known to every reader. The brave soldier, who in
the perils of war could shake off all luxurious habits and could rival
the commonest man in the cheerfulness with which he underwent every
hardship, was seen no more. He sunk into an indolent voluptuary, pleased
by childish amusements. At one time he would lounge in a boat at a
fishing party, and laugh when he drew up pieces of salt fish which by
the Queen's order had been attached to his hook by divers. At another
time she wagered that she would consume ten million sesterces at one
meal, and won her wager by dissolving in vinegar a pearl of unknown
value. While Cleopatra bore the character of the goddess Isis, her lover
appeared as Osiris. Her head was placed conjointly with his own on the
coins which he issued as a Roman magistrate. He disposed of the kingdoms
and principalities of the East by his sole word. By his influence Herod,
son of Antipater, the Idumaean minister of Hyrcanus, the late sovereign
of Judea, was made king to the exclusion of the rightful heir. Polemo,
his own son by Cleopatra, was invested with the sceptre of Armenia.
Encouraged by the absolute submission of her lover, Cleopatra fixed her
eye upon the Capitol, and dreamed of winning by means of Antony that
imperial crown which she had vainly sought from Caesar.

While Antony was engaged in voluptuous dalliance, Octavian was
resolutely pursuing the work of consolidating his power in the West. His
patience, his industry, his attention to business, his affability, were
winning golden opinions and rapidly obliterating all memory of the
bloody work by which he had risen to power. He had won little glory in
war; but so long as the corn fleets arrived daily from Sicily and
Africa, the populace cared little whether the victory had been won by
Octavian or by his generals. In Agrippa he possessed a consummate
captain, in Maecenas a wise and temperate minister. It is much to his
credit that he never showed any jealousy of the men to whom he owed so
much. He flattered the people with the hope that he would, when Antony
had fulfilled his mission of recovering the standards of Crassus, engage
him to join in putting an end to their sovereign power and restoring
constitutional liberty.

In point of fidelity to his marriage vows Octavian was little better
than Antony. He renounced his marriage with Clodia, the daughter of
Fulvia, when her mother attempted to raise Italy against him. He
divorced Scribonia, when it