She took a single boat, and with the smallest number of attendants possible, made her way along the coast to Alexandria.

The man on whom she principally relied in this hazardous expedition was a domestic named Apollodorus.

She had, however, some other attendants besides.

When the party reached Alexandria, they waited until night, and then advanced to the foot of the walls of the citadel.

Here Apollodorus rolled the queen up in a piece of carpeting, and, covering the whole package with a cloth, he tied it with a thong, so as to give it the appearance of a bale of ordinary merchandise, and then throwing the load across his shoulder, he advanced into the city.
Cleopatra was at this time about twenty-one years of age, but she was of a slender and graceful form, and the burden was, consequently, not very heavy.