My Down Memory Lane

One might ennumerate the items of high civilization, as it exists in other countries, which are absent from the texture of American life, until it should become a wonder to know what was left. No State, in the European sense of the word, and indeed barely a specific national name. No sovereign, no court, no personal loyalty, no aristocracy, no church, no clergy, no army, no diplomatic service, no country gentlemen, no palaces, no castles, nor manors, nor old country houses, nor parsonages, nor thatched cottages, nor ivied ruins; no cathedrals nor abbeys, nor little Norman churches; no great universities nor public schools—no Oxford, nor Eton, nor Harrow; no literature, no novels, no museums, no pictures, no political society, no sporting class—no Epsom nor Ascot!...The natural remark in the almost lurid light of such an indictment, would be that if these things are left out, everything is left out. Whatever question there may be of his talent, there can be none, I think, of

Cleopatra and the Roman Emperors. After the removal of Persian rule in 332 B.C., the Ptolemaic Dynasty would begin ... its rule in Egypt which would last over 300 years, ending with the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 B.C.. At one time Ptolemaic Egypt was one of the great powers of the world and expanded its rule without difficulties, but the inclusion of the Roman Empire into the Ptolemy dynasty’s affairs led to a decline in territories held, yet it was able to preserve the wealth and status of Egypt. By the time of Cleopatra’s rise to power, the state of Egypt was crumbling around her due to outside pressures from Rome, loss of lands, and famine at home. This last Pharaoh of Egypt used her beauty, cunning, sexuality and powers of persuasion to entice two of the world’s most powerful men to keep her once powerful empire free of complete Roman control. Besides dealing with problems abroad, Cleopatra VII had to overcome an Egyptian society that did not accept females as so