Duane W. Roller

(“Ptolemy called Caesar”); the inscription is a contract between linen
manufacturers and religious offi cials. 70 Signifi cantly, although Cleopatra
is mentioned in the text it is only to provide the date. Caesarion, on
the other hand, appears twice on the relief. Whatever the dynamics
were in the weeks aft er Actium, Caesarion was being groomed to be
sole ruler without his mother. Th ese events were an excuse for a series
of parties, in which the Inimitable Livers were dissolved and replaced
with the Synapothanoumenoi, “Th ose Who Die Together,” perhaps the
title of a comedy. 71 It was said that Cleopatra was collecting a variety
of poisons: Greek women had long known the Egyptian ability in
such matters. 72 Th ere is a lengthy tradition that the queen tested the
poisons on condemned prisoners and even her servants, 73 all of which
is unlikely but played into Roman distaste of Egyptian medical practices
and the narrow line between poisoning and curing. Yet the couple were
also continuing to seek possible refuges, with the lower Red Sea still a
possibility as well as Gaul or Spain, the latter having a long history of
harboring Romans who were at odds with the central government and
which was incidentally a great source of wealth.
Cleopatra and Antonius also began to communicate with Octavian,
still on Rhodes. Th ey sent Euphronios, one of the children’s tutors, to ask
on behalf of Cleopatra that Egypt be handed over to the children and
for Antonius that he be allowed to live in Egypt or Athens as a private
citizen. Cleopatra also opened secret negotiations with Octavian and
sent him a golden scepter, crown, and throne, a symbolic gesture indicating
that she was willing to reconcile herself with the new regime as its
friendly and allied queen, much as Herod had done a few weeks previously.
She also promised large sums of money. Antonius sent to Octavian
a certain Publius Turullius, one of the last surviving assassins of Caesar,
who was living in Alexandria but who had cut down the sacred grove
of Asklepios on Kos for ship timbers before Actium. Octavian had him
executed at the spot of his sacrilege but did not reply to Antonius. 74
Antonius then sent his son Antyllus with a vast amount of money,
which Octavian kept, but he returned Antyllus, again with no message.
Although the sources are not clear as to the number of embassies, and
on what occasions the couple acted together or separately, communications
from Cleopatra regularly received a reply, whereas those from
Antonius were ignored. Octavian began to worry that the pair would
either escape or even withstand him, and, worse, that they might destroy
their wealth in the process, something that he desperately needed to pay
Downfall 143