The Relationship Between Antony And Cleopatra

Queen Cleopatra, the last Pharaoh of Egypt, described as divine and beautiful by her disciples. She inherited pearls, the largest of the time, each worth a fortune. In a bet between Antony and Cleopatra, written by Pliny the Elder, he indirectly writes about the wealth of Egypt, the relationship of Cleopatra and Antony, and religious beliefs of the Romans. The wager between Cleopatra and Antony is historic and still conversed about today. The story has many underlying undertones along with the pearls of Venus, the wealth of Egypt, and the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra.

Toward the end of Cleopatra’s reign and the end of Egypt, the Egyptians had an insurmountable amount of wealth. Cleopatra herself wasted a fortune on the famous

Pliny the Elder states, “the second pearl was cut in two so that half a diner might adorn each ear of the statue of Venus in the Pantheon at Rome.” Venus was thought to have been the mother of the Roman people in the epic written by Virgil where she is the mother of Aeneas who she guides to help found Rome. Venus translates to the Greek god “Aphrodite”; she was the goddess of love, beauty, and sex. Venus would use lust, love, and sex to defeat her enemies and lure them into traps. Venus who when she was born had beautiful pearl earrings placed upon her. Cleopatra was also known for using her beauty and her power to control men, as Venus did. Cleopatra seems to have been portrayed by Pliny as a woman with the power of Venus. The pearls were what Pliny describes as, “remarkable and truly unique work of nature.” Others may argue that the pearls where an omen. For it is believed that the capture of Egypt was an omen brought on by the pearls being split. As Cleopatra was brought down, so indeed was the empire that was built before her. The pearls are thought to have also brought the Roman Empire to collapse as well from the omen that the pearls