but eventually she answers to something much more powerful than anything on this earth. Perhaps this is where I answer.” Cleopatra said.

“You have done much for our nation. Whatever happens next is up to …” The lady replied but was interrupted when the secret floor entrance to room above the temple was being slip open. 

Cleopatra reached over for her ladies in waiting, the fear of what was about to happen finally reaching her in the pit of her stomach, her entire body froze, her ladies huddled around her holding her close.

“The end of the world is upon us ladies, and I am not prepared.” Cleopatra said unsure of her out-come. 

As the door slid open up popped the weakened body of Mark Antony, still bleeding from his wounds, pushed up from below the main portion of the Temple by Apollodorus, Cleopatra’s close servant.

Cleopatra gasped and rushed over to help Mark Antony and Apollodorus into the small hidden room above the temple. She grabbed Antony and held him in her arms, his blood smeared all over her green and gold gown. She kissed his face and woke him from his unconsciousness. Their eyes met. 

“You came.” She whispered to him softly.

“I needed to see you.” He said placing his hand on her face as his head lay in her lap.
“There is so much I wish to tell you, so much I wish I could do for us before it all ends, but…” Cleopatra said before Antony put his finger over her lips.

“There’s no time for regrets. The world is closing up, and everything we know and everything we love is disappearing from our grasp, I want you to know I finally understand what you meant by knowing our destiny. This place, this earth is all just a fantasy. There is more beyond it…” He said as the pain from his wounds took over his speech. 

“I would give anything to just have one more day—one more hour with you! But we’ll be together again, somewhere past this place, past everything that threatens to hurt us or kill us. What we have between us is stronger than any war fought on this planet. I promise you I will not leave you.” Cleopatra said as she kissed the dying man’s lips.

Antony’s body was weakening. She could feel the life slowly slip from his body as the wounds and the damage inflicted by the battle took over. His skin, once a bright and golden tone was now turning ashen and grey. His eyes, once large and the warmest color of chestnut brown now blank and void of all things she recognized as life. His body had reached the point where it could not recuperate, his heart pace was slowing, his mind now drifting into the abyss of darkness and then, he died. 

Cleopatra and her ladies in waiting wailed in despair. The queen buried her face in his chest sobbing into it like she had never cried before. All her hopes and dreams were slipping away faster than she ever could imagine, like sand slipping through the finger tips, grain by grain until there was nothing more.

“Bring me the basket.” She said, whipping her makeup stained face.

“Your majesty, I beg you…” Apollodorus said standing in between Cleopatra and a crying lady in waiting who held the basket the queen requested.

“What do you beg for? Look around you Apollodorus, what choice do I have? They’re coming and they will not be kind to me, nor should they. To them I stand for something that they fear, and when one is confronted by that fear it is kill or be killed.” Cleopatra said as she reached for the basket but was blocked by Apollodorus once again.

“You would rather end things yourself and not face them?” her servant questioned, his unwavering love and devotion began to seep through. He was truly in love with her no matter what she did, no matter who she loved, his heart belonged to his queen. And she knew that.

Cleopatra smirked, she finally understood that her trusted servant did not fully understand why she felt she had to do what she had to do with the contents of the basket. She stepped up close to him and put herself on her tip-toes so that she could reach his cheek and kissed him. 

“You are so trusted and loved and I have been so fortunate to have you by my side. Remember that always. To all of you…” Cleopatra said now speaking to her ladies, “when the Romans come, and they will come, do as they say and save yourselves. Do everything they ask even if it what you believe it would be against my wishes. I am the last of this family. There will be no more. Rome will rule you from here…you must comply, your lives depend on it, let that be one of the last requests you obey from your queen.” Cleopatra ordered.  

“Your majesty, I…” Apollodorus began but again was shut down by the queen.

“Step aside Apollodorus if I live they will treat you all with a vengeance, if I do not, you all have a better chance of survival.” Cleopatra said softly as she looked deep into his eyes.

"Let me save you, let me get you out of here, there are ways we can escape. Let me try!" Apollodorus said with tears in his eyes.

Cleopatra became emotional. Her mind was telling her to run, to escape, but her heart was telling her not to leave Mark Antony.

"This is where I belong. I came back to Egypt to be queen, and it is here I will die, in my temple, by my own hand, by my own rules. I will not be triumphed over, but promise me one thing..." she said, her sentence trailing off awaiting his response.

"Anything." She said.

"Find my children. Find them and keep them safe. Let them know of their parents and raise them to rule one day in our place. They are the future." She said wiping away his tears. 

"I promise." He answered. 

"Now step aside." She said softly. 

His heart sank but he complied.

Cleopatra stepped over to her lady in waiting that held the basket with figs. Cleopatra walked back to Mark Antony’s body and knelt next to it. She lowered her dress around the shoulders exposing the upper part of her chest and opened the basket of figs. She lay back and poured the fruit over her body. The figs flopped out and rolled over her body on to the floor, an Egyptian Asp, a snake with a bite that could kill a person in seconds, slithered out and coiled itself on her stomach. The ladies in waiting all turned their faces in fear as it hissed in Cleopatra’s face but Apollodorus watched with great grief as the snake, agitated from its time in the basket, hissed one final his and bit Cleopatra twice, once in the shoulder and once in the chest. 

Apollodorus, furious at what he witnessed rushed over and grabbed the snake off the queen’s body and broke its neck. He looked down and saw Cleopatra slowly curling her body around Mark Antony’s allowing the poison from the snake’s bite to seep into her bloodstream.

“Please…. please don’t go!!!” Apollodorus pleaded as he dropped to his knees next to the dying queen.  

Cleopatra only smiled and closed her eyes, her arms tightly gripping Mark Antony’s body. 
Then the sound of the sobs coming from the ladies in waiting was broken by the small secret door on the floor of the room above the temple bursting open, Roman soldiers climbed in like ants marching together out of their hill surrounding the women and pulling Apollodorus from Cleopatra and Antony.

Augustus was the last one to enter. He looked around and saw what was left on the floor, Mark Antony’s wounded dead body, the dying Cleopatra clinging to her lover, and the broken snake tossed to the side.

“What has happened here?” Augustus ordered someone to answer. “Damn you all, what has happened here? Who did this to the queen?” He continued to yell as he walked over to survey the bodies.

The room fell silent for a moment. Then someone spoke up.

“You did this. Your greed. Your anger. Your want to destroy and to take. You did this to us all.” Apollodorus responded. 

“This is how she wanted it to end? Vanquished without battle?” Augustus asked out loud.

“Her battle was from birth, she fought all her years against a world and a dynasty that wanted her either silent or dead. She chose her exit. She chose it herself.” Apollodorus responded to a silent room.


They all bowed their heads in a quiet somber sadness only the sound of the whipping desert wind flowing through the opening in the temple that looked out on to Alexandria remained. The fury of war raged on outside. Augustus would win this war and rule over Egypt and the entire Roman empire alone just as the Roman empire wanted, and the debt of the royal family would finally be paid off.

While the stillness and memory of the great Cleopatra was frozen in time inside the temple of Isis forever solidifying her as the last queen of Egypt, her legacy would not be so final. She would go on to be one of the most powerful women in history, her image and story overshadowing all the men who had tried to triumph over her. In life she was deadly and alluring, and in death a symbol, a goddess. 

But what she was most of all was a fighter; through her words, through her actions and through the powerful way she maneuvered through a world that wanted her dead before she even attempted her first steps. Cleopatra would indeed have the final say on her own legacy, because she gave birth to it. 

In a small village just a short distance away from Alexandria across the red sea and up through the Jordan river into Galilee, two little children were  being raised as the moon and the sun; twins of mysterious origin.  Rumors were they were orphans of a wealthy Israelite and his wife, maybe even royalty of some kind. Two little beings that carried both Roman and Egyptian blood. They were the heirs to an almost mythical love affair that almost toppled an empire. 


In the end, and through her children, Cleopatra became immortal.