But Cleopatra, seizing on the advice to which her passion prompted her,
departed straightway with Fonteius Capito into Syria, and there the
thing came about as I had foretold, for Antony was subdued of her
and gave her the greater part of Cilicia, the ocean shore of Arabia
Nabathaea, the balm-bearing provinces of Judaea, the province of Phoenicia,
the province of Coele-Syria, the rich isle of Cyprus, and all the library
of Pergamus. And to the twin children that, with the son Ptolemy,
Cleopatra had borne to Antony, he impiously gave the names of "Kings,
the Children of Kings"--of Alexander Helios, as the Greeks name the sun,
and of Cleopatra Selene, the moon, the long-winged.

These things then came to pass.

Now on her return to Alexandria Cleopatra sent me great gifts, of which
I would have none, and prayed me, the learned Olympus, to come to her at
Alexandria; but it was not yet time, and I would not. But thereafter she
and Antony sent many times to me for counsel, and I ever counselled them
to their ruin, nor did my prophecies fail.

Thus the long years rolled away, and I, the hermit Olympus, the dweller
in a tomb, the eater of bread and the drinker of water, by strength of
the wisdom that was given me of the avenging Power, became once more
great in Khem. For I grew ever wiser as I trampled the desires of the
flesh beneath my feet and turned my eyes to heaven.

At length eight full years were accomplished. The war with the Parthians
had come and gone, and Artavasdes, King of Armenia, had been led in
triumph through the streets of Alexandria. Cleopatra had visited Samos
and Athens; and, by her counselling, the noble Octavia had been driven,
like some discarded concubine, from the house of Antony at Rome. And
now, at the last, the measure of the folly of Antony was full even to
the brim. For this Master of the World had no longer the good gift of
reason; he was lost in Cleopatra as I had been lost. Therefore, in the
event, Octavianus declared war against him.

And as I slept upon a certain day in the chamber of the Harpers, in the
tomb of Pharaoh that is by Tape, there came to me a vision of my father,
the aged Amenemhat, and he stood over me, leaning on his staff, and
spoke, saying:

"Look forth, my son."

Then I looked forth, and with the eyes of my spirit saw the sea, and
two great fleets grappling in war hard by a rocky coast. And the emblems
were those of Octavian, and of the other those of Cleopatra