Sardou's Cleopatra — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

g SARDOU’S CLEOPATRA. They had committed that unpardonable sin—the espousal of a lost cause, and the day of reckoning had come. The civil war which followed the death of Ceesar is ended. Vanquished in the battle of Philippi, where Roman liberty expired, Brutus and Cassius are no more. The triumviri, Mark Antony, Oc- tavius Cesar and A/milius Lepidus, share be- tween them the empire of the world. Now has come the hour of reprisals, vengeance and pro- scription. Woe to the kings and provinces who, during the two years of civil war, have furnished aid to or shown sympathy with the republicans! Savage Mark Antony is devastating Asia Minor, extorting large sums from the cities, overwhelm- ing the people with taxes and inflicting upon the rebels pitiless punishments. ‘To-day has come the turn of Tarsus, who has been chief among the offenders, and now, at the mercy of Antony, she must pay for her culpable past with the heads and © gold of her citizens. ‘To-day, at noon, the vic- torious general is to hold his court upon the banks of the Cydnus. The rulers who have offended him have been summoned hither; and, first of all, the young Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra, the daugh- ter of Ptolemy Auletes, who is accused of furnish- — (ele) GComicbooks