![]() ![]() Propertius 1990 (3.11), also not deigning to mention her by name, ranked her with the sorceress Medea. For example, in Book 8 of the Aeneid ( Vergil 2000) the Battle of Actium is described, but Cleopatra is not named, called only the “Egyptian mate” of Antony. The poetry of the Augustan period, although eloquent, helped to destroy her reputation. Other historical sources have exceedingly limited references to the queen, although Cicero 1999 (#374, 377) is the only source for a possible miscarried pregnancy by Cleopatra in early 44 BCE. Also of significance are the works of the Jewish historian Josephus ( Josephus 1928 and Josephus 1930–1965), whose interest was limited to the southern Levant, but this was an area of importance to Cleopatra. Second in importance is the Roman History of Cassius Dio (see Dio 1914–1927), the only continuous extant history of Cleopatra’s era. Plutarch’s biography of Marcus Antonius (see Plutarch 1988) is the closest to an actual narrative about the queen, but was written one hundred years after her death and is limited in its focus. Women never fare well in ancient history, and there is no work specifically devoted to the queen, nor is there a major contemporary source. Although the Roman literary machine turned her into a dangerous monster who almost destroyed Rome, within Egypt she was honored for centuries.Īncient literary sources about Cleopatra are remarkably sparse. ![]() Her son Kaisarion ruled for a few weeks, but soon the Romans took over the kingdom. Cleopatra attempted to disassociate herself from Antonius in order to salvage her kingdom, but would not give it over to Octavian, and was driven to suicide in August of 30 BCE at the age of thirty-nine. Matters quickly moved out of control in the 30s BCE, and eventually a Roman invasion of Greece was mounted. Her original relations with Antonius were a matter of stabilizing her kingdom and creating a mutually beneficial relationship between Egypt and Rome, but the personal involvement between the two eventually hampered these plans, and allowed Octavian (the future emperor Augustus), in power in Rome, to marginalize Antonius (who was his brother-in-law) and to claim that he was being destroyed by an eastern seductress. ![]() But her own plans became caught up in the ongoing civil war at Rome, beginning with the assassination of Caesar in 44 BCE. Best remembered for her liaisons with Julius Caesar, and Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony), she in fact carefully chose her partners in order to produce heirs who could carry on the kingdom. She ruled for twenty-one years, from 51 to 30 BCE, and skillfully attempted to salvage her dying kingdom in the face of growing Roman power and involvement in the affairs of the eastern Mediterranean. Yet she was also the last ruler of her kingdom, and her defeat by the Romans led to the destruction of her reputation. More accurately, she was a capable administrator and military commander, a linguist who knew a dozen languages, and a published scholarly author. She is familiar today largely through her representation by Shakespeare and in modern film, as a seductress who ruined the men in her life and destroyed her kingdom, an erroneous depiction that is in large part the result of extremely eloquent opponents and male-dominated historiography. The information from Greek and Roman sources about Cleopatra herself is surprisingly sparse and generally misinterpreted. She is best known through the extensive art and literature that was generated after her death. Cleopatra (Kleopatra) VII is arguably the most famous woman from classical antiquity, and one of the most familiar personalities in human history. ![]()
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