Daughters of the Nile (78 page)

King Archelaus did try to trick Herod out of his murderous ways, and Crinagoras of Mytilene appears to have been in Herod’s court during the time of these intrigues.

More astonishingly, Dio tells us that Drusus retreated from his last campaign after being haunted by a phantasm, and that before he died of a fall from his horse, his men were spooked by visions of boys on horseback and the sounds of a mournful mother wailing. These things are plain in the historical record and I have tried to pepper the manuscript with mentions of actual artifacts—such as the silver platter with Selene in elephant headdress—documented quotes, and anecdotes whenever possible. In fact, the story about the Berber woman and the lion comes from Juba’s writings, as does his epigram mocking Leonteus’s play.

Nevertheless, there were a surprising number of choices to be made where the historical record is ambiguous. For example, we know that Selene and Juba had at least one son, but his age is in dispute. Some scholars believe Ptolemy was born as late as 1
B.C
. Others posit that he was born earlier, pointing to portrait evidence and mentions of his later military service in the rebellion of Tacfarinas.

But if it is true that Ptolemy is portrayed on the
Ara Pacis
, then he would have to have been born before its dedication, which complicates the matter even further. To resolve these questions, it has been suggested that Cleopatra Selene and Juba II had more than one son, both named Ptolemy, and that one died before reaching adulthood. I adopted that theory because it solves the problem quite neatly. Whatever the date of his birth or however many siblings he may have had, Ptolemy of Mauretania became the King of Mauretania. His wife appears to have been Julia Urania of Emesa—one of several indications of strong ties between those two ruling families—a thing that may lend credence to the claims of Queen Zenobia, another bad girl of the ancient world, who held herself out as a descendent of Cleopatra VII of Egypt. And it may be of interest to the reader to note that the black stone worshipped in Emesa is thought to be the same one later set into the wall of the Kaaba by the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

We know nothing about Selene’s daughter except that she existed. The evidence is an inscription, most likely dedicated during a visit with Juba to Greece, in which the girl is referred to only as the daughter of the Libyan king. Historians traditionally identify Selene’s daughter as Drusilla of Mauretania, but recent scholarship indicates Drusilla is actually Selene’s
granddaughter,
the future wife of the procurator Antonius Felix in Judea.

Moreover, the single most telling historical fact that we know about Selene is that she named her son Ptolemy, reaching into her dynastic heritage rather than her husband’s. This not only bespeaks of Selene’s extraordinary power and prestige, but also tells us that her daughter would almost certainly have been given a dynastic name, and that is why I chose
Cleopatra Isidora
.

As for Pythodorida of Tralles, she does not appear to be one of the children taken in by Octavia or Antonia Minor to be fostered in Rome. And yet as the granddaughter of Marcus Antonius, she was able to secure not just one, but two royal marriages that eventually made her sole ruler of Pontus. Importantly, Pythodorida adopted the titles of the Ptolemaic dynasty. That there was only one living Ptolemaic queen for Pythodorida to emulate gives a clue as to who her patroness might have been. In short, if Pythodorida was not raised in Rome, then her presence at the court of Juba II and Cleopatra Selene is the most probable alternative.

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. 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 fate of Alexander Helios is lost to us. For all intents and purposes, Selene’s twin brother entered the household of Augustus after the Triumph of 29
B.C.
and disappeared from the history books. Some historians believe that he must have died of natural causes or been done away with by Augustus, and others theorize that he went to live with Selene in Mauretania. In any case, I decided to embrace the ambiguity surrounding his life and death and adopt it as my own.

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 assuredly visited the capital. There are several indications that she and Juba owned a house in Rome. 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.

Due to thousands of years of deforestation and depletion of natural resources, today’s growing seasons in North Africa may be slightly different than those enjoyed in the land Juba and Selene settled, but I adopted relatively modern climate patterns.

Other ambiguities in the historical record were more inconvenient. We know Augustus was not able to reach Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa before his mysterious death, but the sequence of events leading to Agrippa’s death are a matter of some debate. The common wisdom holds that Agrippa set out to crush the rebellion in Pannonia but the natives settled down upon hearing of his imminent arrival, at which time he retired to Campagna and took ill. Biographer Pat Southern argues more persuasively, however, that Agrippa took ill before starting the campaign and it was, therefore, aborted. What killed Agrippa, we cannot say. Other than Agrippa’s foot ailment, which may have been gout, he was known for good health. Given that he and Lepidus were of the patrician class and in proximity at the time of their demise, it has been theorized that they died of plague.

That Augustus immediately removed himself to Aquileia, ostensibly to take over in Pannonia, is consistent with this theory, so I adopted it.

Similarly, the imprecise chronology of Josephus’s account of Herod’s ongoing troubles with his sons compelled me to make some educated guesses when it came to the exact dates of torture, trials, and executions.

Then we come to the controversy surrounding Selene’s death. Due to the discovery of the mysterious El Ksar hoard of coins depicting Selene without reference to Juba as her coruler, historians have traditionally assumed that Selene was alive as late as
A.D.
17. If she did live this long, she would have ruled Mauretania while Juba traveled on an expedition with Gaius Caesar. It would also mean that she was alive when Juba married Glaphyra of Cappadocia between
A.D.
1 and 6.

The nearly concurrent uprising in Mauretania with Juba’s hasty divorce from Glaphyra raises all manner of questions. Did Juba take Glaphyra as a second wife? Did a resentful Selene allow the political situation to get out of hand so that Juba would be forced to return home? Was he compelled to divorce Glaphyra to keep his throne? If so, was it because Selene wouldn’t tolerate a rival or because Augustus worried about an alliance between Juba and the Cappadocian dynasty?

A rift in Selene’s marriage has been posited—one that was mended after Juba’s return. In fact, Beatrice Chanler points to an inscription on a monument she credits to Selene that welcomes Juba home in
A.D.
6. However, modern scholars argue that because Juba was a thoroughly Romanized king, he would not have taken a second wife, and his marriage to Glaphyra is probably the best evidence that Selene was already dead. Then they attempt to pinpoint the year of Selene’s death by correlating astronomical data with the eulogy written for Selene by Crinagoras of Mytilene. The lunar eclipse that best fits took place in 5
B.C
.

I don’t share a certainty that Juba’s Romanization or citizenship would have prevented him from taking a second wife. His father is known to have had many wives, in keeping with Numidian custom, and the practice may have been considered a way to strengthen Juba’s hand amongst his native Berbers. Moreover, although King Herod held Roman citizenship, he had more wives than he could manage. However, it does seen unlikely that the King of Cappadocia would have allowed his headstrong daughter to become a second wife in any arrangement, much less one involving Cleopatra’s daughter. Beyond the Glaphyra problem, I’m loath to ignore the numismatic evidence of the El Ksar coins. I’m also wary of taking Crinagoras too literally. After all, the epigram he wrote upon Selene’s marriage to Juba demonstrates that he felt free to take creative license.

Nevertheless, in this matter I bowed in deference to the weight of scholarly opinions more informed than my own.

* * *

NOW
we come to the things that I simply changed or made up.

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 the rest of the series, the children of Cleopatra are all aged accurately. Astute readers might notice that Selene’s freedwoman was erroneously called Cleopatra Antonianus in the previous novel, but because I realized my translation error, she is referred to only as Chryssa in this book.

Generally speaking, upper-class women in Roman society left their children in the care of a nursemaid, which minimized attachments during the dangerous early years when child mortality was so high. Tutors were often more influential in the lives of children than parents. Given Selene’s history, however, and her desperation to continue her dynasty, I chose to give her a much more modern approach to motherhood. 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. Iacentus was the commander of their guard. Much of 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 the ambassador 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 were almost certainly in frequent contact.

Publius Antius Amphio was the royal architect of Mauretania, but his fraudulent counterpart in the novel, Necho of Alexandria, is a figure I made up to represent the dangers of forgery and deception that Cleopatra Selene and Juba II faced away from the Roman capital.

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 series.

Lasthenia and Circe are both invented characters, archetypes of women who did exist at the time. The Berber characters of Maysar and Tala are both inventions of mine, but Mazippa is not, and he figures prominently into the later history of the Mauretanian kingdom along with Tacfarinas.

As for what I invented in the story line itself, Agrippa and Augustus painted a picture of harmony, but there is historical evidence of tension between them. First there was Agrippa’s self-imposed exile before the death of Marcellus. Then there was the advice given to the emperor that he had made his general so great that he had better marry him to his daughter or kill him. That Augustus felt compelled not only to adopt Agrippa’s sons but to secure powers for his son-in-law that made him a virtual coemperor can be explained by a strong trust and friendship between the two men. My choice to infer continued tension in their relationship is plausible, but made for dramatic purposes.

We do not know whether or not Juba was present at the final Herodian trial held in Beirut. What we do know is that Juba and his daughter almost certainly made a trip East, during which they were memorialized. The proximity of the Olympic Games, the wedding of Pythodorida, and the Herodian trial left me with 8
B.C.
as a likely and convenient date for such a trip.

We also do not know the cause of Cleopatra Selene’s death, though it has been widely posited to have resulted from childbirth so late in life. To that end, I ascribed to her the symptoms of Sheehan’s syndrome, which is a complication arising out of childbirth when too much blood is lost.

Though Julia traveled extensively throughout the empire, it is not known whether or not she ever set foot in Mauretania. The trip in which she nearly drowned has no definitive date, but my choice to place it in the summer of 16
B.C.
might be too early and the subsequent visit to Judea almost certainly took place in the following year. Julia’s Villa Farnesina was indeed painted with exotic Egyptian scenes, including a tribute to both Isis and the goddess Selene, but it was likely furnished upon her wedding to Agrippa in 19
B.C.
instead of 13
B.C
.

My wish to reproduce the exact sequence of the Secular Games was frustrated by conflicting historical accounts and a need not to overwhelm the reader in banqueting, theater, revelry, and blood sacrifice. So I presented here a condensed and slightly reordered version.

The Roman-era culture of the Berbers in general and the Mauri, Gaetulians, and Musulamii 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 gave, I have incorporated. We know that Garamantes were slave traders, but the Berbers in general declare themselves free people, so it seemed reasonable, especially in light of the tapering off of slavery in the Mauretanian kingdom, to ascribe to them a distaste for slavery. Unfortunately, modern-day examples of Berber culture are of limited utility.