ABSTRACT

With the fall of Alexandria and the deaths of Antonius and Cleopatra, all serious military and political rivals to Octavian evaporated. Antonius* troops joined him, and the wealth of Egypt was his for the taking. It has been said that he desired to capture Cleopatra alive in order to march her through the streets of Rome in his triumphal procession. Perhaps he entertained such thoughts in a brief fantasy, but in the end it was far more convenient that Cleopatra died in Alexandria, whether by her own hand or with some unsought assistance. Octavian honoured her last wishes and buried her next to Antonius. He could have been much more vicious and refused her an honourable burial, but it would have earned him no credit and served no real purpose. He confined his implacable ruthlessness to the execution of Caesarion and Antonius' son Antyllus, who might have proved embarassing rivals if they had been allowed to go free. The other offspring of Antonius were brought up by his widow Octavia.1