former years his father was a friend of Cleopatra; nay, she had
placed him under obligations by sending him, after the murder of Julius
Caesar, the military force at her command to be used against Cassius.
True, her legions, by messengers from Dolabella himself, were despatched
in another direction; but Cleopatra had not withdrawn her favour from
Dolabella's father on that account. The latter had known her in Rome
before the death of Caesar, and had enthusiastically described the
charms of the bewitching Egyptian sovereign. Though the youth found
her only a mourning widow, ill in body and mind, he was so strongly
attracted and deeply moved by her beauty, her brilliant intellect, her
grace of bearing, her misfortunes and sufferings, that he devoted many
hours to her, and would have considered it a happiness to render her
greater services than circumstances permitted. He often accompanied
her to the children, whose hearts had been completely won by his frank,
cheerful nature; and so it happened that he soon became one of the most
welcome guests at Lochias. He confided without reserve every feeling
that stirred his soul to the warm-hearted woman who was so many years
his senior, and through him she learned many things connected with
Octavianus and his surroundings. Without permitting himself to be used
as a tool, he became an advocate for the unfortunate woman whom he so
deeply esteemed.

In intercourse with her he made every effort to inspire confidence
in Octavianus, who favoured him, enjoyed his society, and in whose
magnanimity the youth firmly believed.

He anticipated the best results from an interview between the Queen and
the Caesar; for he deemed it impossible that the successful conqueror
could part untouched, and with no desire to mitigate her sad fate, from
the woman who, in earlier years, had so fascinated his father, and
whom he himself, though she might almost have been his mother, deemed
peerless in her bewitching and gracious charm.

Cleopatra, on the contrary, shrank from meeting the man who had brought
so much misfortune upon Mark Antony and herself, and inflicted upon
her insults which were only too well calculated to make her doubt his
clemency and truth. On the other hand, she could not deny Dolabella's
assertion that it would be far less easy for Octavianus to refuse her in
person the wishes she cherished for her children's future than through
mediators. Proculejus had learned that Antony had name