This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
By Georg Ebers
After accompanying Dion to the harbour, the architect had gone to theForum to converse with the men he met there, and learn what they fearedand expected in regard to the future fate of the city.
All news reached this meeting-place first, and he found a large number ofMacedonian citizens who, like himself, wished to discuss passing eventsin these decisive hours.
The scene was very animated, for the most contradictory messages wereconstantly arriving from the fleet and the army.
At first they were very favourable; then came the news of the treason,and soon after of the desertion of the cavalry and foot soldiers.
A distinguished citizen had seen Mark Antony, accompanied by severalfriends, dashing down the quay. The goal of their flight was the littlepalace on the Choma.
Grave men, whose opinion met with little opposition, thought that it wasthe duty of the Imperator—now that Fate had decided against him, andnothing remained save a life sullied by disgrace—to put himself to deathwith his own hand, like Brutus and so many other noble Romans. Tidingssoon came that he had attempted to do what the best citizens expected.
Gorgias could not endure to remain longer in the Forum, but hastened tothe Choma, though it was difficult to force his way to the wall, where abreach had been made. He had found the portion of the shore from whichthe promontory ran densely crowded with people—from whom he learned thatAntony was no longer in the palace—and the sea filled with boats.
A corpse was just being borne out of the little palace on the Street ofthe King and, among those who followed, Gorgias recognized one ofAntony's slaves. The man's eyes were red with weeping. He readilyobeyed the architect's sign and, sobbing bitterly, told him that thehapless general, after his army had betrayed him, fled hither. When heheard in the palace that Cleopatra had preceded him to Hades, he orderedhis body-slave Eros to put an end to his life also. The worthy man drewback, pierced his own breast with his sword, and sank dying at hismaster's feet; but Antony, exclaiming that Eros's example had taught himhis duty, thrust the short sword into his breast with his own hand. Yetdeep and severe as was the wound, it did not destroy the tremendousvitality of the gigantic Roman. With touching entreaties he implored thebystanders to kill him, but no one could bring himself to commit thedeed. Meanwhile Cleopatra's name, coupled with the wish to follow her,was constantly on the lips of the Imperator.
At last Diomedes, the Queen's private secretary, appeared, to bring him,by her orders, to the mausoleum where she had taken refuge.
Antony, as if animated with fresh vigour, assented, and while beingcarried thither gave orders that Eros should have a worthy burial. Eventhough dying, it would have been impossible for the most generous ofmasters to permit any kindness rendered to pass unrequited.
The slave again wept aloud as he uttered the words, but Gorgias hastenedat once to the tomb. The nearest way, the Street of the King, had becomeso crowded with people who had been forced back by Roman soldiers,between the Theatre of Dionysus and the Corner of the