Kaisarion

“The Alexandrians turned out in force
to see Cleopatra’s children,
Kaisarion and his little brothers,
Alexander and Ptolemy, who for the first time
had been taken out to the Gymnasium,
to be proclaimed kings there
before a brilliant array of soldiers.

Alexander: they declared him
king of Armenia, Media, and the Parthians.
Ptolemy: they declared him
king of Cilicia, Syria, and Phoenicia.
Kaisarion was standing in front of the others,
dressed in pink silk,
on his chest a bunch of hyacinths,
his belt a double row of amethysts and sapphires,
his shoes tied with white ribbons
prinked with rose-colored pearls.
They declared him greater than his little brothers,
they declared him King of Kings.

The Alexandrians knew of course
that this was all mere words, all theatre.

But the day was warm and poetic,
the sky a pale blue,
the Alexandrian Gymnasium
a complete artistic triumph,
the courtiers wonderfully sumptuous,
Kaisarion all grace and beauty
(Cleopatra’s son, blood of the Lagids);
and the Alexandrians thronged to the festival
full of enthusiasm, and shouted acclamations
in Greek, and Egyptian, and some in Hebrew,
charmed by the lovely spectacle –
though they knew of course what all this was worth,
what empty words they really were, these kingships.”

___

Alexandrian Kings, from Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, translators; George Savidis, editor, CP Cavafy, Collected Poems, revised edition, Princeton University Press, 1992, at cavafy.com.

This happened in 34 BC, after Mark Antony’s successful campaign against the Armenians. Antony and Cleopatra presided over the ceremony. Kaisarion is likely to have been Cleopatra’s son from her earlier relationship with Julius Caesar. He was later murdered by Octavian. The Parthians were still ruling Persia. Ptolemy I Soter was the son of Lagus, a Macedonian nobleman.

It is not clear in the first part of the translation whether all three brothers are to be proclaimed kings or just the younger ones. Later, we learn that it meant all three, with Kaisarion taking precedence, but were all three being proclaimed for the first time or only the younger ones? I assume that the ambiguities are flaws in the translation. I don’t read Greek, but show the Greek text in a Comment below.