cleopatra

Cleopatra VII
Thea Philopator
thea – goddess
philo – to love
pator – father

“father-loving goddess”
Theda Bera 1917
 plutarch
“Her actual beauty, it is said, was not in itself so
remarkable that none could be compared with
her, or that no one could see her without being
struck by it, but the contact of her presence, if you
lived with her, was irresistible.”

Plutarch was a Greek biographer who lived from

46 to 120 (in AD, or the Common Era); he was
born 76 years after Cleopatra died.
Archeologist Joyce Tyldesley
warns us that Plutarch was biased
against Cleopatra – but she goes
on to agree with him:

“Cleopatra is likely to have been short by

modern standards and she probably, like almost
everyone of her time, suffered from bad teeth.”
 “Her coins, unflattering to
modern eyes, suggest a
prominent nose and chin and
a rather thick neck.

It is hard for us to be more precise in our

imaginings, as we have no real idea what
Cleopatra looked like.”

Tyldesley, Joyce. Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt. Great Britain: Perseus Books, 2008; p. 54.
Elizabeth Taylor 1963
Lyndsey Marshal in “Rome” 2005-07
Cleopatra and Marc Antony in “Rome”
Angelina Jolie – coming soon
Basalt statue
Second half of
1st century BCE.
Likely a slightly
idealized work.
Katy Perry 2011 – for single
When Alexander the Great died in 323 BCE,
his general Ptolemy “Soter” (the savior) was
appointed ruler of Egypt.

He died in 283 BCE

at the age of 84.

This began the era of

“Ptolemaic” rulers
of Egypt.
We skip ahead to 81 BCE when Ptolemy IX died,
and because of family feuds, there were no
males to take his place.

This left his daughter, Berenice III to inherit the

throne. To comply with tradition, she married
her young stepson-nephew, Ptolemy XI.
However, young Ptolemy believed he should rule
alone, and after three weeks he murdered his
royal bride.

But the next day, he himself was killed by an

angry Alexandrian mob.
Everyone wondered where they would find an
acceptable ruler.
There were two illegitimate sons of Ptolemy IX
living in Syria. The older brother was called in,
and he took the throne as Ptolemy XII.

Officially, his name was “Auletes,” which means

“the flutist,” but many called him “Nothos” –
“the bastard.”

Auletes had at least five children: Berenice,

Cleopatra, Arsinoë, and two sons named
Ptolemy (XIII and XIV).
Auletes was generally regarded as a weak ruler,
and a drunkard. He got sick and died in 51 BCE.

He had made a will and sent it to Rome – he

didn’t trust his own people to honor his will –
and general Pompey signed and confirmed
Auletes’ wishes: that his daughter Cleopatra
marry her younger brother, Ptolemy XIII, and
they rule Egypt together.
Cleopatra was really unknown, and we would
not even know her birth year if it were not for
scholars.
Joyce Tyldesley explains how we know
Cleopatra’s birth year:

“The birth of Cleopatra VII in the winter of

70/69 BCE is nowhere recorded. To calculate her
birth year we have to work backwards from
Plutarch’s account of her death, which is known
to have occurred on 12 August 30 BCE, when, he
tells us, she was thirty-nine years old” (28).
Events were soon to turn political.

Two years after the brother and sister began

their rule, in 49 BCE, Julius Caesar crossed the
river Rubicon with his army, which was not
allowed. This signaled his intention to fight his
former friend, general Pompey, and to try and
take Rome.
Pompey was not ready to face Caesar, so he took
his army and fled to Egypt and asked for
help.
Ptolemy agreed to provide
arms and food, an unpopular
decision that Cleopatra was
blamed for.

Pompey took the supplies

and left.
Ptolemy took advantage of the public sentiment
against his sister-wife.

“In the summer of 49 Cleopatra’s name

disappears from all official documents and the
new ‘Year 1’ dating system is dropped. Ptolemy
is backdating his reign, erasing the memory of
his sister and retrospectively claiming sole rule
from the time of his father’s death”
(Tyldesley 48).
A year later, Pompey needs to return to Egypt.

However, Ptolemy gambles this time.

As Pompey is getting out of his boat, one of
Ptolemy’s soldiers, Lucius Septimus, offers his
hand to help. Pompey reaches out and the
soldier runs him through with his sword, then
hacks off his head.

Pompey never made it to shore.

Ptolemy had hoped this would please Caesar,
but it did not. Caesar considered the deception
dishonorable. Ptolemy was hoping to be the
sole ruler of Egypt.

When Caesar arrived in Alexandria, he decided

to stay and broker a peace between Ptolemy XIII
and his sister. It was unsafe for Cleopatra to be
in Alexandria – such is her unpopularity – and
she had to sneak back into the city in order to
see Caesar.
Cleopatra makes a good impression on Caesar,
to say the least (she has a child by him), and the
movies have had a lot of fun with this.

Caesar publicly announces that she and her

brother must co-rule.
Ptolemy resents this, and soon is using his army
and his ships to fight Caesar.

Caesar wins, and Ptolemy actually jumps off his

ship into the Nile to try and escape, but he is
wearing heavy golden armor and he drowns.
A woman may not rule by herself, so Cleopatra
marries her younger brother, Ptolemy XIV.

However, between 47 and 44, Cleopatra gave

birth to a son, and she named him Ptolemy
Caesar (Caesar did not acknowledge his son).

Since Cleopatra could rule on behalf of her son,

she murdered her younger brother.
Joyce Tyldesley, having reaching this point in
Cleopatra’s life, begins a new chapter in her
biography titled, “The New Isis.”

“Now she was to be specifically identified

with Egypt’s most famous single mother, the
goddess Isis.”
(110)
As it turned out, Cleopatra would rule in place of
her son until her own death, and he would
never sit on the throne.

Caesar would be assassinated in the senate, and

Cleopatra’s next affair would be with Marc
Antony, with whom she would have twins,
Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene.

Next: Cleopatra & Marc Antony