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5After settling this and the other business that pressed, giving to those who had received a grant of amnesty the right also to live in Italy, not before permitted them, and forgiving the populace which had remained behind in Rome for not having gone to meet him, he set out once more for Greece on the thirtieth day after his arrival. 2Then, because it was winter, he carried his ships across the isthmus of the Peloponnesus and got back to Asia so quickly that Antony and Cleopatra learned at one and the same time both of his departure and of his return. 3They, it appears, when they had made their escape from the naval battle at Actium, had gone as far as the Peloponnesus together; from there, after they had first dismissed a number of their associates whom they suspected,—many, too, withdrew against their wishes,—Cleopatra had hastened to Egypt, for fear that her subjects would begin a revolt if they heard of the disaster before her arrival. 4And in order to make her approach, too, safe she crowned her prows with garlands as if she had actually won a victory, and had songs of triumph chanted to the accompaniment of flute-players. But as soon as she had reached safety, she slew many of the foremost men, inasmuch as they had always been displeased with her and were now elated over her disaster; 5and she proceeded to gather vast wealth from their estates and from various other sources both profane and sacred, sparing not even the most holy shrines, and also to fit out her forces and to look about for allies. She put to death the Armenian king and sent his head to the Mede, who might be induced thereby, she thought, to aid them. 6Antony, for his part, had sailed to Pinarius Scarpus in Africa and to the army under Scarpus’ command previously assembled there for the protection of Egypt. But when this general not only refused to receive him but furthermore slew the men sent ahead by Antony, besides executing some of the soldiers under his command who showed displeasure at this act, then Antony, too, proceeded to Alexandria without having accomplished anything.
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