“She always wanted to see the world,” I said, sentimental.
“At this rate, she’ll see Agrippa into an early grave,” Juba said, one arm slung over his brow. “If it isn’t Julia’s ambition in life to make Agrippa miserable, it’s merely an incidental delight.”
I smirked, my heart warming at the realization that Julia always overcame every calamity, her spirit unbreakable. “So she’s making the best of it.”
“She hoped you’d approve,” Juba said, finally lowering his arm so that he could look at me. “She mused that half of everything we all do is calculated to win your approval. She thinks Augustus nearly went to war with Parthia just to impress you. The least I could do is learn to be King of Mauretania.”
“That’s why you came back from Spain?”
Though his expression was guarded, his answer sounded raw and vulnerable. “You were well named, Selene, after the moon. Though we know you only in darkness, like the tides, we’re all swayed by your pull, wanting nothing more than to shine in your mysterious light . . .” He looked away. Embarrassed. “There. I’ve finally become a poet for you, though not a very good one.”
The man I’d married had no parents, no siblings to share his pains, no faith to give him strength. He’d adapted and survived on his own. Even now, stinking of wine, he was still changing. Like green shoots of wheat before it grows tall, he was a man still growing, still filled with promise. “You excel at everything you put your mind to, Juba. Whether it’s poetry or kingship, you simply have to decide to be good at it.”
He propped himself up on a pillow to stare at me. “Why have
you
come back, Selene?”
Shaking my head, I simply said, “He’s let me go.”
Juba laughed. A harsh sound. “You’re cruel to mock me.”
“It’s true.”
Juba launched up from the bed to stand on slightly wobbly legs. “Don’t worry, Selene. Augustus will try to forget you; he’ll tell himself he can have his pick of any girl in the empire. But then he’ll see an image of your mother or hear a song you played for him on your
kithara
harp, and he’ll summon you again. When he’s eliminated all rivals, he may even make you Queen of Egypt. You’ll have Egypt and you’ll rule the man who rules the world. Be patient just a little while longer and you’ll have your heart’s desire.”
“That isn’t my heart’s desire,” I whispered. All my life, I’d woven a web of obsession to ensnare others and found myself caught. I’d been a prisoner since the age of ten; I was more than twenty now. I wanted to be free. I wanted freedom. Freedom from the dead that haunted me and from the heartbreak in my wake. Freedom from the cold winter in the emperor’s eyes and freedom to take joy in the world my goddess gifted to me. I knew that there must be compromise for these things. Kore could not return to her mother, to the sunshine, without paying a price. To be free of Augustus, I must reach accord with Juba. I caught his hand to make him turn and look at me.
When he did, he frowned. “You don’t expect me to believe that you chose
me
.”
At the sound of the ocean breeze sweeping through our courtyard, carrying to me the scent of salt and mint and wine, I said, “I chose Mauretania. And you are Mauretania’s king. That’s a start.”
His fingers closed over mine and he swallowed. “A start . . . where would we go next? We’ve quarreled our whole marriage. There’s nothing I can do to please you. Nothing you want that I can give you.”
“You can give me a son,” I said, finding the courage to look into his startled amber eyes.
His expression turned hopeful. Mine must have too. Like Kore, I would have my reprieve. Until Augustus dragged me back into the cold winter depths, I would dance in summer fields with my daughter. I would abandon my dead to keep my covenant with the living. And I would gather flowers for my tables, not for tombs.
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
CLEOPATRA Selene and Juba II would rule Mauretania for at least another fourteen years, during which Selene issued a series of provocative coins honoring Isis and her mother, and hinting at her status as the Queen of Egypt in exile by showing a crocodile unchained. In spite of these belligerent actions, she seems never to have fallen afoul of Augustus. Her reign with Juba was one of relative peace and prosperity, and though Isis was banned in Rome, adherents of the goddess would find a sanctuary in Mauretania, where Selene and Juba built an Iseum complete with sacred crocodiles.
That Cleopatra’s daughter memorialized her dead is evidenced by several relics. First, the coins honoring her mother. Second, a stylized Egyptian statue of Petubastes, a priest of Ptah thought to be Selene’s cousin, who died just before the fall of Actium when she was still a little girl. Third, a platter depicting Selene as an African queen with Helios nearby. I pieced together her character from these and other indications that Selene never forgot her past.
As the daughter of two of the world’s most notoriously fertile rulers, it’s possible that Selene gave birth to many children, but we know only of the survival of a son and a daughter. Though speculation abounds, the evidence for Selene’s daughter is an Athenian inscription in which the girl is not named. I chose the name Cleopatra Isidora because of the single most telling historical fact that we know about Selene: She named her son
Ptolemy
. Reaching into
her
heritage rather than that of her husband’s bespeaks her extraordinary power as a client queen in the Augustan Age and I wanted to reflect that here.
Selene’s husband Juba wasn’t just a dabbler in the scholarly arts, but a respected geographer whose works would later be cited by Pliny, Plutarch, and Strabo. Though Berbers can and should take pride in Juba’s many accomplishments, if his coins are any indication, he was a thoroughly Romanized king. His wit is documented by way of his centaur jest to an irate woman he’d spattered with mud. He seems also to have been a client king of judicious temperament, making him somewhat of an anomaly in an era of bloody tyrants like King Herod.
Juba and Selene are believed to have been buried in the Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania, located in modern-day Algeria. It bears a striking resemblance to the tomb that Augustus built for himself in Rome. It may have been adorned with an
ankh
, a symbol later adopted by Coptic Christians, which could account, in part, for the fact that the tomb was known for many years as the Tomb of the Christian Woman.
These are the things we know about Selene and her husband. Now the time comes to confess my sins.
Selene and Helios were first introduced in
Lily of the Nile
at the age of ten when they would have actually been nine years old. I did this because I wanted older, more relatable, protagonists. In
this
novel, the children of Cleopatra are all aged accurately. However, because of my earlier choice, observant readers may have noticed a small narrowing in the age difference between Selene and Philadelphus.
A rebellion
did
result in the razing of Thebes, a revolt in Alexandria, and the subsequent recall of the Roman Prefect of Egypt, Cornelius Gallus, who was forced to commit suicide under mysterious circumstances. However, the entire chain of events occurred earlier than I have posited and any involvement of Alexander Helios in this rebellion is exceedingly unlikely. For all intents and purposes, after Octavian’s triumph, the two sons of Cleopatra and Antony simply disappear from history.
Every novelist to tackle the life of Cleopatra Selene has dealt with the matter of the boys in a different fashion. Some historians have posited that Alexander Helios and Ptolemy Philadelphus went to Mauretania to live unremarkable lives. Modern scholarship disputes this idea, interpreting the silence of ancient sources as evidence that the boys both died young. Ultimately, I took my own approach, and embraced the sense of mystery that surrounds their fate.
As for Selene’s half siblings, more is known. Selene’s half brother, Iullus Antonius, appears to have held a number of elective offices, so I filled in the blanks, ensuring that he received the military training that would have qualified him for higher office. His relationship with Julia is borne out by the historical record. Both of Selene’s half sisters, Antonia Major and Antonia Minor, would go on to play prominent roles in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Their descendants would eventually restore Isis to great prominence in Rome and Selene’s influence is as likely an explanation for that as any.
The favoritism shown to Cleopatra Selene by the imperial family, as well as the remarkable latitude she was allowed as queen, tells us that her relationship with Augustus was extraordinary. There is no evidence, however, that this extraordinary relationship was
amorous
. That Augustus was an adulterer is attested to by several sources, but my portrayal of him as a despoiler of virgins comes from Suetonius, who also mentions Livia as a possible partner in her husband’s proclivities. With this in mind, I invented the emperor’s obsession with Selene as a consistent rationale for the unexplained turns in her life, and imagined that it stemmed from Augustus’s preoccupation with Cleopatra VII as explored by Diana E. E. Kleiner in
Cleopatra and Rome
. Once I took this theory to its natural conclusion, it helped to explain several mysteries in the life of Augustus as well—including Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa’s brief self-imposed exile and apparent estrangement. (Although Augustus’s illness and the episode with his signet ring has a factual basis, I chose not to explore the Murena Conspiracy except by alluding to the unrest in Rome.)
Though we know that Mauretania was one of the few parts of his empire in which Augustus never set foot, Rome wasn’t a far journey from Iol-Caesaria, and Selene would have almost assuredly visited the capital. There are several indications that she and Juba owned a house in Rome as at least one of Juba’s retainers—a mime named Ecloga—is thought to have died there. Precedence for political visits by sitting monarchs can be found in the doings of King Herod, but Selene had more than political reasons to return to Rome; she had family there.
By contrast, there is no evidence that Selene visited Augustus during his sojourn on the Isle of Samos or that she was present for the negotiations with the Kandake of Meroë. If she
was
there, however, she would have almost certainly missed seeing Agrippa, who left the East in 22 B.C. to suppress Isis worshippers.
If Augustus ever gave serious consideration to restoring the Ptolemies in Egypt, the only evidence of it is on Selene’s coins, which display her clear intent to restore her dynasty. In any case, it must be remembered that Augustus’s residence on the Isle of Samos was actually a succession of visits that took place over the course of three years, during which he settled matters in the Eastern kingdoms, entertained an embassy from India, forged a peace treaty with Meroë, replaced Artaxias in Armenia, and made a show of force on the Parthian border that successfully led to the return of Roman battle standards. The invasion of Egypt by the Kandake of Meroë and her subsequent peace treaty with Augustus were more complex than presented here and the negotiations with Phraates of Parthia, including the return of his hostage son, took place over the course of several years. However, in the interest of brevity, I compressed these events in favor of the fascinating trip to Athens during which Augustus was initiated into the mysteries and witnessed the selfimmolation of an Indian ambassador. While the exact ingredients of
kykeon
are unknown, it has been described as a simple mixture of barley water and pennyroyal, but the wide variety of magical revelations described by initiates has led scientists and scholars, including Robert Graves, to posit that the drink was laced with hallucinogens.
Augustus’s personal interest in religion at this juncture might strike some as unusual, but it was part of a larger campaign to reshape his image and purge the Roman world of beliefs that ran counter to his propaganda. (Much more unusual is the coin issued by King Herod honoring Kore. Keen not to anger his Jewish subjects, Herod avoided depicting deities or human likenesses on his coins. That Herod made an exception for Kore, quite possibly on the eve of Augustus being initiated into the cult, struck me as significant.) Long after Alexander Helios disappears from the historical record, Augustus continued his posthumous argument with Cleopatra about the true bringer of a Golden Age. Virgil’s
Aeneid
was intended to promote Augustus’s image as a savior. Any contrary imagery or ideas had to be burned from memory. Indeed, Augustus would eventually seize the Syballine Books and destroy the parts he deemed fraudulent or, one presumes, inexpedient.
The
Aeneid
does mention Marcellus, and that mention did make Octavia swoon, but Virgil’s affair with Marcellus is my own invention based on the former’s suspected sexual proclivities.
The traditional notion that Juba was granted his ancestral lands, and that he and Selene started their rule in Numidia, has been disputed by Dr. Duane Roller in his book
The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene
. Consequently, I decided to short-circuit what would have been an interesting journey through Carthage and Africa Nova, in favor of a direct route to Iol, in Mauretania.
Due to thousands of years of deforestation and depletion of natural resources, today’s growing seasons in the region may be slightly different from those enjoyed in the land Juba and Selene settled, but I adopted relatively modern climate patterns. Juba’s subsequent explorations of his new kingdom posed the basis for one of his many geographic works, entitled
Libya
. It was in this seminal work that Juba claimed to have discovered the source of the Nile in Mauretania. As a matter of geography, he was wrong, but his theory about the Nile wasn’t definitively disproved for almost another two thousand years! If, however, Juba’s claim about the Nile was a bit of political poetry to woo Cleopatra Selene by tying her new kingdom to Egypt, it must have been very well received.