Song of the Nile
Page 44
27. After Cleopatra’s death, her daughter Selene was the most prominent client queen in the Roman Empire. Selene had the power to mint her own coins, and her children were named after her side of the family. Do you think this is because of her prestige as a Ptolemaic queen, the fact that she had an extraordinary relationship with Augustus, or that Juba couldn’t control her?
28. Though Selene and Juba are thought to have been married in 25 B.C., she would not appear on the coinage of the realm as a coruler of Mauretania until 20 B.C. Juba’s coins are in Latin and deferential to Rome. Selene’s coins are always in Greek, often flouting the emperor’s official narrative by celebrating her dead mother—an enemy of Rome—elevating the goddess Isis, and hinting that either Egypt would soon break free of its bonds or that she represented the throne of Egypt in exile. Does this represent a political split between the two monarchs, or could it have been a calculated strategy between Selene and Juba to appeal to different political elements in their kingdom?
29. Juba claimed to have discovered the source of the Nile in Mauretania. It would take hundreds of years before he was proved wrong. Do you think Juba stretched the truth for political reasons—perhaps to flatter Cleopatra Selene and make her feel more at home? Or do you believe that he simply made a mistake?
30. The end of the Republic and the founding of the Julio-Claudian dynasty looks inevitable in retrospect, but what stumbling blocks and dangers did Augustus face on his path to absolute power?
Berkley titles by Stephanie Dray
LILY OF THE NILE
SONG OF THE NILE