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Cleopatra, by Jacob Abbott
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Title: Cleopatra
Author: Jacob Abbott
Release Date: February 8, 2004 [eBook #10992]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLEOPATRA***
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Makers of History
CLEOPATRA
BY
JACOB ABBOTT
[Illustration: CLEOPATRA.]
PREFACE
Of all the beautiful women of history, none has left us such convincing proofs of her charms as Cleopatra, for the tide of Rome's destiny, and, therefore, that of the world, turned aside because of her beauty. Julius Caesar, whose legions trampled the conquered world from Canopus to the Thames, capitulated to her, and Mark Antony threw a fleet, an empire and his own honor to the winds to follow her to his destruction. Disarmed at last before the frigid Octavius, she found her peerless body measured by the cold eye of her captor only for the triumphal procession, and the friendly asp alone spared her Rome's crowning ignominy.
CHAPTER
I.