The eldest son of Cleopatra stands upon the steps of the Gymnasium before the Alexandrians, his rich and royal clothing gleaming in the midday sun. Slightly to his rear, his brothers whisper jokes, but he can’t join them in their muffled laughter. Even when a soldier faints in the oppressive heat, Caeasarion stays solemn, not a flicker of a smile. A trumpet sounds. Antony declares that Cleopatra is the goddess Isis, Queen of Kings, the Queen of Egypt and of Cyprus. Their two young sons are named as Kings of Syria, Cilicia, of Parthia, Armenia, and Media, their daughter Cleopatra as the Queen of Libya and Cyrenaica. A pause. A drop of sweat begins to form above Caesarion’s right eye; he feels it trickle slowly down his cheek. The trumpet sounds. The voice of Antony, his mother’s husband, now goes up in volume but its pitch is lower. It declares Caesarion to be the son and rightful heir of Julius, who’s recently been deified in Rome. And, as the offspring of a god and goddess, he is therefore doubly divine, and made the King of Kings, joint ruler with his mother of the land of Egypt. The small boy, dressed as Horus, somehow stands erect and bears the cheering of the crowd, in which he thinks to hear an undertow of mockery. Some four years later, at the age of seventeen, the last of the unhappy line of Ptolemy, Caesarion lies dead in Alexandria, his crime: to be an excess Caesar.
"Caesarion" (after Kavafis).
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