Daughters of the Nile Read online

  PRAISE FOR

  Song of the Nile

  “Selene has a fascinating history … Stephanie Dray has done a wonderful job bringing to life one of history’s lesser-known women, weaving magic, intrigue, and historical characters into a must-read novel for fans of historical fiction.”

  —Night Owl Reviews

  “Author Stephanie Dray did a splendid job of re-creating Selene from vulnerable young woman to woman of great strength … Delicious prose, an exotic setting, and a heroine that will impress you with her unfailing courage and determination to reclaim what was once hers … historical women’s fiction at its finest.”

  —History and Women

  Lily of the Nile

  “Stephanie Dray’s Lily of the Nile is a spectacular blend of history and unforgettable fiction … a fresh and vibrant story of family, loyalty, political games, and love. It’s exquisitely written and left me begging for more. The only letdown was that it had to end.”

  —San Francisco Book Review

  “In this account of the fate of Cleopatra’s daughter in the household of Augustus Caesar, Dray reveals the same events we’ve seen in Rome and I, Claudius from a very different perspective, that of a teenage girl. Cleopatra Selene has unusual gifts and problems, but her struggle to understand herself and her destiny is universal. The glimpses of the cult of Isis leave one wanting to know more, and the story keeps you turning the pages until the end.”

  —Diana L. Paxson, author of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword of Avalon

  “Lily of the Nile is graceful history infused with subtle magic and veiled ancient mysteries, at a time of immense flux and transition. Cleopatra Selene—regal, stoic, and indomitable daughter of the legendary Pharaoh-Queen Cleopatra—carries on the spirit of her mother, the goddess Isis, and the soul of Egypt itself into the lair of the conquering imperial enemy. Selene, whose skin speaks the words of queen and goddess in blood, channels the dynastic pride that is her birthright, and seals the fate of the Roman Empire. Meticulously researched, thoroughly believable, this is a different kind of book, and a true achievement.”

  —Vera Nazarian, two-time Nebula Award–nominated author of Lords of Rainbow and Mansfield Park and Mummies

  “With clear prose, careful research, vivid detail, and a dash of magic, Stephanie Dray brings true life to one of Egypt’s most intriguing princesses.”

  —Susan Fraser King, bestselling and award-winning author of Queen Hereafter and Lady Macbeth

  Berkley Titles by Stephanie Dray

  LILY OF THE NILE

  SONG OF THE NILE

  DAUGHTERS OF THE NILE

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) LLC

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

  USA • Canada • UK • Ireland • Australia • New Zealand • India • South Africa • China

  penguin.com

  A Penguin Random House Company

  DAUGHTERS OF THE NILE

  This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

  Copyright © 2013 by Stephanie Dray.

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

  BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  Berkley trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-101-62723-5

  An application to register this book has been submitted to the Library of Congress.

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Berkley trade paperback edition / December 2013

  Cover art by Alan Ayers.

  Cover design by Judith Lagerman.

  Interior text design by Kristin del Rosario.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Version_1

  Contents

  Praise

  Berkley Titles by Stephanie Dray

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Dear Reader

  Acknowledgements

  Characters

  PART ONE

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  PART TWO

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-one

  Twenty-two

  Twenty-three

  Twenty-four

  Twenty-five

  Twenty-six

  Twenty-seven

  Twenty-eight

  PART THREE

  Twenty-nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-one

  Thirty-two

  Thirty-three

  Thirty-four

  Thirty-five

  Thirty-six

  Thirty-seven

  Thirty-eight

  PART FOUR

  Thirty-nine

  Forty

  Forty-one

  Forty-two

  Forty-three

  Forty-four

  Forty-five

  Forty-six

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  To my sister, Jennifer, a daughter of the Nile without whom this journey would be unbearably lonely.

  Dear Reader,

  I’ve adopted some conventions that bear explanation. To start with, I’ve embraced the most familiar spellings and naming conventions for historical figures. For example, I’ve used Mark Antony for Marcus Antonius, Octavian instead of Octavius or Octavianus, and Cleopatra instead of Kleopatra. I’ve also used English words for Latin concepts whenever possible. One instance is my adoption of the word lady when the word domina may have been more accurate. Another is book instead of codex. Moreover, I’ve addressed Augustus as the emperor throughout the novel even though our modern understanding of the word differs greatly from the traditional Roman concept of an imperator. I stand by this choice because of his nontraditional use of imperator—a title he held lawfully in 43 B.C. and should have relinquished that same year but did not.

  I’ve tried to respect this work as a novel more than as a biography, and my choices and changes are explained in the author’s note at the end of this book. My heroine’s relatively uncritical acceptance of the idea that native peoples must be “civilized” is not an endorsement of the idea but a reflection of the historical attitude of the time. Moreover, I’ve unabashedly adopted the slant most favorable to Egypt, Selene, her family, and her religion; the biased perspective against Rome and Augustus reflects her views as I’ve imagined them, not my own.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  First, my thanks go to my wonderful husband for his patience, love, and support. Next, to my family, for their enthusiasm and encouragement. Then to sharp-eyed critique partners Sheila Accongio, Christi Barth, Gabrielle Carol
ina, Eliza Knight, Kate Quinn, Vicky Alvear Shecter, Kristen Stappenbeck-Baker, Stephanie Thornton, and Becky Wilson.

  Many thanks too, to one of my literary heroines, Margaret George, for taking the time to read this manuscript before it was polished. Thanks also go to my fellow historical authors, Sophie Perinot, for moral support, and Teralyn Rose Pilgrim for help with the Vestal Virgins. I’m grateful to Kristianne Scalese Buker for help with flowers, Ana Beniquez-Sabo for help with interesting research tips on the Garamantes, Rachel Blackmun for various pieces of advice on writing in the ancient world and to Christine Rovet for information on plowing.

  I must again thank Duane W. Roller, professor emeritus of Greek and Latin at Ohio State University for generously answering questions and offering advice. Historian Lindsay Powell also talked me through theories on Agrippa, and his book on Drusus the Elder was invaluable to me. Nevertheless, any mistakes in this manuscript are mine and mine alone, and should not be ascribed to anyone who helped me.

  Mindful that footnotes are distracting in historical fiction and that my sources are too numerous to cite here, I would, nonetheless, like to credit several. For information on architecture, I consulted the writings of Vitruvius. For calculating travel times, I consulted Scheidel, W. and Meeks, E. (May 2, 2012). ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World at http://orbis.stanford.edu. And for information on Carthaginian architecture, I cite the work of Mark Dienekes on Historum.com. In my study of the Ara Pacis, I owe a debt of gratitude to Wayne Andersen’s The Ara Pacis of Augustus and Mussolini.

  I am again indebted to other authors who have also tried to bring Selene’s world to life, including Andrea Ashton, Alice Curtis Desmond, Michelle Moran, and Vicky Alvear Shecter. Additionally, I cite W. W. Tarn’s scholarly paper titled “Alexander Helios and the Golden Age” as well as Duane W. Roller’s The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene, Margaret George’s The Memoirs of Cleopatra, and the splashy Hollywood film Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor.

  However, it was Beatrice Chanler’s 1934 novel Cleopatra’s Daughter: The Queen of Mauretania that inspired me most. My work is heavily influenced by her ideas, imagery, and lofty prose. In particular, Ms. Chanler’s book captured my imagination because of its unusual theory that Cleopatra Selene and her twin brother were religious symbols—a theory that I’ve extended into the fantastic.

  In adopting and modernizing this theory by reimagining Isiac worship, I relied not just upon ancient sources and current scholarship but also upon the worship of Isis as it’s currently practiced. M. Isadora Forrest’s Isis Magic was invaluable on that count, as was Ms. Forrest herself, who kindly offered advice on rituals that Selene may have been familiar with. The calling prayer of Isis in this novel is her work. In seeking an authentic and educational vision of death that would illuminate the ancient mind, I turned to Normandi Ellis’s moving translation of The Egyptian Book of the Dead for inspiration in crafting both Cleopatra’s final thoughts and Selene’s. While The Egyptian Book of the Dead is as old as civilization, Ms. Ellis’s Awakening Osiris is one of the most beautiful translations ever written and helped me form the spiritual core of this series.

  While it is always dangerous to speculate about the sexuality of historical figures, I was emboldened to envision an affair between Virgil and Marcellus in this series after reading Virgil in the Renaissance by David Scott Wilson-Okamura and Saara Lilja’s Homosexuality in Republican and Augustan Rome. In this series, I’ve explored Selene’s sexual morality through the lens of mythic Isiac fertility rites, which is rooted in Merlin Stone’s fascinating book When God Was a Woman, itself inspired by the work of Robert Graves. While no record of Isiac mystery rites has survived, I drew upon the legend that Isis herself had served as a prostitute in Tyre. I was also mindful of Herodotus’s claim that female adherents of goddess cults gave themselves to a stranger at least once in their lives—an idea echoed by Strabo. And, of course, I must express appreciation for The Golden Ass: Being the Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius, an Isiac work and the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety. I blended all this information with extant accounts of the Eleusinian Mysteries. And Josephus was invaluable with regard to all the story lines regarding Herod.

  Insofar as this novel is about Augustus, I relied upon ancient historians Cassius Dio, Suetonius, and Tacitus, and I freely admit to having adopted the latter’s most uncharitable views of Livia. When it came to reconstructing Berber culture as it may have existed in Selene’s reign, I consulted Susan Raven’s Rome in Africa, Paul MacKendrick’s The North African Stones Speak, and The Berbers by Michael Brett and Elizabeth Fentress.

  Additional inspiration was derived from Petronius, Mary Renault’s work on Alexander the Great, and Elaine Fantham’s work on Julia Augusti. For additional sources, please see my website at stephaniedray.com.

  CHARACTERS

  The Court of Augustus Caesar

  AUGUSTUS CAESAR, or Octavian, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, the Emperor of Rome

  JULIA, his daughter by his former wife Scribonia, and his only child

  AGRIPPA, his son-in-law and most powerful general

  Gaius, his son, the emperor’s grandson and heir

  Lucius, his son, the emperor’s grandson and heir

  Julilla, his daughter, the emperor’s first granddaughter

  Agrippina, his daughter, the emperor’s granddaughter

  Postumus, his son, the emperor’s grandson

  LIVIA DRUSILLA, his wife, scion of a powerful noble family, the Claudii

  Tiberius, her oldest son by her former husband, the stepson of the emperor

  Vipsania, his wife, the daughter of Agrippa from a previous marriage

  Drusus, her youngest son by her former husband, the stepson of the emperor

  OCTAVIA, his long-suffering sister

  Marcella, her daughter by her first husband

  Iullus Antonius, her son-in-law, son of Mark Antony, husband of Marcella

  Antonia Major, her eldest daughter by Mark Antony

  Antonia Minor, her youngest daughter by Mark Antony, also called Minora, wife of Drusus

  Germanicus, their eldest son, Livia’s grandson

  Livilla, their eldest daughter, Livia’s grandson

  Claudius, their youngest son, sickly and enfeebled, Livia’s grandson

  MAECENAS, his political adviser and overseer of imperial artistic programs

  Terentilla, the beautiful wife of Maecenas and former mistress of Augustus

  ANTONIUS MUSA, his renowned physician, a freedman of Mark Antony’s

  The Court of Cleopatra Selene & Juba II

  CLEOPATRA SELENE, Queen of Mauretania, Daughter of Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Mark Antony

  JUBA, her husband, the Berber-blooded King of Mauretania

  Isidora, their daughter, the Princess of Mauretania

  Tacfarinas, her childhood playmate, a Numidian tribesman

  Ptolemy, their son, the Prince of Mauretania

  PYTHODORIDA, her niece, ward of the queen

  CHRYSSA, her Greek freedwoman, now a court minister

  Maysar, her husband, a Berber tribal leader and royal adviser

  TALA, her Berber attendant, sister of Maysar

  Ziri, her son, later called Mazippa

  CAPTAIN KABYLE, her Berber-born ship’s captain

  EUPHRONIUS/EUPHORBUS, her court physician, mage, and priest of Isis from Alexandria

  CRINAGORAS OF MYTILENE, her court poet

  MEMNON, her captain of the Macedonian guard from Alexandria

  LADY LASTHENIA, her adviser, a Pythagorean scholar from Alexandria

  MASTER GNAIOS, her father’s famous gem cutter, now her court sculptor

  LEONTEUS OF ARGOS, her court tragedian

  CIRCE, a Greek hetaera turned grammarian and teacher at court

  PART ONE

  THE SOWING

  One

  IOL-CAESARIA, THE KINGDOM OF MAURETANIA, ROMANIZED NORTH AFRICA

  AUTUMN 19 B.C.

/>   I will never see my mother’s Egypt again, I think. The closest I will ever come to touching my native soil is bathing in the same sea of green that caresses its shores. So each morning, I go down to the water where the frothing waves tumble over themselves and the brine-scented spray leaves salty kisses upon my cheeks. Squinting into the brightness, I might imagine that the lighthouse gleaming white in the harbor is a far-off vision of the Pharos of Alexandria. But the breeze that sweeps over the forest of ships’ masts reminds me that this is my kingdom of Mauretania. This wind carries with it no Song of the Nile, but the melodic voices of my Berber fishermen, singing as they haul in their nets.

  Later, my skin tingling with dried salt water, I linger between the billowing white curtains of my chambers in the palace. Standing beside me, stirring a dark greenish-brown paste in a bowl, is Tala, my chief attendant, the woman who nursed my daughter—the only one I trust to care for my little princess. Together we watch my women gather henna in my gardens. They squat with their colorful skirts hitched up to their knees as they choose leaves for their baskets and cut efficient swaths with sharp scythes.

  As Tala stirs the paste, her silver bracelets and beaded earrings jingle, outdone in their brilliance only by the indigo shawl draped over her hair, the dye from which stains her skin blue at the creases. “Best to harvest all the henna now before the winter rains come,” she says. “By the time we finish making you beautiful for the king’s visit, we’ll have used all the henna we have left in the storeroom.”

  Though I’ve been married to the King of Mauretania for more than five years, our marriage is only by contract.

  Tonight will be the first time I take him into my bed.

  This I must do if I want a life of my own, an escape from the emperor who forced my parents to suicide and made me his war trophy. His possession. His mistress. The emperor will never believe that I do not belong to him unless he sees me as the true wife of another man. So if I will not make love to Augustus Caesar, I must make love to my husband.

  Lavender perfume wafts up from the linens, and a shift of gossamer white drapes over the chest at the foot of my bed. Every beeswax candle in the palace has been brought to my chambers as if to turn my bed into a sacred altar. But the preparations make me uneasy. “Must we go to so much trouble? King Juba is, at heart, a practical man.”