Duane W. Roller

his troops. Cleopatra was also threatening to immolate herself and her
treasure in a tomb that she was building in the palace grounds. Th us
Octavian sent a trusted freedman, Th yrsos, to the queen to negotiate in
person. His message was that she should eliminate Antonius. Exactly
what she would receive in return is not obvious: her life, certainly, but
whether she would retain her wealth or her kingdom is by no means
clear. But Th yrsos spent so much time in private with the queen that
Antonius became suspicious—he may have had some hint that he was
becoming dispensable—and had him fl ogged and returned to Octavian
with no agreement.
Th ese endless negotiations, which seem to have lasted several
months, essentially to the end of 31 b.c., are remarkable because they
went nowhere. At the heart of the matter, as always, was Cleopatra’s
obsessive need to save her kingdom, even without her. Although she
obviously entertained the idea of disposing of Antonius, this was a
diffi cult choice that she probably kept postponing. Th ere were many
precedents for those on the losing side of a Roman civil struggle to go
into exile or carefully guarded retirement—Lepidus being the most
recent example—but Octavian obviously wanted Antonius eliminated.
Moreover, should Cleopatra give up her throne, Caesarion was not
acceptable to his cousin because of the confl ict over who was the true
heir of Caesar—something that may not have been obvious to the couple
at this time—and the younger children were not old enough to rule,
although there is no evidence that the queen ever suggested that her
successor should be anyone but Caesarion. It is also probable that the
idea of going into exile with Antonius was not particularly interesting to
Cleopatra. Her identity was totally as queen, and her home was Egypt,
whereas Antonius had held a variety of offi ces in the Roman Republic
and had spent much of his career moving throughout the Mediterranean
world. Cleopatra might be prepared to go into a well-funded exile if her
son became king of Egypt, but not necessarily with Antonius.
By the end of 31 b.c. Octavian was receiving messages from his
people in Italy that events there needed his attention. With the Egyptian
negotiations going nowhere, he went to Brundisium for a month, 75 but
returned to Greece early in 30 b.c. prepared to seek a military solution to
the Egyptian matter. In the spring he began to move his forces south. At
Phoenician Ptolemais he was met by Herod, 76 who lavishly entertained
and lodged him, reviewed his troops, and supplied the army, especially
providing abundant wine and water, with a personal gift of 2,000 talents
144 Cleopatra