As for Selene and Juba’s court, I mixed known historical figures with those of my own creation. Leonteus of Argos and Gnaios the gem cutter are known courtiers and funeral inscriptions of those descended from Selene’s intimates give us names like Cleopatra Antonianus. (Ecloga is thought to have died circa 30 B.C. but as she’s used as evidence by scholars of Selene and Juba’s connection to Rome, I had her survive into their reign, which is not out of range of that approximate date.) The fragmentary literary evidence for Selene’s life comes down to us from Crinagoras of Mytilene—both her wedding poem as well as one written at her death, so I adopted the theory that he was a member of her court at some time. That he seems to have maintained ties to Antonia Minor doesn’t argue against this possibility, as Selene and her half sister may have been in frequent contact. Crinagoras was also an ambassador who wrote on political themes. He dedicated poetry to Tiberius during the latter’s excursion into Armenia, lending support to my notion that Selene visited the court of Augustus on the Isle of Samos or, at the very least, was acutely aware of what was happening during this crucial political transition.
Lucius Cornelius Balbus the Younger owned many plantations in Spain and North Africa and seems to have had intimate dealings with the Mauretanian King Bogud, an ally of Antony. Yet, after Augustus came to power, Balbus was eventually made a proconsul in Africa. As such, he’d have been quite invested in the progress of the Mauretanian client kingdom before his eventual role in the war against the Garamantes, so when searching for a representative of the type of settler that Selene would have had to deal with in the early years of her reign, I could think of no better example.
While Lasthenia and Circe are both invented characters, they are archetypes of women who did exist at the time. Several female Pythagorean scholars took the name Lasthenia, and Mauretania would later be noted for the elevated status of women that has been credited to Selene and the relatively egalitarian influence of the Alexandrian culture she imported.
Euphronius (or Euphronios) is an actual historical figure, referenced in ancient sources as a tutor to Cleopatra’s children. Euphorbus Musa was also a historical figure. He was brother to the more famous Antonius Musa and Juba’s court physician, after whom the plant family Euphorbia is named. With some regret and great trepidation, I combined the two men because of the similarities of their names and because they would serve essentially the same function in the novel.
Yet, it was the made-up characters of Maysar and Tala who posed the greatest difficulty for me as an author. The Roman-era culture of the Berbers in general and the Mauri and Gaetulians specifically are largely lost to us. Strabo, Herodotus, and other ancient geographers give us little to differentiate the tribes of Mauretania from those in Numidia and elsewhere, but what information they give, I have incorporated. Slavery seems to have fallen off sharply in Mauretania after the initial influx from Rome when Selene and Juba arrived. Whether or not this was because of a personal abhorrence to the practice on the part of the rulers or their Berber subjects is unclear. We know that Garamantes were slave traders, but the Berbers in general declared themselves free people, so it seemed reasonable to ascribe to them a distaste for slavery. Unfortunately, modern-day examples of Berber culture are of limited utility. For example, ancient proto-Berber men are often depicted in art as wearing a great deal of jewelry but modern Berber men largely eschew it. Moreover, because the indigenous Berber culture in modern Algeria has been suppressed, it’s difficult to reconstruct what these North African people must have been like before the spread of Islam. Indeed, it’s always dangerous to assume that the cultural anthropology of tribes as we observe them now has anything to do with their identity in ancient times. Even so, I decided to risk extrapolating known Berber customs of the Tuaregs, including their jewelry and indigo dye, back through time. Certainly, Berber culture outside urban settings such as Iol-Caesaria deserves a more in-depth look than the one presented here, and it’s something I hope to tackle in the next book of this series.
For a more thorough discussion of the history surrounding the life of Cleopatra Selene, please visit
stephaniedray.com
.
READERS GUIDE
SONG OF THE NILE
On the Story
1. Is Helios alive, or is he a manifestation of the part of Selene’s soul that helps her survive the worst moments of her life?
2. After Selene was raped, Livia offered her a cup of poison to wash away the dishonor. Did Selene have anything to be ashamed of?
3. Selene’s mother chose death over dishonor, but Selene chose not to drink the poison. What does that say about her?
4. What does Isis mean when she tells Selene,
Child of Isis, you are more than flesh
?
5. Why does Livia do the wicked things she does? Is she motivated by fear, ambition, or something else?
6. Selene holds grudges and can be vengeful. Do you think she was wrong to instigate the death of Cornelius Gallus, Prefect of Egypt? Should she have forgiven Euphronius sooner? Should she forgive Juba at all?
7. Were Marcellus and Philadelphus poisoned? If so, by whom and for what reason?
8. What does it say about Selene’s character that she kept the tattered, bloodstained dress that she wore as a child in the emperor’s Triumph? Why did she give it back to the King of Emesa?
9. Is Maysar right when he says Selene punishes herself for being alive when all her family is dead? How does Selene’s survivor’s guilt influence her choices in the novel?
10. What are Selene’s strengths and weaknesses? How is she like Augustus and how does she differ from him?
11. What lessons did Selene learn from her mother and father?
12. What did Selene learn from Circe and Livia? What did she learn from the emperor? Can we all learn things from our enemies?
13. Is Augustus truly Selene’s enemy? She says that she hates him, but her feelings toward him are always evolving. Why do you think her feelings toward the emperor are so complicated?
14. How does Juba change over the course of the novel? What about Octavia? Helios? Chryssa?
15. What is behind the emperor’s obsession with Selene and why does Augustus allow her so much power and influence over him?
16. How is the myth of Persephone and Hades reflected in Selene’s life?
17. Should Selene have sacrificed her happiness in Mauretania in order to regain her mother’s throne? Did she owe it to her dead family to dedicate her life to Egypt? What about her Alexandrian courtiers and all the other people who want her to become the Queen of Egypt?
18. What would Selene’s mother, Cleopatra the Great, have to say about her daughter’s choice to return to Mauretania?
19. Why does Augustus eventually send Selene away?
20. If Selene has Juba’s son, how will it affect her relationship with Augustus? Do you think he’ll ever summon Selene again?
On the History, Culture, and Religion
21. Historically speaking, Philadelphus and Helios disappear from the record. Some historians have theorized that the two boys went to Mauretania to live in obscurity with Selene. Others believe they died or that Augustus had them killed.
Song of the Nile
embraces the ambiguity about their fates, but what do you think happened to the boys?
22. One of the few things we know about the historical King Juba is that he rode past a woman at the side of the road, who berated him for having spattered her with mud with his hooves. He replied, “Madam, do you take me for a
centaur
?” What does this tell us about the character of Juba?
23. Instead of invading Parthia, Augustus settled upon a negotiation for the lost battle standards of Rome. Why did he make peace with them instead of fighting for treasure and conquest?
24. Augustus took a serious interest in the prophecies of the Sibyl, going so far as to hunt down “unauthorized” prophecies and burning them. He eventually stored his own “official” version of the Sibylline Books in the Temple of Apollo. Why did he do this?
25. In the ancient world, to be initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries was a hallmark of a civilized person. The faithful claimed to have seen visions of the dead and terrors of the night. A modern theory is that the sacred
kykeon
brew contained hallucinogenics. Do you think these visions were true spiritual ones or drug-induced illusions or both?
26. While Rome was generally tolerant toward other religions and Isis would go on to dominate the ancient world until the rise of Christianity, Isis worship was out of favor during Selene’s lifetime. What does it say about Cleopatra Selene that she never renounced Isis as her patron deity and continued to be a proponent of her faith in spite of the emperor’s enmity for the cult?
27. After Cleopatra’s death, her daughter Selene was the most prominent client queen in the Roman Empire. Selene had the power to mint her own coins, and her children were named after
her
side of the family. Do you think this is because of her prestige as a Ptolemaic queen, the fact that she had an extraordinary relationship with Augustus, or that Juba couldn’t control her?
28. Though Selene and Juba are thought to have been married in 25 B.C., she would not appear on the coinage of the realm as a coruler of Mauretania until 20 B.C. Juba’s coins are in Latin and deferential to Rome. Selene’s coins are always in Greek, often flouting the emperor’s official narrative by celebrating her dead mother—an enemy of Rome—elevating the goddess Isis, and hinting that either Egypt would soon break free of its bonds or that she represented the throne of Egypt in exile. Does this represent a political split between the two monarchs, or could it have been a calculated strategy between Selene and Juba to appeal to different political elements in their kingdom?
29. Juba claimed to have discovered the source of the Nile in Mauretania. It would take hundreds of years before he was proved wrong. Do you think Juba stretched the truth for political reasons—perhaps to flatter Cleopatra Selene and make her feel more at home? Or do you believe that he simply made a mistake?
30. The end of the Republic and the founding of the Julio-Claudian dynasty looks inevitable in retrospect, but what stumbling blocks and dangers did Augustus face on his path to absolute power?
Berkley titles by Stephanie Dray
LILY OF THE NILE
SONG OF THE NILE