Chapter 136: The Ruler of Egypt
After the agreement with Pompey was successfully concluded, Auletes held a banquet almost every day.
Of course, he was not doing this because he was happy to have successfully finished the negotiations.
It was a trick to show off his status as a peer of the highest authorities from Rome and to highlight the dignity of the royal family.
Marcus, Cicero, and Pompey all knew Auletes’s intention well.
Pompey gladly joined the banquet, thinking that it was the price for getting the supplies at a low cost.
Marcus also attended every day, as it was his role as a patron to uphold the face of his client.
Originally, Alexandria had many people who were hostile to Rome, but the recent atmosphere was changing little by little.
First of all, it was a big deal that the overwhelming power of Egypt and Rome was revealed in the process of driving out Berenice.
Moreover, the two princesses of Egypt voluntarily went to Rome to study.
This marked the beginning of Rome’s excellent culture entering Alexandria, which gave a huge shock to the citizens of Alexandria who were proud of their own culture.
It also had a lot of influence that Marcus crushed Parthia in a year and ruled over the east as a supreme leader.
Marcus was the protector of Egypt and had a close relationship with the princesses, so his reputation was already high.
He ruled over a huge province that bordered Egypt directly.
Now the citizens of Alexandria had no choice but to face reality.
They heard rumors that Rome’s territory was much larger than the area conquered by Alexander the Great.
Of course, there were few who thought that Rome was greater than Alexander’s empire.
But everyone admitted that it was an undeniable fact that Rome was the strongest country in the world.
Auletes actively used Rome and Marcus’s status to elevate his own position.
Marcus did not stop him, but rather pushed him further.
The more Auletes took control of Egypt, the more naturally his presence behind him grew.
“Still, there are too many events. I wonder if I’m not hurting my health. Septimius, what’s next on the schedule?”
“The priests from Memphis want to see you, Marcus.”
“Oh, right. I almost forgot.”
It was good that he had absolute influence in Egypt, but there were also more annoying things.
Auletes called in the upper class of Alexandria for all kinds of reasons.
Many nobles eagerly responded to his call in order to please the pharaoh.
There were also many who wanted to get the high-ranking positions that were vacant after the eunuchs were purged.
Above all, most of them wanted to line up for Marcus, who would become the true ruler of Egypt.
It was not only the nobles.
The priests who came to see the princesses also showed great interest in Marcus.
“O great general of Rome, you are not a mere child of man. You have sacred blood flowing in your body. You must be of Amun-Ra’s lineage.”
“So you mean I’m a son of god?”
“Yes. It is an undeniable fact that you have received divine trust. You are Osiris reborn from the world of the dead to rebuild Egypt in chaos.”
“······.”
It was an interesting situation, but also awkward.
He was used to Roman praise that he had received wisdom from the gods, but it was still strange to be raised as a living god.
After an uncomfortable meeting with the priests ended, Septimius whispered in a small voice that could not be heard unless he concentrated.
“Why are they suddenly praising you as a god? They can’t stand it without doing so?”
“The princesses seem to believe it sincerely. They have been saying things like that since before. They think they are also of divine blood. But I didn’t expect the priests who saw you for the first time to say that.”
“They are rationalizing in their own way. Egypt is a country ruled by gods, they live with pride in that. So whoever rules them must be someone who inherited god’s blood. Alexander the Great also received divine Grace that he was a son of Jupiter.”
Septimius nodded in admiration.
He understood why Marcus did not react with disbelief or annoyance to the priests’ words.
“That means······”
“It means that Egypt has begun to recognize me as their ruler. So I’m working on it in advance. The Jews also praised me as an anointed one by God. The words are different, but the essence is the same. They are being ruled, but they want to keep their pride. It’s a kind of mental victory.”
“That’s an interesting expression. By the way, there is another banquet tonight and Pharaoh asked you to attend. Let’s go get ready.”
“I’m going crazy···I should go back to Antioch or something.”
Marcus shook his head and grumbled.
He stopped by his room to check his appearance and headed to the pharaoh’s palace.
Cleopatra, who was walking through the opposite corridor, saw Marcus and approached him.
“It’s nice to see you again after this morning. Are you going to the banquet too?”
“Yes. But I’m a bit tired today, so I don’t think I can stay until the end.”
“I heard that you have been suffering from a very harsh schedule lately. Do people bother you a lot?”
“I don’t feel bothered, but I’m busy.”
Marcus smiled bitterly.
This was something he had experienced before when he became a governor.
Back then, too, all kinds of nobles tried to impress Marcus.
It was annoying, but he also felt proud that they thought of him as their ruler.
Cleopatra looked at Marcus’s expression and lowered her voice slightly.
“By the way, if it’s okay with you, can we talk for a moment, just the two of us?”
Her quick-witted guards quickly stepped back.
Marcus nodded slowly and his guards also kept their distance.
Cleopatra spoke in a small voice that could not be heard unless he concentrated, even in a situation where only two were left.
“How was the gift I gave you last time? I didn’t get a chance to hear your evaluation since it’s not easy to make an appointment like this.”
“It was a very satisfying gift. In fact, I didn’t expect you to come before I even asked for your cooperation.”
“Really? That’s a bit disappointing. Did you think I might stick to a young nobleman who hasn’t even been verified yet?”
“Not at all. I was confident that you would be on my side if I asked you.”
Cleopatra pouted with a slightly dissatisfied expression.
“You lack faith. You should have been sure that I would come before you asked. You would have thought so if it was Arsinoe, right?”
“Arsinoe princess is in a position where I can advise her right next to her.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, I proved that I’m a trustworthy person with this incident. You can think so, right?”
“Of course. Your sincerity was clearly conveyed.”
Cleopatra’s face finally brightened up.
To be honest, Marcus didn’t expect Cleopatra to cooperate so much.
She pretended to cooperate actively with Gnaeus when he contacted her and took out all the information from him.
No one doubted her acting as if she was anxious to hand over power to Arsinoe.
In the end, Gnaeus, who had no doubt that Cleopatra was on his side, was hit by an axe he trusted.
He didn’t even know why his plan was exposed.
“Even if I become Pharaoh, my loyalty to you will not change. I wanted to tell you that for sure this time.”
“Loyalty is too humble a word.”
Marcus firmly established his trust in Cleopatra through this incident.
To be precise, it was not that he trusted her sincerity, but that he trusted her judgment.
He had a rough idea of how she felt about this incident.
She saw through Gnaeus’s inferiority complex with just a brief conversation with him.
And she also realized that no matter how much she pushed Gnaeus, he could never beat Marcus.
She judged this situation as an opportunity to prove her ability and loyalty at once.
That is, Gnaeus fell into a trap when he mistakenly thought that things were going well with Cleopatra.
In history, Cleopatra was smart and wise enough, but her narrow-mindedness was a flaw.
It was not her fault, but an inevitable problem due to the environment she lived in.
But now Cleopatra had been looking outside since she was young, and she was growing up smoothly by gaining various experiences in Rome.
Like Arsinoe, she was also growing into a completely different person from history.
Marcus was not a god, so he could not predict exactly what impact this would have.
But as long as he recognized the absolute difference in power between them, he was sure that Cleopatra would not cause any trouble.
He preferred someone who moved with such accurate judgment rather than someone who had half-hearted loyalty.
For now, that was enough.
※※※※
The evening banquet was crowded with many high-ranking nobles as usual.
Marcus desperately racked his brain to avoid the disaster of asking the name of a nobleman he had greeted once before.
“Hey. You look like you’ve been through a lot today.”
As his ears were tired of listening to the flattery of about ten nobles, Cicero came up with a smirk and sat down next to Marcus with a glass full of Samos wine.
“Cicero sir doesn’t seem to have many annoying people around him.”
“I’m in a position where I can’t bring anything substantial to Egypt. It’s different from you and Pompey. But thanks to that, I’m having a very faithful day. The Alexandria Library is truly a blessing from God to mankind. If I could, I would stay here until I read all the books there.”
“It won’t be easy to read them all even if you stay here for life. Actually, I have a mind to build a facility in Rome that is not inferior to the libraries of Pergamon or here in Alexandria. What do you think of that?”
“Of course you should! You are currently unable to return to Rome, so if necessary, I can act as your representative and push this matter forward. In fact, it’s not normal that we don’t have such a research facility in Rome yet. It’s just unfortunate that people are neglecting their important mental exercises while satisfying their physical pleasures and vanity.”
Cicero vented his dissatisfaction and drank his wine.
He was Rome’s best scholar and wanted Rome to dominate the world not only in military but also in intellect.
Marcus also thought that it was time to build a library.
He had set up a system where he could mass-produce paper at will, so he had the conditions to print books in large quantities.
But once he built it, he didn’t want to end it with a simple library.
He wanted to build a research facility that encompassed the knowledge of the world like the House of Wisdom in Baghdad and leave a lasting achievement in human history.
‘The problem is where to build it…’
Cicero seemed to think that he would build it in Rome, but Marcus didn’t have much intention of doing so.
First of all, Marcus was currently unable to return to Rome, and his base was currently in the East.
But he didn’t want to stay in the East forever, so he couldn’t make a definite decision yet.
“Sir Marcus, I think you need to see this for a moment.”
Suddenly, Septimus called Marcus, who was lost in thought.
He came to his senses and received what Septimus had handed over.
“What is this?”
“It’s a letter that just arrived from Antioch. It seems to be quite important, as it was sealed so that only you can open it.”
“Really? Let me see… There are two letters in here.”
One was written by Julia, and the other was a report on the matter he had asked to investigate beforehand.
Marcus’s expression turned into an indescribable color as he quickly read the letter from Julia.
Cicero, who was watching the situation from the side, asked curiously.
“Why, did you get any bad news?”
“No. I don’t know if I should call this a happy occasion… or something that was bound to happen…”
“Did something happen to Julia?”
Septimus also looked a little worried by Marcus’s reaction, which was clearly different from usual.
Marcus shook his head hastily and scratched his hair.
“No, it’s not that. It’s just… Danae had a baby.”
“What? She had a baby? Whose baby? Who touched that child?”
“…Me.”
“…I’m sorry.”
The air became tense for a moment.
Septimus apologized quickly as he caught his breath.
In fact, it was not uncommon for a master to have a child with a slave through intimacy.
Rather, it was something that many Roman nobles experienced several times.
However, Danae was legally a freed slave, so there was a bit of a delicate situation.
Cicero, who had received countless consultations on this matter as the best jurist, asked.
“If it’s a letter from your wife, she must already know about this. How did she react?”
“My relationship with Danae was with Julia’s permission. I don’t think she’s uncomfortable since she didn’t have a child herself, but she’s happy that the child who will inherit the family is growing well.”
“I see. Then it’s something to congratulate for now. I know from many cases I’ve seen so far that the important thing at this time is to please your wife. Even if she doesn’t show any dissatisfaction on the outside, she can’t help but feel a little bit uneasy.
It’s not jealousy or envy, but a natural feeling as a spouse. So first of all, make it clear officially that the person who will inherit the family is your son born by your wife. And make sure that the child who will be born this time has no inheritance rights at all. If your wife is uncomfortable, you can adopt him as your brother’s son instead of yours.”
“Yes, I’ll do that. Thank you for your advice.”
Marcus thanked Cicero and continued to look at Julia’s letter with a flustered expression.
Septimus sensed that there was something more left and asked again with a tilt of his head.
“Did something else happen besides Danae’s?”
“Yes. This could be more important than that. Berenice had Publius’s baby.”
“What? Is that true?”
“Yes. I thought it was only a matter of time seeing how close they were lately. They were almost always together, so it would have been strange if they didn’t have a child.”
“Wait, Berenice as in that Berenice? The former Pharaoh of Egypt? The woman you naturalized as a Roman citizen had your brother’s baby?”
Cicero’s eyes widened.
He quickly calculated how to use this as an opportunity.
“This is a great opportunity. I’ll have plenty of news to tell when I go back to Rome. You solved the diplomatic blunder caused by Gnaeus and improved the relationship with Egypt, not to mention that the former Pharaoh Berenice became completely Romanized and married a Roman. You can’t go back to Rome right now, so she have to get married in the East… Of course, you’ll have a Roman-style wedding, right?”
“Of course. Berenice is now a Roman too. The wedding will be entirely Roman-style.”
“Very good. Even the bloodline of Pharaoh became Roman, so your and our Senate’s status will rise even more in the East. As soon as I return to Rome, I’ll send an official congratulatory delegation.”
“Yes. Thank you for your attention in many ways.”
The news of Danae and Berenice’s pregnancy spread quickly throughout the banquet hall.
Pompey, who joined the party late, congratulated him sincerely.
“I’m sorry I can’t go myself because of the expedition preparations. Instead, I’ll send my second son Sextus and my eldest daughter Pompeia. I’ll tell them thoroughly in advance so there won’t be any incidents like Gnaeus.”
Cleopatra also decided to go to Antioch for the wedding instead of returning to Rome.
On the other hand, Auletes still had some resentment left, so he didn’t mention anything about Berenice.
He just congratulated Marcus on his child and asked him to have Cleopatra attend instead of him.
The Egyptian nobles who wanted to impress Marcus also agreed to attend.
It was not a very welcome thing for Egypt that Berenice married a Roman.
It was impossible for a Pharaoh to marry an ordinary human in the first place.
But Marcus had already received the Grace of the divine bloodline, so his brother could be seen as someone with the blood of a god.
And since Cleopatra and Arsinoe were attending, it meant that the royal family had already given their permission.
Since the situation was like this, the nobles calculated that it would be more beneficial for them to attend.
As countless people congratulated him, Marcus didn’t tell anyone about the second letter.
The letter read as follows:
<Many of the nobles in Mesopotamia have secretly held meetings more than three times. Pro-Roman nobles were excluded from these meetings. Further investigation is deemed necessary.>
Marcus carefully folded the letter and put it in his pocket.
He looked at the noisy banquet hall with a bitter smile.
‘This will be quite a noisy wedding.’
< 136. The Ruler of Egypt > End
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