Author Description

"The story of Cleopatra is a story of crime. It is a narrative of the course and the consequences of unlawful love. In her strange and romantic history we see this passion portrayed with the most complete and graphic fidelity in all its influences and effects; its uncontrollable impulses, its intoxicating joys, its reckless and mad career, and the dreadful remorse and ultimate despair and ruin in which it always and inevitably ends." -Jacob Abbott Cleopatra VII was more than the last Macedonian Queen of Egypt. She was a femme fatale of epic proportion, ensnaring the two mightiest Romans of her time, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, with her famed beauty and intelligence. The story of Cleopatra reads like a modern thriller. From her murderous family, who were not averse to killing parents, siblings, and their own children, to the civil wars between Pompey, Caesar, Octavian Augustus, Brutus, and Mark Antony, the tale of this last queen of Egypt is filled with high drama, tension and, ultimately, tragedy. It is a story which, once started, is almost impossible to put down. This is arguably master storyteller Jacob Abbott's finest book. CONTENTS: I. THE VALLEY OF THE NILE II. THE PTOLEMIES III. ALEXANDRIA IV. CLEOPATRA'S FATHER V. ACCESSION TO THE THRONE VI. CLEOPATRA AND CÆSAR VII. THE ALEXANDRINE WAR VIII. CLEOPATRA A QUEEN IX. THE BATTLE OF PHILIPPI X. CLEOPATRA AND ANTONY XI. THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM XII. THE END OF CLEOPATRA