Cleopatra

Cleopatra VII Philopator (Koinē Greek: Κλεοπάτρα

Cleopatra
Φιλοπάτωρ;[5] 69 BC – 10 August 30 BC) was the last active ruler
of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.[note 5] As a member of the
Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I
Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander
the Great.[note 6] After the death of Cleopatra, Egypt became a
province of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the second to
last Hellenistic state and the age that had lasted since the reign of
Alexander (336–323 BC).[note 7] Her native language was Koine
Greek, and she was the only Ptolemaic ruler to learn the Egyptian
language.[note 8]

In 58 BC, Cleopatra presumably accompanied her father, Ptolemy

XII Auletes, during his exile to Rome after a revolt in Egypt (a
Roman client state) allowing his daughter Berenice IV to claim the
throne. Berenice was killed in 55 BC when Ptolemy returned to
Egypt with Roman military assistance. When he died in 51 BC, the
joint reign of Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIII began, but a The Berlin Cleopatra, a Roman
falling-out between them led to open civil war. After losing the 48 sculpture of Cleopatra wearing a
BC Battle of Pharsalus in Greece against his rival Julius Caesar (a royal diadem, mid-1st century BC
Roman dictator and consul) in Caesar's Civil War, the Roman (around the time of her visits to Rome
in 46–44 BC), discovered in an Italian
statesman Pompey fled to Egypt. Pompey had been a political ally
villa along the Via Appia and now
of Ptolemy XII, but Ptolemy XIII, at the urging of his court located in the Altes Museum in
eunuchs, had Pompey ambushed and killed before Caesar arrived Germany.[1][2][3][note 1]
and occupied Alexandria. Caesar then attempted to reconcile the
Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom
rival Ptolemaic siblings, but Ptolemy's chief adviser Potheinos
viewed Caesar's terms as favoring Cleopatra, so his forces besieged Reign 51–30 BC (21 years)[4]
her and Caesar at the palace. Shortly after the siege was lifted by Predecessor Ptolemy XII Auletes
reinforcements, Ptolemy XIII died in the 47 BC Battle of the Nile; Successor Ptolemy XV
Cleopatra's half-sister Arsinoe IV was eventually exiled to Ephesus
Caesarion[note 2]
for her role in carrying out the siege. Caesar declared Cleopatra and
her brother Ptolemy XIV joint rulers, but maintained a private affair Co-rulers Ptolemy XII Auletes
with Cleopatra that produced a son, Caesarion. Cleopatra traveled to Ptolemy XIII Theos
Rome as a client queen in 46 and 44 BC, where she stayed at Philopator
Caesar's villa. After the assassinations of Caesar and (on her orders)
Ptolemy XIV in 44 BC, she named Caesarion co-ruler. Ptolemy XIV
Ptolemy XV Caesarion
In the Liberators' civil war of 43–42 BC, Cleopatra sided with the
Roman Second Triumvirate formed by Caesar's grandnephew and Born Early 69 BC
heir Octavian, Mark Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. After Alexandria, Ptolemaic
their meeting at Tarsos in 41 BC, the queen had an affair with Kingdom
Antony. He carried out the execution of Arsinoe at her request, and
became increasingly reliant on Cleopatra for both funding and Died 10 August 30 BC
military aid during his invasions of the Parthian Empire and the (aged 39)[note 3]
Kingdom of Armenia. The Donations of Alexandria declared their Alexandria, Roman
children Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene II, and Ptolemy Egypt
Philadelphus rulers over various erstwhile territories under Antony's Burial Unlocated tomb
triumviral authority. This event, their marriage, and Antony's (probably in Egypt)
divorce of Octavian's sister Octavia Minor led to the Final War of
Spouse Ptolemy XIII Theos
the Roman Republic. Octavian engaged in a war of propaganda,
forced Antony's allies in the Roman Senate to flee Rome in 32 BC, Philopator
and declared war on Cleopatra. After defeating Antony and Ptolemy XIV
Cleopatra's naval fleet at the 31 BC Battle of Actium, Octavian's Mark Antony
forces invaded Egypt in 30 BC and defeated Antony, leading to
Antony's suicide. When Cleopatra learned that Octavian planned to Issue Caesarion
bring her to his Roman triumphal procession, she killed herself by Alexander Helios
poisoning, contrary to the popular belief that she was bitten by an
Cleopatra Selene II
asp.
Ptolemy Philadelphus
Cleopatra's legacy survives in ancient and modern works of art.
Full name
Roman historiography and Latin poetry produced a generally
critical view of the queen that pervaded later Medieval and Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator
Renaissance literature. In the visual arts, her ancient depictions
Dynasty Ptolemaic
include Roman busts, paintings, and sculptures, cameo carvings and
glass, Ptolemaic and Roman coinage, and reliefs. In Renaissance Father Ptolemy XII Auletes
and Baroque art, she was the subject of many works including Mother Presumably Cleopatra
operas, paintings, poetry, sculptures, and theatrical dramas. She has VI Tryphaena (also
become a pop culture icon of Egyptomania since the Victorian era, known as Cleopatra V
and in modern times, Cleopatra has appeared in the applied and fine
Tryphaena)[note 4]
arts, burlesque satire, Hollywood films, and brand images for
commercial products.
Cleopatra VII in hieroglyphs

Contents
Cleopatra
Etymology Qlwpdrt
Biography
Background
Early childhood
Reign and exile of Ptolemy XII Horus name (1): Wer(et)-neb(et)-neferu-
achet-seh
Accession to the throne
Wr(.t)-nb(.t)-nfrw-3ḫ(t)-sḥ
Assassination of Pompey The great Lady of perfection, excellent in
Relationship with Julius Caesar counsel
Cleopatra in the Liberators' civil war
Relationship with Mark Antony
Donations of Alexandria
Battle of Actium Horus name (2): Weret-tut-en-it-es
Downfall and death Wr.t-twt-n-jt=s
Cleopatra's kingdom and role as a monarch The great one, sacred image of her father

Legacy
Children and successors
Roman literature and historiography
Cultural depictions Cleopatra netjeret mer(et) ites
Qlwpdrt nṯrt mr(t) jts
Depictions in ancient art
Statues
 Coinage portraits The goddess Cleopatra who is beloved of
Greco-Roman busts and heads her father
Paintings
Portland Vase
Native Egyptian art
Medieval and Early Modern reception
Modern depictions and brand imaging
Written works
Ancestry
See also
Notes
References
Sources
Online
Print
Further reading
External links

Etymology
The Latinized form Cleopatra comes from the Ancient Greek Kleopátra (Κλεοπάτρα), meaning "glory of her
father",[6] from κλέος (kléos, "glory") and πᾰτήρ (patḗr, "father").[7] The masculine form would have been
written either as Kleópatros (Κλεόπᾰτρος) or Pátroklos (Πᾰ́τροκλος).[7] Cleopatra was the name of
Alexander the Great's sister, as well as Cleopatra Alcyone, wife of Meleager in Greek mythology.[8] Through
the marriage of Ptolemy V Epiphanes and Cleopatra I Syra (a Seleucid princess), the name entered the
Ptolemaic dynasty.[9][10] Cleopatra's adopted title Theā́ Philopátōra (Θεᾱ́ Φιλοπάτωρα) means "goddess who
loves her father."[11][12][note 9]

Biography

Background

Ptolemaic pharaohs were crowned by the Egyptian high priest of Ptah

at Memphis, but resided in the multicultural and largely Greek city of
Alexandria, established by Alexander the Great of
Macedon. [14][15][16][note 10] They spoke Greek and governed Egypt
as Hellenistic Greek monarchs, refusing to learn the native Egyptian
language.[17][18][19][note 8] In contrast, Cleopatra could speak multiple
languages by adulthood and was the first Ptolemaic ruler to learn the
Hellenistic Kingdoms that emerged Egyptian language.[20][21][19][note 11] Plutarch implies that she also
after the death of Alexander the spoke Ethiopian, the language of the "Troglodytes", Hebrew (or
Great Aramaic), Arabic, the Syrian language (perhaps Syriac), Median, and
Parthian, and she could apparently also speak Latin, although her
Roman contemporaries would have preferred to speak with her in her
native Koine Greek. [21][19][22][note 12] Aside from Greek, Egyptian, and Latin, these languages reflected
Cleopatra's desire to restore North African and West Asian territories that
once belonged to the Ptolemaic Kingdom.[23]

Roman interventionism in Egypt predated the reign of Cleopatra.[24][25][26]

When Ptolemy IX Lathyros died in late 81 BC, he was succeeded by his
daughter Berenice III.[27][28] However, with opposition building at the royal
court against the idea of a sole reigning female monarch, Berenice III
accepted joint rule and marriage with her cousin and stepson Ptolemy XI
Alexander II, an arrangement made by the Roman dictator Sulla.[27][28]
Ptolemy XI had his wife killed shortly after their marriage in 80 BC, but was
lynched soon thereafter in the resulting riot over the assassination.[27][29][30]
Ptolemy XI, and perhaps his uncle Ptolemy IX or father Ptolemy X
Alexander I, willed the Ptolemaic Kingdom to Rome as collateral for loans, so
that the Romans had legal grounds to take over Egypt, their client state, after
the assassination of Ptolemy XI.[27][31][32] The Romans chose instead to Hellenistic portrait of
divide the Ptolemaic realm among the illegitimate sons of Ptolemy IX, Ptolemy XII Auletes, the
bestowing Cyprus to Ptolemy of Cyprus and Egypt to Ptolemy XII father of Cleopatra, located
Auletes.[27][29] in the Louvre, Paris[13]

Early childhood

Cleopatra VII was born in early 69 BC to the ruling Ptolemaic pharaoh Ptolemy XII and an unknown
mother,[33][34][note 13] presumably Ptolemy XII's wife Cleopatra VI Tryphaena (also known as Cleopatra V
Tryphaena),[35][36][37][note 14][note 4] the mother of Cleopatra's older sister, Berenice IV
Epiphaneia.[38][39][40][note 15] Cleopatra Tryphaena disappears from official records a few months after the
birth of Cleopatra in 69 BC.[41][42] The three younger children of Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra's sister Arsinoe IV
and brothers Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator and Ptolemy XIV,[38][39][40] were born in the absence of his
wife.[43][44] Cleopatra's childhood tutor was Philostratos, from whom she learned the Greek arts of oration and
philosophy.[45] During her youth Cleopatra presumably studied at the Musaeum, including the Library of
Alexandria.[46][47]

Reign and exile of Ptolemy XII

In 65 BC the Roman censor Marcus Licinius Crassus argued before the Roman Senate that Rome should
annex Ptolemaic Egypt, but his proposed bill and the similar bill of tribune Servilius Rullus in 63 BC were
rejected.[48][49] Ptolemy XII responded to the threat of possible annexation by offering remuneration and
lavish gifts to powerful Roman statesmen, such as Pompey during his campaign against Mithridates VI of
Pontus, and eventually Julius Caesar after he became Roman consul in 59 BC.[50][51][52][note 16] However,
Ptolemy XII's profligate behavior bankrupted him and he was forced to acquire loans from the Roman banker
Gaius Rabirius Postumus.[53][54][55]

In 58 BC the Romans annexed Cyprus and on accusations of piracy drove Ptolemy of Cyprus, Ptolemy XII's
brother, to commit suicide instead of enduring exile to Paphos.[58][59][55][note 18] Ptolemy XII remained
publicly silent on the death of his brother, a decision which, along with ceding traditional Ptolemaic territory to
the Romans, damaged his credibility among subjects already enraged by his economic policies.[58][60][61]
Ptolemy XII was then exiled from Egypt by force, traveling first to Rhodes, then Athens, and finally the villa
of triumvir Pompey in the Alban Hills, near Praeneste, Italy.[58][59][62][note 19] Ptolemy XII spent nearly a year
there on the outskirts of Rome, ostensibly accompanied by his daughter Cleopatra, then about
11.[58][62][note 20] Berenice IV sent an embassy to Rome to advocate for her rule and oppose the reinstatement
of her father Ptolemy XII, but Ptolemy had assassins kill the leaders of the embassy, an incident that was
 covered up by his powerful Roman supporters.[63][54][64][note 21] When the
Roman Senate denied Ptolemy XII the offer of an armed escort and
provisions for a return to Egypt, he decided to leave Rome in late 57 BC and
reside at the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.[65][66][67]

The Roman financiers of Ptolemy XII remained determined to restore him to

power.[68] Pompey persuaded Aulus Gabinius, the Roman governor of Syria,
to invade Egypt and restore Ptolemy XII, offering him 10,000 talents for the
proposed mission.[68][69][70] Although it put him at odds with Roman law,
Gabinius invaded Egypt in the spring of 55 BC by way of Hasmonean Judea,
where Hyrcanus II had Antipater the Idumaean, father of Herod the Great,
furnish the Roman-led army with supplies.[68][71] As a young cavalry officer,
Most likely a posthumously
painted portrait of Cleopatra
Mark Antony was under Gabinius's command. He distinguished himself by
with red hair and her distinct
preventing Ptolemy XII from massacring the inhabitants of Pelousion, and for
facial features, wearing a rescuing the body of Archelaos, the husband of Berenice IV, after he was
royal diadem and pearl- killed in battle, ensuring him a proper royal burial.[72][73] Cleopatra, then 14
studded hairpins, from years of age, would have traveled with the Roman expedition into Egypt;
Roman Herculaneum, Italy, years later, Antony would profess that he had fallen in love with her at this
1st century AD[56][57][note 17] time.[72][74]

Gabinius was put on trial in Rome

for abusing his authority, for which he was acquitted, but his
second trial for accepting bribes led to his exile, from which he
was recalled seven years later in 48 BC by Caesar.[75][76] Crassus
replaced him as governor of Syria and extended his provincial
command to Egypt, but he was killed by the Parthians at the Battle
of Carrhae in 53 BC.[75][77] Ptolemy XII had Berenice IV and her
wealthy supporters executed, seizing their properties.[78][79][80] He
allowed Gabinius's largely Germanic and Gallic Roman garrison,
the Gabiniani, to harass people in the streets of Alexandria and The Roman Republic (green) and
installed his longtime Roman financier Rabirius as his chief Ptolemaic Egypt (yellow) in 40 BC
financial officer.[78][81][82][note 22] Within a year Rabirius was
placed under protective custody and sent back to Rome after his
life was endangered for draining Egypt of its resources.[83][84][80][note 23] Despite these problems, Ptolemy
XII created a will designating Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII as his joint heirs, oversaw major construction
projects such as the Temple of Edfu and a temple at Dendera, and stabilized the economy.[85][84][86][note 24]
On 31 May 52 BC Cleopatra was made a regent of Ptolemy XII as indicated by an inscription in the Temple
of Hathor at Dendera.[87][88][89][note 25] Rabirius was unable to collect the entirety of Ptolemy XII's debt by
the time of the latter's death, and so it was passed on to his successors Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII.[83][76]

Accession to the throne

Ptolemy XII died sometime before 22 March 51 BC, when Cleopatra, in her first act as queen, began her
voyage to Hermonthis, near Thebes, to install a new sacred Buchis bull, worshiped as an intermediary for the
god Montu in the Ancient Egyptian religion.[5][90][91][note 26] Cleopatra faced several pressing issues and
emergencies shortly after taking the throne. These included famine caused by drought and a low level of the
annual flooding of the Nile, and lawless behavior instigated by the Gabiniani, the now unemployed and
assimilated Roman soldiers left by Gabinius to garrison Egypt.[92][93] Inheriting her father's debts, Cleopatra
also owed the Roman Republic 17.5 million drachmas.[94]

In 50 BC Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, proconsul of Syria, sent his two eldest sons to Egypt, most likely to
 Left: Cleopatra dressed as a pharaoh and presenting offerings to the goddess Isis, on a limestone stele dedicated
by a Greek man named Onnophris, dated 51 BC, and located in the Louvre, Paris
Right: The cartouches of Cleopatra and Caesarion on a limestone stele of the High Priest of Ptah in Egypt, dated
to the Ptolemaic period, and located in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London

negotiate with the Gabiniani and recruit them as soldiers in the desperate defense of Syria against the
Parthians.[95] However, the Gabiniani tortured and murdered these two, perhaps with secret encouragement by
rogue senior administrators in Cleopatra's court.[95][96] Cleopatra sent the Gabiniani culprits to Bibulus as
prisoners awaiting his judgment, but he sent them back to Cleopatra and chastised her for interfering in their
adjudication, which was the prerogative of the Roman Senate.[97][96] Bibulus, siding with Pompey in Caesar's
Civil War, failed to prevent Caesar from landing a naval fleet in Greece, which ultimately allowed Caesar to
reach Egypt in pursuit of Pompey.[97]

By 29 August 51 BC, official documents started listing Cleopatra as the sole ruler, evidence that she had
rejected her brother Ptolemy XIII as a co-ruler.[94][96][98] She had probably married him,[77] but there is no
record of this.[5] The Ptolemaic practice of sibling marriage was introduced by Ptolemy II and his sister
Arsinoe II.[99][100][101] A long-held royal Egyptian practice, it was loathed by contemporary
Greeks.[99][100][101][note 27] By the reign of Cleopatra, however, it was considered a normal arrangement for
Ptolemaic rulers.[99][100][101]

Despite Cleopatra's rejection of him, Ptolemy XIII still retained powerful allies, notably the eunuch Potheinos,
his childhood tutor, regent, and administrator of his properties.[102][93][103] Others involved in the cabal
against Cleopatra included Achillas, a prominent military commander, and Theodotus of Chios, another tutor
of Ptolemy XIII.[102][104] Cleopatra seems to have attempted a short-lived alliance with her brother Ptolemy
XIV, but by the autumn of 50 BC Ptolemy XIII had the upper hand in their conflict and began signing
documents with his name before that of his sister, followed by the establishment of his first regnal date in 49
BC.[5][105][106][note 28]

Assassination of Pompey

In the summer of 49 BC, Cleopatra and her forces were still fighting against Ptolemy XIII within Alexandria
when Pompey's son Gnaeus Pompeius arrived, seeking military aid on behalf of his father.[105] After returning
to Italy from the wars in Gaul and crossing the Rubicon in January of 49 BC, Caesar had forced Pompey and
his supporters to flee to Greece.[107][108] In perhaps their last joint decree, both Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII
agreed to Gnaeus Pompeius's request and sent his father 60 ships and 500 troops, including the Gabiniani, a
move that helped erase some of the debt owed to Rome.[107][109] Losing the fight against her brother,
Cleopatra was then forced to flee Alexandria and withdraw to the region of Thebes.[110][111][112] By the
spring of 48 BC Cleopatra had traveled to Roman Syria with her younger sister, Arsinoe IV, to gather an
invasion force that would head to Egypt.[113][106][114] She returned with an
army, but her advance to Alexandria was blocked by her brother's forces,
including some Gabiniani mobilized to fight against her, so she camped
outside Pelousion in the eastern Nile Delta.[115][106][116]

In Greece, Caesar and Pompey's forces engaged each other at the decisive
Battle of Pharsalus on 9 August 48 BC, leading to the destruction of most of
Pompey's army and his forced flight to Tyre, Lebanon.[115][117][118][note 29]
Given his close relationship with the Ptolemies, Pompey ultimately decided
that Egypt would be his place of refuge, where he could replenish his
forces.[119][118][116][note 30] Ptolemy XIII's advisers, however, feared the idea
of Pompey using Egypt as his base in a protracted Roman civil
war.[119][120][121] In a scheme devised by Theodotus, Pompey arrived by
ship near Pelousion after being invited by a written message, only to be
ambushed and stabbed to death on 28 September 48
A Roman portrait of Pompey
BC.[119][117][122][note 31] Ptolemy XIII believed he had demonstrated his made during the reign of
power and simultaneously defused the situation by having Pompey's head, Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD),
severed and embalmed, sent to Caesar, who arrived in Alexandria by early a copy of an original from
October and took up residence at the royal palace.[123][124][125][note 31] 70–60 BC, and located in
Caesar expressed grief and outrage over the killing of Pompey and called on the Venice National
both Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra to disband their forces and reconcile with Archaeological Museum,
each other.[123][126][125][note 32] Italy

Relationship with Julius Caesar

Ptolemy XIII arrived at Alexandria at the head of his army, in clear defiance of Caesar's demand that he
disband and leave his army before his arrival.[127][128] Cleopatra initially sent emissaries to Caesar, but upon
allegedly hearing that Caesar was inclined to having affairs with royal women, she came to Alexandria to see
him personally.[127][129][128] Historian Cassius Dio records that she did so without informing her brother,
dressed in an attractive manner, and charmed Caesar with her wit.[127][130][131] Plutarch provides an entirely
different and perhaps mythical account that alleges she was bound inside a bed sack to be smuggled into the
palace to meet Caesar.[127][132][133][note 33]

When Ptolemy XIII realized that his sister was in the palace consorting directly with Caesar, he attempted to
rouse the populace of Alexandria into a riot, but he was arrested by Caesar, who used his oratorical skills to
calm the frenzied crowd.[134][135][136] Caesar then brought Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII before the assembly
of Alexandria, where Caesar revealed the written will of Ptolemy XII—previously possessed by Pompey—
naming Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII as his joint heirs.[137][135][129][note 34] Caesar then attempted to arrange
for the other two siblings, Arsinoe IV and Ptolemy XIV, to rule together over Cyprus, thus removing potential
rival claimants to the Egyptian throne while also appeasing the Ptolemaic subjects still bitter over the loss of
Cyprus to the Romans in 58 BC.[138][135][139][note 34]

Judging that this agreement favored Cleopatra over Ptolemy XIII and that the latter's army of 20,000, including
the Gabiniani, could most likely defeat Caesar's army of 4,000 unsupported troops, Potheinos decided to have
Achillas lead their forces to Alexandria to attack both Caesar and Cleopatra.[138][135][140][note 35] After
Caesar managed to execute Potheinos, Arsinoe IV joined forces with Achillas and was declared queen, but
soon afterward had her tutor Ganymedes kill Achillas and take his position as commander of her
army.[141][142][143][note 36] Ganymedes then tricked Caesar into requesting the presence of the erstwhile
captive Ptolemy XIII as a negotiator, only to have him join the army of Arsinoe IV.[141][144][145] The resulting
siege of the palace, with Caesar and Cleopatra trapped together inside, lasted into the following year of 47
BC.[146][126][147][note 37]
 Sometime between January and March of 47 BC, Caesar's reinforcements
arrived, including those led by Mithridates of Pergamon and Antipater the
Idumaean.[141][126][148][note 38] Ptolemy XIII and Arsinoe IV withdrew their
forces to the Nile, where Caesar attacked them. Ptolemy XIII tried to flee by
boat, but it capsized, and he drowned.[149][126][150][note 39] Ganymedes may
have been killed in the battle. Theodotus was found years later in Asia, by
Marcus Junius Brutus, and executed. Arsinoe IV was forcefully paraded in
Caesar's triumph in Rome before being exiled to the Temple of Artemis at
Ephesus.[151][152][153] Cleopatra was conspicuously absent from these events
and resided in the palace, most likely because she had been pregnant with
Caesar's child since September 48 BC.[154][155][156]

Caesar's term as consul had expired at the end of 48 BC.[151] However,

Antony, an officer of his, helped to secure Caesar's appointment as dictator
lasting for a year, until October 47 BC, providing Caesar with the legal
authority to settle the dynastic dispute in Egypt.[151] Wary of repeating the
The Tusculum portrait, a
mistake of Cleopatra's sister Berenice IV in having a female monarch as sole
contemporary Roman ruler, Caesar appointed Cleopatra's 12-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIV, as joint
sculpture of Julius Caesar ruler with the 22-year-old Cleopatra in a nominal sibling marriage, but
located in the Cleopatra continued living privately with Caesar.[157][126][148][note 40] The
Archaeological Museum of exact date at which Cyprus was returned to her control is not known,
Turin, Italy although she had a governor there by 42 BC.[158][148]

Caesar is alleged to have joined Cleopatra for

a cruise of the Nile and sightseeing of Egyptian monuments,[126][159][160]
although this may be a romantic tale reflecting later well-to-do Roman
proclivities and not a real historical event.[161] The historian Suetonius
provided considerable details about the voyage, including use of Thalamegos,
the pleasure barge constructed by Ptolemy IV, which during his reign
measured 90 metres (300 ft) in length and 24 metres (80 ft) in height and was
complete with dining rooms, state rooms, holy shrines, and promenades along
its two decks, resembling a floating villa.[161][162] Caesar could have had an
interest in the Nile cruise owing to his fascination with geography; he was
well-read in the works of Eratosthenes and Pytheas, and perhaps wanted to
discover the source of the river, but turned back before reaching
Ethiopia.[163][164]

Caesar departed from Egypt around April 47 BC, allegedly to confront Cleopatra and Caesar
(1866), a painting by Jean-
Pharnaces II of Pontus, the son of Mithridates VI of Pontus, who was stirring
Léon Gérôme
up trouble for Rome in Anatolia.[165] It is possible that Caesar, married to the
prominent Roman woman Calpurnia, also wanted to avoid being seen
together with Cleopatra when she bore him their son.[165][159] He left three
legions in Egypt, later increased to four, under the command of the freedman Rufio, to secure Cleopatra's
tenuous position, but also perhaps to keep her activities in check.[165][166][167]

Caesarion, Cleopatra's alleged child with Caesar, was born 23 June 47 BC and was originally named "Pharaoh
Caesar", as preserved on a stele at the Serapeum in Memphis.[168][126][169][note 41] Perhaps owing to his still
childless marriage with Calpurnia, Caesar remained publicly silent about Caesarion (but perhaps accepted his
parentage in private).[170][note 42] Cleopatra, on the other hand, made repeated official declarations about
Caesarion's parentage, naming Caesar as the father.[170][171][172]
 Cleopatra and her nominal joint ruler Ptolemy XIV visited Rome sometime
in late 46 BC, presumably without Caesarion, and were given lodging in
Caesar's villa within the Horti Caesaris.[174][169][175][note 43] As with their
father Ptolemy XII, Caesar awarded both Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIV the
legal status of "friend and ally of the Roman people" (Latin: socius et
amicus populi Romani), in effect client rulers loyal to Rome.[176][177][178]
Cleopatra's visitors at Caesar's villa across the Tiber included the senator
Cicero, who found her arrogant.[179][180] Sosigenes of Alexandria, one of
the members of Cleopatra's court, aided Caesar in the calculations for the
new Julian calendar, put into effect 1 January 45 BC.[181][182][183] The
Temple of Venus Genetrix, established in the Forum of Caesar on 25
September 46 BC, contained a golden statue of Cleopatra (which stood
there at least until the 3rd century AD), associating the mother of Caesar's
child directly with the goddess Venus, mother of the
Egyptian portrait of a Ptolemaic Romans.[184][182][185] The statue also subtly linked the Egyptian goddess
queen, possibly Cleopatra, Isis with the Roman religion.[179]
c. 51–30 BC, located in the
Brooklyn Museum[173] Cleopatra's presence in Rome most likely had an effect on the events at the
Lupercalia festival a month before Caesar's assassination.[186][187] Antony
attempted to place a royal diadem on Caesar's head, but the latter refused
in what was most likely a staged performance, perhaps to gauge the Roman public's mood about accepting
Hellenistic-style kingship.[186][187] Cicero, who was present at the festival, mockingly asked where the
diadem came from, an obvious reference to the Ptolemaic queen whom he abhorred.[186][187] Caesar was
assassinated on the Ides of March (15 March 44 BC), but Cleopatra stayed in Rome until about mid-April, in
the vain hope of having Caesarion recognized as Caesar's heir.[188][189][190] However, Caesar's will named
his grandnephew Octavian as the primary heir, and Octavian arrived in Italy around the same time Cleopatra
decided to depart for Egypt.[188][189][191] A few months later, Cleopatra had Ptolemy XIV killed by
poisoning, elevating her son Caesarion as her co-ruler.[192][193][172][note 44]

Cleopatra in the Liberators' civil war

Octavian, Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus formed the Second

Triumvirate in 43 BC, in which they were each elected for five-year
terms to restore order in the Republic and bring Caesar's assassins to
justice.[195][196] Cleopatra received messages from both Gaius
Cassius Longinus, one of Caesar's assassins, and Publius Cornelius
Dolabella, proconsul of Syria and Caesarian loyalist, requesting
military aid.[195] She decided to write Cassius an excuse that her
kingdom faced too many internal problems, while sending the four Cleopatra's Gate in Tarsos (now
legions left by Caesar in Egypt to Dolabella.[195][197] However, these Tarsus, Mersin, Turkey), the site
troops were captured by Cassius in Palestine. [195][197] While where she met Mark Antony in 41
Serapion, Cleopatra's governor of Cyprus, defected to Cassius and BC[194]
provided him with ships, Cleopatra took her own fleet to Greece to
personally assist Octavian and Antony, but her ships were heavily
damaged in a Mediterranean storm and she arrived too late to aid in the fighting.[195][198] By the autumn of 42
BC, Antony had defeated the forces of Caesar's assassins at the Battle of Philippi in Greece, leading to the
suicide of Cassius and Brutus.[195][199]

By the end of 42 BC, Octavian had gained control over much of the western half of the Roman Republic and
Antony the eastern half, with Lepidus largely marginalized.[200] In the summer of 41 BC, Antony established
his headquarters at Tarsos in Anatolia and summoned Cleopatra there in several letters, which she rebuffed
until Antony's envoy Quintus Dellius convinced her to come.[201][202] The meeting would allow Cleopatra to
clear up the misconception that she had supported Cassius during the civil war and address territorial
exchanges in the Levant, but Antony also undoubtedly desired to form a personal, romantic relationship with
the queen.[203][202] Cleopatra sailed up the Kydnos River to Tarsos in Thalamegos, hosting Antony and his
officers for two nights of lavish banquets on board the ship.[204][205][note 45] Cleopatra managed to clear her
name as a supposed supporter of Cassius, arguing she had really attempted to help Dolabella in Syria, and
convinced Antony to have her exiled sister, Arsinoe IV, executed at Ephesus.[206][207] Cleopatra's former
rebellious governor of Cyprus was also handed over to her for execution.[206][208]

Relationship with Mark Antony

Cleopatra invited Antony to come to Egypt before departing from Tarsos,

which led Antony to visit Alexandria by November 41 BC.[206][209] Antony
was well received by the populace of Alexandria, both for his heroic actions
in restoring Ptolemy XII to power and coming to Egypt without an
occupation force like Caesar had done.[210][211] In Egypt, Antony continued
to enjoy the lavish royal lifestyle he had witnessed aboard Cleopatra's ship
docked at Tarsos.[212][208] He also had his subordinates, such as Publius
Ventidius Bassus, drive the Parthians out of Anatolia and
Syria.[211][213][214][note 46]

Cleopatra carefully chose Antony as her partner for producing further heirs, as
he was deemed to be the most powerful Roman figure following Caesar's A Roman marble bust of the
demise.[215] With his powers as a triumvir, Antony also had the broad consul and triumvir Mark
authority to restore former Ptolemaic lands, which were currently in Roman Antony, late 1st century AD,
Vatican Museums
hands, to Cleopatra.[216][217] While it is clear that both Cilicia and Cyprus
were under Cleopatra's control by 19 November 38 BC, the transfer probably
occurred earlier in the winter of 41–40 BC, during her time spent with
Antony.[216]

By the spring of 40 BC, Antony left Egypt due to troubles in Syria, where his governor Lucius Decidius Saxa
was killed and his army taken by Quintus Labienus, a former officer under Cassius who now served the
Parthian Empire.[218] Cleopatra provided Antony with 200 ships for his campaign and as payment for her
newly acquired territories.[218] She would not see Antony again until 37 BC, but she maintained
correspondence, and evidence suggests she kept a spy in his camp.[218] By the end of 40 BC, Cleopatra had
given birth to twins, a boy named Alexander Helios and a girl named Cleopatra Selene II, both of whom
Antony acknowledged as his children.[219][220] Helios (the Sun) and Selene (the Moon) were symbolic of a
new era of societal rejuvenation,[221] as well as an indication that Cleopatra hoped Antony would repeat the
exploits of Alexander the Great by conquering the Parthians.[211]

Mark Antony's Parthian campaign in the east was disrupted by the events of the Perusine War (41–40 BC),
initiated by his ambitious wife Fulvia against Octavian in the hopes of making her husband the undisputed
leader of Rome.[221][222] It has been suggested that Fulvia wanted to cleave Antony away from Cleopatra, but
the conflict emerged in Italy even before Cleopatra's meeting with Antony at Tarsos.[223] Fulvia and Antony's
brother Lucius Antonius were eventually besieged by Octavian at Perusia (modern Perugia, Italy) and then
exiled from Italy, after which Fulvia died at Sicyon in Greece while attempting to reach Antony.[224] Her
sudden death led to a reconciliation of Octavian and Antony at Brundisium in Italy in September 40
BC.[224][211] Although the agreement struck at Brundisium solidified Antony's control of the Roman
Republic's territories east of the Ionian Sea, it also stipulated that he concede Italia, Hispania, and Gaul, and
marry Octavian's sister Octavia the Younger, a potential rival for Cleopatra.[225][226]
 In December 40 BC Cleopatra received Herod in Alexandria as
an unexpected guest and refugee who fled a turbulent situation in
Judea.[227] Herod had been installed as a tetrarch there by
Antony, but he was soon at odds with Antigonus II Mattathias of
the long-established Hasmonean dynasty.[227] The latter had
imprisoned Herod's brother and fellow tetrarch Phasael, who was
executed while Herod was fleeing toward Cleopatra's court.[227]
Cleopatra attempted to provide him with a military assignment,
but Herod declined and traveled to Rome, where the triumvirs
Octavian and Antony named him king of Judea.[228][229] This
The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra act put Herod on a collision course with Cleopatra, who would
(1885), by Lawrence Alma-Tadema desire to reclaim the former Ptolemaic territories that comprised
his new Herodian kingdom.[228]

An ancient Roman sculpture possibly depicting either Cleopatra of Ptolemaic Egypt,[230][231][note 47] or her
daughter, Cleopatra Selene II, Queen of Mauretania,[232] located in the Archaeological Museum of Cherchell,
Algeria

Relations between Antony and Cleopatra perhaps soured when he not only married Octavia, but also sired her
two children, Antonia the Elder in 39 BC and Antonia Minor in 36 BC, and moved his headquarters to
Athens.[233] However, Cleopatra's position in Egypt was secure.[211] Her rival Herod was occupied with civil
war in Judea that required heavy Roman military assistance, but received none from Cleopatra.[233] Since the
authority of Antony and Octavian as triumvirs had expired on 1 January 37 BC, Octavia arranged for a
meeting at Tarentum, where the triumvirate was officially extended to 33 BC.[234] With two legions granted
by Octavian and a thousand soldiers lent by Octavia, Antony traveled to Antioch, where he made preparations
for war against the Parthians.[235]

Antony summoned Cleopatra to Antioch to discuss pressing issues, such as Herod's kingdom and financial
support for his Parthian campaign.[235][236] Cleopatra brought her now three-year-old twins to Antioch, where
Antony saw them for the first time and where they probably first received their surnames Helios and Selene as
part of Antony and Cleopatra's ambitious plans for the future.[237][238] In order to stabilize the east, Antony
not only enlarged Cleopatra's domain,[236] he also established new ruling dynasties and client rulers who
would be loyal to him, yet would ultimately outlast him.[239][217][note 48]

In this arrangement Cleopatra gained significant former Ptolemaic territories in the Levant, including nearly all
of Phoenicia (Lebanon) minus Tyre and Sidon, which remained in Roman hands.[240][217][236] She also
received Ptolemais Akko (modern Acre, Israel), a city that was established by Ptolemy II.[240] Given her
ancestral relations with the Seleucids, she was granted the region of Coele-Syria along the upper Orontes
River.[241][236] She was even given the region surrounding Jericho in Palestine, but she leased this territory
back to Herod.[242][229] At the expense of the Nabataean king Malichus I (a cousin of Herod), Cleopatra was
also given a portion of the Nabataean Kingdom around the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea, including Ailana
(modern Aqaba, Jordan).[243][229] To the west Cleopatra was handed Cyrene along the Libyan coast, as well
as Itanos and Olous in Roman Crete.[244][236] Although still administered by Roman officials, these territories
nevertheless enriched her kingdom and led her to declare the inauguration of a new era by double-dating her
coinage in 36 BC.[245][246]

Antony's enlargement of the Ptolemaic realm by relinquishing directly

controlled Roman territory was exploited by his rival Octavian, who
tapped into the public sentiment in Rome against the empowerment of
a foreign queen at the expense of their Republic.[247] Octavian,
fostering the narrative that Antony was neglecting his virtuous Roman
wife Octavia, granted both her and Livia, his own wife, extraordinary
privileges of sacrosanctity.[247] Some 50 years before, Cornelia
Roman aureus bearing the portraits
Africana, daughter of Scipio Africanus, had been the first living
of Mark Antony (left) and Octavian
Roman woman to have a statue dedicated to her.[245] She was now (right), issued in 41 BC to celebrate
followed by Octavia and Livia, whose statues were most likely the establishment of the Second
erected in the Forum of Caesar to rival that of Cleopatra's, erected by Triumvirate by Octavian, Antony and
Caesar.[245] Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in 43 BC

In 36 BC, Cleopatra accompanied Antony to the Euphrates in his

journey toward invading the Parthian Empire.[248] She then returned to Egypt, perhaps due to her advanced
state of pregnancy.[249] By the summer of 36 BC, she had given birth to Ptolemy Philadelphus, her second son
with Antony.[249][236]

Antony's Parthian campaign in 36 BC turned into a complete debacle for a number of reasons, in particular the
betrayal of Artavasdes II of Armenia, who defected to the Parthian side.[250][217][251] After losing some
30,000 men, more than Crassus at Carrhae (an indignity he had hoped to avenge), Antony finally arrived at
Leukokome near Berytus (modern Beirut, Lebanon) in December, engaged in heavy drinking before
Cleopatra arrived to provide funds and clothing for his battered troops.[250][252] Antony desired to avoid the
risks involved in returning to Rome, and so he traveled with Cleopatra back to Alexandria to see his newborn
son.[250]

Donations of Alexandria

As Antony prepared for another Parthian expedition in 35 BC, this

time aimed at their ally Armenia, Octavia traveled to Athens with
2,000 troops in alleged support of Antony, but most likely in a scheme
devised by Octavian to embarrass him for his military
losses.[255][256][note 49] Antony received these troops but told Octavia
not to stray east of Athens as he and Cleopatra traveled together to A denarius minted by Antony in 34
Antioch, only to suddenly and inexplicably abandon the military BC with his portrait on the obverse,
campaign and head back to Alexandria.[255][256] When Octavia which bears the inscription reading
returned to Rome Octavian portrayed his sister as a victim wronged "ANTONIVS ARMENIA DEVICTA",
by Antony, although she refused to leave Antony's alluding to his Armenian campaign.
household.[257][217] Octavian's confidence grew as he eliminated his The reverse features Cleopatra, with
rivals in the west, including Sextus Pompeius and even Lepidus, the the inscription "CLEOPATR[AE]
REGINAE REGVM FILIORVM
third member of the triumvirate, who was placed under house arrest
REGVM". The mention of her
after revolting against Octavian in Sicily.[257][217][252]
children on the reverse refers to the
Donations of Alexandria.[253][254]
Dellius was sent as Antony's envoy to Artavasdes II in 34 BC to
negotiate a potential marriage alliance that would wed the Armenian
king's daughter to Alexander Helios, the son of Antony and
Cleopatra.[258][259] When this was declined, Antony marched his army into Armenia, defeated their forces
and captured the king and Armenian royal family.[258][260] Antony then held a military parade in Alexandria
as an imitation of a Roman triumph, dressed as Dionysus and riding into the city on a chariot to present the
royal prisoners to Cleopatra, who was seated on a golden throne above a silver dais.[258][261] News of this
event was heavily criticized in Rome as a perversion of time-honored Roman rites and rituals to be enjoyed
instead by an Egyptian queen.[258]

In an event held at the gymnasium soon after the triumph, Cleopatra

dressed as Isis and declared that she was the Queen of Kings with her
son Caesarion, King of Kings, while Alexander Helios was declared
king of Armenia, Media, and Parthia, and two-year-old Ptolemy
Philadelphos was declared king of Syria and Cilicia.[265][266][267]
Cleopatra Selene II was bestowed with Crete and Cyrene.[268][269]
Antony and Cleopatra may have been wed during this
ceremony.[268][267][note 50] Antony sent a report to Rome requesting
ratification of these territorial claims, now known as the Donations of
A papyrus document dated February Alexandria. Octavian wanted to publicize it for propaganda purposes,
33 BC granting tax exemptions to a
but the two consuls, both supporters of Antony, had it censored from
person in Egypt and containing the
public view.[270][269]
signature of Cleopatra written by an
official, but with "γινέσθωι"
In late 34 BC, Antony and Octavian engaged in a heated war of
(ginésthōi; lit. "make it
propaganda that would last for years.[271][269][172][note 51] Antony
happen"[262][263] or "so be it"[264])
claimed that his rival had illegally deposed Lepidus from their
added in Greek, likely by the queen's
triumvirate and barred him from raising troops in Italy, while Octavian
own hand[262][263][264]
accused Antony of unlawfully detaining the king of Armenia,
marrying Cleopatra despite still being married to his sister Octavia,
and wrongfully claiming Caesarion as the heir of Caesar instead of Octavian.[271][269] The litany of
accusations and gossip associated with this propaganda war have shaped the popular perceptions about
Cleopatra from Augustan-period literature through to various media in modern times.[272][273] Cleopatra was
said to have brainwashed Mark Antony with witchcraft and sorcery and was as dangerous as Homer's Helen
of Troy in destroying civilization.[274] Pliny the Elder claims in his Natural History that Cleopatra once
dissolved a pearl worth tens of millions of sesterces in vinegar just to win a dinner-party bet.[275][276] The
accusation that Antony had stolen books from the Library of Pergamum to restock the Library of Alexandria
later turned out to be an admitted fabrication by Gaius Calvisius Sabinus.[277]

A papyrus document dated to February 33 BC, later used to wrap a mummy, contains the signature of
Cleopatra, probably written by an official authorized to sign for her.[262][263] It concerns certain tax
exemptions in Egypt granted to either Quintus Caecillius or Publius Canidius Crassus,[note 52] a former Roman
consul and Antony's confidant who would command his land forces at Actium.[278][263] A subscript in a
different handwriting at the bottom of the papyrus reads "make it happen"[278][263] or "so be it"[264] (Ancient
Greek: γινέσθωι, romanized: ginésthōi);[note 53] this is likely the autograph of the queen, as it was Ptolemaic
practice to countersign documents to avoid forgery.[278][263]

Battle of Actium

In a speech to the Roman Senate on the first day of his consulship on 1 January 33 BC, Octavian accused
Antony of attempting to subvert Roman freedoms and territorial integrity as a slave to his Oriental queen.[279]
Before Antony and Octavian's joint imperium expired on 31 December 33 BC, Antony declared Caesarion as
the true heir of Caesar in an attempt to undermine Octavian.[279] In 32 BC the Antonian loyalists Gaius Sosius
and Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus became consuls. The former gave a fiery speech condemning Octavian,
now a private citizen without public office, and introduced pieces of legislation against him.[278][280] During
the next senatorial session, Octavian entered the Senate house with armed
guards and levied his own accusations against the consuls.[278][281]
Intimidated by this act, the consuls and over 200 senators still in support of
Antony fled Rome the next day to join the side of Antony.[278][281][282]

Antony and Cleopatra traveled together to Ephesus in 32 BC, where she

provided him with 200 of the 800 naval ships he was able to acquire.[278]
Ahenobarbus, wary of having Octavian's propaganda confirmed to the public,
attempted to persuade Antony to have Cleopatra excluded from the campaign
against Octavian.[283][284] Publius Canidius Crassus made the
counterargument that Cleopatra was funding the war effort and was a
competent monarch.[283][284] Cleopatra refused Antony's requests that she
return to Egypt, judging that by blocking Octavian in Greece she could more
A reconstructed statue of
easily defend Egypt.[283][284] Cleopatra's insistence that she be involved in
Augustus as a younger
the battle for Greece led to the defections of prominent Romans, such as
Octavian, dated c. 30 BC
Ahenobarbus and Lucius Munatius Plancus.[283][281]

During the spring of 32 BC Antony and Cleopatra traveled to Athens, where

she persuaded Antony to send Octavia an official declaration of divorce.[283][281][267] This encouraged
Plancus to advise Octavian that he should seize Antony's will, invested with the Vestal Virgins.[283][281][269]
Although a violation of sacred and legal rights, Octavian forcefully acquired the document from the Temple of
Vesta, and it became a useful tool in the propaganda war against Antony and Cleopatra.[283][269] Octavian
highlighted parts of the will, such as Caesarion being named heir to Caesar, that the Donations of Alexandria
were legal, that Antony should be buried alongside Cleopatra in Egypt instead of Rome, and that Alexandria
would be made the new capital of the Roman Republic.[285][281][269] In a show of loyalty to Rome, Octavian
decided to begin construction of his own mausoleum at the Campus Martius.[281] Octavian's legal standing
was also improved by being elected consul in 31 BC.[281] With Antony's will made public, Octavian had his
casus belli, and Rome declared war on Cleopatra,[285][286][287] not Antony.[note 54] The legal argument for
war was based less on Cleopatra's territorial acquisitions, with former Roman territories ruled by her children
with Antony, and more on the fact that she was providing military support to a private citizen now that
Antony's triumviral authority had expired.[288]

Antony and Cleopatra had a larger fleet

than Octavian, but the crews of Antony
and Cleopatra's navy were not all well-
trained, some of them perhaps from
merchant vessels, whereas Octavian
had a fully professional force.[289][284]
Antony wanted to cross the Adriatic
Sea and blockade Octavian at either
Left: A silver tetradrachm of Cleopatra minted at Seleucia Pieria, Syria Tarentum or Brundisium,[290] but
Cleopatra, concerned primarily with
Right: A silver tetradrachm of Cleopatra minted at Ascalon, Israel
defending Egypt, overrode the decision
to attack Italy directly.[291][284] Antony
and Cleopatra set up their winter
headquarters at Patrai in Greece, and by the spring of 31 BC they had moved to Actium, on the southern side
of the Ambracian Gulf.[291][290]

Cleopatra and Antony had the support of various allied kings, but Cleopatra had already been in conflict with
Herod, and an earthquake in Judea provided him with an excuse to be absent from the campaign.[292] They
also lost the support of Malichus I, which would prove to have strategic consequences.[293] Antony and
Cleopatra lost several skirmishes against Octavian around Actium during the summer of 31 BC, while
defections to Octavian's camp continued, including Antony's long-time companion Dellius[293] and the allied
kings Amyntas of Galatia and Deiotaros of Paphlagonia.[293] While some in Antony's camp suggested
abandoning the naval conflict to retreat inland, Cleopatra urged for a naval confrontation, to keep Octavian's
fleet away from Egypt.[294]

On 2 September 31 BC the naval forces of Octavian, led by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, met those of Antony
and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium.[294][290][286] Cleopatra, aboard her flagship, the Antonias, commanded
60 ships at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf, at the rear of the fleet, in what was likely a move by Antony's
officers to marginalize her during the battle.[294] Antony had ordered that their ships should have sails on
board for a better chance to pursue or flee from the enemy, which Cleopatra, ever concerned about defending
Egypt, used to swiftly move through the area of major combat in a strategic withdrawal to the
Peloponnese.[295][296][297] Burstein writes that partisan Roman writers would later accuse Cleopatra of
cowardly deserting Antony, but their original intention of keeping their sails on board may have been to break
the blockade and salvage as much of their fleet as possible.[297] Antony followed Cleopatra and boarded her
ship, identified by its distinctive purple sails, as the two escaped the battle and headed for Tainaron.[295]
Antony reportedly avoided Cleopatra during this three-day voyage, until her ladies in waiting at Tainaron
urged him to speak with her.[298] The Battle of Actium raged on without Cleopatra and Antony until the
morning of 3 September, and was followed by massive defections of officers, troops, and allied kings to
Octavian's side.[298][296][299]

Downfall and death

While Octavian occupied Athens, Antony and Cleopatra landed at

Paraitonion in Egypt.[298][302] The couple then went their separate
ways, Antony to Cyrene to raise more troops and Cleopatra to the
harbor at Alexandria in a misleading attempt to portray the activities in
Greece as a victory.[298] It is uncertain whether or not, at this time,
she actually executed Artavasdes II and sent his head to his rival,
Artavasdes I of Media Atropatene, in an attempt to strike an alliance
with him.[303][304]
A Roman painting from the House of
Lucius Pinarius, Mark Antony's appointed governor of Cyrene,
Giuseppe II in Pompeii, early 1st
received word that Octavian had won the Battle of Actium before
century AD, most likely depicting
Antony's messengers could arrive at his court.[303] Pinarius had these Cleopatra, wearing her royal diadem
messengers executed and then defected to Octavian's side, and consuming poison in an act of
surrendering to him the four legions under his command that Antony suicide, while her son Caesarion,
desired to obtain.[303] Antony nearly committed suicide after hearing also wearing a royal diadem, stands
news of this but was stopped by his staff officers.[303] In Alexandria behind her[300][301]
he built a reclusive cottage on the island of Pharos that he nicknamed
the Timoneion, after the philosopher Timon of Athens, who was
famous for his cynicism and misanthropy.[303] Herod, who had personally advised Antony after the Battle of
Actium that he should betray Cleopatra, traveled to Rhodes to meet Octavian and resign his kingship out of
loyalty to Antony.[305] Octavian was impressed by his speech and sense of loyalty, so he allowed him to
maintain his position in Judea, further isolating Antony and Cleopatra.[305]

Cleopatra perhaps started to view Antony as a liability by the late summer of 31 BC, when she prepared to
leave Egypt to her son Caesarion.[306] Cleopatra planned to relinquish her throne to him, take her fleet from
the Mediterranean into the Red Sea, and then set sail to a foreign port, perhaps in India, where she could spend
time recuperating.[306][304] However, these plans were ultimately abandoned when Malichus I, as advised by
Octavian's governor of Syria, Quintus Didius, managed to burn Cleopatra's fleet in revenge for his losses in a
war with Herod that Cleopatra had largely initiated.[306][304] Cleopatra had no other option but to stay in
Egypt and negotiate with Octavian.[306] Although most likely later pro-Octavian propaganda, it was reported
that at this time Cleopatra started testing the strengths of various poisons on prisoners and even her own
servants.[307]

Cleopatra had Caesarion enter into the ranks of the ephebi, which,
along with reliefs on a stele from Koptos dated 21 September 31 BC,
demonstrated that Cleopatra was now grooming her son to become
the sole ruler of Egypt.[308] In a show of solidarity, Antony also had
Marcus Antonius Antyllus, his son with Fulvia, enter the ephebi at the
same time.[306] Separate messages and envoys from Antony and
Cleopatra were then sent to Octavian, still stationed at Rhodes,
although Octavian seems to have replied only to Cleopatra.[307]
Cleopatra requested that her children should inherit Egypt and that
Antony should be allowed to live in exile in Egypt, offered Octavian
money in the future, and immediately sent him lavish gifts.[307][304]
The Death of Cleopatra (1658), by Octavian sent his diplomat Thyrsos to Cleopatra after she threatened
Guido Cagnacci to burn herself and vast amounts of her treasure within a tomb already
under construction.[309] Thyrsos advised her to kill Antony so that her
life would be spared, but when Antony suspected foul intent, he had
this diplomat flogged and sent back to Octavian without a deal.[310]

After lengthy negotiations that ultimately produced no results, Octavian set out to invade Egypt in the spring of
30 BC,[311] stopping at Ptolemais in Phoenicia, where his new ally Herod provided his army with fresh
supplies.[312] Octavian moved south and swiftly took Pelousion, while Cornelius Gallus, marching eastward
from Cyrene, defeated Antony's forces near Paraitonion.[313][314] Octavian advanced quickly to Alexandria,
but Antony returned and won a small victory over Octavian's tired troops outside the city's
hippodrome.[313][314] However, on 1 August 30 BC, Antony's naval fleet surrendered to Octavian, followed
by Antony's cavalry.[313][296][315] Cleopatra hid herself in her tomb with her close attendants and sent a
message to Antony that she had committed suicide.[313][316][317] In despair, Antony responded to this by
stabbing himself in the stomach and taking his own life at age 53.[313][296][304] According to Plutarch, he was
still dying when brought to Cleopatra at her tomb, telling her he had died honorably and that she could trust
Octavian's companion Gaius Proculeius over anyone else in his entourage.[313][318][319] It was Proculeius,
however, who infiltrated her tomb using a ladder and detained the queen, denying her the ability to burn
herself with her treasures.[320][321] Cleopatra was then allowed to embalm and bury Antony within her tomb
before she was escorted to the palace.[320][304]

Octavian entered Alexandria, occupied the palace, and seized

Cleopatra's three youngest children.[320][322] When she met with
Octavian, Cleopatra told him bluntly, "I will not be led in a triumph"
(Ancient Greek: οὑ θριαμβεύσομαι, romanized: ou thriambéusomai),
according to Livy, a rare recording of her exact words.[323][324]
Octavian promised that he would keep her alive but offered no
explanation about his future plans for her kingdom.[325] When a spy
informed her that Octavian planned to move her and her children to
Rome in three days, she prepared for suicide as she had no intentions
of being paraded in a Roman triumph like her sister Arsinoe
IV.[325][296][304] It is unclear if Cleopatra's suicide on 10 August 30 The Death of Cleopatra (1796–1797),
BC, at age 39, took place within the palace or her by Jean-Baptiste Regnault
tomb.[326][327][note 3] It is said she was accompanied by her servants
Eiras and Charmion, who also took their own lives.[325][328]
Octavian was said to have been angered by this outcome but had Cleopatra buried in royal fashion next to
Antony in her tomb.[325][329][330] Cleopatra's physician Olympos did not explain her cause of death, although
the popular belief is that she allowed an asp or Egyptian cobra to bite and poison her.[331][332][304] Plutarch
relates this tale, but then suggests an implement (κνῆστις, knêstis, lit. 'spine, cheese-grater') was used to
introduce the toxin by scratching, while Dio says that she injected the poison with a needle (βελόνη, belónē),
and Strabo argued for an ointment of some kind.[333][332][334][note 55] No venomous snake was found with
her body, but she did have tiny puncture wounds on her arm that could have been caused by a
needle.[331][334][330]

Cleopatra decided in her last moments to send Caesarion away to Upper Egypt, perhaps with plans to flee to
Kushite Nubia, Ethiopia, or India.[335][336][314] Caesarion, now Ptolemy XV, would reign for a mere 18 days
until executed on the orders of Octavian on 29 August 30 BC, after returning to Alexandria under the false
pretense that Octavian would allow him to be king.[337][338][339][note 2] Octavian was convinced by the
advice of the philosopher Arius Didymus that there was room for only one Caesar in the world.[340][note 56]
With the fall of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, the Roman province of Egypt was established,[341][296][342][note 57]
marking the end of the Hellenistic period.[343][344][note 7] In January of 27 BC Octavian was renamed
Augustus ("the revered") and amassed constitutional powers that established him as the first Roman emperor,
inaugurating the Principate era of the Roman Empire.[345]

Cleopatra's kingdom and role as a monarch

Following the tradition of Macedonian rulers, Cleopatra ruled Egypt
and other territories such as Cyprus as an absolute monarch, serving
as the sole lawgiver of her kingdom.[346] She was the chief religious
authority in her realm, presiding over religious ceremonies dedicated
to the deities of both the Egyptian and Greek polytheistic faiths.[347]
She oversaw the construction of various temples to Egyptian and
Greek gods,[348] a synagogue for the Jews in Egypt, and even built Cleopatra on a coin of 40 drachms
the Caesareum of Alexandria, dedicated to the cult worship of her from 51–30 BC, minted at
patron and lover Julius Caesar. [349][350] Cleopatra was directly Alexandria; on the obverse is a
portrait of Cleopatra wearing a
involved in the administrative affairs of her domain,[351] tackling
diadem, and on the reverse an
crises such as famine by ordering royal granaries to distribute food to
inscription reading "ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΗΣ
the starving populace during a drought at the beginning of her
ΚΛΕΟΠΑΤΡΑΣ" with an eagle
reign.[352] Although the command economy that she managed was standing on a thunderbolt.
more of an ideal than a reality,[353] the government attempted to
impose price controls, tariffs, and state monopolies for certain goods,
fixed exchange rates for foreign currencies, and rigid laws forcing peasant farmers to stay in their villages
during planting and harvesting seasons.[354][355][356] Apparent financial troubles led Cleopatra to debase her
coinage, which included silver and bronze currencies but no gold coins like those of some of her distant
Ptolemaic predecessors.[357]

Legacy

Children and successors

After her suicide, Cleopatra's three surviving children, Cleopatra Selene II, Alexander Helios, and Ptolemy
Philadelphos, were sent to Rome with Octavian's sister Octavia the Younger, a former wife of their father, as
their guardian.[362][363] Cleopatra Selene II and Alexander Helios were present in the Roman triumph of
Octavian in 29 BC.[362][238] The fates of Alexander Helios and Ptolemy Philadelphus are unknown after this
point.[362][238] Octavia arranged the betrothal of Cleopatra Selene II to Juba II, son of Juba I, whose North
 Left: A Roman head of either Cleopatra or her daughter Cleopatra Selene II, Queen of Mauretania, from the late
1st century BC, located in the Archaeological Museum of Cherchell, Algeria[232][358][359][note 47]
Right: A likely depiction of Cleopatra Selene II, wearing an elephant skin cap, raised relief image on a gilded
silver dish from the Boscoreale Treasure, dated to the early 1st century AD[360][361][note 58]

African kingdom of Numidia had been turned into a Roman province in 46 BC by Julius Caesar due to Juba
I's support of Pompey.[364][363][322] The emperor Augustus installed Juba II and Cleopatra Selene II, after
their wedding in 25 BC, as the new rulers of Mauretania, where they transformed the old Carthaginian city of
Iol into their new capital, renamed Caesarea Mauretaniae (modern Cherchell, Algeria).[364][238] Cleopatra
Selene II imported many important scholars, artists, and advisers from her mother's royal court in Alexandria to
serve her in Caesarea, now permeated in Hellenistic Greek culture.[365] She also named her son Ptolemy of
Mauretania, in honor of their Ptolemaic dynastic heritage.[366][367]

Cleopatra Selene II died around 5 BC, and when Juba II died in 23/24 AD he was succeeded by his son
Ptolemy.[366][368] However, Ptolemy was eventually executed by the Roman emperor Caligula in 40 AD,
perhaps under the pretense that Ptolemy had unlawfully minted his own royal coinage and utilized regalia
reserved for the Roman emperor.[369][370] Ptolemy of Mauretania was the last known monarch of the
Ptolemaic dynasty, although Queen Zenobia, of the short-lived Palmyrene Empire during the Crisis of the
Third Century, would claim descent from Cleopatra.[371][372] A cult dedicated to Cleopatra still existed as late
as 373 AD when Petesenufe, an Egyptian scribe of the book of Isis, explained that he "overlaid the figure of
Cleopatra with gold."[373]

Roman literature and historiography

Although almost 50 ancient works of Roman historiography

mention Cleopatra, these often include only terse accounts of the
Battle of Actium, her suicide, and Augustan propaganda about
her personal deficiencies.[375] Despite not being a biography of
Cleopatra, the Life of Antonius written by Plutarch in the 1st
century AD provides the most thorough surviving account of
Cleopatra's life.[376][377][378] Plutarch lived a century after
Cleopatra but relied on primary sources, such as Philotas of Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned
Amphissa, who had access to the Ptolemaic royal palace, Prisoners (1887), by Alexandre
Cleopatra's personal physician named Olympos, and Quintus Cabanel[374]
Dellius, a close confidant of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. [379]
Plutarch's work included both the Augustan view of Cleopatra—
which became canonical for his period—as well as sources outside of this tradition, such as eyewitness
reports.[376][378] The Jewish Roman historian Josephus, writing in the 1st century AD, provides valuable
information on the life of Cleopatra via her diplomatic relationship with Herod the Great.[380][381] However,
this work relies largely on Herod's memoirs and the biased account of Nicolaus of Damascus, the tutor of
Cleopatra's children in Alexandria before he moved to Judea to serve as an adviser and chronicler at Herod's
court.[380][381] The Roman History published by the official and historian Cassius Dio in the early 3rd century
AD, while failing to fully comprehend the complexities of the late Hellenistic world, nevertheless provides a
continuous history of the era of Cleopatra's reign.[380]

Cleopatra is barely mentioned in De Bello Alexandrino, the memoirs of an

unknown staff officer who served under Caesar.[384][385][386][note 59] The
writings of Cicero, who knew her personally, provide an unflattering portrait
of Cleopatra.[384] The Augustan-period authors Virgil, Horace, Propertius,
and Ovid perpetuated the negative views of Cleopatra approved by the ruling
Roman regime,[384][387] although Virgil established the idea of Cleopatra as a
figure of romance and epic melodrama.[388][note 60] Horace also viewed
Cleopatra's suicide as a positive choice,[389][387] an idea that found
acceptance by the Late Middle Ages with Geoffrey Chaucer.[390][391] The
historians Strabo, Velleius, Valerius Maximus, Pliny the Elder, and Appian,
while not offering accounts as full as Plutarch, Josephus, or Dio, provided
some details of her life that had not survived in other historical
records.[384][note 61] Inscriptions on contemporary Ptolemaic coinage and
some Egyptian papyrus documents demonstrate Cleopatra's point of view, but A restructured marble
this material is very limited in comparison to Roman literary Roman statue of Cleopatra
works.[384][392][note 62] The fragmentary Libyka commissioned by wearing a diadem and
Cleopatra's son-in-law Juba II provides a glimpse at a possible body of 'melon' hairstyle similar to
historiographic material that supported Cleopatra's perspective.[384] coinage portraits, found
along the Via Cassia near
Cleopatra's gender has perhaps led to her depiction as a minor if not the Tomba di Nerone, Rome,
insignificant figure in ancient, medieval, and even modern historiography and now located in the
about ancient Egypt and the Greco-Roman world.[393] For instance, the Museo Pio-
historian Ronald Syme asserted that she was of little importance to Caesar and Clementino[1][382][383]
that the propaganda of Octavian magnified her importance to an excessive
degree.[393] Although the common view of Cleopatra was one of a prolific
seductress, she had only two known sexual partners, Caesar and Antony, the two most prominent Romans of
the time period, who were most likely to ensure the survival of her dynasty.[394][395] Plutarch described
Cleopatra as having had a stronger personality and charming wit than physical beauty.[396][16][397][note 63]

Cultural depictions

Depictions in ancient art

Statues

Cleopatra was depicted in various ancient works of art, in the Egyptian as well as Hellenistic-Greek and
Roman styles.[2] Surviving works include statues, busts, reliefs, and minted coins,[2][374] as well as ancient
carved cameos,[400] such as one depicting Cleopatra and Antony in Hellenistic style, now in the Altes
Museum, Berlin.[1] Contemporary images of Cleopatra were produced both in and outside of Ptolemaic Egypt.
For instance, a large gilded bronze statue of Cleopatra once existed inside the Temple of Venus Genetrix in
Rome, the first time that a living person had their statue placed next to that of a deity in a Roman
temple.[3][184][401] It was erected there by Caesar and remained in the temple at least until the 3rd century AD,
its preservation perhaps owing to Caesar's patronage, although Augustus did not remove or destroy artworks
 Left: An Egyptian statue of either Arsinoe II or Cleopatra as an Egyptian goddess in black basalt from the second
half of the 1st century BC,[398] located in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
Right: The Esquiline Venus, a Roman or Hellenistic-Egyptian statue of Venus (Aphrodite) that may be a depiction
of Cleopatra,[399] located in the Capitoline Museums, Rome

in Alexandria depicting Cleopatra.[402][403]

In regards to surviving Roman statuary, a life-sized Roman-style statue of Cleopatra was found near the
Tomba di Nerone, Rome, along the Via Cassia and is now housed in the Museo Pio-Clementino, part of the
Vatican Museums.[1][382][383] Plutarch, in his Life of Antonius, claimed that the public statues of Antony were
torn down by Augustus, but those of Cleopatra were preserved following her death thanks to her friend
Archibius paying the emperor 2,000 talents to dissuade him from destroying hers.[404][373][329]

Since the 1950s scholars have debated whether or not the Esquiline Venus—discovered in 1874 on the
Esquiline Hill in Rome and housed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori of the Capitoline Museums—is a depiction
of Cleopatra, based on the statue's hairstyle and facial features, apparent royal diadem worn over the head, and
the uraeus Egyptian cobra wrapped around the base.[399][405][406] Detractors of this theory argue that the face
in this statue is thinner than the face on the Berlin portrait and assert that it was unlikely she would be depicted
as the naked goddess Venus (or the Greek Aphrodite).[399][405][406] However, she was depicted in an
Egyptian statue as the goddess Isis,[407] while some of her coinage depicts her as Venus-Aphrodite.[408][409]
She also dressed as Aphrodite when meeting Antony at Tarsos.[205] The Esquiline Venus is generally thought
to be a mid-1st-century AD Roman copy of a 1st-century BC Greek original from the school of Pasiteles.[405]

Coinage portraits

Surviving coinage of Cleopatra's reign include specimens from every regnal year, from 51 to 30 BC.[410]
Cleopatra, the only Ptolemaic queen to issue coins on her own behalf, almost certainly inspired her partner
Caesar to become the first living Roman to present his portrait on his own coins.[408][note 64] Cleopatra was
also the first foreign queen to have her image appear on Roman currency.[411] Coins dated to the period of her
marriage to Antony, which also bear his image, portray the queen as having a very similar aquiline nose and
prominent chin as that of her husband.[3][412] These similar facial features followed an artistic convention that
represented the mutually-observed harmony of a royal couple.[3][2]
Her strong, almost masculine facial features in these particular coins
are strikingly different from the smoother, softer, and perhaps
idealized sculpted images of her in either the Egyptian or Hellenistic
styles.[2][413][414] Her masculine facial features on minted currency
are similar to that of her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes,[415][114] and
perhaps also to those of her Ptolemaic ancestor Arsinoe II (316–260 Cleopatra and Mark Antony on the
BC)[2][416] and even depictions of earlier queens such as Hatshepsut obverse and reverse, respectively, of
and Nefertiti.[414] It is likely, due to political expediency, that a silver tetradrachm struck at the
Antony's visage was made to conform not only to hers but also to Antioch mint in 36 BC, with Greek
those of her Macedonian Greek ancestors who founded the Ptolemaic legends: BACIΛΙCCA KΛΕΟΠΑΤΡΑ
dynasty, to familiarize himself to her subjects as a legitimate member ΘΕΑ ΝΕΩΤΕΡΑ, ANTΩNIOC
of the royal house.[2] AYTOKPATΩP TPITON TPIΩN
ANΔPΩN.
The inscriptions on the coins are written in Greek, but also in the
nominative case of Roman coins rather than the genitive case of
Greek coins, in addition to having the letters placed in a circular fashion along the edges of the coin instead of
across it horizontally or vertically as was customary for Greek ones.[2] These facets of their coinage represent
the synthesis of Roman and Hellenistic culture, and perhaps also a statement to their subjects, however
ambiguous to modern scholars, about the superiority of either Antony or Cleopatra over the other.[2] Diana
Kleiner argues that Cleopatra, in one of her coins minted with the dual image of her husband Antony, made
herself more masculine-looking than other portraits and more like an acceptable Roman client queen than a
Hellenistic ruler.[413] Cleopatra had actually achieved this masculine look in coinage predating her affair with
Antony, such as the coins struck at the Ashkelon mint during her brief period of exile to Syria and the Levant,
which Joann Fletcher explains as her attempt to appear like her father and as a legitimate successor to a male
Ptolemaic ruler.[114][417]

Various coins, such as a silver tetradrachm minted sometime after Cleopatra's marriage with Antony in 37 BC,
depict her wearing a royal diadem and a 'melon' hairstyle.[3][417] The combination of this hairstyle with a
diadem is also featured in two surviving sculpted marble heads.[418][374][419][note 65] This hairstyle, with hair
braided back into a bun, is the same as that worn by her Ptolemaic ancestors Arsinoe II and Berenice II in their
own coinage.[3][420] After her visit to Rome in 46–44 BC it became fashionable for Roman women to adopt it
as one of their hairstyles, but it was abandoned for a more modest, austere look during the conservative rule of
Augustus.[3][418][419]

Greco-Roman busts and heads

Of the surviving Greco-Roman-style busts and heads of Cleopatra,[note 66] the sculpture known as the "Berlin
Cleopatra", located in the Antikensammlung Berlin collection at the Altes Museum, possesses her full nose,
whereas the head known as the "Vatican Cleopatra", located in the Vatican Museums, is damaged with a
missing nose.[421][422][423][note 67] Both the Berlin Cleopatra and Vatican Cleopatra have royal diadems,
similar facial features, and perhaps once resembled the face of her bronze statue housed in the Temple of
Venus Genetrix.[422][424][423][note 68] Both heads are dated to the mid-1st century BC and were found in
Roman villas along the Via Appia in Italy, the Vatican Cleopatra having been unearthed in the Villa of the
Quintilii.[3][421][423][note 69] Francisco Pina Polo writes that Cleopatra's coinage present her image with
certainty and asserts that the sculpted portrait of the Berlin head is confirmed as having a similar profile with
her hair pulled back into a bun, a diadem, and a hooked nose.[425] A third sculpted portrait of Cleopatra
accepted by scholars as being authentic survives at the Archaeological Museum of Cherchell,
Algeria.[403][358][359] This portrait features the royal diadem and similar facial features as the Berlin and
Vatican heads, but has a more unique hairstyle and may actually depict Cleopatra Selene II, daughter of
Cleopatra.[359][426][232][note 47] A possible Parian-marble sculpture of Cleopatra wearing a vulture headdress
 An ancient Roman portrait head, c. 50–30 BC, now located in the British Museum, London, that depicts a woman
from Ptolemaic Egypt, either Queen Cleopatra or a member of her entourage during her 46–44 BC visit to Rome
with her lover Julius Caesar[418]

in Egyptian style is located at the Capitoline Museums.[427] Discovered near a sanctuary of Isis in Rome and
dated to the 1st century BC, it is either Roman or Hellenistic-Egyptian in origin.[428]

Other possible sculpted depictions of Cleopatra include one in the British Museum, London, made of
limestone, which perhaps only depicts a woman in her entourage during her trip to Rome.[1][418] The woman
in this portrait has facial features similar to others (including the pronounced aquiline nose), but lacks a royal
diadem and sports a different hairstyle.[1][418] However, the British Museum head, once belonging to a full
statue, could potentially represent Cleopatra at a different stage in her life and may also betray an effort by
Cleopatra to discard the use of royal insignia (i.e. the diadem) to make herself more appealing to the citizens of
Republican Rome.[418] Duane W. Roller speculates that the British Museum head, along with those in the
Egyptian Museum, Cairo, the Capitoline Museums, and in the private collection of Maurice Nahmen, while
having similar facial features and hairstyles as the Berlin portrait but lacking a royal diadem, most likely
represent members of the royal court or even Roman women imitating Cleopatra's popular hairstyle.[429]
 Cleopatra, mid-1st century BC, Profile view of the Vatican
with a "melon" hairstyle and Cleopatra
Hellenistic royal diadem worn
over her head, now in the
Vatican Museums[1][3][421]

Cleopatra, mid-1st century BC, Profile view of the Berlin

showing Cleopatra with a Cleopatra
"melon" hairstyle and
Hellenistic royal diadem worn
over the head, now in the Altes
Museum[1][3][421]

Paintings

In the House of Marcus Fabius Rufus at Pompeii, Italy, a mid-1st century BC Second Style wall painting of
the goddess Venus holding a cupid near massive temple doors is most likely a depiction of Cleopatra as Venus
Genetrix with her son Caesarion.[405][430] The commission of the painting most likely coincides with the
erection of the Temple of Venus Genetrix in the Forum of Caesar in September 46 BC, where Caesar had a
gilded statue erected depicting Cleopatra.[405][430] This statue likely formed the basis of her depictions in both
sculpted art as well as this painting at Pompeii.[405][431] The woman in the painting wears a royal diadem over
her head and is strikingly similar in appearance to the Vatican Cleopatra, which bears possible marks on the
marble of its left cheek where a cupid's arm may have been torn off.[405][432][423][note 70] The room with the
 A Roman Second Style painting in the House of Marcus Fabius Rufus at Pompeii, Italy, depicting Cleopatra as
Venus Genetrix and her son Caesarion as a cupid, mid-1st century BC[405][430]

painting was walled off by its owner, perhaps in reaction to the execution of Caesarion in 30 BC by order of
Octavian, when public depictions of Cleopatra's son would have been unfavorable with the new Roman
regime.[405][433] Behind her golden diadem, crowned with a red jewel, is a translucent veil with crinkles that
suggest the "melon" hairstyle favored by the queen.[432][note 71] Her ivory-white skin, round face, long
aquiline nose, and large round eyes were features common in both Roman and Ptolemaic depictions of
deities.[432] Roller affirms that "there seems little doubt that this is a depiction of Cleopatra and Caesarion
before the doors of the Temple of Venus in the Forum Julium and, as such, it becomes the only extant
contemporary painting of the queen."[405]

A steel engraving published by John Sartain in 1885 (left) depicting the now lost painted death portrait of
Cleopatra, an encaustic painting discovered in 1818 in the ancient Roman ruins of the Egyptian temple of Serapis
at Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, Lazio;[434] she is seen here wearing the knotted garment of Isis (corresponding with
Plutarch's description of her wearing the robes of Isis),[435] as well as the radiant crown of the Ptolemaic rulers
such as Ptolemy V (pictured to the right in a golden octodrachm minted in 204–203 BC).[436]

Another painting from Pompeii, dated to the early 1st century AD and located in the House of Giuseppe II,
contains a possible depiction of Cleopatra with her son Caesarion, both wearing royal diadems while she
reclines and consumes poison in an act of suicide.[300][301][note 72] The painting was originally thought to
depict the Carthaginian noblewoman Sophonisba, who toward the end of the Second Punic War (218–201
BC) drank poison and committed suicide at the behest of her lover Masinissa, King of Numidia.[300]
Arguments in favor of it depicting Cleopatra include the strong connection of her house with that of the
Numidian royal family, Masinissa and Ptolemy VIII Physcon having been associates, and Cleopatra's own
daughter marrying the Numidian prince Juba II.[300] Sophonisba was also a more obscure figure when the
painting was made, while Cleopatra's suicide was far more famous.[300] An asp is absent from the painting,
but many Romans held the view that she received poison in another manner than a venomous snakebite.[437]
A set of double doors on the rear wall of the painting, positioned very high above the people in it, suggests the
described layout of Cleopatra's tomb in Alexandria.[300] A male servant holds the mouth of an artificial
Egyptian crocodile (possibly an elaborate tray handle), while another man standing by is dressed as a
Roman.[300]
In 1818 a now lost encaustic painting was discovered in the Temple of Serapis at Hadrian's Villa, near Tivoli,
Lazio, Italy, that depicted Cleopatra committing suicide with an asp biting her bare chest.[434] A chemical
analysis performed in 1822 confirmed that the medium for the painting was composed of one-third wax and
two-thirds resin.[434] The thickness of the painting over Cleopatra's bare flesh and her drapery were reportedly
similar to the paintings of the Fayum mummy portraits.[438] A steel engraving published by John Sartain in
1885 depicting the painting as described in the archaeological report shows Cleopatra wearing authentic
clothing and jewelry of Egypt in the late Hellenistic period,[439] as well as the radiant crown of the Ptolemaic
rulers, as seen in their portraits on various coins minted during their respective reigns.[436] After Cleopatra's
suicide, Octavian commissioned a painting to be made depicting her being bitten by a snake, parading this
image in her stead during his triumphal procession in Rome.[438][335][311] The portrait painting of Cleopatra's
death was perhaps among the great number of artworks and treasures taken from Rome by Emperor Hadrian
to decorate his private villa, where it was found in an Egyptian temple.[434][note 73]

Ancient Roman fresco in the Pompeian Third Style possibly depicting Cleopatra, from the House of the Orchard
at Pompeii, Italy, mid-1st century AD[56]

A Roman panel painting from Herculaneum, Italy, dated to the 1st century AD possibly depicts
Cleopatra.[56][57] In it she wears a royal diadem, red or reddish-brown hair pulled back into a bun,[note 74]
pearl-studded hairpins,[440] and earrings with ball-shaped pendants, the white skin of her face and neck set
against a stark black background.[56] Her hair and facial features are similar to those in the sculpted Berlin and
Vatican portraits as well as her coinage.[56] A highly similar painted bust of a woman with a blue headband in
the House of the Orchard at Pompeii features Egyptian-style imagery, such as a Greek-style sphinx, and may
have been created by the same artist.[56]

Portland Vase

The Portland Vase, a Roman cameo glass vase dated to the Augustan period and now in the British Museum,
includes a possible depiction of Cleopatra with Antony.[441][443] In this interpretation, Cleopatra can be seen
grasping Antony and drawing him toward her while a serpent (i.e. the asp) rises between her legs, Eros floats
above, and Anton, the alleged ancestor of the Antonian family, looks on in despair as his descendant Antony is
led to his doom.[441][442] The other side of the vase perhaps contains a scene of Octavia, abandoned by her
husband Antony but watched over by her brother, the emperor Augustus.[441][442] The vase would thus have
been created no earlier than 35 BC, when Antony sent his wife Octavia back to Italy and stayed with
Cleopatra in Alexandria.[441]

Native Egyptian art

The Bust of Cleopatra in the Royal Ontario Museum represents a bust of Cleopatra in the Egyptian style.[444]
Dated to the mid-1st century BC, it is perhaps the earliest depiction of Cleopatra as both a goddess and ruling
pharaoh of Egypt.[444] The sculpture also has pronounced eyes that share similarities with Roman copies of
Ptolemaic sculpted works of art.[445] The Dendera Temple complex, near Dendera, Egypt, contains Egyptian-
style carved relief images along the exterior walls of the Temple of
Hathor depicting Cleopatra and her young son Caesarion as a grown
adult and ruling pharaoh making offerings to the gods.[446][447]
Augustus had his name inscribed there following the death of
Cleopatra.[446][448]

A large Ptolemaic black basalt statue measuring 104 centimetres

(41 in) in height, now in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, is
thought to represent Arsinoe II, wife of Ptolemy II, but recent analysis
has indicated that it could depict her descendant Cleopatra due to the
three uraei adorning her headdress, an increase from the two used by
Arsinoe II to symbolize her rule over Lower and Upper A possible depiction of Mark Antony
Egypt.[404][400][398] The woman in the basalt statue also holds a being lured by Cleopatra, straddling a
divided, double cornucopia (dikeras), which can be seen on coins of serpent, while Anton, Antony's
both Arsinoe II and Cleopatra.[404][398] In his Kleopatra und die alleged ancestor, looks on and Eros
Caesaren (2006), Bernard Andreae contends that this basalt statue, flies above[441][442]
like other idealized Egyptian portraits of the queen, does not contain
realistic facial features and hence adds little to the knowledge of her
appearance.[449][note 75] Adrian Goldsworthy writes that, despite these
representations in the traditional Egyptian style, Cleopatra would have dressed
as a native only "perhaps for certain rites" and instead would usually dress as
a Greek monarch, which would include the Greek headband seen in her
Greco-Roman busts.[450]

Medieval and Early Modern reception

In modern times Cleopatra has become an icon of popular culture,[374] a

reputation shaped by theatrical representations dating back to the Renaissance
as well as paintings and films.[452] This material largely surpasses the scope
Cleopatra and her son
and size of existent historiographic literature about her from classical antiquity
Caesarion at the Temple of
and has made a greater impact on the general public's view of Cleopatra than
Dendera
the latter.[453] The 14th-century English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, in The
Legend of Good Women, contextualized Cleopatra for the Christian world of
the Middle Ages.[454] His depiction of Cleopatra and Antony,
her shining knight engaged in courtly love, has been interpreted
in modern times as being either playful or misogynistic
satire.[454] However, Chaucer highlighted Cleopatra's
relationships with only two men as hardly the life of a seductress
and wrote his works partly in reaction to the negative depiction
of Cleopatra in De Mulieribus Claris and De Casibus Virorum
Illustrium, Latin works by the 14th-century Italian poet Giovanni
Boccaccio.[455][391] The Renaissance humanist Bernardino
Cacciante, in his 1504 Libretto apologetico delle donne, was the
first Italian to defend the reputation of Cleopatra and criticize the The Banquet of Cleopatra (1744), by
perceived moralizing and misogyny in Boccaccio's works. [456] Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, now in the
Works of Islamic historiography written in Arabic covered the National Gallery of Victoria,
reign of Cleopatra, such as the 10th-century Meadows of Gold by Melbourne[451]
Al-Masudi,[457] although his work erroneously claimed that
Octavian died soon after Cleopatra's suicide.[458]
Cleopatra appeared in miniatures for illuminated manuscripts, such as a depiction of her and Antony lying in a
Gothic-style tomb by the Boucicaut Master in 1409.[390] In the visual arts, the sculpted depiction of Cleopatra
as a free-standing nude figure committing suicide began with the 16th-century sculptors Bartolommeo
Bandinelli and Alessandro Vittoria.[459] Early prints depicting Cleopatra include designs by the Renaissance
artists Raphael and Michelangelo, as well as 15th-century woodcuts in illustrated editions of Boccaccio's
works.[460]

In the performing arts, the death of Elizabeth I of England in 1603, and the German publication in 1606 of
alleged letters of Cleopatra, inspired Samuel Daniel to alter and republish his 1594 play Cleopatra in
1607.[461] He was followed by William Shakespeare, whose Antony and Cleopatra, largely based on
Plutarch, was first performed in 1608 and provided a somewhat salacious view of Cleopatra in stark contrast to
England's own Virgin Queen.[462] Cleopatra was also featured in operas, such as George Frideric Handel's
1724 Giulio Cesare in Egitto, which portrayed the love affair of Caesar and Cleopatra.[463]

Modern depictions and brand imaging

In Victorian Britain, Cleopatra was highly associated with many

aspects of ancient Egyptian culture and her image was used to
market various household products, including oil lamps,
lithographs, postcards and cigarettes.[464] Fictional novels such
as H. Rider Haggard's Cleopatra (1889) and Théophile Gautier's
One of Cleopatra's Nights (1838) depicted the queen as a sensual
and mystic Easterner, while the Egyptologist Georg Ebers's
Cleopatra (1894) was more grounded in historical
accuracy.[464][465] The French dramatist Victorien Sardou and
Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw produced plays about
Cleopatra, while burlesque shows such as F. C. Burnand's The Triumph of Cleopatra (1821), by
Antony and Cleopatra offered satirical depictions of the queen William Etty, now in the Lady Lever Art
connecting her and the environment she lived in with the modern Gallery, Port Sunlight, England
age. [466] Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra was considered
canonical by the Victorian era.[467] Its popularity led to the
perception that the 1885 painting by Lawrence Alma-Tadema depicted the meeting of Antony and Cleopatra
on her pleasure barge in Tarsus, although Alma-Tadema revealed in a private letter that it depicts a subsequent
meeting of theirs in Alexandria.[468] In his unfinished 1825 short story The Egyptian Nights, Alexander
Pushkin popularized the claims of the 4th-century Roman historian Aurelius Victor, previously largely
ignored, that Cleopatra had prostituted herself to men who paid for sex with their lives.[469][470] Cleopatra also
became appreciated outside the Western world and Middle East, as the Qing-dynasty Chinese scholar Yan Fu
wrote an extensive biography of her.[471]

Georges Méliès's Robbing Cleopatra's Tomb (French: Cléopâtre), an 1899 French silent horror film, was the
first film to depict the character of Cleopatra.[472] Hollywood films of the 20th century were influenced by
earlier Victorian media, which helped to shape the character of Cleopatra played by Theda Bara in Cleopatra
(1917), Claudette Colbert in Cleopatra (1934), and Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra (1963).[473] In addition to
her portrayal as a "vampire" queen, Bara's Cleopatra also incorporated tropes familiar from 19th-century
Orientalist painting, such as despotic behavior, mixed with dangerous and overt female sexuality.[474]
Colbert's character of Cleopatra served as a glamour model for selling Egyptian-themed products in
department stores in the 1930s, targeting female moviegoers.[475] In preparation for the film starring Taylor as
Cleopatra, women's magazines of the early 1960s advertised how to use makeup, clothes, jewelry, and
hairstyles to achieve the "Egyptian" look similar to the queens Cleopatra and Nefertiti.[476] By the end of the
20th century there were forty-three separate films, two hundred plays and novels, forty-five operas, and five
ballets associated with Cleopatra.[477]
Written works

Whereas myths about Cleopatra persist in popular media, important aspects of her career go largely unnoticed,
such as her command of naval forces, administrative acts, and publications on ancient Greek medicine.[375]
Only fragments exist of the medical and cosmetic writings attributed to Cleopatra, such as those preserved by
Galen, including remedies for hair disease, baldness, and dandruff, along with a list of weights and measures
for pharmacological purposes.[478][19][479] Aëtius of Amida attributed a recipe for perfumed soap to
Cleopatra, while Paul of Aegina preserved alleged instructions of hers for dyeing and curling hair.[478] The
attribution of certain texts to Cleopatra, however, is doubted by Ingrid D. Rowland, who highlights that the
"Berenice called Cleopatra" cited by the 3rd- or 4th-century female Roman physician Metrodora was likely
conflated by medieval scholars as referring to Cleopatra.[480]

Ancestry

Left: A Hellenistic bust of Ptolemy I Soter, now in the Louvre, Paris

Right: A bust of Seleucus I Nicator, a Roman copy of a Greek original, from the Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum,
and now in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples

Cleopatra belonged to the Macedonian Greek dynasty of the Ptolemies,[8][481][482][note 76] their European
origins tracing back to northern Greece.[483] Through her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes, she was a descendant
of two prominent companions of Alexander the Great of Macedon: the general Ptolemy I Soter, founder of the
Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, and Seleucus I Nicator, the Macedonian Greek founder of the Seleucid Empire
of West Asia.[8][484][485][note 77] While Cleopatra's paternal line can be traced, the identity of her mother is
unknown.[486][487][488][note 78] She was presumably the daughter of Cleopatra VI Tryphaena (also known as
Cleopatra V Tryphaena),[note 4] the sister-wife of Ptolemy XII who had previously given birth to their
daughter Berenice IV.[13][487][489][note 79]

Cleopatra I Syra was the only member of the Ptolemaic dynasty known for certain to have introduced some
non-Greek ancestry.[490][491] Her mother Laodice III was a daughter born to King Mithridates II of Pontus, a
Persian of the Mithridatic dynasty, and his wife Laodice who had a mixed Greek-Persian heritage.[492]
Laodice III's father Antiochus III the Great was a descendant of Queen Apama, the Sogdian Iranian wife of
Seleucus I Nicator.[490][491][493][note 80] It is generally believed that the Ptolemies did not intermarry with
native Egyptians.[40][494][note 81] Michael Grant asserts that there is only one known Egyptian mistress of a
Ptolemy and no known Egyptian wife of a Ptolemy, further arguing that Cleopatra probably did not have any
Egyptian ancestry and "would have described herself as Greek."[490][note 82] Stacy Schiff writes that
Cleopatra was a Macedonian Greek with some Persian ancestry, arguing that it was rare for the Ptolemies to
have an Egyptian mistress.[495][note 83] Duane W. Roller speculates that Cleopatra could have been the
daughter of a theoretical half-Macedonian-Greek, half-Egyptian woman from Memphis in northern Egypt
belonging to a family of priests dedicated to Ptah (a hypothesis not generally accepted in scholarship),[note 84]
but contends that whatever Cleopatra's ancestry, she valued her Greek Ptolemaic heritage the
most.[496][note 85] Ernle Bradford writes that Cleopatra challenged Rome not as an Egyptian woman "but as a
civilized Greek."[497]

Claims that Cleopatra was an illegitimate child never appeared in Roman propaganda against
her.[35][498][note 86] Strabo was the only ancient historian who claimed that Ptolemy XII's children born after
Berenice IV, including Cleopatra, were illegitimate.[35][498][499] Cleopatra V (or VI) was expelled from the
court of Ptolemy XII in late 69 BC, a few months after the birth of Cleopatra, while Ptolemy XII's three
younger children were all born during the absence of his wife.[41] The high degree of inbreeding among the
Ptolemies is also illustrated by Cleopatra's immediate ancestry, of which a reconstruction is shown
below.[note 87] The family tree given below also lists Cleopatra V, Ptolemy XII's wife, as a daughter of
Ptolemy X Alexander I and Berenice III, which would make her a cousin of her husband, Ptolemy XII, but
she could have been a daughter of Ptolemy IX Lathyros, which would have made her a sister-wife of Ptolemy
XII instead.[500][35] The confused accounts in ancient primary sources have also led scholars to number
Ptolemy XII's wife as either Cleopatra V or Cleopatra VI; the latter may have actually been a daughter of
Ptolemy XII, and some use her as an indication that Cleopatra V had died in 69 BC rather than reappearing as
a co-ruler with Berenice IV in 58 BC (during Ptolemy XII's exile in Rome).[55][501]

Ptolemy V
Cleopatra I Syra
Epiphanes

Ptolemy VI Philometor Cleopatra II

Ptolemy VIII
Cleopatra III
Physcon

Cleopatra
Selene of Ptolemy IX Lathyros Cleopatra IV
Syria

Ptolemy X Alexander I Berenice III

Cleopatra V Ptolemy XII

Tryphaena Auletes

Cleopatra VII

See also
List of female hereditary rulers
Notes
1. For further validation about the Berlin Cleopatra, see Pina Polo (2013, pp. 184–186), Roller
(2010, pp. 54, 174–175), Jones (2006, p. 33), and Hölbl (2001, p. 234).
2. Roller (2010, p. 149) and Skeat (1953, pp. 99–100) explain the nominal short-lived reign of
Caesarion as lasting 18 days in 30 August BC. However, Duane W. Roller, relaying Theodore
Cressy Skeat, affirms that Caesarion's reign "was essentially a fiction created by Egyptian
chronographers to close the gap between [Cleopatra's] death and official Roman control of
Egypt (under the new pharaoh, Octavian)", citing, for instance, the Stromata by Clement of
Alexandria (Roller 2010, pp. 149, 214, footnote 103).
Plutarch, translated by Jones (2006, p. 187), wrote in vague terms that "Octavian had
Caesarion killed later, after Cleopatra's death."
3. 12 August 30 BC in the later Julian calendar. Skeat (1953, pp. 98–100).
4. Grant (1972, pp. 3–4, 17), Fletcher (2008, pp. 69, 74, 76), Jones (2006, p. xiii), Preston (2009,
p. 22), Schiff (2011, p. 28) and Burstein (2004, p. 11) label the wife of Ptolemy XII Auletes as
Cleopatra V Tryphaena, while Dodson & Hilton (2004, pp. 268–269, 273) and Roller (2010,
p. 18) call her Cleopatra VI Tryphaena, due to the confusion in primary sources conflating these
two figures, who may have been one and the same. As explained by Whitehorne (1994,
p. 182), Cleopatra VI may have actually been a daughter of Ptolemy XII who appeared in 58
BC to rule jointly with her alleged sister Berenice IV (while Ptolemy XII was exiled and living in
Rome), whereas Ptolemy XII's wife Cleopatra V perhaps died as early as the winter of 69–68
BC, when she disappears from historical records. Roller (2010, pp. 18–19) assumes that
Ptolemy XII's wife, who he numbers as Cleopatra VI, was merely absent from the court for a
decade after being expelled for an unknown reason, eventually ruling jointly with her daughter
Berenice IV. Fletcher (2008, p. 76) explains that the Alexandrians deposed Ptolemy XII and
installed "his eldest daughter, Berenike IV, and as co-ruler recalled Cleopatra V Tryphaena
from 10 years' exile from the court. Although later historians assumed she must have been
another of Auletes' daughters and numbered her 'Cleopatra VI', it seems she was simply the
fifth one returning to replace her brother and former husband Auletes."
5. She was also a diplomat, naval commander, linguist, and medical author; see Roller (2010,
p. 1) and Bradford (2000, p. 13).
6. Southern (2009, p. 43) writes about Ptolemy I Soter: "The Ptolemaic dynasty, of which
Cleopatra was the last representative, was founded at the end of the fourth century BC. The
Ptolemies were not of Egyptian extraction, but stemmed from Ptolemy Soter, a Macedonian
Greek in the entourage of Alexander the Great."
For additional sources that describe the Ptolemaic dynasty as "Macedonian Greek", please see
Roller (2010, pp. 15–16), Jones (2006, pp. xiii, 3, 279), Kleiner (2005, pp. 9, 19, 106, 183),
Jeffreys (1999, p. 488) and Johnson (1999, p. 69). Alternatively, Grant (1972, p. 3) describes
them as a "Macedonian, Greek-speaking" dynasty. Other sources such as Burstein (2004,
p. 64) and Pfrommer & Towne-Markus (2001, p. 9) describe the Ptolemies as "Greco-
Macedonian" or just Macedonians who possessed a Greek culture, as in Pfrommer & Towne-
Markus (2001, pp. 9–11, 20).
 7. Grant (1972, pp. 5–6) notes that the Hellenistic period, beginning with the reign of Alexander
the Great, came to an end with the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC. Michael Grant stresses that the
Hellenistic Greeks were viewed by contemporary Romans as having declined and diminished
in greatness since the age of Classical Greece, an attitude that has continued even into the
works of modern historiography. Regarding Hellenistic Egypt, Grant argues, "Cleopatra VII,
looking back upon all that her ancestors had done during that time, was not likely to make the
same mistake. But she and her contemporaries of the first century BC had another, peculiar,
problem of their own. Could the 'Hellenistic Age' (which we ourselves often regard as coming to
an end in about her time) still be said to exist at all, could any Greek age, now that the Romans
were the dominant power? This was a question never far from Cleopatra's mind. But it is quite
certain that she considered the Greek epoch to be by no means finished, and intended to do
everything in her power to ensure its perpetuation."
8. The refusal of Ptolemaic rulers to speak the native language, Late Egyptian, is why Ancient
Greek (i.e. Koine Greek) was used along with Late Egyptian on official court documents such
as the Rosetta Stone ("Radio 4 Programmes – A History of the World in 100 Objects, Empire
Builders (300 BC – 1 AD), Rosetta Stone" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sbrz3). BBC.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100523105204/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00
sbrz3) from the original on 23 May 2010. Retrieved 7 June 2010.).
As explained by Burstein (2004, pp. 43–54), Ptolemaic Alexandria was considered a polis (city-
state) separate from the country of Egypt, with citizenship reserved for Greeks and Ancient
Macedonians, but various other ethnic groups resided there, especially the Jews, as well as
native Egyptians, Syrians, and Nubians.
For further validation, see Grant (1972, p. 3).
For the multiple languages spoken by Cleopatra, see Roller (2010, pp. 46–48) and Burstein
(2004, pp. 11–12).
For further validation about Ancient Greek being the official language of the Ptolemaic dynasty,
see Jones (2006, p. 3).
9. Tyldesley (2017) offers an alternative rendering of the title Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator as
"Cleopatra the Father-Loving Goddess".
10. For a thorough explanation about the foundation of Alexandria by Alexander the Great and its
largely Hellenistic Greek nature during the Ptolemaic period, along with a survey of the various
ethnic groups residing there, see Burstein (2004, pp. 43–61).
For further validation about the founding of Alexandria by Alexander the Great, see Jones
(2006, p. 6).
For further validation of Ptolemaic rulers being crowned at Memphis, see Jeffreys (1999,
p. 488).
11. For further information, see Grant (1972, pp. 20, 256, footnote 42).
12. For the list of languages spoken by Cleopatra as mentioned by the ancient historian Plutarch,
see Jones (2006, pp. 33–34), who also mentions that the rulers of Ptolemaic Egypt gradually
abandoned the Ancient Macedonian language. For further information and validation see Schiff
(2011, p. 36).
13. Grant (1972, p. 3) states that Cleopatra could have been born in either late 70 BC or early 69
BC.
14. For further information and validation see Schiff (2011, p. 28) and Kleiner (2005, p. 22). For
alternate speculation, see Burstein (2004, p. 11) and Roller (2010, pp. 15, 18, 166).
15. Due to discrepancies in academic works, in which some consider Cleopatra VI to be either a
daughter of Ptolemy XII or his wife, identical to that of Cleopatra V, Jones (2006, p. 28) states
that Ptolemy XII had six children, while Roller (2010, p. 16) mentions only five.
16. For further information and validation, see Grant (1972, pp. 12–13). In 1972, Michael Grant
calculated that 6,000 talents, the price of Ptolemy XII's fee for receiving the title "friend and ally
of the Roman people" from the triumvirs Pompey and Julius Caesar, would be worth roughly £7
million or US$17 million, roughly the entire annual tax revenue for Ptolemaic Egypt.
17. Fletcher (2008, p. 87) describes the painting from Herculaneum further: "Cleopatra's hair was
maintained by her highly skilled hairdresser Eiras. Although rather artificial looking wigs set in
the traditional tripartite style of long straight hair would have been required for her appearances
before her Egyptian subjects, a more practical option for general day-to-day wear was the no-
nonsense 'melon hairdo' in which her natural hair was drawn back in sections resembling the
lines on a melon and then pinned up in a bun at the back of the head. A trademark style of
Arsinoe II and Berenice II, the style had fallen from fashion for almost two centuries until revived
by Cleopatra; yet as both traditionalist and innovator, she wore her version without her
predecessor's fine head veil. And whereas they had both been blonde like Alexander,
Cleopatra may well have been a redhead, judging from the portrait of a flame-haired woman
wearing the royal diadem surrounded by Egyptian motifs which has been identified as
Cleopatra."
18. For political background information on the Roman annexation of Cyprus, a move pushed for in
the Roman Senate by Publius Clodius Pulcher, see Grant (1972, pp. 13–14).
19. For further information, see Grant (1972, pp. 15–16).
20. Fletcher (2008, pp. 76–77) expresses little doubt about this: "deposed in late summer 58 BC
and fearing for his life, Auletes had fled both his palace and his kingdom, although he was not
completely alone. For one Greek source reveals he had been accompanied 'by one of his
daughters', and since his eldest Berenice IV, was monarch, and the youngest, Arisone, little
more than a toddler, it is generally assumed that this must have been his middle daughter and
favourite child, eleven-year-old Cleopatra."
21. For further information, see Grant (1972, p. 16).
22. For further information on Roman financier Rabirius, as well as the Gabiniani left in Egypt by
Gabinius, see Grant (1972, pp. 18–19).
23. For further information, see Grant (1972, p. 18).
24. For further information, see Grant (1972, pp. 19–20, 27–29).
25. For further information, see Grant (1972, pp. 28–30).
26. For further information, see Fletcher (2008, pp. 88–92) and Jones (2006, pp. 31, 34–35).
Fletcher (2008, pp. 85–86) states that the partial solar eclipse of 7 March 51 BC marked the
death of Ptolemy XII and accession of Cleopatra to the throne, although she apparently
suppressed the news of his death, alerting the Roman Senate to this fact months later in a
message they received on 30 June 51 BC.
However, Grant (1972, p. 30) claims that the Senate was informed of his death on 1 August 51
BC. Michael Grant indicates that Ptolemy XII could have been alive as late as May, while an
ancient Egyptian source affirms he was still ruling with Cleopatra by 15 July 51 BC, although
by this point Cleopatra most likely "hushed up her father's death" so that she could consolidate
her control of Egypt.
27. Pfrommer & Towne-Markus (2001, p. 34) writes the following about the sibling marriage of
Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II: "Ptolemy Keraunos, who wanted to become king of Macedon ... killed
Arsinoë's small children in front of her. Now queen without a kingdom, Arsinoë fled to Egypt,
where she was welcomed by her full brother Ptolemy II. Not content, however, to spend the rest
of her life as a guest at the Ptolemaic court, she had Ptolemy II's wife exiled to Upper Egypt and
married him herself around 275 B.C. Though such an incestuous marriage was considered
scandalous by the Greeks, it was allowed by Egyptian custom. For that reason, the marriage
split public opinion into two factions. The loyal side celebrated the couple as a return of the
divine marriage of Zeus and Hera, whereas the other side did not refrain from profuse and
obscene criticism. One of the most sarcastic commentators, a poet with a very sharp pen, had
to flee Alexandria. The unfortunate poet was caught off the shore of Crete by the Ptolemaic
navy, put in an iron basket, and drowned. This and similar actions seemingly slowed down
vicious criticism."
28. For further information, see Fletcher (2008, pp. 92–93).
29. For further information, see Fletcher (2008, pp. 96–97) and Jones (2006, p. 39).
30. For further information, see Jones (2006, pp. 39–41).
31. For further information, see Fletcher (2008, p. 98) and Jones (2006, pp. 39–43, 53–55).
32. For further information, see Fletcher (2008, pp. 98–100) and Jones (2006, pp. 53–55).
33. For further information, see Burstein (2004, p. 18) and Fletcher (2008, pp. 101–103).
34. For further information, see Fletcher (2008, p. 113).
35. For further information, see Fletcher (2008, p. 118).
36. For further information, see Burstein (2004, p. 76).
37. For further information, see Burstein (2004, pp. xxi, 19) and Fletcher (2008, pp. 118–120).
38. For further information, see Fletcher (2008, pp. 119–120).
As part of the siege of Alexandria, Burstein (2004, p. 19) states that Caesar's reinforcements
came in January, but Roller (2010, p. 63) says that his reinforcements came in March.
39. For further information and validation, see Anderson (2003, p. 39) and Fletcher (2008, p. 120).
40. For further information and validation, see Fletcher (2008, p. 121) and Jones (2006, p. xiv).
Roller (2010, pp. 64–65) states that at this point (47 BC) Ptolemy XIV was 12 years old, while
Burstein (2004, p. 19) claims that he was still only 10 years of age.
41. For further information and validation, see Anderson (2003, p. 39) and Fletcher (2008, pp. 154,
161–162).
42. Roller (2010, p. 70) writes the following about Caesar and his parentage of Caesarion: "The
matter of parentage became so tangled in the propaganda war between Antonius and Octavian
in the late 30s B.C.—it was essential for one side to prove and the other to reject Caesar's role
—that it is impossible today to determine Caesar's actual response. The extant information is
almost contradictory: it was said that Caesar denied parentage in his will but acknowledged it
privately and allowed the use of the name Caesarion. Caesar's associate C. Oppius even
wrote a pamphlet proving that Caesarion was not Caesar's child, and C. Helvius Cinna—the
poet who was killed by rioters after Antonius' funeral oration—was prepared in 44 B.C. to
introduce legislation to allow Caesar to marry as many wives as he wished for the purpose of
having children. Although much of this talk was generated after Caesar's death, it seems that
he wished to be as quiet as possible about the child but had to contend with Cleopatra's
repeated assertions."
43. For further information and validation, see Jones (2006, pp. xiv, 78).
44. For further information, see Fletcher (2008, pp. 214–215).
45. As explained by Burstein (2004, p. 23), Cleopatra, having read Antony's personality, boldly
presented herself to him as the Egyptian goddess Isis (in the appearance of the Greek goddess
Aphrodite) meeting her divine husband Osiris (in the form of the Greek god Dionysus), knowing
that the priests of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus had associated Antony with Dionysus
shortly before this encounter. According to Brown (2011), a cult surrounding Isis had been
spreading across the region for hundreds of years, and Cleopatra, like many of her
predecessors, sought to identify herself with Isis and be venerated. In addition, some surviving
coins of Cleopatra also depict her as Venus–Aphrodite, as explained by Fletcher (2008,
p. 205).
46. For further information about Publius Ventidius Bassus and his victory over Parthian forces at
the Battle of Mount Gindarus, see Kennedy (1996, pp. 80–81).
47. Ferroukhi (2001a, p. 219) provides a detailed discussion about this bust and its ambiguities,
noting that it could represent Cleopatra, but that it is more likely her daughter Cleopatra Selene
II. Kleiner (2005, pp. 155–156) argues in favor of its depicting Cleopatra rather than her
daughter, while Varner (2004, p. 20) mentions only Cleopatra as a possible likeness. Roller
(2003, p. 139) observes that it could be either Cleopatra or Cleopatra Selene II, while arguing
the same ambiguity applies to the other sculpted head from Cherchel featuring a veil. In
regards to the latter head, Ferroukhi (2001b, p. 242) indicates it as a possible portrait of
Cleopatra, not Cleoptra Selene II, from the early 1st century AD while also arguing that its
masculine features, earrings, and apparent toga (the veil being a component of it) could likely
mean it was intended to depict a Numidian nobleman. Fletcher (2008, image plates between
pp. 246–247) disagrees about the veiled head, arguing that it was commissioned by Cleopatra
Selene II at Iol (Caesarea Mauretaniae) and was meant to depict her mother, Cleopatra.
48. According to Roller (2010, pp. 91–92), these client state rulers installed by Antony included
Herod, Amyntas of Galatia, Polemon I of Pontus, and Archelaus of Cappadocia.
49. Bringmann (2007, p. 301) claims that Octavia Minor provided Antony with 1,200 troops, not
2,000 as stated in Roller (2010, pp. 97–98) and Burstein (2004, pp. 27–28).
50. Roller (2010, p. 100) says that it is unclear if Antony and Cleopatra were ever truly married.
Burstein (2004, pp. xxii, 29) says that the marriage publicly sealed Antony's alliance with
Cleopatra and in defiance of Octavian he would divorce Octavia in 32 BC. Coins of Antony and
Cleopatra depict them in the typical manner of a Hellenistic royal couple, as explained by
Roller (2010, p. 100).
51. Jones (2006, p. xiv) writes that "Octavian waged a propaganda war against Antony and
Cleopatra, stressing Cleopatra's status as a woman and a foreigner who wished to share in
Roman power."
52. Stanley M. Burstein, in Burstein (2004, p. 33) provides the name Quintus Cascellius as the
recipient of the tax exemption, not the Publius Canidius Crassus provided by Duane W. Roller
in Roller (2010, p. 134).
53. Reece (2017, p. 203) notes that "[t]he fragmentary texts of ancient Greek papyri do not often
make their way into the modern public arena, but this one has, and with fascinating results,
while remaining almost entirely unacknowledged is the remarkable fact that Cleopatra's one-
word subscription contains a blatant spelling error: γινέσθωι, with a superfluous iota adscript."
This spelling error "has not been noted by the popular media", however, being "simply
transliterated [...] including, without comment, the superfluous iota adscript" (p. 208). Even in
academic sources, the misspelling was largely unacknowledged or quietly corrected (pp. 206–
208, 210).
Although described as " 'normal' orthography" (in contrast with " 'correct' orthography") by Peter
van Minnen (p. 208), the spelling error is "much rarer and more puzzling" than the sort one
would expect from the Greek papyri from Egypt (p. 210)—so rare, in fact, that it occurs only
twice in the 70,000 Greek papyri between the 3rd century BC and 8th century AD in the
Papyrological Navigator's database. This is especially so when considering it was added to a
word "with no etymological or morphological reason for having an iota adscript" (p. 210) and
was written by "the well-educated, native Greek-speaking, queen of Egypt" Cleopatra VII
(p. 208).
54. As explained by Jones (2006, p. 147), "politically, Octavian had to walk a fine line as he
prepared to engage in open hostilities with Antony. He was careful to minimize associations
with civil war, as the Roman people had already suffered through many years of civil conflict
and Octavian could risk losing support if he declared war on a fellow citizen."
55. For the translated accounts of both Plutarch and Dio, Jones (2006, pp. 194–195) writes that the
implement used to puncture Cleopatra's skin was a hairpin.
56. Jones (2006, p. 187), translating Plutarch, quotes Arius Didymus as saying to Octavian that "it
is not good to have too many Caesars", which was apparently enough to convince Octavian to
have Caesarion killed.
57. Contrary to regular Roman provinces, Egypt was established by Octavian as territory under his
personal control, barring the Roman Senate from intervening in any of its affairs and appointing
his own equestrian governors of Egypt, the first of whom was Gallus. For further information,
see Southern (2014, p. 185) and Roller (2010, p. 151).
58. Walker (2001, p. 312) writes the following about the raised relief on the gilded silver dish:
"Conspicuously mounted on the cornucopia is a gilded crescent moon set on a pine cone.
Around it are piled pomegranates and bunches of grapes. Engraved on the horn are images of
Helios (the sun), in the form of a youth dressed in a short cloak, with the hairstyle of Alexander
the Great, the head surrounded by rays ... The symbols on the cornucopia can indeed be read
as references to the Ptolemaic royal house and specifically to Cleopatra Selene, represented in
the crescent moon, and to her twin brother, Alexander Helios, whose eventual fate after the
conquest of Egypt is unknown. The viper seems to be linked with the pantheress and the
intervening symbols of fecundity rather than the suicide of Cleopatra VII. The elephant scalp
could refer to Cleopatra Selene's status as ruler, with Juba II, of Mauretania. The visual
correspondence with the veiled head from Cherchel encourages this identification, and many of
the symbols used on the dish also appear on the coinage of Juba II."
59. Jones (2006, p. 60) offers speculation that the author of De Bello Alexandrino, written in Latin
prose sometime between 46–43 BC, was a certain Aulus Hirtius, a military officer serving under
Caesar.
60. Burstein (2004, p. 30) writes that Virgil, in his Aeneid, described the Battle of Actium against
Cleopatra "as a clash of civilizations in which Octavian and the Roman gods preserved Italy
from conquest by Cleopatra and the barbaric animal-headed gods of Egypt."
61. For further information and extracts of Strabo's account of Cleopatra in his Geographica see
Jones (2006, pp. 28–30).
62. As explained by Chauveau (2000, pp. 2–3), this source material from Egypt dated to the reign
of Cleopatra includes about 50 papyri documents in Ancient Greek, mostly from the city of
Heracleopolis, and only a few papyri from Faiyum, written in the Demotic Egyptian language.
Overall this is a much smaller body of surviving native texts than those of any other period of
Ptolemaic Egypt.
63. For the description of Cleopatra by Plutarch, who claimed that her beauty was not "completely
incomparable" but that she had a "captivating" and "stimulating" personality, see Jones (2006,
pp. 32–33).
64. Fletcher (2008, p. 205) writes the following: "Cleopatra was the only female Ptolemy to issue
coins on her own behalf, some showing her as Venus-Aphrodite. Caesar now followed her
example and, taking the same bold step, became the first living Roman to appear on coins, his
rather haggard profile accompanied by the title 'Parens Patriae', 'Father of the Fatherland'."
65. For further information, see Raia & Sebesta (2017).
66. There is academic disagreement on whether the following portraits are considered "heads" or
"busts". For instance, Raia & Sebesta (2017) exclusively uses the former, while Grout (2017b)
prefers the latter.
67. For further information and validation, see Curtius (1933, pp. 182–192), Walker (2008, p. 348),
Raia & Sebesta (2017) and Grout (2017b).
68. For further information and validation, see Grout (2017b) and Roller (2010, pp. 174–175).
69. For further information, see Curtius (1933, pp. 182–192), Walker (2008, p. 348) and Raia &
Sebesta (2017).
70. The observation that the left cheek of the Vatican Cleopatra once had a cupid's hand that was
broken off was first suggested by Ludwig Curtius in 1933. Kleiner concurs with this
assessment. See Kleiner (2005, p. 153), as well as Walker (2008, p. 40) and Curtius (1933,
pp. 182–192). While Kleiner (2005, p. 153) has suggested the lump on top of this marble head
perhaps contained a broken-off uraeus, Curtius (1933, p. 187) offered the explanation that it
once held a sculpted representation of a jewel.
71. Curtius (1933, p. 187) wrote that the damaged lump along the hairline and diadem of the
Vatican Cleopatra likely contained a sculpted representation of a jewel, which Walker (2008,
p. 40) directly compares to the painted red jewel in the diadem worn by Venus, most likely
Cleopatra, in the fresco from Pompeii.
72. For further information about the painting in the House of Giuseppe II (Joseph II) at Pompeii
and the possible identification of Cleopatra as one of the figures, see Pucci (2011, pp. 206–
207, footnote 27).
73. In Pratt & Fizel (1949, pp. 14–15), Frances Pratt and Becca Fizel rejected the idea proposed by
some scholars in the 19th and early 20th centuries that the painting was perhaps done by an
artist of the Italian Renaissance. Pratt and Fizel highlighted the Classical style of the painting
as preserved in textual descriptions and the steel engraving. They argued that it was unlikely
for a Renaissance period painter to have created works with encaustic materials, conducted
thorough research into Hellenistic period Egyptian clothing and jewelry as depicted in the
painting, and then precariously placed it in the ruins of the Egyptian temple at Hadrian's Villa.
74. Walker & Higgs (2001, pp. 314–315) describe her hair as reddish brown, while Fletcher (2008,
p. 87) describes her as a flame-haired redhead and, in Fletcher (2008, image plates and
captions between pp. 246–247), likewise describes her as a red-haired woman.
75. Preston (2009, p. 305) comes to a similar conclusion about native Egyptian depictions of
Cleopatra: "Apart from certain temple carvings, which are anyway in a highly stylised pharaonic
style and give little clue to Cleopatra's real appearance, the only certain representations of
Cleopatra are those on coins. The marble head in the Vatican is one of three sculptures
generally, though not universally, accepted by scholars to be depictions of Cleopatra."
76. For further information on Cleopatra's Macedonian Greek lineage, see Pucci (2011, p. 201),
Grant (1972, pp. 3–5), Burstein (2004, pp. 3, 34, 36, 43, 63–64) and Royster (2003, pp. 47–49).
77. For further information and validation of the foundation of Hellenistic Egypt by Alexander the
Great and Cleopatra's ancestry stretching back to Ptolemy I Soter, see Grant (1972, pp. 7–8)
and Jones (2006, p. 3).
78. For further information, see Grant (1972, pp. 3–4) and Burstein (2004, p. 11).
79. For further information, see Fletcher (2008, pp. 69, 74, 76). Contrary to other sources cited here,
Dodson & Hilton (2004, pp. 268–269, 273) refer to Cleopatra V Tryphaena as a possible cousin
or sister of Ptolemy XII Auletes.
80. For the Sogdian ancestry of Apama, wife of Seleucus I Nicator, see Holt (1989, pp. 64–65,
footnote 63).
81. As explained by Burstein (2004, pp. 47–50), the main ethnic groups of Ptolemaic Egypt were
Egyptians, Greeks, and Jews, each of whom were legally segregated, living in different
residential quarters and forbidden to intermarry with one another in the multicultural cities of
Alexandria, Naucratis, and Ptolemais Hermiou. However, as explained by Fletcher (2008,
pp. 82, 88–93), the native Egyptian priesthood was strongly linked to their Ptolemaic royal
patrons, to the point where Cleopatra is speculated to have had an Egyptian half-cousin,
Pasherienptah III, the High Priest of Ptah at Memphis, Egypt.
82. Grant (1972, p. 5) argues that Cleopatra's grandmother, i.e. the mother of Ptolemy XII, might
have been a Syrian (though conceding that "it is possible she was also partly Greek"), but
almost certainly not an Egyptian because there is only one known Egyptian mistress of a
Ptolemaic ruler throughout their entire dynasty.
83. Schiff (2011, p. 42) further argues that, considering Cleopatra's ancestry, she was not dark-
skinned, though notes Cleopatra was likely not among the Ptolemies with fair features, and
instead would have been honey-skinned, citing as evidence that her relatives were described
as such and it "would have presumably applied to her as well." Goldsworthy (2010, pp. 127,
128) agrees to this, contending that Cleopatra, having Macedonian blood with a little Syrian,
was probably not dark-skinned (as Roman propaganda never mentions it), writing "fairer skin is
marginally more likely considering her ancestry," though also notes she could have had a
"darker more Mediterranean complexion" because of her mixed ancestry. Grant (1972, p. 5)
agrees to Goldsworthy's latter speculation of her skin color, that though almost certainly not
Egyptian, Cleopatra had a darker complexion due to being Greek mixed with Persian and
possible Syrian ancestry. Preston (2009, p. 77) agrees with Grant that, considering this
ancestry, Cleopatra was "almost certainly dark-haired and olive-skinned." Bradford (2000,
p. 14) contends that it is "reasonable to infer" Cleopatra had dark hair and "pale olive skin."
84. For further information on the identity of Cleopatra's mother, see Burstein (2004, p. 11), Fletcher
(2008, p. 73), Goldsworthy (2010, pp. 127, 128), Grant (1972, p. 4), and Roller (2010, pp. 165–
166). Joann Fletcher finds this hypothesis to be dubious and lacking evidence. Stanley M.
Burstein claims that strong circumstantial evidence suggests Cleopatra's mother could have
been a member of the priestly family of Ptah, but that historians generally assume her mother
was Cleopatra V Tryphaena, wife of Ptolemy XII. Adrian Goldsworthy dismisses the idea of
Cleopatra's mother being a member of an Egyptian priestly family as "pure conjecture," adding
that either Cleopatra V or a concubine "probably of Greek origin" would be Cleopatra VII's
mother. Michael Grant contends that Cleopatra V was most likely Cleopatra VII's mother. Duane
W. Roller notes that while Cleopatra could have been the daughter of the priestly family of Ptah,
the other main candidate would be Cleopatra VI, maintaining the uncertainty stems from
Cleopatra V/VI's "loss of favor" that "obscured the issue." Roller (2010, pp. 165-166) also posits
that Cleopatra being the only known ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty to speak Egyptian, along
with her daughter Cleopatra Selene II as Queen of Mauretania publicly honoring the native
Egyptian elite, both lend credence to the priestly class mistress hypothesis for maternity.
85. Schiff (2011, pp. 2) concurs with this, concluding that Cleopatra "upheld the family tradition." As
noted by Dudley (1960, pp. 57), Cleopatra and her family were "the successor[s] to the native
Pharaohs, exploiting through a highly organized bureaucracy the great natural resources of the
Nile Valley."
86. Grant (1972, p. 4) argues that if Cleopatra had been illegitimate, her "numerous Roman
enemies would have revealed this to the world."
87. The family tree and short discussions of the individuals can be found in Dodson & Hilton (2004,
pp. 268–281). Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton refer to Cleopatra V as Cleopatra VI and
Cleopatra Selene of Syria is called Cleopatra V Selene. Dotted lines in the chart below
indicate possible but disputed parentage.

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Further reading
Chauveau, Michel (2004). Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-
8014-8953-2.
Flamarion, Edith (1997). Cleopatra: The Life and Death of a Pharaoh (https://archive.org/detail
s/cleopatralifedea00flam). "Abrams Discoveries" series. Translated by Bonfante-Warren,
Alexandra. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-2805-3.
Foss, Michael (1999). The Search for Cleopatra. Arcade Publishing. ISBN 978-1-55970-503-5.
Fraser, P.M. (1985). Ptolemaic Alexandria. 1–3 (reprint ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0-19-814278-2.
Lindsay, Jack (1972). Cleopatra. New York: Coward-McCann. OCLC 671705946 (https://www.
worldcat.org/oclc/671705946).
Nardo, Don (1994). Cleopatra. Lucent Books. ISBN 978-1-56006-023-9.
Pomeroy, Sarah B. (1984). Women in Hellenistic Egypt: from Alexander to Cleopatra. New
York: Schocken Books. ISBN 978-0-8052-3911-9.
Samson, Julia (1990). Nefertiti & Cleopatra. Stacey International. ISBN 978-0-948695-18-6.
Southern, Pat (2000). Cleopatra. Tempus. ISBN 978-0-7524-1494-2.
Syme, Ronald (1962) [1939]. The Roman Revolution (https://archive.org/details/romanrevolutio
n0000syme). Oxford University Press. OCLC 404094 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/404094).
Tyldesley, Joyce (2008). Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt (https://archive.org/details/cleopatrala
stque00joyc). Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-01892-5.
Volkmann, Hans (1958). Cleopatra: a Study in Politics and Propaganda. T.J. Cadoux, trans.
New York: Sagamore Press. OCLC 899077769 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/899077769).
Weigall, Arthur E. P. Brome (1914). The Life and Times of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt (https://ar
chive.org/details/ajl1424.0001.001.umich.edu). Edinburgh: Blackwood. OCLC 316294139 (http
s://www.worldcat.org/oclc/316294139).

External links
Ancient Roman depictions of Cleopatra VII of Egypt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boQO
Xk9ZEoc), at YouTube
Cleopatra (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w7clj) on In Our Time at the BBC
Cleopatra (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10992) (1852), a Victorian children's book by
Jacob Abbott, Project Gutenberg edition
"Mysterious Death of Cleopatra" (https://web.archive.org/web/20060811000057/http://www.disc
overychannelasia.com/ontv_egyptweek/death_cleopatra/index.shtml) at the Discovery
Channel
Cleopatra VII (https://web.archive.org/web/20030208021301/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/histor
ic_figures/cleopatra_vii.shtml) at BBC History (https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/)
Cleopatra VII (https://www.ancient.eu/Cleopatra_VII/) at Ancient History Encyclopedia
Eubanks, W. Ralph. (1 November 2010). "How History and Hollywood Got 'Cleopatra' Wrong (h
ttps://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130976125)". National Public Radio
 (NPR) (a book review of Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Schiff).
Jarus, Owen (13 March 2014). "Cleopatra: Facts & Biography (https://www.livescience.com/440
71-cleopatra-biography.html)". Live Science.
Watkins, Thayer. "The Timeline of the Life of Cleopatra (http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/cle
opatra.htm)." San Jose State University.
Draycott, Jane (22 May 2018). "Cleopatra's Daughter: While Antony and Cleopatra have been
immortalised in history and in popular culture, their offspring have been all but forgotten. Their
daughter, Cleopatra Selene, became an important ruler in her own right (https://www.historytod
ay.com/jane-draycott/cleopatras-daughter)". History Today.

Cleopatra
Ptolemaic dynasty
Born: 69 BC Died: 30 BC

Regnal titles
Queen of Egypt
51–30 BC
Office abolished
Preceded by with Ptolemy XII,
Egypt annexed by Roman
Ptolemy XII Ptolemy XIII,
Republic
Ptolemy XIV and
Ptolemy XV

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