. The story of the ancient nations : a text-book for high schools . ision of the power over the empirewhich now lay at the feet of the triumvirs, the indolent LepidllS plays but a sorry Egyptian Copper Coin r x ^ J with the Head op part. He was soon deprived even of Cleopatra. Africa, the province given him by his abler colleagues. Antonius and Octavius halved the empire, the former taking all east of Illyria, the latter all the west. In the East, Antonius met Cleopat ra, Queen of Egypt, whohad in earlier years fascinated even Julius Csesar. To hercharms Antonius fell an easy victim. He squand
. The story of the ancient nations : a text-book for high schools . ision of the power over the empirewhich now lay at the feet of the triumvirs, the indolent LepidllS plays but a sorry Egyptian Copper Coin r x ^ J with the Head op part. He was soon deprived even of Cleopatra. Africa, the province given him by his abler colleagues. Antonius and Octavius halved the empire, the former taking all east of Illyria, the latter all the west. In the East, Antonius met Cleopat ra, Queen of Egypt, whohad in earlier years fascinated even Julius Csesar. To hercharms Antonius fell an easy victim. He squandered histime and the money of the state in luxurious revels at Alex-andria. The Romans were shocked to hear that Cleopatra,ruler of a Roman dependency, was publicly called Queenof Queens by Antonius. The rumor spread abroad thathe intended to make her empress of the East, even queenof Rome itself. The decent life of Octavius at Rome, themoderation he showed to his enemies, his care for the pub-lic welfare, contrasted sharply with the wild extravaganceof 382 THE STORY OF ROME 479. Battle of Actium,—At last the outraged Senate de-clared war upon Cleopatra (31 ). The forces of theEast under Antonius and Cleopatra, and those of the West,under Octavius and Agrippa, met in a naval battle atActium, on the coast of Epirus. In the midst of the fightCleopatra suddenly sailed away in flight with her sixty gal-leys, and Antonius followed. The battle waged fiercely forsome time, but resulted in the utter destruction of Anto-nius fleet. Besieged in Alexandria by his enemy, and de-serted by his troops, Antonius committed suicide. Cleo-patra soon learned that Octavius was impervious to hercharms as well as to her prayers. In order to avoid thedisgrace of being led a captive through the streets of Romein the triumphal procession of Octavius, the proud queencontrived to kill herself. Even Plutarch did not knowwhether this was by the bite of a poisonous snake, the asp,or by some
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