short essay about cleopatra

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Life and reign

• Cleopatra through the ages

Why is Cleopatra famous?

How did cleopatra come to power, how did cleopatra die.

• How did Caesarion die?
• Who was the first king of ancient Rome?

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• King College - Women's History Resource Site - Cleopatra VII
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• Ancient Origins - The Enigma of Cleopatra's Death: Was it Suicide or Murder?
• LiveScience - Cleopatra: Facts and Biography
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• Cleopatra - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
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• Table Of Contents

While queen of Egypt (51–30 BCE), Cleopatra actively influenced Roman politics at a crucial period and was especially known for her relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony . She came to represent, as did no other woman of antiquity, the prototype of the romantic femme fatale. Cleopatra inspired numerous books, plays, and movies.

When her father, Ptolemy XII , died in 51 BCE, Cleopatra and her brother, Ptolemy XIII , coruled until she was forced to flee, about 50 BCE. Aided by Julius Caesar , her lover, she returned to power upon her brother’s death in 47. She ruled with her brother-husband, Ptolemy XIV , and then with her son Caesarion .

What was Cleopatra like?

Cleopatra was charismatic and intelligent, and she used both qualities to further Egypt's political aims. She was also ruthless, reportedly killing several family members in order to solidify her power. The only member of her house to learn Egyptian, she was said to be a popular ruler.

With the arrival of the conquering Octavian (the future Roman emperor Augustus ), Cleopatra’s husband, Mark Antony , committed suicide under the false impression that she was dead. After burying him, the 39-year-old Cleopatra took her own life, though how is uncertain. Some claim it was by means of an asp , the symbol of divine royalty.

Cleopatra (born 70/69 bce —died August 30 bce , Alexandria) was an Egyptian queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty , 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 .

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 bce and its annexation by Rome in 30 bce . The line had been 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 house took the trouble to learn Egyptian and, for political reasons, styled herself as the new Isis , a title that distinguished her from the earlier 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 she needed Roman support, or, more specifically, Caesar’s support, if she was to regain her throne. Each was determined to use the other. Caesar sought money for repayment of the debts incurred by Cleopatra’s father, Auletes, as he struggled to retain his throne. Cleopatra was determined to keep her throne and, if possible, to restore the glories of the first Ptolemies and recover as much as possible of their dominions, which had included southern Syria and Palestine . Caesar and Cleopatra became lovers and spent the winter besieged in Alexandria . Roman reinforcements arrived the following spring, and Ptolemy XIII fled and drowned in the Nile . Cleopatra, now married to her brother Ptolemy XIV, was restored to her throne. In June 47 bce 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 implies, cannot now be known.

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 honour 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 present 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 .

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 .

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 rumour 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 , 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.

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 .

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Analyzing Cleopatra: An In-Depth Essay Sample

One of the most famous women in ancient history, Cleopatra is associated with Egypt and considered its best-known monarch. Cleopatra was the one whom the gods chose. At least, that is exactly what she thought of herself: she was meant to be above people with their petty abominations and joys. She belonged to the goddess Isis. Cleopatra was her eyes and body on the earth. However, the gods do not have the right to weakness; their destiny is to rule and punish. Cleopatra was taught the whole story of her family of Ptolemies, Greeks from Macedonia, who won the crown of the pharaohs by chance. The glory of Cleopatra VII not only surpassed her father’s but also all the other Ptolemies’. When the Egyptian crown went to Cleopatra, the Ptolemies had lost almost all the conquered lands. Cleopatra managed to bring everything back, not by force of arms. The beloved Roman dictator Anthony presented lost lands with a broad gesture. Thanks to the efforts of Cleopatra, Egypt remained independent longer than all the Greek kingdoms in the north of Africa. However, ultimately, she lost everything, including Egypt and her own life. The death of Cleopatra, the fall of Egypt, the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire coincided. This can be considered a historical pattern.

Table of content

Although there are very few records of Cleopatra’s youth, there are some assumptions. “It was January in the year 69 B.C. when the third daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes, king of Egypt, was born”. Every queen in the Ptolemaic dynasty was called Cleopatra, which meant ‘glorious by the father’. This was rather not a name but a title. Each Cleopatra was married to her brother and ruled together with him. The goddess Isis herself was married to her brother, the god Osiris. She blessed the incestuous kings. Although the former queens were glorious, they did not enter history because their actions were too common in those desperate times.

The young queen was disliked. It is believed that Cleopatra was too selfish and independent. She was not considered to be beautiful. “She is, by the way, a beauty in no way, shape, manner, or form”. In addition, she was versatile and gravitated toward European culture, which made her rather bored in Egypt. Roller said she was well-educated, which was unusual even for a royal woman of that time. She became a skilled orator, succeeding in public speaking. In addition, she knew many languages. She also possessed a talent for diplomacy.

Becoming a Queen

The main glory of Cleopatra was brought by three lovers – all the powerful politicians of Rome: Gnaeus Pompey, his rival in the power struggle; Gaius Julius Caesar, and Caesar’s successor at the top of power, Mark Antony. However, Cleopatra did not choose lovers. Fate did not give her any choice except between life and death. After the magnificent burial of King Avleth, according to his will, Cleopatra became the wife of a young brother, Dionysus, who was declared King Ptolemy XII. She became the princess of Egypt, Cleopatra VII. She had no intimate relationship with him as he was a ten-year-old boy. Nevertheless, Cleopatra considered him a perfect king since she wanted to rule Egypt herself.

Cleopatra was in her eighteenth year when the whole world lay at her feet and was against her. Before she could try on a crown with a snake, death in the humiliating guise of a eunuch fell behind her. Eunuch Potin, Dionysus’s tutor and the palace opposition’s leader, ruled the country on behalf of the boy. He was supported by the commander of the Egyptian army, Achilles. In the arsenal of Cleopatra, there was only one powerful mean – her female seduction skills, but it did not work for the eunuchs.

She turned to Pompey the Great for help. Thanks to the Roman patronage, she survived. If the conspirators killed her, they would give Pompey an excuse to introduce his legions, turning Egypt into a Roman province. The Ptolemaic palace had an exhausting, tense, three-year waiting between Potin and Cleopatra. They waited for the chance to destroy their rival. Cleopatra managed to outplay Potin, though.

Relationship with Julius Caesar

The powerful Roman conqueror Julius Caesar came to Egypt and demanded a return of huge debts. Just as Ptolemy XIII, Cleopatra did not want to pay the debts. She dressed in the most attractive outfits and ordered her servants to roll her up on a carpet and carry her to Caesar as a gift. The queen decided to seduce the Roman commander, and the next morning, after she did so, she celebrated the victory. Caesar fell in love with the young queen and promised he would not only forget about her debts but also make her brother reconcile with her. Julius Caesar returned the throne to his mistress. During the war, the young king drowned, trying to flee Egypt, when he escaped from Caesar’s troops. Since that time, Cleopatra has become the sole ruler of the state.

Caesar was preparing to seize Dacia and Parthia, thus expanding the eastern borders of the Roman Empire. He intended to take charge of such a giant empire. After the war, he called a mistress with a little son whom Cleopatra named Ptolemy Caesarion in Rome. However, the Romans’ hatred for the stranger grew stronger and stronger. It was said that she was so attached to her Caesar that he supposedly seriously decided to become a pharaoh and move the capital of the Roman Empire to Alexandria. The dictator did not deny such rumors, which he paid with his life. Close associates killed Julius Caesar during the senate’s meeting. Caesar did not leave direct heirs. When his will was revealed, he was found to have appointed his nephew Octavian as successor, and no mention was made of Ptolemy Caesarion. The frightened Egyptian queen gathered and sailed to her homeland.

Relationship with Marc Anthony

After the death of Caesar, troubled times came to Egypt. To somehow save the country from the Roman troops that were quickly approaching, Cleopatra entered into a love affair with another Roman commander, Mark Antony, who competed with Octavian for domination over the Roman state. Simple and rude, yet handsome and passionate to female charms, Antony fell madly in love with the charming Egyptian and, forgetting about his lawful wife, spent all the time with his new mistress. Anthony’s wife fell ill from grief and suddenly died. The widower wished to make a new marriage with the Egyptian queen. Octavian was against it. He offered his sister – the intelligent, educated and kind Octavia. Mark Anthony soberly assessed his political interest and agreed. However, immediately after the wedding, the commander sailed to Syria, where a brilliant Cleopatra was. She did not like that the lover linked his life with another. To console her beloved, Anthony married her. As a wedding gift, Anthony presented Cyprus, Phenicia and Cilicia. Cleopatra was given the title of Queen of Kings. She gave birth to a son and a daughter from Anthony. Cicero states, “Anthony has become Osiris to Cleopatra’s Isis”. Three years passed, and Octavian decided to put an end to the dual power in the country. He went to war with Anthony. The fleet and the army of the rival were defeated. Anthony himself committed suicide by rushing to the sword.

Death and Defeat

Octavian wanted to imprison Cleopatra and “parade her through the streets of Rome in chains”. The Egyptian queen could not endure such disgrace and humiliation. She secretly made her way to her tomb, ordered the servant to bring a poisonous snake and wrapped it around her neck. A few hours later, Octavian received a message from Cleopatra. In it, the last queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty asked to be buried next to her last husband – Mark Anthony, not far from the royal palace.

Cleopatra’s death from a snake bite has a deep symbolic meaning. Since immemorial, the crown of pharaohs was adorned with the image of an aspid snake. The snake was the emblem of royal power. In the Egyptian cults, the reptile was also associated with the sun-god Ra. The snake’s bite was believed to have given immortality and attached man to the gods.

Role in History

Cleopatra played a crucial role in the history of Egypt. “She was a key player in events which shaped Western civilization, and even her death was a turning point in Europe’s history”. Cleopatra managed to rebuild the power and wealth of Egypt. The treasury was empty at the end of her father’s rule. Cleopatra restored and grew the wealth of her country. This achievement is sufficient to rank Cleopatra among history’s top rulers. Graham-Yooll emphasizes that Cleopatra was “a brilliant, vibrant and talented leader who could compete with men without an army”.

Cleopatra was the last queen of the Ancient Egypt. She came to power when the star of Egypt had already sunk. Realizing this, she struggled for the throne and independence of her state. She proved to be a very wise and subtle politician, betting on two of the greatest people of her time – Guy Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony. Cleopatra stands in line with the most famous politicians of her time. She led a ‘big game’, the rate at which the Egyptian throne and the freedom of her state were. Although she lost, the fact that she managed to keep Egypt’s independence from Rome for 20 years meant a lot.

📎 References:

1. Cicero, Tullius. Letter to J. W. Worthy. n.d. 2. Fletcher, Joann. Cleopatra the Great: The Woman behind the Legend. Harper Collins, 2011. 3. Graham-Yooll, Fred. Cleopatra’s Lost Treasure. Page Publishing, 2015. 4. Miller, Ron, and Sommer Browning. Cleopatra. Infobase Publishing, 2008. 5. Roller, Duane. Cleopatra: A Biography. Oxford University Press, 2010.

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Cleopatra: The Last Queen of Egypt Essay

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Egyptian culture and background were recently acknowledged as a consequence of modern cultural identity that tried to replace the dominant Western views on World history with a greater focus on Africa’s contributions. However, when we think about people of the past, we intuitively try to imagine what they would have looked like in real life, to visualize their physical features and general appearance.

The Western culture regularly portrays ancient Egyptians and in various perspective and ways in which this happened shows how impressions change over time. Take Queen Cleopatra, for example, the last queen to rule the Egyptian descent. The repeated filming of the story of Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra shows how the image of this great woman has changed.

The 1963 Hollywood blockbuster featured the British-born Caucasian Elizabeth Taylor as the queen; in a 1999 movie a Latin-American actress of mixed Chilean-French parentage, Leonor Varela, played the part of Cleopatra. A calendar issued somewhat earlier by an American beverage company entitled “Great Kings and Queens of Africa” included a depiction of Cleopatra as a black African woman.

These changes in the queen’s representation did not result from scholarly reconsiderations of ancient data, but from changing perceptions in the popular mind about the context of ancient Egypt. From the above-stated points, it will be observed that the portrait of Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt throughout history is not an accurate one.

The last queen of Egypt, Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy XI and married her younger brother when she was 17 (Anderson 38). Cleopatra was by origin an Egyptian; by lineage and ancestry, she was a Greek (Abbott 4).

Although she was the queen of Egypt, Cleopatra did not possess a drop of Egyptian blood but was more Greek. With the help of Julius Caesar, she led a successful revolt against her brother, to have control of the kingdom, as a vassal state of Rome.

Cleopatra became Caesar’s mistress and bore him a son. Allied with Marc Anthony after Caesar’s assassination, the pair were defeated by Octavius (later Augustus) at the battle of Actium in 31 B.C. After their defeat, the lovers took their own lives, and the legend of Cleopatra as the archetypal temptress and romantic heroine has exerted a powerful influence in Western art ever since.

Cleopatra was a talented ambassador, commander-in-chief, superintendent, and a writer, who skillfully managed her kingdom in the face of a deteriorating political situation and increasing Roman involvement (Burstein 10).

Like all other women, she experienced male-governance in both prehistoric and modern eras and was repeatedly considered as an influence to the men she came across or was classified as a typical patriotic female character, whose main success was to destroy the men that she came in contact with. In line with this, she is believed to be an outstanding person in Greco-Roman history.

Cleopatra was the only female ruler in prehistoric times to customarily govern autonomously- not simply as an heir to her late husband- but to a great extent; she attempted to rescue and save a dying kingdom from collapsing in the face of irresistible Roman force. As a result of this, she was regarded as the reincarnation of the goddess Isis (Stanley 20).

Looking back at her lineage, she had more influence and power than the Romans who were in opposition or rivalry with her. As a lady, her dynastic existence needs individual verdicts which are superfluous to her male counterpart.

Works Cited

Abbott, Jacob. Cleopatra , Teddington, Middlesex: Echo Library, 2006. Print.

Anderson, Jaynie. Tiepolo’s Cleopatra , AU: Macmillan Education, 2003. Print.

Burstein, Stanley. The reign of Cleopatra , Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. Print.

Cleopatra . The History Channel website . n.d. Web.

Stanley, Mayer. The Reign of Cleopatra , Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007. Print.

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Cleopatra VII (l. c. 69-30 BCE, r. 51-30 BCE) was the last ruler of Egypt before it was annexed as a province of Rome . Although arguably the most famous Egyptian queen, Cleopatra was actually Greek and a member of the Ptolemaic Dynasty (323-30 BCE) which ruled Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great (l. 356-323 BCE).

Cleopatra is probably best known for her love affair with the Roman general and statesman Mark Antony (l. 83-30 BCE) as well as her earlier affair with Julius Caesar (l. 100-44 BCE) but was a powerful queen before her interaction with either and a much stronger monarch than any of the later Ptolemaic Dynasty.

Cleopatra was fluent in a number of languages, is reported to have been extremely charming, and was an effective diplomat and administrator. Her involvement with both Caesar and Mark Antony came about after she had already successfully ruled and steered Egypt through a difficult period. Her affair with Antony brought her into direct conflict with Octavian Caesar (later known as Augustus Caesar, r. 27 BCE - 14 CE) who was Antony's brother-in- law . Octavian would defeat Cleopatra and Antony and the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, ending her reign. She and Antony would then both commit suicide the following year and Octavian would found the Roman Empire and relegate Cleopatra to a minor chapter in Rome's past. Scholar Stacy Schiff comments:

The rewriting of history began almost immediately. Not only did Mark Antony disappear from the [official] record, but Actium wondrously transformed itself into a major engagement, a resounding victory, a historical turning point. It went from an end to a beginning. Augustus had rescued the country from great peril. (297)

The Roman historians seized on the concept of the seductive woman from the East who had threatened Rome and paid the price. This image of Cleopatra has, unfortunately, remained through the intervening centuries, and only in the last century have scholarly attempts been made to portray her in a more realistic, and flattering, light.

Youth & Succession

In June of 323 BCE, Alexander the Great died and his vast empire was divided among his generals. One of these generals was Ptolemy I Soter (r. 323-282 BCE), a fellow Macedonian, who would found the Ptolemaic Dynasty in ancient Egypt. The Ptolemaic line, of Macedonian-Greek ethnicity, would continue to rule Egypt until the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BCE when it was taken by Rome. Ptolemy I, Ptolemy II (r. 285-246 BCE), and Ptolemy III (r. 246-222 BCE) governed Egypt well, but after them, their successors ruled poorly until Cleopatra came to the throne. In fact, the difficulties she had to overcome were primarily the legacy of her predecessors.

Cleopatra VII Philopator was born in 69 BCE and ruled jointly with her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes. When she was 18 years old, her father died, leaving her the throne. Because Egyptian tradition held that a woman needed a male consort to reign, her twelve-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII , was ceremonially married to her. Cleopatra soon dropped his name from all official documents, however, and ruled alone.

The Ptolemies, insisting on Macedonian-Greek superiority, had ruled in Egypt for centuries without ever learning the Egyptian language or embracing the customs. Cleopatra, however, was fluent in Egyptian, eloquent in her native Greek, and proficient in other languages as well. Because of this, she was able to communicate easily with diplomats from other countries without the need of a translator and, shortly after assuming the throne, without bothering to hear the counsel of her advisors on matters of state. Schiff notes how "Cleopatra had the gift of languages and glided easily among them" (160). Plutarch , from whose works Schiff draws this observation, writes:

It was a pleasure merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an instrument of many strings, she could pass from one language to another; so that there were few of the barbarian nations that she answered by an interpreter. ( Lives , Antony and Cleopatra , Ch. 8)

Her habit of making decisions and acting on them without the counsel of the members of her court upset some of the high ranking officials. One example of this was when Roman mercenary lieutenants employed by the Ptolemaic crown murdered the sons of the Roman governor of Syria to prevent them from requesting her assistance. She immediately arrested the lieutenants responsible and turned them over to the aggrieved father for punishment.

In spite of her many achievements, her court was not pleased with her independent attitude. In 48 BCE her chief advisor, Pothinus, along with another, Theodotus of Chios, and the General Achillas, overthrew her and placed Ptolemy XIII on the throne, believing him to be easier to control than his sister. Cleopatra and her half-sister, Arsinoe, fled to Thebaid for safety.

Pompey , Caesar & The Coming of Rome

At about this same time the Roman general and politician, Pompey the Great , was defeated by Julius Caesar at the Battle of Pharsalus . Pompey was the state-appointed guardian over the younger Ptolemy children and, on his campaigns, had spent considerable time in Egypt. Believing he would be welcomed by friends, Pompey fled from Pharsalus to Egypt but, instead of finding sanctuary, was murdered under the gaze of Ptolemy XIII as he came on shore at Alexandria .

Caesar's army was numerically inferior to Pompey's and it was believed that Caesar's stunning victory meant that the gods favored him over Pompey. Further, it seemed to make more sense to Ptolemy XIII's advisor Pothinus to align the young king with the future of Rome rather than the past.

Upon arriving in Egypt with his legions, in pursuit of Pompey, Caesar was allegedly outraged that Pompey had been killed, declared martial law, and set himself up in the royal palace . Ptolemy XIII fled to Pelusium with his court. Caesar, however, was not about to let the young ruler slip away to foment trouble and had him brought back to Alexandria.

Cleopatra was still in exile and knew there was no way she could simply walk into the palace unmolested. Recognizing in Caesar her chance to regain power, she is said to have had herself rolled in a rug, ostensibly a gift for the Roman general, and carried through the enemy lines. Plutarch tells the story:

Cleopatra, taking only one of her friends with her (Apollodorus the Sicilian), embarked in a small boat and landed at the palace when it was already getting dark. Since there seemed to be no other way of getting in unobserved, she stretched herself out at full length inside a sleeping bag and Apollodorus, after tying up the bag, carried it indoors to Caesar. This little trick of Cleopatra's, which first showed her provocative impudence, is said to have been the first thing about her which captivated Caesar. ( Lives , Caesar , Ch. 49)

She and Caesar seemed to strike up an instant affinity for each other and, by the next morning when Ptolemy XIII arrived to meet with Caesar, Cleopatra and Caesar were already lovers. The young pharaoh was outraged.

Cleopatra & Julius Caesar

Ptolemy XIII turned to his general Achillas for support and war broke out in Alexandria between Caesar's legions and the Egyptian army. Caesar and Cleopatra were besieged in the royal palace for six months until Roman reinforcements were able to arrive and break the Egyptian lines. It is at this time, according to some historians, that the great library at Alexandria was accidentally burned, though this claim has been challenged.

Before the Roman victory over Ptolemy XIII, however, Cleopatra's half-sister, Arsinoe, who had returned with her, fled the palace for Achillas' camp and had herself proclaimed queen in Cleopatra's place. Ptolemy XIII drowned in the Nile attempting to escape after the battle and the other leaders of the coup against Cleopatra were killed in battle or shortly afterwards. Arsinoe was captured and sent to Rome in defeat but was spared her life by Caesar who exiled her to live in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus where she would remain until 41 BCE when, at Cleopatra's urging, Mark Antony had her executed.

Cleopatra, now the sole ruler, traveled through Egypt with Caesar in great style and was hailed by her subjects as Pharaoh. She gave birth to a son, Ptolemy Caesar (known as Caesarion ), in June of 47 BCE and proclaimed him her heir. Caesar himself was content with Cleopatra ruling Egypt as the two of them found in each other the same kind of stratagem and intelligence, bonding them together with mutual respect.

In 46 BCE, Caesar returned to Rome and, shortly after, brought Cleopatra, their son, and her entire entourage to live there. He openly acknowledged Caesarion as his son (though not his heir) and Cleopatra as his consort. As Caesar was already married to Calpurnia at this time, and the Roman laws against bigamy were strictly adhered to, many of the members of the Senate, as well as the public, were upset by Caesar's actions. Cleopatra's famous gifts of flattery failed to make the situation any better and Cicero (l. 106-43 BCE) was especially outraged as he makes clear in a letter from 45 BCE:

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I detest the Queen. For all the presents she promised were things of a learned kind, and consistent with my character, such as I could proclaim on the housetops...and the insolence of the Queen herself when she was living in Caesar's trans-Tiberine villa, the recollection of it is painful to me. (Lewis, 118)

Whatever Cicero or the others thought of Cleopatra or her relationship with Caesar, it does not seem to have mattered to either of them. They continued to appear in public together even though propriety suggested they keep a lower profile.

Cleopatra & Mark Antony

When Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, Cleopatra fled Rome with Caesarion and returned to Alexandria. Caesar's right-hand man, Mark Antony, joined with his grandnephew Octavian and friend Lepidus to pursue and defeat the conspirators who had murdered Caesar. After the Battle of Phillipi, at which the forces of Antony and Octavian defeated those of Brutus and Cassius, Antony emerged as ruler of the eastern provinces, including Egypt, while Octavian held the west.

In 41 BCE, Cleopatra was summoned to appear before Antony in Tarsus to answer charges she had given aid to Brutus and Cassius. Cleopatra delayed in coming and then delayed further in complying with Antony's summons, making it clear that, as Queen of Egypt, she would come in her own time when she saw fit. Egypt was, at this time, teetering on the edge of economic chaos but, even so, Cleopatra made sure to present herself as a true sovereign, appearing in luxury on her barge, dressed as Aphrodite :

She came sailing up the river Cydnus in a barge with gilded stern and outspread sails of purple, while oars of silver beat time to the music of flutes and fifes and harps. She herself lay all along, under a canopy of cloth of gold , dressed as Venus in a picture, and beautiful young boys, like painted Cupids, stood on each side to fan her. Her maids were dressed like Sea Nymphs and Graces , some steering at the rudder, some working at the ropes...perfumes diffused themselves from the vessel to the shore, which was covered with multitudes, part following the galley up the river on either bank, part running out of the city to see the sight. The market place was quite emptied, and Antony at last was left alone sitting upon the tribunal while the word went, through all the multitude, that Venus was come to feast with Bacchus for the common good of Asia. (Plutarch, Life of Marcus Antonius , Ch. 7)

Mark Antony and Cleopatra instantly became lovers and would remain so for the next ten years. She would bear him three children - Cleopatra Selene II , Alexander Helios , and Ptolemy Philadelphus - and he considered her his wife, even though he was married, first, to Fulvia and then to Octavia, the sister of Octavian. He eventually divorced Octavia to marry Cleopatra legally.

Roman Civil War & Cleopatra's Death

During these years, Antony's relationship with Octavian would steadily disintegrate. Octavian was outraged by Antony's behavior and, especially, the disrespect shown to his sister as well as to himself. He repeatedly rebuked Antony and, in at least one instance, Antony responded directly. In 33 BCE, Antony returned a letter to Octavian:

What has upset you? Because I go to bed with Cleopatra? But she's my wife and I've been doing so for nine years, not just recently. And anyway, is [your wife] your only pleasure? I expect that you will have managed, by the time you read this, to have hopped into bed with Tertulla, Terentilla, Rufilla, Salvia Titisenia, or the whole lot of them. Does it really matter where, or with what women , you get your excitement? (Lewis, 133)

Octavian did not appreciate the reply nor any of Antony's other breaches of policy, courtesy, or propriety, and their personal and professional relationship degenerated further to the point where civil war broke out. After a number of engagements which almost routinely favored Octavian, Cleopatra's and Antony's forces were defeated by Octavian's at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE and, a year later, they both committed suicide. Antony, upon hearing the false report of Cleopatra's death, stabbed himself. He learned, too late, that she still lived and Octavian allowed him to be brought to the queen where he died in her arms.

Octavian then demanded an audience with the queen where the conditions of her defeat were made plain to her. The terms were hardly favorable and Cleopatra understood she would be brought to Rome a captive to adorn Octavian's triumph . Recognizing that she would not be able to manipulate Octavian as she had Caesar and Antony, Cleopatra asked for, and was granted, time to prepare herself.

She then had herself poisoned through the bite of a snake (traditionally an asp, though most scholars today believe it was an Egyptian cobra). Octavian had her son Caesarion murdered and her children by Antony brought to Rome where they were raised by Octavia; thus ended the Ptolemaic line of Egyptian rulers.

Although traditionally regarded as a great beauty, the ancient writers uniformly praise her intelligence and charm over her physical attributes. Plutarch writes:

Her own beauty, so we are told, was not of that incomparable type that immediately captivates the beholder. But the charm of her presence was irresistible and there was an attraction in her person and in her conversation that, along with a peculiar force of character in her every word and action, laid all who associated with her under her spell. ( Lives, Antony and Cleopatra , Ch. 8)

Cleopatra has continued to cast that same spell throughout the centuries since her death and remains the most famous queen of ancient Egypt. Movies, books, television shows, and plays have been produced about her life and she is depicted in works of art in every century up to the present day. Even so, as Schiff notes, she is almost universally remembered as the woman who seduced two powerful men rather than for what she accomplished before meeting them. Schiff writes:

The personal inevitably trumps the political and the erotic trumps all: we will remember that Cleopatra slept with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony long after we have forgotten what she accomplished in doing so, that she sustained a vast, rich, densely populated empire in its troubled twilight, in the name of a proud and cultivated dynasty. She remains on the map for having seduced two of the greatest men of her time, while her crime was to have entered into those same `wily and suspicious' marital partnerships that every man in power enjoyed. (299)

Cleopatra was only 39 years old when she died and had ruled for 22 of those years. In an age when women rarely or never asserted political control over men, and female rulers were rare, she managed to maintain Egypt in a state of independence for as long as she held the throne and never forgot what was due to her people. In keeping with the ancient traditions of the land, she tried to maintain the concept of ma'at - balance and harmony - as well as she could under the circumstances of the time. Though she was Macedonian-Greek, not Egyptian, she has come to symbolize ancient Egypt in the popular imagination more than any other Egyptian monarch.

Author's Note: Special thanks to scholar Arienne King for contributions to this article.

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Bibliography

• Ashton, S. The Last Queens of Egypt. Longman, 2003.
• Bunson, M. The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Gramercy Books, 1991.
• David, R. Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Durant, W. Caesar and Christ. Simon & Schuster, 1980.
• Lewis, J.E. The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness Ancient Rome. Running Press, 2003.
• Mellor, R. The Historians of Ancient Rome. Routledge, 2010.
• Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives. P.F. Collier & Son, 1969.
• Schiff, S. Cleopatra. Back Bay Books, 2011.
• Suetonius. The Twelve Caesars. Penguin Classics, 2007.
• The Internet Classics Archive | Antony by Plutarch , accessed 1 Dec 2016.

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: September 22, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2009

Cleopatra VII ruled ancient Egypt as co-regent (first with her father, then with her two younger brothers and finally with her son) for almost three decades. She was part of a dynasty of Macedonian rulers founded by Ptolemy, who served as general under Alexander the Great during his conquest of Egypt in 332 B.C. Well-educated and clever, Cleopatra could speak various languages and served as the dominant ruler in all three of her co-regencies. Her romantic liaisons and military alliances with the Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, as well as her supposed exotic beauty and powers of seduction, earned her an enduring place in history and popular myth.

Cleopatra: Early Life and Ascension to Throne

Since no contemporary accounts exist of Cleopatra’s life, it is difficult to piece together her biography with much certainty. Much of what is known about her life comes from the work of Greco-Roman scholars, particularly Plutarch. Born in 70 or 69 B.C., Cleopatra was a daughter of Ptolemy XII (Auletes), a descendant of Ptolemy I Soter, one of Alexander The Great ’s generals and the founder of the Ptolemaic line in Egypt . Her mother was believed to be Cleopatra V Tryphaena, the king’s wife (and possibly his half-sister). In 51 B.C., upon the apparently natural death of Auletes, the Egyptian throne passed to 18-year-old Cleopatra and her 10-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII.

Did you know? In the days between Cleopatra's death and Octavian's formal annexation of Egypt, her 16-year-old son Caesarion was officially sole ruler. He had no way of taking power, however, and was captured and executed shortly after his mother's suicide.

Soon after the siblings’ ascension to the throne, Ptolemy’s advisers acted against Cleopatra, who was forced to flee Egypt for Syria in 49 B.C. She raised an army of mercenaries and returned the following year to face her brother’s forces in a civil war at Pelusium, on Egypt’s eastern border. Meanwhile, after allowing the Roman general Pompey to be murdered, Ptolemy XIII welcomed the arrival of Pompey’s rival, Julius Caesar , to Alexandria. In order to help her cause, Cleopatra sought Caesar’s support, reportedly smuggling herself into the royal palace to plead her case with him.

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Caesar and Cleopatra

For his part, Caesar needed to fund his own return to power in Rome , and needed Egypt to repay the debts incurred by Auletes. After four months of war between Caesar’s outnumbered forces and those of Ptolemy XIII, Roman reinforcements arrived; Ptolemy was forced to flee Alexandria and was believed to have drowned in the Nile River. Entering Alexandria as an unpopular conqueror, Caesar restored the throne to the equally unpopular Cleopatra and her younger brother Ptolemy XIV (then 13 years old). Caesar remained in Egypt with Cleopatra for a time, and around 47 B.C. she gave birth to a son, Ptolemy Caesar. He was believed to be Caesar’s child, and was known by the Egyptian people as Caesarion, or Little Caesar.

Sometime in 46-45 B.C., Cleopatra traveled with Ptolemy XIV and Caesarion to Rome to visit Caesar, who had returned earlier. After Caesar was murdered in March 44 B.C., Cleopatra went back to Egypt; Ptolemy XIV was killed soon after (possibly by Cleopatra’s agents) and the three-year-old Caesarion was named co-regent with his mother, as Ptolemy XV. By this point, Cleopatra had strongly identified herself with the goddess Isis, the sister-wife of Osiris and mother of Horus. (This was consistent with the ancient Egyptian tradition of associating royalty with divinity in order to reinforce the position of kings and queens. Cleopatra III had also claimed to be associated with Isis, and Cleopatra VII was referred to as the “New Isis.”) She spoke as many as a dozen languages and was renowned for her “irresistible charm,” according to Plutarch.

Cleopatra’s Seduction of Mark Antony

With her infant son as co-regent, Cleopatra’s hold on power in Egypt was more secure than it had ever been. Still, unreliable flooding of the Nile resulted in failing crops, leading to inflation and hunger. Meanwhile, a conflict was raging in Rome between a second triumvirate of Caesar’s allies ( Mark Antony , Octavian and Lepidus) and his assassins, Brutus and Cassius. Both sides asked for Egyptian support, and after some stalling, Cleopatra sent four Roman legions stationed in Egypt by Caesar to support the triumvirate. In 42 B.C., after defeating the forces of Brutus and Cassius in the battles of Philippi, Mark Antony and Octavian divided power in Rome.

Mark Antony soon summoned Cleopatra to the Cicilian city of Tarsus (south of modern Turkey) to explain the role she had played in the complicated aftermath of Caesar’s assassination. According to the story recorded by Plutarch (and later dramatized famously by William Shakespeare ), Cleopatra sailed to Tarsus in an elaborate ship, dressed in the robes of Isis. Antony, who associated himself with the Greek deity Dionysus, was seduced by her charms. 

He agreed to protect Egypt and Cleopatra’s crown, pledging support for the removal of her younger sister and rival Arsinoe, then in exile. Cleopatra returned to Egypt, followed shortly thereafter by Antony, who left behind his third wife, Fulvia, and their children in Rome. He spent the winter of 41-40 B.C. in Alexandria, during which he and Cleopatra famously formed a drinking society called “The Inimitable Livers.” In 40 B.C., after Antony’s return to Rome, Cleopatra gave birth to twins, Alexander Helios (sun) and Cleopatra Selene (moon).

10 Little‑Known Facts About Cleopatra

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Did Cleopatra Really Die by Snake Bite?

The venom of an asp—or even a cobra—supposedly killed the legendary queen of Egypt. Is it true?

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Cleopatra: Power Struggle

After Fulvia took ill and died, Antony was forced to prove his loyalty to Octavian by making a diplomatic marriage with Octavian’s half-sister Octavia. Egypt grew more prosperous under Cleopatra’s rule, and in 37 B.C. Antony again met with Cleopatra to obtain funds for his long-delayed military campaign against the kingdom of Parthia. In exchange, he agreed to return much of Egypt’s eastern empire, including Cyprus, Crete, Cyrenaica (Libya), Jericho and large portions of Syria and Lebanon. They again became lovers, and Cleopatra gave birth to another son, Ptolemy Philadelphos, in 36 B.C.

After a humiliating defeat in Parthia, Antony publicly rejected his wife Octavia’s efforts to rejoin him and instead returned to Egypt and Cleopatra. In a public celebration in 34 B.C. known as the “Donations of Alexandria,” Antony declared Caesarion as Caesar’s son and rightful heir (as opposed to his adopted son, Octavian) and awarded land to each of his children with Cleopatra. This began a war of propaganda between him and the furious Octavian, who claimed that Antony was entirely under Cleopatra’s control and would abandon Rome and found a new capital in Egypt. In late 32 B.C., the Roman Senate stripped Antony of all his titles, and Octavian declared war on Cleopatra.

Cleopatra: Defeat and Death

On September 2, 31 B.C., Octavian’s forces soundly defeated those of Antony and Cleopatra in the Battle of Actium . Cleopatra’s ships deserted the battle and fled to Egypt, and Antony soon managed to break away and follow her with a few ships. With Alexandria under attack from Octavian’s forces, Antony heard a rumor that Cleopatra had committed suicide. He fell on his sword, and died just as news arrived that the rumor had been false.

On August 12, 30 B.C., after burying Antony and meeting with the victorious Octavian, Cleopatra closed herself in her chamber with two of her female servants. The means of her death is uncertain, but Plutarch and other writers advanced the theory that she used a poisonous snake known as the asp, a symbol of divine royalty, to commit suicide at age 39. According to her wishes, Cleopatra’s body was buried with Antony’s, leaving Octavian (later Emperor Augustus I) to celebrate his conquest of Egypt and his consolidation of power in Rome.

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Biography Online

Cleopatra Biography

Cleopatra was born around 69 BC. Her father Ptolemy XII died (in 51 BC) when she was 18, leaving Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIII as co-regents. As was the custom of the time, Cleopatra married her brother, and together they ruled Egypt. However, Ptolemy soon had Cleopatra exiled, leaving him in sole charge.

Taking advantage of Caesar’s displeasure with Ptolemy, Cleopatra sneaked into Caesar’s rooms and successfully endeared herself to Julius Caesar.  With Caesar’s military strength and support siding with Cleopatra, her brother Ptolemy was overthrown and killed. It enabled Cleopatra to be reinstalled as Queen. In 47BC, Cleopatra gave birth to Caesarion, which means “little Caesar.” though Caesar never publicly declared him to be his son.

For a time Cleopatra’s reign brought relative stability to the region, bringing a degree of peace and prosperity to a country bankrupt by civil war. Although she was brought up to speak Greek like her family, she also made an effort to learn Egyptian and later only spoke only in the native tongue of her subjects.

In 44BC, Julius Caesar was assassinated and this led to a growing power struggle between Mark Anthony and Caesar’s adopted son Octavian.

Despite being married to Octavian’s sister (Octavia), Mark Anthony began a relationship with Cleopatra. Together Cleopatra and Mark Anthony had three children. In his pursuit of power, Octavian claimed that Mark Anthony would give away Rome to this Egyptian Queen, who seemed to have Mark Anthony under her spell. It was also seen as a family insult that Mark Anthony was married to his sister but, at the same time, having an affair with Cleopatra.

The antagonism between Mark Anthony and Octavius grew into civil war, and in 31BC, Cleopatra joined her Egyptian forces with the Roman forces of Mark Anthony and fought Octavian’s forces on the west coast of Greece.

Cleopatra and Mark Anthony were decisively beaten in battle and scarcely escaped back to Egypt. However, Octavian’s forces pursued the couple and captured Alexandria in 30BC. With no chance of escape, Mark Anthony and Cleopatra both took their own lives, committing suicide on 12 August 30BC. In one account of her death, Cleopatra committed suicide by persuading a cobra to bite her on the breast.

Octavian later had their son Caesarion strangled, ending the Cleopatra dynasty. Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, and Cleopatra proved to be the last of the Egyptian Pharaohs.

The Mystique of Cleopatra

Many contemporary sources spoke of the mystique of Cleopatra’s beauty and allure. Her image was put on Egyptian coins, which was very rare for the historical period. Plutarch writing in the Life of Mark Antony wrote:

“For (as they say) it was not because her [Cleopatra’s] beauty in itself was so striking that it stunned the onlooker, but the inescapable impression produced by daily contact with her: the attractiveness in the persuasiveness of her talk, and the character that surrounded her conversation was stimulating. It was a pleasure to hear the sound of her voice, and she tuned her tongue like a many-stringed instrument expertly to whatever language she chose….”

She was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a family of Greek origin that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great’s death during the Hellenistic period. The Ptolemies, throughout their dynasty, spoke Greek and refused to speak Egyptian, which is the reason that Greek, as well as Egyptian languages, were used on official court documents such as the Rosetta Stone. By contrast, Cleopatra did learn to speak Egyptian and represented herself as the reincarnation of an Egyptian goddess, Isis.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. “ Biography of Cleopatra” , Oxford, UK www.biographyonline.net , Published: 1st Feb. 2011. Last updated 7th March 2017.

Cleopatra at Amazon

Cleopatra   by Diane Stanley at Amazon

Who Was Cleopatra?

Mythology, propaganda, Liz Taylor and the real Queen of the Nile

Amy Crawford

Contributing Writer

The struggle with her teenage brother over the throne of Egypt was not going as well as Cleopatra VII had hoped. In 49 B.C., Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII—also her husband and, by the terms of their father's will, her co-ruler—had driven his sister from the palace at Alexandria after Cleopatra attempted to make herself the sole sovereign. The queen, then in her early twenties, fled to Syria and returned with a mercenary army, setting up camp just outside the capital.

Meanwhile, pursuing a military rival who had fled to Egypt, the Roman general Julius Caesar arrived at Alexandria in the summer of 48 B.C., and found himself drawn into the Egyptian family feud. For decades Egypt had been a subservient ally to Rome, and preserving the stability of the Nile Valley, with its great agricultural wealth, was in Rome's economic interest. Caesar took up residence at Alexandria's royal palace and summoned the warring siblings for a peace conference, which he planned to arbitrate. But Ptolemy XIII's forces barred the return of the king's sister to Alexandria. Aware that Caesar's diplomatic intervention could help her regain the throne, Cleopatra hatched a scheme to sneak herself into the palace for an audience with Caesar. She persuaded her servant Apollodoros to wrap her in a carpet (or, according to some sources, a sack used for storing bedclothes), which he then presented to the 52-year old Roman.

The image of young Cleopatra tumbling out of an unfurled carpet has been dramatized in nearly every film about her, from the silent era to a 1999 TV miniseries, but it was also a key scene in the real Cleopatra's staging of her own life. "She was clearly using all her talents from the moment she arrived on the world stage before Caesar," says Egyptologist Joann Fletcher, author of a forthcoming biography, Cleopatra the Great .

Like most monarchs of her time, Cleopatra saw herself as divine; from birth she and other members of her family were declared to be gods and goddesses. Highly image-conscious, Cleopatra maintained her mystique through shows of splendor, identifying herself with the deities Isis and Aphrodite, and in effect creating much of the mythology that surrounds her to this day. Though Hollywood versions of her story are jam-packed with anachronisms, embellishments, exaggerations and inaccuracies, the Cleopatras of Elizabeth Taylor, Vivien Leigh and Claudette Colbert do share with the real queen a love of pageantry. "Cleopatra was a mistress of disguise and costume," says Fletcher. "She could reinvent herself to suit the occasion, and I think that's a mark of the consummate politician."

When Cleopatra emerged from the carpet—probably somewhat disheveled, but dressed in her best finery—and begged Caesar for aid, the gesture won over Rome's future dictator-for-life. With his help Cleopatra regained Egypt's throne. Ptolemy XIII rebelled against the armistice that Caesar had imposed, but in the ensuing civil war he drowned in the Nile, leaving Cleopatra safely in power.

Though Cleopatra bore him a son, Caesar was already married, and Egyptian custom decreed that Cleopatra marry her remaining brother, Ptolemy XIV. Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C., and with her ally gone Cleopatra had Ptolemy XIV killed to prevent any challenges to her son's succession. To solidify her grip on the throne, she dispatched her rebellious sister Arsinoe as well. Such ruthlessness was not only a common feature of Egyptian dynastic politics in Cleopatra's day, it was necessary to ensure her own survival and that of her son. With all domestic threats removed, Cleopatra set about the business of ruling Egypt, the richest nation in the Mediterranean world, and the last to remain independent of Rome.

What kind of pharaoh was Cleopatra? The few remaining contemporary Egyptian sources suggest that she was very popular among her own people. Egypt's Alexandria-based rulers, including Cleopatra, were ethnically Greek, descended from Alexander the Great's general Ptolemy I Soter. They would have spoken Greek and observed Greek customs, separating themselves from the ethnically Egyptian majority. But unlike her forebears, Cleopatra actually bothered to learn the Egyptian language. For Egyptian audiences, she commissioned portraits of herself in the traditional Egyptian style. In one papyrus dated to 35 B.C. Cleopatra is called  Philopatris , "she who loves her country." By identifying herself as a truly Egyptian pharaoh, Cleopatra used patriotism to cement her position.

Cleopatra's foreign policy goal, in addition to preserving her personal power, was to maintain Egypt's independence from the rapidly expanding Roman Empire. By trading with Eastern nations—Arabia and possibly as far away as India—she built up Egypt's economy, bolstering her country's status as a world power. By allying herself with Roman general Mark Antony, Cleopatra hoped to keep Octavian, Julius Caesar's heir and Antony's rival, from making Egypt a vassal to Rome. Ancient sources make it clear that Cleopatra and Antony did love each other and that Cleopatra bore Antony three children; still, the relationship was also very useful to an Egyptian queen who wished to expand and protect her empire.

Though some modern historians have portrayed Cleopatra as a capable, popular Egyptian leader, we tend to imagine her through Roman eyes. During her lifetime and in the century after her death, Roman propaganda, most of it originating with her enemy Octavian, painted Cleopatra as a dangerous harlot who employed sex, witchcraft and cunning as she grasped for power beyond what was proper for a woman. The poet Horace, writing in the late first century B.C., called her "A crazy queen...plotting...to demolish the Capitol and topple the [Roman] Empire." Nearly a century later, the Roman poet Lucan labeled her "the shame of Egypt, the lascivious fury who was to become the bane of Rome."

After Roman tempers cooled, the Greek historian Plutarch published a more sympathetic biography. Cleopatra became a tragic heroine, with love of Antony her sole motivation. Over the next two millennia, countless paintings and dramatizations—including Shakespeare's  Antony and Cleopatra  and John Dryden's  All for Love —focused on the fantastic details of her suicide after Octavian defeated Antony. We know almost certainly that Cleopatra, along with her two most trusted servants, killed herself on August 12, 30 B.C., to escape capture by Octavian. However, since the facts of her death were unclear even to the men who found the bodies, we will never know if it was the famous asp that killed the queen, or a smuggled vial of poison. The asp legend has prevailed, however, and the image of her death, more than anything else, gave Cleopatra immortality.

In February 2007, a recently discovered coin bearing a portrait of Cleopatra went on display at Newcastle University in England, sparking renewed interest in the queen and a debate about whether she was really as beautiful as we imagine. The coin, dated to 32 B.C., shows a rather homely Cleopatra with a large nose, narrow lips and a sharp chin. She looks nothing like Elizabeth Taylor. But ancient historians never characterized Cleopatra as a great beauty, and in her time she was not considered a romantic heroine. In his A.D. 75  Life of Antony , Plutarch tells us, "Her actual beauty...was not so remarkable that none could be compared with her, or that no one could see her without being struck by it, but the contact of her presence...was irresistible.... The character that attended all she said or did was something bewitching."

Cleopatra's beauty (or lack thereof) was irrelevant to the Romans who knew her and the Egyptian people she ruled. The real Cleopatra had charisma, and her sexiness stemmed from her intelligence—what Plutarch described as "the charm of her conversation"—rather than her kohl-rimmed eyes. Pharaoh Cleopatra VII was a brilliant leader, says Joann Fletcher. "She was one of the most dynamic figures the world has ever seen. And I don't think that's an exaggeration."

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Cleopatra: A Life

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• Ancient History

The tragic reality of Cleopatra's life

More than 2000 years after her death, Cleopatra VII, the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, is still one of the most well-known figures from ancient history.

Especially in the modern world, the details of her life and reign have been the subject of countless works of art, literature, and film.

However, the true story of her rise to power and her dramatic death is often overshadowed by the myths and legends that surround her.

Cleopatra's life was one of constant political intrigue in an effort to keep Egypt free from falling under the control of the powerful Roman Empire.

Despite Cleopatra's intelligence, charisma, and political acumen she was ultimately unable to save her kingdom from this fate.

How Cleopatra became pharaoh

Cleopatra VII was born in 69 BC into the Ptolemaic dynasty, a Hellenistic royal family that ruled Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great .

Specifically, the Ptolemies were of Macedonian-Greek origin who maintained their power over Egypt for nearly three centuries.

Their time in power, however, was not easy. As a foreign power, they faced frequent political instability and family infighting.

Cleopatra herself was the daughter of pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes. As a royal princess, she was educated in Egyptian and Greek traditions to prepare for her future role.

Sources indicate that she was highly intelligent and was one of the few Ptolemies to learn the Egyptian language, in addition to Greek, which was typically spoken by the ruling elite.

She is said to have also studied various subjects such as philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy, and was known for her sharp intellect and persuasive charm.

When her father died in 51 BC, the 18-year-old Cleopatra and her 10-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII, were co-regents as per the tradition of the time.

However, it was a tumultuous co-rule, and Cleopatra began exploring ways to take sole control of the country from her younger brother.

In response, his advisors slowly turned Ptolemy XIII against her, and were even able to get her officially exiled from Egypt.

Cleopatra, however, was not one to be easily cast aside. She quickly gathered an army and returned to Egypt to take back control.

Her march into Egypt happened to coincide with the arrival in the country of the most powerful Roman military commander of the age: Julius Caesar .

Caesar had been in the process of pursuing his greatest rival, Pompey the Great, who he had defeated in battle and who had fled to Egypt for safety.

When Caesar landed in Egypt, he was told that Pompey had been executed by Ptolemy XIII's soldiers .

Disappointed that he had lost the opportunity to defeat his rival by himself, Caesar wanted to get revenge on the young pharaoh.

Recognizing this moment as an opportunity, Cleopatra approached Caesar with an offer of an alliance: the two of them could work together and combine their armies to defeat Ptolemy XIII.

As one version of the story goes, she had herself smuggled into Caesar's private rooms, wrapped in a carpet, to ask for his support.

Apparently, due to this outlandish introduction, Caesar was instantly captivated by her intelligence and charm, and he agreed to help her. 

Their combined forces besieged the Egyptian capital city of Alexandria in 47 BC.

The forces of Ptolemy XIII were defeated, and the young pharaoh died while escaping.

With her brother's death, Cleopatra reclaimed the throne, this time alongside a new co-regent: her other younger brother, Ptolemy XIV.

Cleopatra's dramatic reign

Cleopatra time as pharaoh of Egypt spanned from 51 BC to 30 BC. Her first concerns were to stabilize her country after the civil war.

However, it was a period that saw constant political maneuvering. This was due to the fact that it was  an era when Rome was actively expanding its power.

Cleopatra understood the importance of aligning herself with Rome to ensure Egypt's independence.

Firstly, she needed to project an image of authority for both her people to see, and to convince Rome to treat her with respect.

To this end, Cleopatra held several royal titles throughout her reign, including 'Thea Philopator,' which means 'Goddess Who Loves Her Father', which was a way of promoting her divine status in Egyptian society.

Furthermore, Cleopatra issued coins bearing her image, which was a traditional tool for spreading royal influence throughout her kingdom and their trading partners.

In fact, under Cleopatra's rule, Egypt experienced a period of relative stability and prosperity.

She was able to undertake major economic reforms, improved trade, and commissioned several building projects, including the construction of temples.

She also openly promoted the structures of traditional Egyptian religion and presented herself as the reincarnation of the goddess Isis.

This was a sign that Cleopatra wanted to preserve Egypt's culture and traditions in the face of increasing Roman influence.

This strategy even extended to her choice of clothing. She often dressed in traditional Egyptian attire, even when she was in the city of Rome.

Her relationships with Caesar and Mark Antony

It appears that Cleopatra used her relationships with powerful Roman men as a way of keeping her lands safe from encroachment.

She already had a close relationship with Julius Caesar from the events around her seizure of her throne from her brother, Ptolemy XIII.

Following her ascension, they began a romantic relationship, which produced a son, named Caesarion.

She was then invited by Caesar to visit Rome as a recognized ally. During her visit, she was given a golden statue in the temple of Venus Genetrix, which was considered a rare sign of honor.

However, the sudden assassination of Caesar in 44 BC, put Cleopatra and her son in a precarious position.

After Caesar's death, Cleopatra returned to Egypt and aligned herself with a new, powerful Roman general: Mark Antony.

He was one of the members of the Second Triumvirate that took charge of Rome.

Antony, like Caesar, was reportedly captivated by Cleopatra. In a similar fashion, their alliance also became personal and they three children together : Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene II, and Ptolemy Philadelphus.

While he was with Cleopatra in Egypt, Antony spent the winter of 41-40 BC in Alexandria.

This period was known as 'the Alexandrian Winter', during which the Romans were becoming deeply concerned that he was being 'seduced' by Cleopatra and her lavish royal lifestyle.

What seemed to confirm these fears was then Antony offered part of the Roman lands to her.

In the so-called 'Donations of Alexandria' in 34 BC, Mark Antony was reported to have distributed Rome's eastern territories to Cleopatra and their children, in return for her military support against his Roman rival: Octavian.

Cleopatra's Downfall and Death

Unfortunately, this agreement would lead to the end of both of their lives. At the climactic  Battle of Actium in 31 BC, the combined naval forces of Antony and Cleopatra faced off against the fleets of Octavian.

Despite having a much larger force, Antony and Cleopatra were defeated. They had invested huge sums of money into this campaign, so the loss was seen as a major shift in the balance of power in the Mediterranean.

Running short of resources and lacking reinforcements to effectively response to Octavian as he started sailing for Egypt, Cleopatra's influence was starting to wane.

After the defeat at Actium, Antony and Cleopatra retreated to Alexandria. Antony, believing a false report that Cleopatra had died, committed suicide by falling on his own sword.

When Cleopatra was told of Antony's death, she was said to have been inconsolable.

Facing the prospect of being paraded in defeat through the streets of Rome by Octavian if she was captured, Cleopatra chose to end her own life instead.

The exact circumstances of her death still remain a mystery to this day, but the most widely told story is that she died by the bite of an asp or by poison on August 12, 30 BC.

The end of a free Egypt

With Cleopatra's death, the Ptolemaic dynasty finally came to an end. Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, and Octavian, later known as Augustus , became the first Roman Emperor.

Sadly, Cleopatra's son by Julius Caesar, Caesarion, was executed by Octavian, extinguishing the last direct link to the Ptolemaic line.

Despite Cleopatra's tragic end, she is remembered as a powerful and influential queen who left a lasting impact on the ancient world.

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• HISTORY & CULTURE

She ruled Egypt and seduced the Romans. But who was Cleopatra?

The legendary pharaoh is known for using her political savvy and considerable charm to gain power. But, in truth, there’s little we know for sure about her life.

Was she beautiful? Debatable. Was she charming? Probably. Was she politically astute and bent on using both her gender and her outsized power to further her needs? Certainly.

Perhaps no historical figure has so enflamed passions—and debates—than Cleopatra VII. Destined to be the last of her dynasty, the Egyptian pharaoh used seduction and political savvy to further the interests of ancient Egypt in the face of Roman expansion.

But though she is one of the best-known women in history, there’s little that historians and archaeologists can say for sure about Cleopatra. Here’s what is known about the legendary, yet mysterious, queen.

Who was Cleopatra?

Born to Egyptian king Ptolemy XII Auletes and an unknown mother in 69 B.C., Cleopatra was a member of an ancient Greek dynasty that had taken over Egypt in 305 B.C.

( Should women rule the world? The queens of ancient Egypt say yes .)

Though the Ptolemaic Kingdom had adopted some Egyptian religious traditions, it ruled from the largely Greek city of Alexandria. As a result, Cleopatra grew up speaking Koine Greek, though she was reportedly the only one of her lineage to also learn Egyptian. Her life would be inextricably bound to unrest in Egypt—and the politics of the Roman Empire.

How did she come to rule Egypt?

When her father died in 51 B.C. Cleopatra, then 18, was plunged into a controversy over which of Ptolemy XII’s children should rule Egypt. At first, she ruled jointly with the younger Ptolemy XIII, even marrying him in a nod to Egyptian tradition. But the young king wanted the throne for himself, and civil war soon broke out as they formed factions to help them gain full power. In response, Cleopatra briefly fled to Roman-controlled Syria.

Cleopatra’s father had been sympathetic to—and reliant on—Rome during his rule. The warring siblings were no different, and they quickly aligned themselves with different sides in Rome’s own brewing civil war. From her exile in Syria, Cleopatra turned to Julius Caesar , then a general and politician intent on becoming Rome’s sole dictator, for help regaining her throne.

Cleopatra and Julius Caesar

Despite a dramatic age difference—Caesar was about 30 years older than Cleopatra—and the fact that he was married, they began a romantic relationship, and he pledged his support for her.

In 47 B.C., while fleeing Caesar’s troops, Ptolemy XIII drowned in the Nile River near Alexandria. With Egypt in the hands of Caesar, Cleopatra took back the throne as her own, swiftly married her 12-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIV, and declared him her co-ruler. She gave birth to a child her contemporaries assumed to be Caesar’s son, whom she named Caesarion. (No, this is not the origin of the term “cesarean section.”)

( Egypt's last pharaoh was the 'love child' of Caesar and Cleopatra .)

Cleopatra and Caesar’s relationship lasted until his murder on the Ides of March in 44 B.C., at the hands of his enemies in the Senate.

Cleopatra had been on an extended visit to Rome at the time of Caesar’s murder and briefly remained there in the hopes of convincing the Romans to recognize Caesarion as the rightful heir of Roman power. Soon, though, she returned to Alexandria, where she is thought to have had her brother assassinated by poison before taking up her throne once more alongside Caesarion.

Antony and Cleopatra

Caesar was dead, but Cleopatra’s relationship with Rome was far from over. Roman general Mark Antony—who had ascended to power as one of Rome’s three joint leaders, or triumvirs—demanded a meeting with Cleopatra in an effort to continue the Egyptian-Roman alliance. Eager to maintain Egypt’s close relationship with Rome, Cleopatra traveled to Tarsus in modern-day Turkey to meet him in 41 B.C.

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Cleopatra is believed to have arrived in Tarsus in high style on a sumptuous barge. “Cleopatra invested her ocean excursions with carefully chosen costumes, divine associations, expensive textiles and jewels, music, and exotic essences,” writes art historian Diana E. E. Kleiner. The pharaoh meant to impress, and it worked. Almost immediately, she began a torrid love affair with the married Antony, who moved to Alexandria to be with her.

The fall of Cleopatra

But Antony’s infatuation with Cleopatra—and the reputed excesses of their life in the Egyptian seat of power—led to both their downfalls. The Roman ruler plunged into outright war with his co-triumvirs and his own people, who resented what they saw as Egypt’s influence in Roman affairs.

( Inside the decadent love affair of Cleopatra and Mark Antony .)

After a battle in 30 B.C., the Egyptian queen realized that Antony’s troops were headed to total defeat. So she barricaded herself in her royal mausoleum and told Antony she planned to kill herself. In response, Antony stabbed himself, eventually dying in her arms.

Cleopatra attempted to negotiate with Octavian, her lover’s former co-ruler, but when she realized he intended to take her captive and parade her in the streets as a prize, she again barricaded herself in her tomb with some servants and killed herself, likely with poison. The rule of her dynasty was over, and Egypt was taken over by Rome.

What we don’t know about Cleopatra

Legend has it that Cleopatra took her life with the help of a poisonous viper called an asp, but there is no proof. Nor have archaeologists ever found the mausoleum where she, and likely Antony, died. As Chip Brown wrote for National Geographic 's July 2011 issue , “Most of the glory that was ancient Alexandria now lies about 20 feet underwater.”

There’s also no way to gauge the accuracy of historical portrayals of the queen, which are deeply contradictory and show the biases of their time. Some extant coins show Cleopatra as a plain-looking woman, while others depict a mirror image of Antony, reflecting their makers’ opinions about the female ruler’s liaison with her Roman lover. Debates also still rage about Cleopatra’s race, although historians point out that not only do we not know for sure but our entire concept of race didn’t exist in Cleopatra’s time.

( Searching for the true face—and the burial place—of Cleopatra .)

Written sources about Cleopatra are also scant. The library of Alexandria was destroyed multiple times, taking contemporary accounts of Cleopatra with it. According to the ancient chronicler Plutarch, whose biography of Antony is one of the most detailed accounts of Cleopatra’s reign, Cleopatra was a woman of “the most brilliant beauty and...at the acme of intellectual power.” But he wrote about the Egyptian queen hundreds of years after her death—and brought a decidedly Roman viewpoint to his work on the queen.

Despite our lack of understanding of Cleopatra’s life, she remains relevant today. From Shakespearean tragedy to Netflix docudrama, she has gained a nearly legendary reputation as a wily politician with an almost superhuman ability to seduce.

Though the former was almost certainly true, we may never know why some of the world’s most powerful men succumbed to Cleopatra’s charms. What is certain is that, more than 2,000 years after her death, the woman who so cannily ruled men—and her people—still manages to enchant and mystify modern audiences.

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• ANCIENT EGYPT

Who was Egypt's first pharaoh?

Meet the woman who helped save Egypt's temples from certain doom

How three rebel queens of Egypt overthrew an empire and gave birth to a new kingdom

How did this female pharaoh survive being erased from history?

This ancient diary reveals how Egyptians built the Great Pyramid

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Cleopatra — The Life and History of Cleopatra

The Life and History of Cleopatra

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Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 26, 2020 • ( 0 )

Antony and Cleopatra is the definitive tragedy of passion, and in it the ironic and heroic themes, the day world of history and the night world of passion, expand into natural forces of cosmological proportions.

—Northrup Frye, “The Tailors of the Earth: The Tragedy of Passion,” in Fools of Time: Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy

Among   William   Shakespeare’s   great   tragedies,   Antony  and  Cleopatra  is   the   anomaly. Written around 1607, following the completion of the sequence of tragedies that began with Hamlet and concluded with Macbeth , Antony and Cleopatra stands in marked contrast from them in tone, theme, and structure. For his last great tragedy, Shakespeare returned to his first, Romeo and Juliet . Like   it,   Antony   and   Cleopatra   is   a   love   story   that   ends   in   a   double   suicide;   however, the lovers here are not teenagers, but the middle-aged Antony and Cleopatra   whose battle between private desires and public responsibilities is played   out   with   world   domination   in   the   balance.   Having   raised   adolescent   love   to   the   level   of   tragic   seriousness   in   Romeo   and   Juliet,   Shakespeare   here   dramatizes a love story on a massive, global scale. If Hamlet , Othello, King Lear , and Macbeth conclude with the prescribed pity and terror, Anthony and Cleopatra ends very differently with pity and triumph, as the title lovers, who have   lost   the   world,   enact   a   kind   of   triumphant   marriage   in   death.   Losing   everything,   they   manage   to   win   much more   by   choosing   love   over   worldly   power. Antony  and  Cleopatra  is   the   last in a   series   of   plays,   beginning   with  Romeo and Juliet and including Troilus and Cressida and Othello, that explores the   connection   between   love   and   tragedy.   It also can be   seen   as   the   first of the playwright’s final series of romances, followed by Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest in which love eventually triumphs over every obstacle. Antony and Cleopatra is therefore a peculiar tragedy of affirmation, setting the dominant tone of Shakespeare’s final plays.

Structurally,   as   well,   Antony   and   Cleopatra   is   exceptional.   Ranging over the Mediterranean world from Egypt to Rome to Athens, Sicily, and Syria, the play has 44 scenes, more than twice the average number in Shakespeare’s plays. The effect is a dizzying rush of events, approximating the method of montage in film. Shakespeare’s previous tragedies were constructed around a few major   scenes.   Here   there   are   so   many   entrances   and   exits,   so   many   shifts of locations and incidents that Samuel Johnson condemned the play as a mere string of episodes “produced without any art of connection or care of disposition.” Later critics have discovered the play’s organizing principle in   its   thematic   contrast   between   Rome   and   Egypt,   supported   by   an   elaborate pattern of images, contrasts, and juxtapositions. There is still, however, disagreement over issues of Shakespeare’s methods and intentions in Antony and Cleopatra . Critic Howard Felperin has suggested that the play “creates an ambiguity   of   effect   and   response   unprecedented   even   within   Shakespeare’s   work.” The critical debate turns on how to interpret Antony and Cleopatra , perhaps the most complex, contradictory, and fascinating characters Shakespeare ever created.

Antony and Cleopatra   picks up where Julius Caesar left off. Four years after Caesar’s   murder,   an   alliance   among   Octavius,   Julius   Caesar’s   grandnephew;   Mark   Antony;   and   the   patrician   politician   Lepidus   has   put   down   the   conspiracy   led   by   Brutus   and   Cassius   and   resulted   in   a   division   of   the   Roman   world among them. Antony, given the eastern sphere of the empire to rule, is   now   in   Alexandria,   where   he   has   fallen   in   love   with   the   Egyptian   queen   Cleopatra.   Enthralled,   Antony   has   ignored   repeated   summonses   to   return   to   Rome   to   attend   to   his   political   responsibilities.   By   pursuing   his   desires   instead, in the words of his men, Antony, “the triple pillar of the world,” has been “transform’d into a strumpet’s fool.” The play immediately establishes a dominant thematic contrast between Rome and Egypt that represents two contrasting worldviews and value systems. Rome is duty, rationality, and the practical   world   of   politics;   Egypt,   embodied   by   its   queen,   is   private   needs,   sensual pleasure, and revelry. The play’s tragedy stems from the irreconcilable division between   the   two,   represented   in   the   play’s   two   major   movements:   Antony’s   abandoning   Cleopatra   and   Egypt   for   Rome   and   his   duties   and   his   subsequent defection back to them. Antony’s lieutenant Enobarbus functions in the play as Antony’s conscience, whose sexual cynicism stands in contrast to the love-drenched Egyptian court.

Antony is forced to take action when he learns that his wife, Fulvia, who started   a   rebellion   against   Octavius,   has   died,   and   that   Sextus   Pompey,   son   of Pompey the Great, is claiming his right to power by harrying Octavius on the seas. His resolve to return to Rome to take up his duties there displeases Cleopatra,   and   they   engage   in   a   back-and-forth   lover’s   exchange   of   insults,   avowals of love, and jealous recriminations and, ultimately, a mutual   awareness of Antony’s dilemma in trying to reconcile his personal desires with his political responsibilities. Antony comforts Cleopatra by saying:

Our separation so abides and flies, That thou residing here, goes yet with me; And I hence fleeting, here remain with thee.

The   second   act   begins   in   the   house   of   Sextus   Pompey,   who   gauges   the   weakness of the three triumvirs, especially Antony, whom he hopes will continue to be distracted by Cleopatra: “Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both,   /   Tie   up   the   libertine   in   a   field   of   feasts.”   In   the   house   of   Lepidus,   a   quarrel between Antony and Octavius over Fulvia’s rebellion and Antony’s irresponsibility   threatens   to   sever   the   bond   between   them.   Agrippa,   Octavius’s   general,   suggests   a   marriage   between   Antony   and   Octavius’s   sister,   Octavia.   Antony agrees to the marriage as a political necessity, for the good of Rome and to patch up the quarrel. After Antony and Octavius leave to visit Octavia, Enobarbus   tells   Agrippa   and   Maecenas,   another   follower   of   Octavius,   about   the splendors of Egypt and Cleopatra’s remarkable allure. Maecenas remarks sadly   that,   because   of   the   marriage,   “Now   Antony   /   Must   leave   her   utterly.”   Enobarbus, despite his cynicism, understands Cleopatra’s powerful attractiveness and disagrees:

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. Other women cloy The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies.

Enobarbus’s remarks make clear that the alliance between Antony and Octavius will be short lived, setting both on a collision course.

After his marriage Antony consults an Egyptian soothsayer, who predicts Octavius’s rise and counsels Antony to return to Egypt:

Nobel, courageous, high, unmatchable, Where Caesar’s is not. But near him thy ange l Becomes afeard, as being o’erpowered. Therefore Make space enough between you.

.Angrily dismissing the soothsayer, Antony nevertheless agrees with his analysis,   recognizing   that   “I’th’   East   my   pleasure   lies.”   Before   Antony   leaves   for   Egypt, however, the triumvirs and rebels meet on Pompey’s galley for a night of drinking and feasting following negotiations. Antony’s capacity for raucous merrymaking   shows   the   self-indulgence   that   will   lead   to   his   downfall,   while   Octavius’s sobriety, if puritanical and passionless, nevertheless bespeaks an iron will and determination that eventually will insure his victory over his rivals.

As the third act begins, Ventidius, another of Antony’s commanders, has conquered   the   Parthians,   a   victory   for   which   he   diplomatically   plans   to   let   Antony take credit. Antony, now in Athens with Octavia, learns that Octavius has slandered him and is warring against Pompey. The alliance between the two triumvirs, as well as Antony’s control over his own forces, is further threatened when Antony discovers that Octavius has imprisoned Lepidus to solidify his position and that one of his officers has murdered Pompey. Octavia returns to   Rome   to   try   to   repair   the   breach   between   husband   and   brother.   There,   Octavius tells her that Antony has returned to Egypt and convinces her that Antony   is   not   only   unfaithful   but   is   preparing   for   war:   “He   hath   given   his   empire / Up to a whore.” Octavius responds by preparing to engage Antony in battle at Actium. In Egypt Enobarbus fails to convince Cleopatra not to take part   in   the   battle,   and   the   lovers   also   discount   Enorbarbus’s   logical   reasons   for fighting Octavius on land rather than sea. This decision is partly due to Octavius’s   challenge:   He   dares   Antony   to   meet   him   in   a   naval   engagement.   Cleopatra claims, “I have   sixty   sails.   Octavius none   better,”   and   Antony   is   unable to resist either Octavius’s challenge or Cleopatra’s bravado. At Actium a   sickened   Enobarbus   watches   as   Cleopatra’s   ships   turn   tail   and   flee,   and   a   despairing, shame-filled Antony follows her “like a doting mallard” with his ships. Cleopatra apologizes to Antony for the retreat, and he forgives her, but when   Antony   sees   Octavius’s   ambassador   kissing   Cleopatra’s   hand   and   her   cordial   behavior   toward   him,   he   becomes   enraged,   berating   Cleopatra   and   ordering the messenger Thidias to be whipped. Again the couple are reconciled, and Antony decides to stake all on another battle. Enobarbus, however, has had enough of Antony’s clouded judgment and makes plans to desert him and join Octavius.

In the fourth act Octavius scoffs at Antony’s challenge to meet him in a duel and prepares for war with confidence, knowing that many of his rival’s men have defected to him. When Antony learns of Enobarbus’s desertion he forgives his friend and generously sends his treasure to him. Enobarbus reacts to Antony’s magnanimity with remorse and dies desiring Antony’s forgiveness. Antony scores an initial victory over Octavius, but in a later sea battle and on land in the Egyptian desert, Antony’s army is routed. Enraged, Antony blames Cleopatra and accuses her of betraying him. Terrified by his anger, Cleopatra seeks refuge in her monument and plots to regain Antony’s affection by send-ing word to him that she has slain herself. Her plan disastrously misfires when the news shames Antony into taking his own life:

I will o’ertake thee, Cleopatra, and Weep for my pardon. So it must be, for now All length is torture; since the torch is out, Lie down and stray no farther.

He orders his servant Eros to stab him, but Eros takes his own life instead to prevent carrying out the order. Antony then falls upon his sword and when he is told that Cleopatra is still alive, asks to be taken to her in a final acknowledgment that his life and happiness are inextricably bound to her. Just before he dies Antony offers his own eulogy at the end of his long struggle between desire and duty:

The miserable change now at my end Lament nor sorrow at; but please your thoughts In feeding them with those my former fortunes Wherein I liv’d the greatest prince o’ th’ world, The noblest; and do now not basely die, Not cowardly put off my helmet to My countryman— a Roman by a RomanValiantly vanquish’d.

In the fifth act Octavius hears of Antony’s death and mourns the passing of a great warrior before moving to procure his spoils: Cleopatra. He sends word that she has nothing to fear from him, but Cleopatra tries to stab herself to prevent the Roman soldiers from taking her prisoner and is stopped. When Dolabella, one of Octavius’s lieutenants, attempts to placate her, she accuses him of lying, and he admits that Octavius plans to display her as his conquest in Rome. Octavius arrives, promising to treat her well if she complies with his wishes while ominously threatening her destruction if she follows “Antony’s course.” Pretending compliance, Cleopatra says of Octavius to her attendants when he departs: “He words me, girls, he words me, that I should not / Be noble to   myself.”   Sending   for   a   basket   of   figs   containing   poisonous   snakes,   Cleopatra prepares herself for death:

Give me my robe, put on my crown, I have Immortal longings in me. Now no more The juice of Egypt’s grace shall moist this lip.

Stage-managing   her   own   end,   Cleopatra   anticipates   joining   Antony   as   his   worthy wife:                            

.     .     .     Methinks I hear Antony call. I see him rouse himself To praise my noble act. I hear him mock The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men To excuse their after wrath. Husband, I come. Now to that name my courage prove my title!

Placing one of the snakes at her breast, Cleopatra dies. When Octavius returns, he speaks admiringly of her:

Bravest at the last, She levell’d at our purposes, and being royal, Took her own way.

Implying by his words an envy of Antony and Cleopatra ’s passion and eminence, Octavius commands:

She shall be buried by her Antony; No grave upon the earth shall clip in it A pair so famous. High events as these Strike those that make them; and their story is No less in pity than his glory which Brought them to be lamented.

In the contest with Rome, Egypt must lose. Desire is no match against cold calculation for worldly power. Human frailty cannot survive an iron will, and   yet   the   play   makes   its   case   that   despite   all   the   contradictions   and   clear   character   imperfections   in   Antony   and   Cleopatra,   with   all   their   willful   self-indulgence, their love trumps all. By the manner of their going and the human values they ultimately assert, Antony and Cleopatra leave an immense emptiness by their death. Octavius wins, but the world loses by their passing. Shakespeare stages an argument on behalf of what makes us human, even at the cost of an empire. His lovers rise to the tragic occasion for a concluding triumph befitting a magnanimous warrior and a queen of “infinite variety.”

Antony and Cleopatra Oxford Lecture by Prof. Emma Smith

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Cleopatra: A Life

44 pages • 1 hour read

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Summary and Study Guide

Cleopatra: A Life (2010) is a biography of the Egyptian queen by Stacy Schiff. It is Schiff’s fourth biography, and in 2011 it was awarded the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography. Schiff explores Cleopatra’s rise to power, relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony , and final defeat within the personal and political contexts of her time. Schiff, who had previously won the Pulitzer Prize for her biography of Vera Nabokov, once again found critical and commercial success with Cleopatra , and the book wound up on several Top 10 of 2010 lists, becoming a bestseller. Schiff was especially lauded for her contemporary presentation of such ancient subject matter.

This guide uses the 2010 Little, Brown and Company hardcover edition.

Schiff begins her narrative in 48 BC, when Cleopatra is 21 years of age. In the midst of a civil war against her brother, her successful petition of Julius Caesar leads to a Roman legitimization of her rule. Her relationship with Caesar deepens, and by the time Caesar achieves victory in the Alexandrian War, Cleopatra is pregnant with his child.

Despite his victory in the Alexandrian War and his larger victories in the Roman civil war, Caesar lingers in Egypt for four months after he should have returned to Rome. He luxuriates in the exotic atmosphere of Alexandria and delays his return for a slow cruise down the Nile. Caesar executes Cleopatra’s enemies, and installs Cleopatra as a co-regent of Egypt with her younger, inconsequential brother.

Cleopatra gives birth to Caesar’s child and administers to her country. Her erudition and linguistic skills enable her to become a successful leader who initiates economic reforms and building programs while also integrating herself into a vital position in Egyptian religious practices. Cleopatra later travels to Rome, staying in Caesar’s country home. Her presence proves divisive.

In 44 BC, while Cleopatra is visiting Rome a second time, Caesar is assassinated. Rome plunges into a civil war as Cleopatra attempts to support the correct factions in this extremely mercurial time. She eventually chooses to support a general who is defeated by the war’s victors, and Cleopatra is soon summoned to account for her decisions by the Roman ruler who was in charge of the East: Mark Antony.

A mutual attraction forms between Cleopatra and Antony, and by the time Cleopatra returns home, Antony has agreed to eliminate her rivals, bolstering her power. Soon, Antony abandons his administrative duties and revels in Alexandria with Cleopatra. Cleopatra gives birth to twins, Mark Antony’s children. He is forced to leave, however, when his wife, Fulvia, initiates an ill-fated armed conflict against Antony’s co-ruler, Octavian . Antony makes peace with Octavian, even marrying Octavian’s sister, Octavia, after Fulvia’s death. He turns back to military conquest, invading Parthia.

To Cleopatra’s great relief, Antony recognizes their children as his own and he gifts Cleopatra great swathes of land, allowing her to reconstitute the Ptolemaic empire at its height. Antony’s Parthian campaign proves disastrous, and though a second campaign—funded and supplied by Cleopatra—achieves moderate success, his stature in Rome is greatly diminished. Back in Alexandria, Antony confers honorifics on his children and establishes them as next in line to rule his territories, gifts that would later be known as the “Donations of Alexandria.” In Rome, made aware of Antony’s Donations, Octavian grows furious. Antony’s marriage to Octavia ends in divorce.

Octavian initiates a campaign to besmirch Antony and strip him of legitimacy, centering around the supposed corruptive influence of Cleopatra. When it becomes clear that Antony and Cleopatra intend to marry, Octavian convinces the Roman Senate that Cleopatra is attempting to take over Rome and leads them to declare war on Cleopatra. As Octavian’s forces harry Antony’s and Cleopatra’s armies, the two sides converge on a Grecian bay where Antony decides to engage with Octavian’s sea fleet. The resulting conflict, the Battle of Actium, is disastrous, and Cleopatra flees back to Egypt with Antony close behind.

As Octavian’s army closes in on Alexandria, Antony kills himself in an attempt to prevent Cleopatra from losing her throne. Octavian is not mollified, however, and after he takes over Alexandria, he makes clear his intention to take Cleopatra captive and parade her in Rome. Rather than suffer such ignominy, Cleopatra dies by suicide.

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Antony and Cleopatra's Legendary Love Story

It is an ending so epic that Shakespeare himself couldn’t better it. In the golden city of Alexandria, Cleopatra VII (69-30 BC), Queen of Egypt, holes up in her self-made mausoleum, as her arch-nemesis Octavian (later known as Augustus), Emperor of Rome, closes in. But she is not alone. In her arms is her lover, the Roman general and statesman Mark Antony (83 -30 BC), who is dying of a self-inflicted stab wound. As he slowly slips away Cleopatra wails, beating her chest, smearing herself in his blood. Usually, a master of self-possession, she is losing her mind. Antony dies as Cleopatra holds him. She will soon follow him to the grave.

Antony first met Cleopatra when she was 'still a girl and inexperienced'

Their love story had started over 10 years earlier when both were in their prime. Cleopatra was the divine Ptolemaic ruler of prosperous Egypt – brilliant, silver-tongued, charming, scholarly and the richest person in the Mediterranean. Politician and soldier Antony, supposedly descended from Hercules, was “broad-shouldered, bull-necked, ridiculously handsome, with a thick head of curls and aquiline features.”

Boisterous, mirthful, moody and lustful, Antony had been a favorite of Caesar . In the wake of Caesar’s assassination, Antony formed an uneasy Triumvirate in 43 BC with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Caesar’s nephew Octavian to rule the sprawling Roman Republic. Antony was put in charge of the Empire’s rowdy Eastern territories.

In 41 BC, Antony sent for Cleopatra while he was staying in the magnificent city of Tarsus, near the coast of what is now Turkey. He had first met Cleopatra in Rome when she had been the young mistress of his mentor Caesar (the two had a son Caesarion). But Antony was meeting a very evolved Cleopatra. Caesar “had known her when she was still a girl and inexperienced in affairs,” the Greek writer and philosopher Plutarch wrote , “but she was going to visit Antony at the very time when women have the most brilliant beauty and are at the acme of intellectual power.”

Cleopatra wooed Antony 10 years later, making him lose 'his head to her like a young man'

Aware of Antony’s love of spectacle – and of Rome’s interest in her riches – Cleopatra orchestrated an entrance into Tarsus designed to awe Antony and his cohorts. According to Stacy Shiff’s Cleopatra: A Life , she sailed into the city in an “explosion of color” underneath billowing purple sails:

She reclined beneath a gold-spangled canopy, dressed as Venus in a painting, while beautiful young boys, like painted Cupids, stood at her sides and fanned her. Her fairest maids were likewise dressed as sea nymphs and graces, some steering at the rudder, some working at the ropes. Wondrous odors from countless incense-offerings diffused themselves along the river-banks.

The pageantry worked. “The moment he saw her, Antony lost his head to her like a young man,” he Greek historian Appian wrote. Cleopatra was not done – throwing extravagant parties and dinners for the Romans, flaunting her riches by giving away all the furniture, jewels and hangings from the soirees. She drank and sparred with Antony, who “was ambitious to surpass her in splendor and elegance,” throwing his own parties that never quite lived up to hers.

Though it appears their attraction was genuine, it was also politically savvy “and…thought to harmonize well with the matters at hand.” As Schiff notes, Antony needed Cleopatra to fund his military endeavors in the East and Cleopatra needed him for protection, to expand her power and assert the rights of her son Caesarion, Caesar’s true heir.

The powerful rulers had a playful relationship

Antony soon followed Cleopatra to Alexandria, which was experiencing an artistic, cultural and scholarly renaissance under their Queen. The two powerful rulers often behaved like college students, forming a drinking society they called the Society of the Inimitable Livers. “The members entertained one another daily in turn, with an extravagance of expenditure beyond measure or belief,” Plutarch explained .

The new couple also loved to tease each other. One legend has it that at one party, Cleopatra bet Antony she could spend 10 million sesterces on one banquet. According to the Roman chronicler Pliny the Elder :

She ordered the second course to be served. In accordance with previous instructions, the servants placed in front of her only a single vessel containing vinegar. She took one earing off, and dropped the pearl in the vinegar, and when it wasted away, she swallowed it.

Another time, Antony, the masterful athletic soldier, was frustrated as he fumbled with a fishing rod during a riparian entertainment. “Leave the fishing rod, General, to us,” Cleopatra joked. “Your prey are cities, kingdoms and continents.”

Antony left a pregnant Cleopatra to go to Rome, married another woman, but they eventually reunited

Antony was soon off to Rome to report on his triumphs. In his absence – by 40 BC –Cleopatra gave birth to their twins, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene. That same year Antony married another intelligent dynamo – Octavian’s sister Octavia. Seemingly happy in his new marriage, Antony and Cleopatra did not meet for three and a half years, until the lovers reunited in Antioch, the capital of Syria in 37 BC.

The two picked up right where they left off, even issuing currency engraved with both their faces. In Antioch, Antony met his twins for the first time and bestowed large swaths of land on their mother. “As of 37, Cleopatra ruled over nearly the entire eastern Mediterranean coast, from what is today eastern Libya, in Africa, north through Israel, Lebanon, and Syria, to southern Turkey, excepting only slivers of Judaea," Schiff writes.

For the next two years, the couple would often travel together, as Antony’s military and administrative exploits took them all over the Mediterranean. It was during this period that Antony’s military prowess began to falter, causing him to lose thousands of men. Of course, instead of the blame being placed on Antony’s rash, bull-headed decisions, Plutarch would blame the failures on Cleopatra:

So eager was he to spend the winter with her that he began the war before the proper time and managed everything confusedly. He was not master of his own faculties, but, as if he were under the influence of certain drugs or of magic rites, was ever looking eagerly towards her, and thinking more of his speedy return than of conquering the enemy.

The couple staged 'The Donations of Alexandria' against Octavian

However, Antony’s fortunes were briefly reversed when he successfully conquered the kingdom of Armenia. In the fall of 34 BC, he triumphantly returned to Alexandria, where the Armenian royal family was paraded in chains. Reunited with Cleopatra, “the two most magnificent people in the world” staged an event that came to be known as “The Donations of Alexandria.” According to Schiff:

In the open court of the complex that fall day the Alexandrians discovered another silver platform, on which stood two massive golden thrones. Mark Antony occupied one. Addressing her as the “New Isis,” he invited Cleopatra to join him on the other. She appeared in the full regalia of that goddess, a pleated, lustrously striped chiton, its fringed edge reaching to her ankles. On her head she may have worn a traditional tripartite crown or one of cobras with a vulture cap. By one account Antony dressed as Dionysus, in a gold-embroidered gown and high Greek boots… Cleopatra’s children occupied four smaller thrones at the couple’s feet. In his husky voice Antony addressed the assembled multitude.

In an intentional provocation to Octavian, Antony distributed lands to his and Cleopatra’s children, making it abundantly clear that their family was the dynasty of the East.

For Octavian, this was a bridge too far. In 33 BC, the Triumvirate disbanded. The next year, Antony divorced Octavia. All pretenses of partnership and friendship between the two men were over. Shortly after the divorce, Octavian declared war on Antony’s true partner – Cleopatra.

Still, their power was no match for the Roman army

For all of Cleopatra’s riches, and the couple’s combined military prowess, they were no match for the Roman army. As Octavian and his forces closed in on Alexandria, the lovers continued their decadent parties, although they now called their drinking society “Companions to the Death.” Longtime advisors deserted, as did much of Antony’s army. While Antony was off battling Octavian’s forces, Cleopatra busied herself building a new “temple to Isis,” which she called her mausoleum. According to Schiff:

Into the mausoleum she heaped gems, jewelry, works of art, coffers of gold, royal robes, stores of cinnamon and frankincense, necessities to her, luxuries to the rest of the world. With those riches went as well a vast quantity of kindling. Were she to disappear, the treasure of Egypt would disappear with her. The thought was a torture to Octavian .

Cleopatra staged a fake suicide, resulting in Antony's own death...and Cleopatra ingesting poison

It also appears that Cleopatra was secretly negotiating with Octavian, unbeknownst to Antony. Always the more level-headed and strategic of the two, Cleopatra no doubt saw that Antony was doomed – but their children might not be. She had word sent to Antony that she had killed herself, knowing that he would soon follow. She was right. According to Plutarch, when Antony was told of his partner’s death, he uttered the immortal words:

O Cleopatra, I am not distressed to have lost you, for I shall straightaway join you; but I am grieved that a commander as great as I should be found to be inferior to a woman in courage.

After his attempted suicide, a distraught Cleopatra had Antony brought to her. Seeing what she had done, she was heartbroken but resolute. After Antony breathed his last, Cleopatra fought on, attempting to negotiate with Octavian. But all hope was lost, and Cleopatra snuck poison (or in some versions an asp) past Octavian’s guards. When Octavian realized what had happened, he sent soldiers to bust into the temple. There they found Cleopatra dead, her two attendants, Charmion and Iras, near death. According to Schiff:

Charmion was clumsily attempting to right the diadem around Cleopatra’s forehead. Angrily one of Octavian’s men exploded: “A fine deed this, Charmion!” She had just the energy to offer a parting shot. With a tartness that would have made her mistress proud, she managed, “It is indeed most fine, and befitting the descendant of so many kings,” before collapsing in a heap, at her queen’s side.

With Cleopatra’s death, Egypt became part of the Roman Empire. Caesarion was murdered, while Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene and Ptolemy Philadelphus were brought to Rome to be raised by Octavia. Her victorious brother erased all traces of the once glorious couple, but he did make one concession. Honoring her last request, he had Cleopatra and Antony buried side by side.

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