until they were in
turn ousted by Lathyrus. Alexander II., Ptolemy X., succeeded Lathyrus,
and married his stepmother, Berenice III., whom he speedily murdered,
and was himself put to death after a brief reign of nineteen days.
Ptolemy XI., Auletes, an illegitimate son of Soter II., then mounted the
throne, his queen being Cleopatra V., Tryphaena. He was the last and the
weakest of the Ptolemies, and is worthy of mention merely because of his
base dealings with Rome, which introduced Roman intervention into
Egyptian affairs, and because he was the father of the great Cleopatra.

We have given this brief chronicle of the later kings and queens of
Egypt to prepare us for the consideration of the character of the
foremost Egyptian woman of antiquity--Cleopatra. The Ptolemies, we have
found, degenerated steadily and became in the end the most abominable
and loathsome tyrants that the principle of absolute and irresponsible
power ever produced. Regardless of all law, abandoned to the most
unnatural vices, thoroughly depraved, and capable of every crime, they
showed utter disregard of every virtuous principle and of every domestic
tie. The Ptolemaic princesses seem, as a whole, to have been superior to
the men. They usually possessed great beauty, great personal charm, and
great wealth and influence. Yet among them always existed mutual hatred
and disregard of all ties of family and affection. Ambitious to excess,
high-spirited and indomitable, they removed every obstacle to the
attainment of power, and fratricide and matricide are crimes at which
they did not pause. When the student of history sees pass before him
this dismal panorama of vice and crime, he wonders whether human nature
had not deserted these women and the spirit of the tigress entered into
them.

Cleopatra, the last Queen of Egypt, was the heiress of generations of
legalized license, of cultured sensuality, of refined cruelty, and of
moral turpitude, and she differed from her predecessors only in that she
had redeeming qualities which offset in some degree the wickedness that
she had inherited. To the thoughtful mind her character presents one of
the most difficult of psychological problems, and to solve the enigma
thus presented we have to consider her antecedents, her early training,
and the part which she was compelled to play in the world's history.

Her early years were spent in the storm and turmoil of the conflict
between her father Auletes and her s