be well if you learn more of the woman for whose sake I ask a sacrifice
at your hands. Arius is your brother and uncle. He stands near to
Octavianus, for he was his intellectual guide, and I know that he reveres
the Roman's sister, Octavia, as a goddess. Antony is now struggling with
Octavianus for the sovereignty of the world. Octavia succumbed in the
conflict against the woman of whom you desire to hear. It is not my
place to judge her, but I may instruct and warn. Roman nations burn
incense to Octavia, and, when Cleopatra's name is uttered, they veil
their faces indignantly. Here in Alexandria many imitate them. Whoever
upholds shining purity may hope to win a share of the radiance emanating
from it. They call Octavia the lawful wife, and Cleopatra the criminal
who robbed her of her husband's heart."

"Not I!" exclaimed Barine eagerly. "How often I have heard my uncle say
that Antony and Cleopatra were fired with the most ardent love for each
other! Never did the arrows of Eros pierce two hearts more deeply. Then
it became necessary to save the state from civil war and bloodshed.
Antony consented to form an alliance with his rival, and, as security for
the sincerity of the reconciliation, he gave his hand in marriage to
Octavia, whose first husband, Marcellus, had just died--his hand, I say,
only his hand, for his heart was captive to the Queen of Egypt. And if
Antony was faithless to the wife to whom statecraft had bound him, he
kept his pledge to the other, who had an earlier, better title. If
Cleopatra did not give up the man to whom she had sworn fidelity forever,
she was right--a thousand times right! In my eyes--no matter how often
my mother rebukes me--Cleopatra, in the eyes of the immortals, is and
always will be Antony's real wife; the other, though on her marriage day
no custom, no word, no stroke of the stylus, no gesture was omitted, is
the intruder in a bond of love which rejoices the gods, however it may
anger mortals, and--forgive me, mother--virtuous matrons."