roke, and made
The water that they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggared all description; she did lie
In her pavilion--cloth-of-gold of tissue--
Outpicturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature; on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colored fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool."

The people of Tarsus ran in crowds to gaze on this wondrous spectacle,
leaving Antony alone in the Forum. At the request of Cleopatra he came
also, and was so captivated at sight that he became her slave. He forgot
Rome, forgot his wife Fulvia, forgot honor and dignity, through his wild
passion for this Egyptian sorceress. Following her to Alexandria, he
laid aside his Roman garb for the Oriental costume of the Egyptian
court, gave way to all Cleopatra's pleasure-loving caprices, and lived
in a perpetual round of orgies and festivities, heedless of honor and
duty, and caring for naught but love and sensual enjoyment.

Intoxicated with pleasure, Antony did not know what risk he ran. Shortly
before Octavius had been spoken of as a boy, whom it would be easy to
manage and control. He was feeble and sickly,--so much so, indeed, that
just at this time his death was reported in Rome. But the "boy" was
ambitious, astute, and far-seeing, and Marc Antony was descending to
ruin with every step he took in his career of folly and profligacy.

The history of the succeeding years is long, but must here be made
short. The two lords of Rome were changed from friends to enemies by the
act of Fulvia, the wife of Antony. Octavius had married her daughter
Claudia, and now divorced her. Anger at this, and a hope of winning
Antony from the seductions of the Egyptian queen, caused her to organize
a formidable revolt against Octavius. She succeeded in raising a large
army, but Antony was still too absorbed in Cleopatra to come to her aid,
and Agrippa, the able general of Octavius, soon put down the revolt.

Then, when it was too late to help her, Antony awoke from his lethargy,
and sailed to battle with Octavius. He besieged Brundusium. But Fulvia
had died, the soldiers had no heart for civil war, and the great rivals
again made peace. Antony married Octavia, the sister of Octavius, they
divided the Roman world between them as before, and Rome was made happy
by a grand round of games and festivities.

[Illustra