-chief of the
armies.

Thus, though Cleopatra, by these events, became nominally a queen, her
real accession to the throne was not yet accomplished. There were still
many difficulties and dangers to be passed through, before the period
arrived when she became really a sovereign. She did not, herself, make
any immediate attempt to hasten this period, but seems to have
acquiesced, on the other hand, very quietly, for a time, in the
arrangements which her father had made.

Pothinus was a eunuch. He had been, for a long time, an officer of
government under Ptolemy, the father. He was a proud, ambitious, and
domineering man, determined to rule, and very unscrupulous in respect to
the means which he adopted to accomplish his ends. He had been
accustomed to regard Cleopatra as a mere child. Now that she was queen,
he was very unwilling that the real power should pass into her hands.
The jealousy and ill will which he felt toward her increased rapidly as
he found, in the course of the first two or three years after her
father's death, that she was advancing rapidly in strength of character,
and in the influence and ascendency which she was acquiring over all
around her. Her beauty, her accomplishments, and a certain indescribable
charm which pervaded all her demeanor, combined to give her great
personal power. But, while these things awakened in other minds feelings
of interest in Cleopatra and attachment to her, they only increased the
jealousy and envy of Pothinus. Cleopatra was becoming his rival. He
endeavored to thwart and circumvent her. He acted toward her in a
haughty and overbearing manner, in order to keep her down to what he
considered her proper place as his ward; for he was yet the guardian
both of Cleopatra and her husband, and the regent of the realm.

Cleopatra had a great deal of what is sometimes called spirit, and her
resentment was aroused by this treatment. Pothinus took pains to enlist
her young husband, Ptolemy, on his side, as the quarrel advanced.
Ptolemy was younger, and of a character much less marked and decided
than Cleopatra. Pothinus saw that he could maintain control over him
much more easily and for a much longer time than over Cleopatra. He
contrived to awaken the young Ptolemy's jealousy of his wife's rising
influence, and to induce him to join in efforts to thwart and counteract
it. These attempts to turn her husband against her only aroused
Cleopatra's resentment the more. Hers was not a