Queen Cleopatra VII, often simply known as Cleopatra, was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. Her full name was Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator, and she reigned from 51 BCE to 30 BCE. Cleopatra is one of the most famous female figures in ancient history, known for her intelligence, political acumen, and her romantic liaisons with prominent Roman figures such as Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. In this article I bring the story of the famous queen of Egypt with scenes from the great cinema epic, in which Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison participated.
Characters of Story | Cleopatra
Cleopatra (born 70/69 BCE—died August 30 BCE, Alexandria) was an Egyptian queen, famous in history and drama as the lover of Julius Caesar and later as the wife of Mark Antony. She became queen on the death of her father, Ptolemy XII, in 51 BCE and ruled successively with her two brothers Ptolemy XIII (51–47) and Ptolemy XIV (47–44) and her son Ptolemy XV Caesar (44–30). After the Roman armies of Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) defeated their combined forces, Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, and Egypt fell under Roman domination. Cleopatra actively influenced Roman politics at a crucial period, and she came to represent, as did no other woman of Classical antiquity, the prototype of the romantic femme fatale.
Early Life and Ascension to the Throne
The daughter of King Ptolemy XII Auletes, Cleopatra was destined to become the last queen of the Macedonian dynasty that ruled Egypt between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and its annexation by Rome in 30 BC. Her line was founded by Alexander's general Ptolemy, who became King Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt. Cleopatra was of Macedonian descent and had little, if any, Egyptian blood, although the classical author Plutarch wrote that she alone of her household took the trouble to learn the Egyptian language and, for political reasons, styled herself the new Isis, a title that distinguished her from the previous Ptolemaic queen, Cleopatra III, who had also claimed to be the living embodiment of the goddess Isis.
Coin portraits of Cleopatra show a countenance alive rather than beautiful, with a sensitive mouth, firm chin, liquid eyes, broad forehead, and prominent nose. When Ptolemy XII died in 51 BCE, the throne passed to his young son, Ptolemy XIII, and daughter, Cleopatra VII. It is likely, but not proven, that the two married soon after their father’s death. The 18-year-old Cleopatra, older than her brother by about eight years, became the dominant ruler. Evidence shows that the first decree in which Ptolemy’s name precedes Cleopatra’s was in October of 50 BCE. Soon after, Cleopatra was forced to flee Egypt for Syria, where she raised an army and in 48 BCE returned to face her brother at Pelusium, on Egypt’s eastern border. The murder of the Roman general Pompey, who had sought refuge from Ptolemy XIII at Pelusium, and the arrival of Julius Caesar brought temporary peace.
Cleopatra realized that to regain the throne she needed Roman support, especially that of Caesar. Indeed, each was determined to use the other. Caesar intended to raise money to pay off the debts of Cleopatra's father, Auletes, while he fought to retain his throne. Cleopatra was determined to retain her throne and, if possible, restore the glories of the earlier Ptolemies, as well as recover as much of their domains as possible, which included southern Syria and Palestine. Caesar and Cleopatra became lovers and spent the winter under siege in Alexandria. Roman reinforcements arrived the following spring, and Ptolemy XIII fled and drowned himself in the Nile River. Cleopatra, now married to her brother Ptolemy XIV, was restored to her throne. In June 47 BC, she gave birth to Ptolemy Caesar (known to the people of Alexandria as Caesarion, or "little Caesar"). Whether Caesar was the father of Caesarion, as his name indicates, cannot be said with certainty.
It took Caesar two years to extinguish the last flames of Pompeian opposition. As soon as he returned to Rome, in 46 BCE, he celebrated a four-day triumph—the ceremonial in honor of a general after his victory over a foreign enemy—in which Arsinoe, Cleopatra’s younger and hostile sister, was paraded. Cleopatra paid at least one state visit to Rome, accompanied by her husband-brother and son. She was accommodated in Caesar’s private villa beyond the Tiber River and may have been presented to witness the dedication of a golden statue of herself in the temple of Venus Genetrix, the ancestress of the Julian family to which Caesar belonged. Cleopatra was in Rome when Caesar was murdered in 44 BCE. Watch below the scene from the film "Cleopatra", which depicts the assassination of Julius Caesar.
Murder of Julius Caesar
Soon after her return to Alexandria, in 44 BCE, Cleopatra’s coruler, Ptolemy XIV, died. Cleopatra now ruled with her infant son, Ptolemy XV Caesar. When, at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BCE, Caesar’s assassins were routed, Mark Antony became the heir apparent of Caesar’s authority—or so it seemed, for Caesar’s great-nephew and personal heir, Octavian, was but a sickly boy. Antony, now controller of Rome’s eastern territories, sent for Cleopatra so that she might explain her role in the aftermath of Caesar’s assassination. She set out for Tarsus in Asia Minor loaded with gifts, having delayed her departure to heighten Antony’s expectation.
She entered the city by sailing up the Cydnus River in a barge while dressed in the robes of the new Isis. Antony, who equated himself with the god Dionysus, was captivated. Forgetting his wife, Fulvia, who in Italy was doing her best to maintain her husband’s interests against the growing menace of young Octavian, Antony returned to Alexandria, where he treated Cleopatra not as a “protected” sovereign but as an independent monarch.
In Alexandria, Cleopatra and Antony formed a society of “inimitable livers” whose members lived what some historians have interpreted as a life of debauchery and folly and others have interpreted as lives dedicated to the cult of the mystical god Dionysus.
In 40 BCE Cleopatra gave birth to twins, whom she named Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene. Antony had already left Alexandria to return to Italy, where he was forced to conclude a temporary settlement with Octavian. As part of this settlement, he married Octavian’s sister, Octavia (Fulvia having died). Three years later Antony was convinced that he and Octavian could never come to terms. His marriage to Octavia now an irrelevance, he returned to the east and reunited with Cleopatra. Antony needed Cleopatra’s financial support for his postponed Parthian campaign; in return, Cleopatra requested the return of much of Egypt’s eastern empire, including large portions of Syria and Lebanon and even the rich balsam groves of Jericho.
Audience with Mark Antony
The Parthian campaign was a costly failure, as was the temporary conquest of Armenia. Nevertheless, in 34 BCE Antony celebrated a triumphal return to Alexandria. This was followed by a celebration known as “the Donations of Alexandria.” Crowds flocked to the Gymnasium to see Cleopatra and Antony seated on golden thrones on a silver platform with their children sitting on slightly lower thrones beside them. Antony proclaimed Caesarion to be Caesar’s son—thus relegating Octavian, who had been adopted by Caesar as his son and heir, to legal illegitimacy.
Cleopatra was hailed as queen of kings, Caesarion as king of kings. Alexander Helios was awarded Armenia and the territory beyond the Euphrates, his infant brother Ptolemy the lands to the west of it. The boys’ sister, Cleopatra Selene, was to be ruler of Cyrene. It was clear to Octavian, watching from Rome, that Antony intended his extended family to rule the civilized world. A propaganda war erupted. Octavian seized Antony’s will (or what he claimed to be Antony’s will) from the temple of the Vestal Virgins, to whom it had been entrusted, and revealed to the Roman people that not only had Antony bestowed Roman possessions on a foreign woman but intended to be buried beside her in Egypt. The rumor quickly spread that Antony also intended to transfer the capital from Rome to Alexandria.
Antony and Cleopatra spent the winter of 32–31 BCE in Greece. The Roman Senate deprived Antony of his prospective consulate for the following year, and it then declared war against Cleopatra. The naval Battle of Actium [watch below], in which Octavian faced the combined forces of Antony and Cleopatra on September 2, 31 BCE, was a disaster for the Egyptians. Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt, and Cleopatra retired to her mausoleum as Antony went off to fight his last battle. Receiving the false news that Cleopatra had died, Antony fell on his sword. In a last excess of devotion, he had himself carried to Cleopatra’s retreat and there died, after bidding her to make her peace with Octavian.
Battle of Actium
Cleopatra buried Antony and then committed suicide. The means of her death is uncertain, though Classical writers came to believe that she had killed herself by means of an asp, symbol of divine royalty. She was 39 and had been a queen for 22 years and Antony’s partner for 11. They were buried together, as both of them had wished, and with them was buried the Roman Republic.
Death of Cleopatra
The Mysteries about Cleopatra [the Queen of Egypt] continue
According to legend, Cleopatra killed herself with the help of a venomous viper called an asp, but there is no proof. Archaeologists have also never found the mausoleum where she and, presumably, Antony died. As journalist Chip Brown wrote in the July 2011 issue of National Geographic, “Most of the glory of ancient Alexandria now lies about 20 feet underwater”. There is also no way to assess the veracity of historical portraits of the queen, which were deeply contradictory and reflect the prejudices of her time. Some coins show Cleopatra as a plain-looking woman, while others feature a mirror image of Mark Antony, reflecting their makers' views on the queen's liaison with her Roman lover. Cleopatra's ethnicity also remains a matter of debate, although historians point out that not only are we uncertain, but our concept of ethnicity did not exist in her time.
Written sources about Cleopatra are also rare. The Library of Alexandria was destroyed several times, taking with it the contemporary accounts of Cleopatra. According to the ancient chronicler Plutarch, whose biography of Antony is one of the most detailed accounts of Cleopatra’s reign, she was a woman “of the most radiant beauty… and the pinnacle of intellectual power.” Yet he wrote about the Egyptian queen hundreds of years after her death—and his work was written from a decidedly Roman perspective. Despite our lack of knowledge about Cleopatra’s life, she remains relevant to this day. From Shakespearean tragedies to Netflix docuseries, Cleopatra has earned an almost legendary reputation as a cunning politician with an almost superhuman ability to seduce.
While the former is almost certainly true, we will never know why some of the world’s most powerful men succumbed to Cleopatra’s charms. What we do know is that more than 2,000 years after her death, the woman who so skillfully ruled men – and her people – continues to charm and dazzle.
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Author: Vanessa Chamma
Graduated in Arabic Literature and bachelor's in international relations
Researcher and Author
Lines of Research: Middle History, Middle East, Geopolitics.
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