The Memoirs of Cleopatra Read Free Page B

though he wanted to smack the Roman. “Not exactly,” he said. “It is true that we are supported by the generosity of the Crown, but our King would never be so thoughtless as to make such outrageous demands on us.”
    “In fact,” said Father, “I have brought him here in order that he might question you , Varro. Meleagros is most interested in unusual plants and animals, and I understand that several of you have been observing and collecting near the Caspian Sea—after you ran Mithridates off, that is.”
    “Yes,” the man called Varro admitted. “We were hoping to learn more about a reputed trade route to India by way of the Caspian Sea. But Mithridates was not the only one to be run off—so were we, by deadly snakes. I never saw so many—all different sorts, too. Of course, what can you expect, at the edge of the known world like that—”
    “The geography there is puzzling,” one of the other men said, a Greekspeaker. Someone addressed him as Theophanes. “It is difficult to map—”
    “You have maps?” Meleagros looked interested.
    “Newly drawn. But perhaps you would like to see them?”
    And so on. The polite conversation continued. The boy by my side was silent, just looking. What was he doing here?
    The wine flowed, and the talking grew louder, more animated. The Romans forgot to speak Greek and lapsed back into Latin. What an odd, monotonous sound it had if you did not understand it. And I had not studied it. There was little to recommend it; nothing important was written in it, and there were no famous speeches in it. Other languages, such as Hebrew, Syriac, and Aramaic, were much more useful. And lately I had even decided to try to learn Egyptian, so that I could go anywhere in my country and understand the people. But Latin? That could wait.
    I watched my sisters, who were hardly bothering to hide their disdain for the Romans; when the conversation fell back into Latin, Berenice and Cleopatra just rolled their eyes. I was worried about it; what if the Romans saw them? I thought we were supposed to be careful about giving offense.
    Suddenly trumpets sounded and an array of servers appeared, as if from out of the walls, and snatched the gold vessels away, replacing them with more gold vessels, even more heavily engraved and jeweled than the first set. The Romans just stared—as I supposed they were meant to.
    But what was the point? Why was Father so anxious to show off our wealth? Would it not make them want to appropriate it? This confused me. I saw Pompey looking dreamily at the enormous cup before him, as if he were visualizing melting it down.
    And then I heard the word Caesar , and it was linked with something to do with greed and needing money. I thought Pompey was saying to Father—I strained very hard to overhear—that Caesar (whoever he was) had wanted to take Egypt and make it into a Roman province, since it had been willed to Rome….
    “But the will was false,” Father was saying, and his voice sounded as high as a eunuch’s. “Ptolemy Alexander had no right even to make such a bequest—”
    “Ha, ha, ha!” Pompey was saying. “That depends on who is interpreting—”
    “So you are intending to be a scientist, too?” Theophanes was speaking to the boy next to me, politely. “Is that why you came with your father?”
    Curses! Now I could not hear what Father and Pompey were saying, and it was terribly important. I tried to blank out the voice right beside me, but it was hopeless.
    “No,” the boy said, his voice drowning out the ones farther away. “Although I am interested in botany and in animals, I am more interested in the most complex animal of all: man. I wish to study him, therefore I will be a physician.”
    “And what is your name?” asked Theophanes as if he were really interested. “And your age?”
    “Olympos,” he said, “and I am nine. Ten next summer!”
    Oh, be quiet! I ordered him in my mind.
    But Theophanes kept asking him questions. Did he