Stealing from his camp by night, she crossed the Tiber on horseback. Porsenna sent to demand her, and she was given up to him; but he dismissed her with her companions for the great esteem he had of her virtue. The Senate erected an equestrian statue to her. CLEOBULE, or CLEOBULINE, DAUGHTER of Cleobulus, prince of Lindos, in Greece, who flourished B. C. 594, was celebrated for her enigmatical sentences, or riddles, composed chiefly in Greek verse. CLEOPATRA, They her answer to foreign ambassadors. She herself gave audience to the Ethiopians, the Troglodytes, Hebrews, Arabians, Syrians, Medes, and Parthians. She could converse on all topics, grave or gay; and put on any humour, according to the purpose of the moment. So many charms captivated Cæsar at once; and the next morning he sent for Ptolemy and urged him to receive Cleopatra on her own terms; but Ptolemy appealed to the people, and put the whole city in an uproar. A war commenced, in which Cæsar proved victorious; and Ptolemy, while endeavouring to escape across the Nile in a boat, was drowned. Cæsar then caused Cleopatra to marry her younger brother, also named Ptolemy, who, being a boy of eleven, could only contribute his name to the joint sovereignty. This mature statesman and warrior, who had almost forgotten ambition for love, at length tore himself from Cleopatra, who had borne him a son, Cæsarion, and went to Rome. WAS the eldest daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, king of Egypt. On his death, B. C. 51, he left his crown to her, then only seventeen years old, and her eldest brother Ptolemy, who was still younger, directing them, according to the custom of that family, to be married, and committing them to the care of the Roman Senate. could not agree, however, either to be married or to reign together; and the ministers of Ptolemy deprived Cleopatra of her share in the government, and banished her from the kingdom. She retired to Syria, and raised an army, with which she approached the Egyptian frontier. Just at this time, Julius Cæsar, in pursuit of Pompey, sailed into Egypt, and came to Alexandria. Here he employed himself in hearing and determining the controversy between Ptolemy and Cleopatra, which he claimed a right to do as an arbitrator appointed by the will of Auletes; the power of the Romans being then vested in him as dictator. But Cleopatra laid a plot to attach him to her cause by the power of those charms which distinguished her in so peculiar a manner. She sent word to Cæsar that her cause was betrayed by those who managed it for her, and begged to be allowed to come in person and plead it before him. This being granted, she came secretly into the port of Alexandria in a small skiff, in the dusk of the evening; and to elude her brother's officers, who then commanded the place, she caused herself to be tied up in her bedding and carried to Cæsar's apartment on the back of one of her slaves. She was then about nineteen; and though, according to Plutarch, not transcendently beautiful, yet her wit and fascinating manners made her quite irresistible. Her eyes were remarkably fine, and her voice was delightfully melodious, and capable of all the variety of modulation belonging to a musical instrument. She spoke seven different languages, and seldom employed an interpreter in After his departure, Cleopatra reigned unmolested; and when her husband had reached his fourteenth year, the age of majority in Egypt, she poisoned him, and from that time reigned alone in Egypt. She went to Rome to see Cæsar, and while there lodged in his house, where her authority over him made her insolence intolerable to the Romans. His assassination so alarmed her that she fled precipitately to her own country, where, out of regard to the memory of Cæsar, she raised a fleet to go to the assistance of the triumvirs, but was obliged by a storm to return. After the battle of Philippi, Antony visited Asia, and, on the pretext that Cleopatra had furnished Cassius with some supplies, he summoned her to appear before him at Tarsus, in Cilicia. Cleopatra prepared for the interview in a manner suited to the state of a young and beautiful eastern queen. Laden with money and magnificent gifts, she sailed with her fleet to the mouth of the Cydnus. There she embarked in a vessel whose stern was of gold, sails of purple silk, and oars of silver that kept time to a concert of several instruments. She herself was lying under a canopy of cloth of gold, dressed like Venus rising out of the sea; about her were lovely children like Cupids fanning her; the handsomest of her women, habited like Nereids and Graces, were leaning on the sides and shrouds of the vessel; the sweets that were burning perfumed the banks of the river, which were covered by crowds of people, shouting, that "the goddess Venus was come to visit Bacchus for the happiness of Asia;" while Antony sat alone and unattended. Cleopatra succeeded in her object; Antony became her captive; and the impression her beauty and splendour had made on him was completed and rendered durable by the charms of her society. Her influence over him became unbounded, and she abused it to the worst purposes. At her request, her younger sister, Arsinoe, was assassinated; and she scrupled no act of injustice for the aggrandizement of her dominions. After Antony had spent a winter with her at Alexandria, he went to Italy, where he married Octavia. Cleopatra's charms, however, drew him back to Egypt; and when he had proceeded on his expe- | thirty-ninth year at the time of her death; she dition against Parthia, he sent for her into Syria, where she rendered him odious by the cruelties and oppressions she urged him to practice. After his return, he bestowed upon her many provinces, by which he incurred the displeasure of the Roman people. When the civil war broke out between Antony and Octavianus, afterwards Augustus Cæsar, emperor of Rome, Cleopatra accompanied Antony, and added sixty ships to his navy. It was by her persuasion that the deciding battle was fought by sea, at Actium. She commanded her own fleet; but her courage soon failed her, and before the danger reached her she fled, followed by the whole squadron and the infatuated Antony, who, however, was very angry with Cleopatra on this occasion, and remained three days without seeing her. He was at length reconciled to her, and, on the approach of Octavianus, they both sent publicly to treat with him; but, at the same time, Cleopatra gave her ambassadors private instructions for negotiating with him separately. Hoping to secure the kingdom of Egypt for herself and her children, she promised to put it into the hands of Octavianus; and, as a pledge for the performance, she delivered up to him the important city of Pelusium. Near the temple of Isis she had built a tower, which she designed for her sepulchre; and into this was carried all her treasures, as gold, jewels, pearls, ivory, ebony, cinnamon, and other precious woods; it was also filled with torches, faggots, and tow, so that it could be easily set on fire. To this tower she retired after the last defeat of Antony, and on the approach of Octavianus; and when Antony gave himself the mortal stab, he was carried to the foot of the tower, and drawn up into it by Cleopatra and her women, where he expired in her arms. left two sons and a daughter by Antony, whom she had married after his divorce from Octavia, besides her son by Cæsar, whom Octavianus put to death as a rival. With her terminated the family of Ptolemy Lagus, and the monarchy of Egypt, which was thenceforth a Roman province. Cleopatra was an object of great dread and abhorrence to the Romans, who detested her as the cause of Antony's divorce from Octavia, and the subsequent civil war. Her ambition was as unbounded as her love of pleasure; and her usual oath was, "So may I give law in the capitol." Her temper was imperious, and she was boundlessly profuse in her expenditures; nor did she ever hesitate to sacrifice, when it suited her own interest, all the decorums of her rank and sex. But we must remember, also, that she lived in an age of crime. She was better than the men her subtle spirit subdued, for she was true to her country. Never was Egypt so rich in wealth, power and civilization, as under her reign. She reconstructed the precious library of her capital; and when the wealth of Rome was at her command, proffered by the dissolute Antony, who thought her smiles cheaply bought at the price of the Roman empire, Cleopatra remarked,-"The treasures I want are two hundred thousand volumes from Pergamus, for my library of Alexandria." Her children, by Antony, were carried to Rome, to grace the triumph of Octavianus. Octavia, Antony's repudiated wife, took charge of them: and Cleopatra, the daughter, was afterwards married to Juba, king of Mauritania. CLYTEMNESTRA WAS the daughter of Tyndarus, king of Sparta, and Leda, and twin-sister of Helen. She bore her husband, Agamemnon, two daughters, Sphigenia and Electra, and one son, Orestes. During the absence of Agamemnon, in his wars against Troy, she became enamoured of Ægisthus, and assisted him to murder Agamemnon on his return. She then, together with Ægisthus, governed Mycene for seven years. Orestes, at length, killed them both. CORINNA, Octavianus, who feared lest Cleopatra should burn herself and all her treasures, and thus avoid falling into his hands and gracing his triumphal entry into Rome, sent Proculus to employ all his art in obtaining possession of her person; which he managed to do by stealing in at one of the windows. When Cleopatra saw him, she attempted to kill herself; but Proculus prevented her, and took from her every weapon with which she might commit such an act. She then resolved to starve herself; but her children were threatened with A POETESS, to whom the Greeks gave the appeldeath if she persisted in the attempt. When Oc-lation of the Lyric Muse, was a native of Tanagra, tavianus came to see her, she attempted to captivate him, but unsuccessfully; she had, however, gained the heart of his friend, Dolabella, who gave her private notice that she was to be carried to Rome within three days, to take a part in the triumph of Octavianus. She had an asp, a small serpent, whose bite is said to induce a kind of lethargy and death without pain, brought to her in a basket of figs; and the guards who were sent to secure her person, found her lying dead on a couch, dressed in her royal robes, with one of her women dead at her feet, and the other expiring. The victor, though greatly disappointed, buried her, with much magnificence, in the tomb with Antony, as she had requested. She was in her in Boeotia. She flourished in the fifth century B. C., and was a contemporary of Pindar, from whom she five times won the prize in poetical contests. Her fellow-citizens erected a tomb to her in the most frequented part of their city. Only a few fragments of her works are extant. She did justice to the superiority of Pindar's genius, but advised him not to suffer his poetical ornaments to intrude so often, as they smothered the principal subject; comparing it to pouring a vase of flowers all at once on the ground, when their beauty and excellence could only be observed in proportion to their rarity and situation. Her glory seems to have been established by the public memorial of her picture, exhibited in her native city, and adorned with a symbol of her victory. Pausanias, | had imbibed the heroic, or ambitious spirit of the who saw it, supposes her to have been one of the most beautiful women of her age; and observes that her personal charms probably rendered her judges partial,-a very masculine idea. CORINNA, or CRINNA, Or the Isle of Telos, lived about B. C. 610. She wrote a fine poem in the Doric language, consisting of three hundred verses. Her style is said to have resembled that of Homer. She died at the age of nineteen. CORNELIA, THE mother of the Gracchi. In this lady every circumstance of birth, life, and character, conspired to give her a glowing and ever-living page in history. Two thousand years have passed away, and yet her name stands out as freshly, as if she had been cotemporaneous with Elizabeth and Mary. She was the daughter of Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal. Such descent could hardly have received an addition of glory or distinction. But, such was the life of Cornelia, that even the fame of Scipio received new lustre. She was married to a man, who, though he filled many high Roman offices, yet derived still greater dignity from her virtues. This was Tiberius Gracchus, the grandson of Sempronius, who was eulogized by Cicero for wisdom and virtue. He was thought worthy of Cornelia, and the event proved that one was as remarkable as the other, for what in that age of the world must have been deemed the highest excellencies of the human character. Tiberius died, leaving Cornelia with twelve children. Her character was such, that Ptolemy king of Egypt paid his addresses to her, but was rejected. She devoted herself to the care of her house and children; in which she behaved with the sweetest sobriety, parental affection, and greatness of mind. During her widowhood, she lost all her children except three, one daughter, who was married to Scipio the younger, and two sons, Tiberius and Caius Gracchus. Plutarch remarks, that "Cornelia brought them up with so much care, that though they were without dispute of the noblest family, and had the happiest geniuses of any of the Roman youth, yet education was allowed to have contributed more to their perfections than nature." This remark may show in forcible colours the vast influence of mothers in the education of youth. It is certain that there is no natural genius which may not be improved by education, and it is equally certain that no human being can have as much influence on that education as the mother. When a Campanian lady once displayed her jewels before Cornelia, requesting to see hers in return, Cornelia produced her two sons, saying, "These are all the jewels of which I can boast." She also gave public lectures on philosophy in Rome, and was more fortunate in her disciples than her sons. Cicero says of her, that, "Cornelia, had she not been a woman, would have deserved the first place among philosophers." Cornelia, like all the leading women of Rome, age. She is said to have made remarks to her sons which seemed to spur them on more rapidly in their public career. The result was not very fortunate. For though her sons sustained the highest name for purity of character; though they have come down to us, distinguished as the Gracchi, and though they were associated with the popular cause, yet their measures were so revolutionary and violent, that they were both destroyed in popular tumults. Cornelia survived the death of her sons, which she bore with great magnanimity. They had been killed on consecrated ground, and of these places she said, that "they were monuments worthy of them." She lived subsequently a life of elegant and hospitable ease, surrounded by men of letters, and courted by the great. We cannot have a better idea of the close of her life, and of the high estimation in which she stood, than by the very words of Plutarch. This writer closes the lives of the Gracchi with the following account of Cornelia: "She took up her residence at Misenum, and made no alteration in her manner of living. As she had many friends, her table was always open for the purpose of hospitality. Greek, and other men of letters she had always with her, and all the kings in alliance with Rome expressed their regard by sending her presents, and receiving the like civilities in return. She made herself very agreeable to her guests, by acquainting them with many particulars of her father Africanus, and of his manner of living. But what they most admired in her was, that she could speak of her sons without a sigh or a tear, and recount their actions and sufferings as if she had been giving an account of some ancient heroes. Some therefore imagined that age and the greatness of her misfortunes had deprived her of her understanding and sensibility. But those who were of that opinion seem rather to have wanted understanding themselves; since they know not how much a noble mind may, by a liberal education, be enabled to support itself against distress; and that though, in the pursuit of rectitude, Fortune may often defeat the purposes of Virtue, yet Virtue, in bearing affliction, can never lose her prerogative." The whole life of Cornelia presents a beautiful character; and from the facts which have come down to us we may draw these inferences: 1. Cornelia must have been educated in a very superior manner by her father. For in no other manner can we account for her knowledge and love of literature; nor for the fact, that while yet young she was regarded as worthy of the most virtuous and noble men of Rome. 2. She must have been, from the beginning, a woman of fixed principles and undaunted courage; for, in no other manner can we give a solution to her rejection of the king of Egypt, her unremitting care of her family, the high education of her sons, and the great influence she held over them. 3. She must have cultivated literature and the graces of conversation; for, how else could she have drawn around the fireside of a retired widow, the men of letters, and even the compliments of distant princes? D. DAMO From all this we may draw the conclusion that it is quite possible for a lady to be a woman of letters, and yet a good housekeeper, a good mother, a very agreeable companion, and a useful DAUGHTER of Pythagoras, the philosopher, was member of society. It is true, that all women one of his favourite disciples, and was initiated by cannot have the same early advantages, the same him into all the secrets of his philosophy. Her parental care, the same rich opportunities, and father entrusted to her all his writings, enjoining the same splendid line of life. Yet how few are her not to make them public. This command she they who have improved, to the same advantage, strictly obeyed, though tempted with large offers, the talents with which they have really been en- while she was struggling with the evils of poverty. dowed! And, yet more, how few are the fathers She lived single, in obedience to her father's and mothers who think these riches of the immor- wishes, and exhorted other young women, whose tal mind at all equivalent to the petty accomplish-education she took charge of, to do the same. ments of fashion? Yet it is these high qualities She was born at Crotona, in Italy, and lived about of mind alone which remain, like the eternal laws | B. C. 500. of nature, after all the modes of fashion and the revolutions of time. From this living fountain flows all the bubbling, sparkling, running waters of life. It overflows beyond the boundaries of life, and enriches every territory of distant posterity. In her lifetime a statue was raised to her, with this inscription: Cornelia mater Gracchorum. She died about 230 years before Christ. CORNELIA, A DAUGHTER of Metellus Scipio, who married Pompey, after the death of her first husband, P. Crassus. She was an eminently virtuous woman, and followed Pompey in his flight to Egypt, after his defeat by Cæsar at Pharsalia, B. C. 48; and saw him murdered on his landing. She attributed all his misfortunes to his connection with her. CORNELIA, DAUGHTER of Cinna, and first wife of Julius Cæsar. She became the mother of Julia, Pompey's wife, and was so beloved by her husband that he pronounced a funeral oration over her corpse. CRATESIPOLIS, A QUEEN of Sicyon, celebrated for her valour, after the death of her husband, Alexander, B. C. 314. CREUSA, DAUGHTER of Priam, king of Troy, and of Hecuba his wife, married Æneas, by whom she had Ascanius. When Troy was taken, B. C. 1184, she fled in the night with her husband; but in the confusion they were separated, and Æneas could not recover her. Some assert that Cybele saved her, and that Creusa became a priestess in her temple. CYNISCA, DAUGHTER of Agesilaus, king of Sparta, B. C. 400, was celebrated by the Lacedæmonians for excelling in the Olympic games. Her brother, to show his contempt for these exercises, with difficulty persuaded her to enter the lists; for he thought those amusements would not be held in estimation, if a woman could obtain the prize. DAMOPHILA, WIFE of Damophilus, the Grecian philosopher, was the contemporary, relation, and rival of Sappho. She composed a poem on Diana, and a variety of odes on subjects connected with the passion of love. She is mentioned by Theophilus, in his life of Apollonius Thayneus. She flourished about B. C. 610. DEBORAH, A PROPHETESS and judge in Israel, and the most extraordinary woman recorded in the Old Testament. She lived about a hundred and thirty years after the death of Joshua. The Israelites were in subjection to Jabin, king of the Canaanites, who for twenty years had "mightily oppressed" them. Josephus says, "No humiliation was saved them; and this was permitted by God, to punish them for their pride and obstinacy;" according to the Bible, for their "idolatry and wickedness." In this miserable and degraded condition they were, when "Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth," was raised up to be the "judge" and deliverer of her people. By the authority God had sanctioned, in giving her superior spiritual insight and patriotism, she called and commissioned Barak to take 10,000 men of the children of Naphthali and of Zebulun, and go against Sisera and his host. According to Josephus, this armed host of Canaanites consisted of 300,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and 3000 chariots; the Bible does not give the number, but names "nine hundred chariots of iron," and the army as "a multitude." Barak seems to have been so alarmed at the idea of defying such a host of enemies, or so doubtful of succeeding in gathering his own army, that he refused to go, unless Deborah would go with him. Here was a new and great call on her energies. She had shown wisdom in counsel, superior, we must infer, to that of any man in Israel, for all the people "came up to her for judgment;"-but had she courage to go out to battle for her country? The sequel showed that she was brave as wise; and the reproof she bestowed on Barak for his cowardice or want of faith, is both delicate and dignified. She had offered him the post of military glory; it belonged to him as a man; but since he would not take it, since he resolved to drag a woman forward to bear the blame of the insurrection, should the patriot effort fail; the "honour" of success would be given to a "woman!" And thing, in any language, which can surpass the it was. But Deborah's spirit-stirring influence | boldness and animation of this striking production. so animated the army of the Israelites, that But this hymn has great historic as well as poetic the numerical force of the Canaanites was of no value. It is the only description of the relation avail. When she said to Barak, "Up; for this is of the tribes to each other, and of the state of the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera society during the period of the Judges. The into thine hand;" her battle-cry inspired him with northern tribes-Zebulun, Issachar, Naphthalifaith, and he rushed "down from Mount Tabor, appear in a state of insurrection against their and 10,000 men after him." 66 The Lord discom- oppressors: they receive some assistance from fited Sisera and all his chariots, and all his host;" Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin. The pastoral being, if Josephus is right, a hundred to one tribes beyond Jordan remain in unpatriotic inacagainst the little army of Barak, besides the "nine tivity. Dan and Asher are engaged in their marihundred iron chariots;" of the mighty host of time concerns; a curious fact, for we have no other Sisera, not a man escaped. What a victory to be intimation of any mercantile transactions of the achieved, by the blessing of God, under the guid- Hebrews as these expressions seem to implyance of a woman! After the battle was won and earlier than the reign of Solomon. Of Judah and Israel saved, then Deborah, who had shown her Simeon there is no notice whatever, as if they had wisdom as a judge and her bravery as a warrior, seceded from the confederacy, or were occupied came forth to her people in her higher quality of by enemies of their own. prophetess and priestess, and raised her glorious song, which, for poetry, sublimity and historic interest, has never been exceeded, except by the canticle of Moses. It is true that Barak's name is joined with hers in the singing, but the wording of the ode shows that it was her composition; as she thus declares,-"Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, I, will sing unto the Lord; I will sing to the Lord God of Israel." Then she pathetically alludes to the wasted condition of her country, when the "highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-ways.""The villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I, Deborah, arose, that I arose a mother in Israel." How beautiful is her character shown in the title she assumed for herself! not "Judge," "Heroine," "Prophetess," though she was all these, but she chose the tender name of "Mother," as the highest style of woman; and described the utter misery of her people, as arousing her to assume the high station of a patriot and leader. It was not ambition, but love, that stirred her noble spirit, and nerved her for the duties of government. She is a remarkable exemplification of the spiritual influence woman has wielded for the benefit of humanity, when the energies of man seemed entirely overcome. Her genius was superior to any recorded in the history of the Hebrews, from Moses to David, an interval of more than four hundred years; and scriptural commentators have remarked, that Deborah alone, of all the rulers of Israel, has escaped unreproved by the prophets and inspired historians. The land under her motherly rule had "rest forty years." See "Judges," chapters iv., v. The Rev. H. H. Milman, in his "History of the Jews," thus comments on the genius of this extraordinary woman. "Deborah's hymn of triumph was worthy of the victory. The solemn religious commencementthe picturesque description of the state of the country-the mustering of the troops from all quarters-the sudden transition to the most contemptuous sarcasm against the tribes that stood aloof-the life, fire, and energy of the battle-the bitter pathos of the close-lyric poetry has no Thus sang Deborah and Barak, son of Abinoam, Hear, ye kings! give ear, ye princes! I to Jehovah, I will lift the song, I will sound the harp to Jehovah, God of Israel! In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, They chose new gods; War was in all their gates! My soul is yours, ye chiefs of Israel! Ye that ride upon the snow white asses, For the noise of plundering archers by the wells of water Awake, Deborah! Awake! Barak, awake! and lead thy captives captive With him a valiant few went down against the mighty, First Ephraim, from the Mount of Amalck, By Reuben's fountains there was deep debating- |