Cydnus

Plutarch then relates the cinematic scene of Egypt’s queen, arrayed like Aphrodite, floating down the river Cydnus on a golden barge, her fairest maids dressed as Nereids and Graces.

As Cleopatra sailed on the Cydnus, Mark Antony’s audience deserted him.

In 41 BCE, Mark Antony landed in Tarsus, a port city in Cilicia at the mouth of the Cydnus River.

The galley of Cleopatra still floats down with swelling sails of silk upon the azure current of an ideal Cydnus.

Up the River Cydnus sailed Antony, bent on restoring order to Egypt and punishing the cruel Cleopatra.