I have, with some reluctance, followed the habit of historians and referred to the Roman emperor as “Octavian,” in spite of the fact that nobody at the time seems to have done so. (He called himself “Gaius Julius Caesar”; his enemies called him “Octavius.”) He later solved the problem of what to call him by taking (in 27 B.C.) the title “Augustus,” the name by which he is best known.
I have assumed that Greeks of Cleopatra’s time knew the use of the monsoon winds and were trading directly with India. This may or may not have been the case. The periodic nature of these winds is said to have been discovered by a Greek called Hippalos, but we do not know his dates. He may have lived as early as the generation before Cleopatra or as late as the generation after Octavian. The Red Sea ports, however, and the caravan routes to them from Coptos, had been operating since the early Ptolemaic period, and my suspicion is that the winds were discovered sooner rather than later.
The Romans used the caravan routes heavily, improved them, and established mines in the mountains nearby. They also repaired the irrigation systems along the Nile, which the later Lagids had neglected. For a brief time Egypt flourished as a Roman province. However, very little of the wealth which flowed out was reinvested at home, and the Augustan period was followed by a steady decline. Ultimately, Roman rule was a disaster.
Cleopatra’s children by Marcus Antonius were brought up by Antonius’ ex-wife, Octavian’s sister Octavia. (It amuses me how few people seem to realize that Cleopatra had children. Cleopatra the sex-goddess obviously appeals to the popular imagination in a way that Cleopatra the unwed mother of four, or even Cleopatra the ruthless politician, does not.) Cleopatra Selene was eventually married to King Juba II of Numidia (later Mauretania), at which point Alexander Helios and Ptolemy Philadelphus were “given” to her. Nothing more is known of their fate.
Gaius Cornelius Gallus was governor of Egypt during its first three years as a Roman province. He was an energetic administrator, supervising repairworks to irrigation systems, crushing a couple of rebellions (one in the south of the country), and receiving the ruler of Ethiopia into Roman protection. However, his success went to his head, and led him to set up statues of himself and inscriptions boasting of his achievements without reference to the emperor. In consequence he was recalled and struck off the list of the emperor’s friends. When the Senate began treason proceedings against him, he committed suicide. Augustus, who was absent at the time, is supposed to have lamented that the Senate had not left him free to quarrel with his friends.
Augustus Caesar, son of the deified Julius, ruled the Roman empire with clemency and humanity for the next forty-four years, and his reign was afterward regarded as a Golden Age.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
CLEOPATRA’S HEIR
Copyright 2002 by Gillian Bradshaw
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First eBook Edition : January 2011
Cleopatra's Heir Page 37