Cleopatra VII: The Last Pharaoh of Egypt
Cleopatra VII Philopator (69–30 BCE) was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, and the last true pharaoh of ancient Egypt. After her death, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, and the long line of pharaohs that stretched back to Narmer in 3100 BCE came to an end. Cleopatra was a formidable political operator, a skilled diplomat, and a woman of considerable intellectual and linguistic gifts. She was the lover of Julius Caesar and the wife of Mark Antony, and her alliance with Antony brought her into open conflict with Octavian, the future emperor Augustus. After the disastrous Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, Cleopatra and Antony retreated to Alexandria, where they both died in August 30 BCE, probably by suicide. The death of Cleopatra ended the Ptolemaic dynasty and brought Egypt under Roman rule.
Cleopatra has been one of the most famous women in history, the subject of literature, drama, painting, and film for two thousand years. She has been portrayed as a temptress, a queen, a politician, a scholar, a victim, and a femme fatale. The historical reality, as so often, is more complicated and more interesting.
This page is a complete guide to Cleopatra’s life and legacy. It links back to the Egyptian Pharaohs cluster, the Ancient Egypt pillar, and the Roman Republic cluster.
The Early Life of Cleopatra
Cleopatra VII was born in 69 BCE in Alexandria, the capital of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. She was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, founded in 305 BCE by Ptolemy I Soter, one of Alexander the Great’s generals. The Ptolemies ruled Egypt for almost three centuries, although their Greek-Macedonian blood was gradually diluted by intermarriage with native Egyptians.
Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes, a weak and unpopular king who had been driven from Egypt by a rebellion and restored with the help of the Romans. After his death in 51 BCE, Cleopatra and her younger brother Ptolemy XIII jointly inherited the throne. The arrangement was typical of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which frequently married brothers and sisters to maintain the royal bloodline.
Cleopatra was famous in antiquity for her intellectual gifts. She was the first Ptolemaic ruler to learn the Egyptian language, in addition to the Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, Hebrew, and several other languages that she is said to have spoken. She was also a skilled author, the author of a treatise on cosmetics and (according to some sources) a treatise on weights and measures. Plutarch, who wrote about her a century after her death, described her as a brilliant conversationalist whose company was “irresistible.”
The Reign of Cleopatra
Cleopatra’s reign began in 51 BCE. By 48 BCE, she was at war with her brother Ptolemy XIII and his advisers, and she was forced to flee Egypt for Syria. The war ended abruptly when Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria in pursuit of his rival Pompey. Caesar sided with Cleopatra, and Ptolemy XIII was killed in the subsequent war. Cleopatra married another brother, Ptolemy XIV, and became co-ruler with him.
In 47 BCE, Cleopatra gave birth to a son, Caesarion (Ptolemy XV Caesar), whom she claimed was the son of Julius Caesar. Caesar did not officially acknowledge the child, but he did allow Cleopatra to stay in Rome for a time, in a villa across the Tiber. After Caesar’s assassination on the Ides of March in 44 BCE, Cleopatra returned to Egypt and arranged for her brother Ptolemy XIV to be murdered, leaving her as sole ruler with her son Caesarion.
Cleopatra and Mark Antony
In 41 BCE, the Roman general Mark Antony summoned Cleopatra to Tarsus in Cilicia, partly for political reasons (he needed her support for his planned campaign against the Parthians) and partly for personal reasons. The meeting was a famous event in Roman history. Cleopatra arrived on a magnificent barge, dressed as the goddess Aphrodite, and Antony, who had expected to receive a foreign client, was overwhelmed.
Cleopatra and Antony became lovers, and they eventually married (though both had other spouses). They had three children: Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene, and Ptolemy Philadelphus. Antony granted Cleopatra vast territorial concessions in the eastern Mediterranean, and the Romans were scandalized by the sight of the powerful Roman general living openly with the foreign queen.
The political situation worsened when Octavian, the adopted son of Julius Caesar and Antony’s rival, began to portray Cleopatra as a foreign temptress who was corrupting the Roman state. In 32 BCE, the Roman Senate declared war on Cleopatra (officially, not on Antony), and in 31 BCE, Octavian met the combined forces of Antony and Cleopatra at the naval Battle of Actium, off the west coast of Greece.
The Battle of Actium and the Suicide
The Battle of Actium was a decisive moment in Roman history. The combined forces of Antony and Cleopatra were defeated by Octavian’s fleet, and Cleopatra broke off with her squadron and fled to Egypt. Antony followed her. The two lovers spent the next year in Alexandria, waiting for the inevitable Roman invasion.
In the summer of 30 BCE, Octavian invaded Egypt. Antony’s forces deserted him, and he committed suicide on 1 August 30 BCE, the false report of Cleopatra’s death having been brought to him. Cleopatra retreated to her mausoleum, which she had prepared as a tomb. She was captured by Octavian’s soldiers and brought to the young emperor, who was not yet thirty and who was determined to parade her through the streets of Rome in chains.
According to the ancient sources, Cleopatra preferred death to humiliation. On 12 August 30 BCE, she committed suicide, either by poison or (according to the famous story) by the bite of an asp. She was thirty-nine years old. Caesarion, her son by Caesar, was murdered shortly afterward, and Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire.
The Afterlife of Cleopatra
Cleopatra’s death ended the long tradition of pharaonic Egypt, and the country would not be ruled by an Egyptian again until the twentieth century. Her story, however, did not end with her death. The Romans portrayed her as a foreign temptress, a beautiful but dangerous woman who had seduced two of Rome’s greatest generals. Plutarch’s Life of Antony and Cassius Dio’s Roman History preserved the basic outline of the story.
In the modern era, Cleopatra has been the subject of a vast literature. She has been the heroine of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, Dryden’s All for Love, and the films of the 20th and 21st centuries. She has been the inspiration for the famous Death of Cleopatra sculptures, the Cleopatra’s Needle obelisks in London and New York, and countless paintings, poems, and songs. The famous asp has become a symbol of self-sacrifice and the tragic heroine.