| Cleopatra is by far one of the most
ever famous queens of all times in
ancient egypt. her story of love
and death is very famous and she
ruled egypt and made it quite
powerful at the time.
cleopatra was born in 69 b.c. in
alexandria. she was the third
daughter in line to her father
ptolemy xii; she later had another
sister and two younger brothers.
her younger brother ptolemy xiii
later reigned with her.
cleopatra’s story is one of the
most famous ever.
not only because of her great love,
but because she was deeply in love
of egypt and she is classified by
historians to be the last pharoah
of egypt.
cleopatra came to the throne after
death of her two elder sisters and
after death of her father whom was
much hated by the egyptian and had
fled to rome several years before.
during the two centuries that
preceded ptolemy xii death, the
ptolemies were allied with the
romans. the ptolemies'
strength was failing and the roman
empire was rising. during the later
rule of the ptolemies, the romans
gained more and more control over
egypt. tributes had to be paid to
the romans to keep them away from
egypt.
she came to reign in 51b.c.and was
of 17 years of age. she was the
only ptolemic pharoah to speak the
egyptian language. she also took on
the egyptian religion. she was very
intelligent and was a shrewd
politician with an extraordinary
charisma. however, she was not
beautiful and had a much masculine
features.
she was very will-powered; her
struggle began after being exiled
to syria with her sister by her
brother, husband and co-regent
ptolemy xiii. when cleopatra became
co-regent, her world was crumbling
down around her. cyprus, syria and
other capitals were gone. there was
anarchy abroad and famine at home.
between 51 and 49 bc, egypt was
suffering from bad harvests and
famine because of a drought which
stopped the much needed nile
flooding. regardless, she started
an army from the arab tribes which
were east of pelusium. during this
time, she and her sister arsinoe
moved to syria. they returned by
way of ascalon which may have been
cleopatra's temporary base.
in the meantime, pompey had been
defeated at pharsalus in august of
48 bc. he headed for alexandria
hoping to find refuge with ptolemy
xiii, of whom pompey was a
senate-appointed guardian. pompey
did not realize how much his
reputation had been destroyed by
pharsalus until it was too late.
she started to go to war with her
brother. this occurred after the
death of pompey, who had sought
refuge from caesar to egypt but was
stabbed to death once he came
ashore to alexandria by ptolemy’s
advisors.
caesar who was on pompey’s tail,
arrived in alexandria 4 days later.
there he acclaimed to be the ruler
of egypt bringing with him
thirty-two hundred legionaries and
eight hundred cavalry. he also
brought twelve other soldiers who
bore the insignia of the roman
government who carried a bundle of
rods with an ax with a blade that
projected out. this was considered
a badge of authority that gave a
clear hint of his intentions.
there were riots that followed in
alexandria. ptolemy xiii was gone
to pelusium and caesar placed
himself in the royal palace and
started giving out orders to make
ptolemy xiii return again.
cleopatra’s cleverness led her to
invite herself at caesar’s
palace. wrapped up in a carpet she
was delivered to him and as the
carpet was unwrapped she appeared
to him.
being rather seductive, she lured
ceasar before ptolemy,s arrival who
upon seeing that they were in love,
screamed out betrayal to all the
alexandrians.
the alexandrian war was started
when pothinus called for ptolemy
xiii's soldiers in november
and surrounded caesar in alexandria
with twenty thousand men. during
the war, parts of the alexandrian
library and some of the warehouses
were burned. however, caesar did
manage to capture the pharos
lighthouse, which kept his control
of the harbor. cleopatra's
sister, arsinoe, escaped from the
palace and ran to achillas. she was
proclaimed the queen by the
macedonian mob and the army.
during the fighting, caesar
executed pothinus and achillas was
murdered by ganymede. ptolemy xiii
drowned in the nile while he was
trying to flee.
alexandria surrendered to caesar,
who captured arsinoe and restored
cleopatra on the throne.
egyptian law did not allow a queen
to rule without a king, so
cleopatra married another brother,
ptolemy xiv, but she was in love
with caesar. caesar and cleopatra
spent
the next several months traveling
along the nile, where caesar saw
how the egyptian people worshipped
cleopatra.
it was at that time that cleopatra
became pregnant with caesars son.
she later gave birth to a son,
ptolemy xv, called caesarion or
"little caesar."
caesar returned to rome in 46
bce with cleopatra and their
newborn son, caesarion. caesar had
only one other child.
caesar was very popular with the
roman people. they named him
dictator. a dictator is a ruler
with complete power. cleopatra was
less popular with the romans. she
had called herself the "new
isis." many romans were
unhappy that caesar was planning to
marry a foreigner.
on march 15, 44 bc a crowd of
conspirators surrounded caesar at a
senate meeting and stabbed him to
death. knowing that she too was in
danger, cleopatra quickly left
rome. later her brother died and
cleopatra made her four-year-old
son rule as the new king. she found
egypt suffering from plagues and
famine. the nile canals had been
neglected during her absence which
caused the harvests to be bad and
the inundations low. the bad
harvests continued from 43 until 41
bc.
rome was in turmoil after
caesar's murder. several
armies competed for control. the
two greatest were those of mark
antony and octavian. octavian was
the adopted son of julius caesar,
but mark antony was believed to
have led a larger army. when antony
asked cleopatra to meet with him,
cleopatra decided that she had
another opportunity to return to
power both in egypt, and in rome.
another episode of cleopatra’s
story of love is revealed in her
story with mark anthony. their
story began when mark antony asked
cleopatra to come to see him in
turkey. she knew that he could be
easily dazzled by her glamour and
her marvelously- tailored seductive
arrival.
he became immediately in love, an
affair that led to the birth of his
twins, cleopatra selene and
alexander helios. four years later,
mark antonym came back to
cleopatra. in 37 bc, while on his
way to invade parthia, antony
returned to cleopatra’s arms. he
now stayed in alexandria which was
his home.
cleopatra then gave birth to
another son; ptolemy philadelphus
mark anthony gave her much land
which was very essential to egypt.
he gave her cyprus, the cilician
coast, phoenicia, coele-syria,
judea and arabia. this allowed
egypt to be able to build ships
from the lumber from cilician
coast. egypt then built a large
fleet. antony had planned a
campaign against the parthians. he
obviously needed cleopatra's
support for this and in 36 bc, he
was defeated. he became more
indebted to her than ever.
much of the later coming tragedy
was now being plotted in rome. mark
antonym’s wife, octavia was too
much frustrated and angry by the
very bad treatment of mark to her.
octavian, decided that mark anthony
was going too far especially after
starting to give his illegitimate
children royal titles.
ptolemy xv (caesarion) was made the
co-ruler with his mother and was
called the king of kings. cleopatra
was called the queen of kings,
which was a higher position than
that of caesarion's. alexander
helios, which meant the sun, was
named great king of the seleucid
empire when it was at its highest.
cleopatra selene, which meant the
moon, was called queen of cyrenaica
and crete. cleopatra and
antony's son, ptolemy
philadelphos was named king of
syria and asia minor at the age of
two. cleopatra had dreams of
becoming the empress of the world.
in 32 to 31 bc, antony finally
divorced octavia. this forced the
western part of the world to
recognize his relationship with
cleopatra. he had already put her
name and face on a roman coin, the
silver denarii. the denarii was
widely circulated throughout the
mediterranean. by doing this,
antony's relationship with the
roman allegiance was ended and
octavian decided to publish
antony's will. octavian then
formally declared war against
cleopatra.
octavian's navy severely
defeated antony in actium, which is
in greece, on september 2, 31 bc.
octavian's admiral, agrippa,
planned and carried out the defeat.
in less than a year, antony
half-heartedly defended alexandria
against the advancing army of
octavian. after the defeat, antony
committed suicide by falling on his
own sword in 30 bc.
cleopatra’s death is one of the
most famous ever. after arranging
antony’s funeral, she and her
children were taken prisoners but
were treated in a good way.
cleopatra afraid of being
humiliated decided to take her
life.
she would not live this way, so she
had an asp, which was an egyptian
cobra, brought to her hidden in a
basket of figs. she arranged a big
delicious meal and asked for figs.
when the guards entered to see
cleopatra she was already dead.
they found the 39-year old queen
dead on her golden bed, with her
maid iras dying at her feet. her
other maid, charmion, was weakly
adjusting cleopatra's crown,
and she too fell over dead. two
pricks were found on
cleopatra's arm, and it was
believed that she had allowed
herself to be bitten by an asp (a
kind of poisonous snake). as she
had wished, she was buried beside
antony.
she died on august 12, 30 bc at the
age of 39. the egyptian religion
declared that death by snakebite
would secure immortality. with
this, she achieved her dying wish,
to not be forgotten. the only other
ruler to cast a shadow on the
fascination with cleopatra was
alexander who was another
macedonian. after cleopatra's
death, caesarion was strangled and
the other children of cleopatra
were raised by antony's wife,
octavia.
her death was the mark of the end
of the egyptian monarchs. the roman
emperors came into to rule in
egypt. the ptolemies were
macedonian in decent, but ruled as
egyptians, as pharaohs. cleopatra
was the last pharaoh; after her
death egypt became a roman
province. because caesarion was
julius caesar's son and might
pose a threat to octavian's
power, octavian had the boy
strangled by his tutor.
cleopatra's other children
were sent to rome to be raised by
octavia. cleopatra selene married
king juba ii of mauretania and had
two children, ptolemy and drusilla.
no one knows what happened to
alexander helios and ptolemy
philadelphus.
cleopatra was quite remarkable, she
had great brilliance and her
devotion to her country was utmost.
she was a quick-witted woman who
was fluent in nine languages,
however, latin was not one of them.
she was a mathematician and a very
good businesswoman she fought for
her country.
she had a charismatic personality,
was a born leader and an ambitious
monarch who deserved better than
suicide
I don't think she rules, but I do think she ruled. LOL |
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