Did Cleopatra and Augustus (Octavian) place personal needs ahead of the love for their country ?
That is a very clever question. Fact is, however, in those days love of country was not a concept conceived of. Joining the army was a military occupation, not a civilian duty as it was conceived in Greece. A Roman citizen would have been shown the greatest respect anywhere in the world controlled by Rome by simply announcing “Civus Romanus sum.” (I am a Roman citizen.) It was only a high status thing. Cleopatra, on the other hand, owned the land of Egypt and all its people. In those days, probably the nearest thing that could be thought of as approaching love of country was one army claiming against the other army that their god could l beat the crap out of the opponent’s god. Just imagine the race to arms. “Oh yeah, our god can beat the crap; out of their god!” It worked, actually. In Egypt, the ruler was a god. A banner like flag, called ‘nature,’ represented the gods and the country, called Kemet by them (the black soil) wasa god. The British derived their oath of allegiance from t
