The Crown of Isis

Synopsis

Cleopatra has survived exile, palace conspiracies, the fire of Alexandria, and those who sought to reduce her to a shadow. Now she must accomplish something even harder: become a queen in truth. Ptolemy XIII, her brother and rival, is expelled from Alexandria under a veneer of dignity. The boy pharaoh leaves the city walls with a doomed army, bound for the desert and a war that may become his death sentence. Cleopatra watches him depart without tears. In Egypt, compassion can be as dangerous as betrayal. With the path to the throne cleared, the most important battle begins: the battle for legitimacy. In a temple covered in hieroglyphs, amid incense, gold, and thousands of kneeling worshippers, Cleopatra is proclaimed the incarnation of Isis and crowned Egypt's sole sovereign. Julius Caesar watches the ceremony from an uneasy position: his soldiers made that crown possible, yet the ritual is designed to show Egypt that Cleopatra does not rule by Rome's grace. She is queen by the will of the gods. Then they both leave Alexandria. Aboard the royal barge, Cleopatra and Caesar travel the Nile past ancient temples, fertile fields, villages, priests, and crowds acclaiming their queen. The voyage is an inspection of the kingdom, a display of power, and an intimacy increasingly difficult to separate from politics. Cleopatra reveals Egypt's true wealth to Caesar. Not only its grain. Not only its gold. But the Nile, its ports, its routes to the East, its temples, its memory, and a civilization that has survived for thousands of years every man who tried to possess it. And beside the river, a dangerous idea is born. Rome in the west. Egypt in the east. Caesar's legions. Cleopatra's wealth. Two worlds joined within a structure of power capable of ruling the entire known world. Perhaps even beneath a single crown. The Crown of Isis is a novel of power, sensuality, religion, and boundless ambition. It is the story of a woman who stops fighting to reclaim her throne and begins to wonder how far she might extend it. Cleopatra is already Queen of Egypt. Now she begins to imagine something far greater.