The Eighth Veil
Page 24
The Egyptian Connection
Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, was Herod’s contemporary, ally, and sometime rival in the area. At first she ruled as pharaoh with her father, then with her brother to whom she was briefly married as was the custom with the Egyptian royal family, then alone, and finally with Antony by whom she bore three children who later, after her death and the suicide of Antony, and with the sponsorship of Octavian (Augustus), ruled elsewhere as kings and queens in their own right.
Cleopatra Selene married Tuba, King of Mauritania. After her death, Tuba was married briefly (for a year) to Glaphyra (the same woman who was previously married to Alexander, Herod’s son who was assassinated by his father). She left him to marry Philip the Tetrarch, not to be confused with Philip Boethus (the Philip of the New Testament) also her uncle and also son of Herod. Go figure.
Caesarion was alleged to be the son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. Mark Antony published a document, The Donations of Alexandria, which supported the claim and to which his rival, Octavian took exception. Whether this precipitated the battle of Actium or was simply the last straw in the strained relationship between the two men, we do not know, but Octavian did indeed fight a civil war with Antony and won. Both Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide and the seventeen-year-old Caesarion was elevated however briefly to pharaoh.
The fate of Caesarion has never been satisfactorily determined. The generally held view is that he was captured by Octavian and assassinated in order to remove a potential rival. Other versions have him escaping through the Eastern Sudan (modern Ethiopia) through Arabia to India with great treasure. Some hold that the Nabateans, who had been conquered by Herod the Great, killed him as he made his way east, in order to curry favor with Octavian and perhaps rid themselves of their overlord (Herod the Great) who, after all, had been allied with Antony.
In summary, because of the repetitive use of the same names, both female and male, the near incestuous intermarriage of relatives, near relatives, and the uncertain historical record, your guess is as good as any when it comes to sorting all this out. (But don’t tell the Scholars I said so. They are a determined lot and do not like outsiders tampering with their opinions facts).
Cappadocia
Cappadocia is part of Anatolia and lies east-central in the great plain that forms modern Turkey. Its history is not dissimilar to that of Egypt in that it boasted a royal family that traced its lineage back into antiquity, to King Midas of mythic fame, in fact. Its last king, Archelaus, was (or was not) in Herod’s line, and did produce a daughter, the peripatetic Princess Glaphyra. As a Province of the Roman Empire it was considered a prize. Though its borders varied from time to time, the country always straddled important trade routes east and west. The routes running north and south intersected these routes. Thus treasure from Africa and India (and east of that) passed through the country in all directions. This feature should never be underestimated. Trade formed a vital part of the Empire. Indeed, Herod the Great and Cleopatra frequently clashed over who would control which part of the road that originated in the Rift Valley of Africa and coursed northward along the Jordan branching westward at Magdala or eastward and on to Syria and thence east to the sea or westward to India and beyond. It also turned west through Cappadocia. Saint Paul would have used a portion of one of these roads through Capernaum on his way to Damascus. A trip, many say, that changed the course of history.
The name for the eastward extensions, “The Silk Road,” was coined by Ferdinand von Richthofen in the mid-nineteenth century, but these routes existed from about 200 BCE onwards with occasional closures dependent on the political conditions at the time.
It is reported that the cost of goods traveling along these trade routes could increase as much as a thousand fold from their point of origin to their destination, so often were they taxed or the caravans that carried them forced to pay tolls and license fees. The Nabataeans were said to offer alternative routes eastward through the Arabian Desert. They kept their routes secret, that is to say the location of the oases along the way. Anyone attempting to cross without this special knowledge risked certain death before reaching the Gulf of Aden. Herod conquered them as much for these routes as to establish his hegemony over the area.
Torah
The Law: The first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (the written Torah). Also included was Oral Torah, interpretations of the Mosaic Law by men like Gamaliel accumulated over many centuries. Some students also include the Psalms because of the teaching value as well as their use in worship.
N.B. These are notes put together by an author who claims no expertise in the complexities of ancient history or religious thought. He is, first and always, a writer of fiction. Take them for what they are and nothing more.
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