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41After this Antony feasted the Alexandrians, and in the assembly made Cleopatra and her children sit by his side; also in the course of his address to the people he commanded that she should be called Queen of Kings, and Ptolemy, whom they named Caesarion, King of Kings. 2And he then made a new distribution of provinces, giving them Egypt and Cyprus in addition; for he declared that in very truth one was the wife and the other the son of the former Caesar, and he professed to be taking these measures for Caesar’s sake, though his purpose was to cast reproach upon Caesar Octavianus because he was only an adopted and not a real son of his. 3Besides making this assignment to them, he promised to give to his own children by Cleopatra the following districts: to Ptolemy, Syria and all the region west of the Euphrates as far as the Hellespont; to Cleopatra, the Cyrenaica in Libya; and to their brother Alexander, Armenia and the rest of the countries east of the Euphrates as far as India; for he even bestowed the last-named regions as if they were already in his possession. 4Not only did he say this in Alexandria, but he sent a despatch to Rome as well, in order that it might secure ratification also from the people there. None of these despatches, however, was read in public; for Domitius and Sosius were consuls by this time, and being extremely devoted to him, refused to publish them to all the people, even though Caesar urged it upon them. 5But, although they prevailed in this matter, Caesar won a victory in his turn by preventing any of Antony’s despatches regarding the Armenian king from being made known to the public; for he not only felt pity for the prince, inasmuch as he himself had been secretly in communication with him for the purpose of injuring Antony, but he also grudged Antony his triumph. 6Now while Antony was engaged as described he had the effrontery to write to the senate that he wished to give up his office and put the whole administration of the state into the hands of that body and of the people; it was not his intention, of course, to do either, but he desired them under the influence of the hopes he aroused either to compel Caesar to give up his arms first, as being there at hand, or to conceive hatred for him if he should refuse to heed their commands.
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