"Fate will find a way".
(Virgil)"Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant"
(Horace)
"Many women long for what eludes them, and like not what is offered them".
(Ovid)
Ancient Latin wisdom to start this review of CLEOPATRA'S DAUGHTER by Michelle Moran. Just because Selene, Cleopatra's daughter, finds herself sitting at the same table as Horace or Virgil once she is taken to Rome by Octavian. But let's try to give this post a certain order.
THE PLOT
You start leafing through the first pages and you immediately find yourself full immersed in a nightmare: you follow the events through Selene's eyes, while she is just losing her family, her roots, her habits, her country, her freedom at 12.
You live the tragic terrorizing events narrated, knowing that you can stop, just closing your book, but Cleopatra and her young children couldn't: no awakening for them, it was reality; no escape, they were doomed. Their husband/father, Mark Antony had been defeated at Actium by Octavian, their country invaded, Alexandria conquered and their Palace surrounded. Paralized by fear, they wait for their Fate. Selene and Alexander, the 12-year-old twins, and the youngest son Ptolemy, only 7, have to bear both their parents' suicides and then to be taken to Rome as captives. The story opens on these shocking crucial moments in Princess Selene's life. She herself, in first person, tells us about what will happen later on ...
Ptolemy won't survive the long voyage to Rome. Once there, she and her brother Alexander, will endure sufference and lack of freedom but will also experience friendship, love, loyalty, bravery and they'll grow up.
In Rome they live as guarded guests at Octavia's house - Octavian's sister, the woman their father put aside to marry their mother, Cleopatra. They expect her revenge, they find her generosity and understanding, instead. They live and study with Marcellus (Octavia's son, Octavian's nephew and heir); Julia (Octavian's daughter) and Tiberius (Octavian's second wife's, Livia's, son). The group of kids are educated by Magister Verrius, live their first crushes and love experiences, witness terrible unjustices and horrible punishments ( infants rejected and thrown away as rubbish, trials with bought partial juries, hundreds of slaves condemned to death because their master was found dead, crucifixions, battles of wild animals against gladiators or simple slaves in the circus among others), are excited at the mysterious Red Eagle's fight to free the slaves ( a fascinating Robin Hood-like hero advocating freedom for the humblest), take part in luxurious parties, dream, enjoy themselves . They also suffer from jealousy, fear, passion, disillusionment or suspicion but little by little they grow up, protected and watched by Octavian's most loyal men, General Agrippa and the African Prince, Juba. The latter, like Alexander and Selene had his parents killed, his kingdom conquered, his freedom stolen by Octavian but , instead of fighting to get his rights back, he has become one of Rome's most influential men, one Octavian can always count on. Selene doesn't like him very much just for this reason: he has not only accepted his fate, he has renounced to fight , he has stooped and now serves the man who has destroyed his life. Selene, instead, will fight for her freedom, she wants to escape, she wants to go back to Egypt. Will her dreams come true? Will Marcellus, she secretly loves, realize she is the princess he should marry and not Julia? Will Octavian force her and her brother to marry against their will or will he kill them, once they become of age?
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