Cleopatra Vll was born in 69 BC, in Alexandria, Egypt. Despite what people say today, that she was glamorous and beautiful, she was far from it.
She is shown on ancient coins with a long hooked nose and masculine features. Although she was not beautiful she was clearly a very seductive woman, and she used this to further Egypt politically. She had a beautiful musical voice. It is also said that she was highly intelligent. She spoke nine different languages, and she was the first Ptolemy pharaoh who could actually spoke Egyptian.
She ascended the Egyptian throne after her father, Ptolemy Xll Auletes died in 51 BC. Cleopatra which was seventeen at the time and her brother Ptolemy Xlll, which was twelve, were married because of the terms of her fathers will. They then ruled Egypt together. In the third year of their reign Ptolemy’s advisers told him that he should rule Egypt by himself. So, because of this he drove Cleopatra into exile. Cleopatra then escaped to Syria. She then returned with an army. Ptolemy sent an army to meet with her. At this point, Julius Caesar of Rome arrived in pursuit of an enemy, who was seeking help from Ptolemy. Cleopatra had to roll herself up in a rug so that she wouldn’t get killed while entering Egypt. If she hadn’t hidden herself she would have been killed. When she unrolled herself in front of Caesar he fell in love with her right away.Caesar had to choose which of the Egyptian rulers to help keep the throne. Of course he chose Cleopatra. He then became Cleopatra’s lover. In 47 BC Ptolemy Xlll drowned in the Nile while trying to escape, and Caesar then restored Cleopatra to her throne.
After her older brother Ptolemy Xlll was died, Cleopatra was then forced by custom to marry her youngest brother Ptolemy XlV, which was about eleven at the time. After Cleopatra and Ptolemy XlV were settled on their joint government basis, she and Caesar went on a two-month cruise on the Nile. It is said that it was then she became pregnant, and she later gave birth to a son. His name was officially Ptolemy XV Caesar, but he was popularly called Caesarion, which means “Little Caesar”. People say that Caesar was not really the father of Caesarion. Although the child strongly resembled Caesar, and so Caesar acknowledged him as his son.
After the cruise Caesar then went back to Rome ...
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... Cleopatra to arrange Antony's funeral. After the funeral she took to her bed, sick with grief. She wanted to kill herself, but Octavian kept her under close guard. One day he visited her and she flung herself at his feet, nearly naked, and told him she wanted to live.
With Octavian's permission she visited Antony's tomb. Then she returned to her mausoleum, took a bath, and ordered a feast. While the meal was being prepared a man arrived at her monument with a basket of figs. The guards checked the basket and found nothing suspicious, so they allowed the man to give the basket of figs to Cleopatra.
After she had eaten, Cleopatra wrote a letter, sealed it, and sent it to Octavian. He opened it and found Cleopatra's plea that he would allow her to be buried in Antony's tomb. Alarmed, Octavian sent messengers to alert her guards that Cleopatra planned to commit suicide. But it was too late. They found the 39-year old queen dead on her golden bed, with her maid Iras dying at her feet. Two pricks were found on Cleopatra's arm, and it was believed that she had allowed herself to be bitten by an asp that was smuggled in with the figs. As she had wished, she was buried beside Antony.
Cleopatra VII had four known siblings, two brothers and two sisters. Her brothers were Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator, and Ptolemy XIV of Egypt. Her sisters were Arsinoe IV of Egypt, and Berenice IV of Egypt. Berenice IV took power away from her father and became ruler of Egypt in 58-55 B.C.E. When her father came back to Egypt he became ruler again and executed her. Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator was Cleopatra’s younger brother, when he was 12 and she was 18 they married each
As far as it matters for him, Caesar expected to store his own particular come back to power in Rome, and required Egypt to reimburse the obligations brought about by Auletes. Following four months of war between Caesar's dwarfed strengths and those of Ptolemy XIII, Roman fortifications arrived; Ptolemy was compelled to escape Alexandria, and was accepted to have suffocated in the Nile River. Entering Alexandria as a disagreeable champion, Caesar restored the throne to the just as disliked Cleopatra and her more youthful sibling Ptolemy XIV (then 13 years of age). Caesar stayed in Egypt with Cleopatra for a period, and around 47 B.C. she brought forth a child, Ptolemy Caesar. He was accepted to be Caesar's kid, and was referred to by the Egyptian individuals as Caesarion, or Little Caesar.
According to biography.com, “complications arose between Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII.’ So Cleopatra fled to Syria. In Syria, she formed her own army of soldiers to attack her brother and take back the throne for herself only. In 48 BC, Cleopatra came back to Egypt and faced her brother at Pelusium. While Cleopatra was facing her problems, the famous, Julius Caesar was battling Pompey to see who takes over Rome. So Pompey went to Egypt to recover and Caesar followed him there. In Egypt Julius Caesar met Cleopatra and according to text, “ he eventually fell in love with Cleopatra.” So Caesar helped Cleopatra to beat her brother and she did. According to the article, “ Ptolemy XIII fled and drowned in the Nile River.” Around 47 BC, Cleopatra and Caesar had a son, named “ Caesarion”. When Julius Caesar died, Cleopatra and her son went back to Egypt to
The Romans were immensely furious with Cleopatra and had primary influence over what sources were left behind about her. So certainly this is going to lead to biases and inaccuracies in the depictions we have. Furthermore, we are all well aware of how Hollywood likes to dramatize and embellish stories in order to generate ticket sales and is not worried about the accuracy of the historical anecdote. Because of this and her popularity, our knowledge of Cleopatra has been flooded with twisted truths. When examining Cleopatra’s full reign beyond her love affairs, reveals Cleopatra put all of her effort forth in order to solve the conflict between Egypt and Rome and should be recognized for her masterminded and commanding leadership
They had a son together named Ptolemy XV Caesar, whom they called Caesarian. After the death of Roman dictator, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra had her brother killed so that her young son, Caesarian, could be her co-ruler. Three men were currently in power in Rome, Octavian, Marcus Lepidus, and Marc Antony. Cleopatra always feared Rome taking over Egypt, so she aligned herself with Marc Antony. They supposedly fell in love and had three kids together, which caused Rome to fear that Antony was becoming too loyal towards Egypt. Marc Antony was married to Octavia, the sister of Octavian, so the love and possible illegal marriage of Cleopatra and Antony angered Octavian. This is when Romans started to spread rumors about Cleopatra to make her seem horrible, and that was what soon led to her
There would be only one thing to do with them; he will take her and her children to Rome to be paraded in a victory triumph. (Ritner, 2017) She sends Caesarion with protectors she trust to hide in the east of Egypt near the Red Sea. Cleopatra first attempts to commit suicide by setting fire to the mausoleum where she collected her treasures but the roman soldiers found her entry to the mausoleum and stopped her plans, she was taken captive. Cleopatra then arranges for a poisonous snake called an asp to be smuggled to her in a basket of figs. (Antony and Cleopatra, 2017) She then commits suicide by allowing the asp to bite her on her chest. She arranged for her and Mark Antony to be buried together. This ended the sad life of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt at thirty- nine years of age. She was the last of the Ptolemy dynasty.
Many of the greatest stories ever written include a death that occurs out of love. Virgil’s “The Passion Queen” which comes from book 4 of the Aeneid is one of them. A long story full of action and heartbreak leads to a surprising ending. Virgil uses the death of Queen Dido to show that humans are too emotionally weak to deal with tough emotional situations.
According to the story recorded by Plutarch (and later dramatized famously by William Shakespeare), Cleopatra sailed to Tarsus in an elaborate ship, dressed in the robes of Isis. Antony, who associated himself with the Greek deity Dionysus, was seduced by her charms. He agreed to protect Egypt and Cleopatra’s crown, pledging support for the removal of her younger sister and rival Arsinoe, then in exile. Cleopatra returned to Egypt, followed shortly thereafter by Antony, who left behind his third wife, Fulvia, and their children in Rome. He spent the winter of 41-40 B.C. in Alexandria, during which he and Cleopatra famously formed a drinking society called “The Inimitable Livers.” In 40 B.C., after Antony’s return to Rome, Cleopatra gave birth to twins, Alexander Helios (sun) and Cleopatra Selene
Cleopatra is most often remembered as the lover of two Roman consuls, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, thereby forever connecting the Egyptian queen to the history of Rome. The stories of her relationships with the two men do not always paint a flattering picture of Cleopatra, as her reported promiscuity and presumption give her a colorful reputation. Cleopatra is also sometimes seen as a misunderstood woman, someone who was never given a fair opportunity to be accepted as the wife of Marc Antony nor the mother of Caesar's child. Some historians and authors use the issue of Cleopatra's race as a reason that she was ostracized from Roman society, saying that the Romans were prejudiced against Egyptians, and despite Cleopatra's Greek background, would never accept her as a suitable mate for a Roman consul. This theory, however, is far outweighed by the numerous justifications the Roman people had for their distaste of Cleoaptra. It is not surprising that Cleopatra never found acceptance in Rome, as she offered nothing to the relationship between Egypt and Rome, she stood for everything they were against, and little by little, she succeeded in destroying parts of the society that the Roman people had worked to build.
Cleopatra was immediately established from the second she burst out of the womb as a member of the royal family of the Ptolemy's; the family which had controlled the Egyptian throne since the rule of Ptolemy I which began in 323 BC. She was born the daughter of Ptolemy XII, King of Egypt, in 69 BC, her full name being Cleopatra VII, or "Thea Philopator" in Greek: a name, which literally translates to "a goddess loving her father." She did most definitely loved her father, so dearly, in fact, that he granted the throne to Cleopatra upon his death in 51 BC. From the moment she set foot on the throne, co-ruling Egypt with her brother and obligatory husband Ptolemy XIII, she was intent upon coercing her, and only her, influence upon all of Egypt. More specifically, she wished to possess a less influential bridegroom so that she could impose more of her ideas and policies upon Egypt. It is for this reason that Cleopatra initiated one of the most notorious and controversial relationships of all time with one of the most prominent figures in history; Julius Caesar. Caesar fell in love with Cleopatra from the moment he saw her. Even though she was not known to be exceptionally beautiful, it is derived from many accounts that she was the definition of a wicked temptress, the defining characteristic that obviously won Caesar's heart. Naturally, Caesar aided Cleopatra after Ptolemy XIII's advisors had driven her from the throne, and declared war upon Ptolemy XIII. Caesar and Cleopatra were victorious and Cleopatra returned safely to the throne. Shortly after the coup, Cleopatra was noticeably pregnant. The product of this pregnancy was a son, named Caesarion, who is widely believed to belong to Caesar.
Because of the time period in which Cleopatra lived not very much is known of her. In ancient times there was record keeping. Although many of the accounts written down were not preserved well enough to be available to this day.
From the early years of her life, Cleopatra learned that to gain the thrown in the dynasty of the Ptolemies it took a lot more then sheer knowledge. She did however have a very good education in which she knew how to speak seven different languages and was the only Ptolemy to have know how to speak Egyptian and Greek ("The Unsolved Death of Cleopatra"). It is clear that even from such a young age Cleopatra was driven to succeed. It appears that it wasn't enough for her to just be educated, but to surpass her siblings and quite possibly her own parents. This was soon proven to be so once she inherited the throne and problems began to ensue. With the title of pharaoh came the marriage to her younger brother, though neither one was willing to share that power together. Soon after taking the throne her brother was found murdere...
Despite her achievements being discredited by most critics, the fact that she was able to rule during a turbulent time portrays her as more than capable. Cleopatra’s death through an alleged asp bite after witnessing Marc Antony’s death was tragic. However, the queen taking her own life rather than allowing her enemies end it reveals her strong character. Cleopatra’s fame after her death is a testament to powerful leadership of the Last Pharaoh of Egypt.
Around 69 B.C, one of the most famous female rulers ever known was born, she was Cleopatra. She was the descendent of the Egyptian ruler, Ptolemy XII, and she would eventually became the queen of ancient Egypt herself. She was known for being extremely intelligent and very charming, and because of this many romans feared her and viewed her as a threat. When her father died the throne of Egypt was left to her and her brother, Ptolemy XIII, and rivalry formed between the two, making her even more determined to become the sole ruler of Egypt. Cleopatra had trained all her life to be the successor of Egypt and she hungered for power. Like her father, she tried to have peace with Rome and maybe even have power over them. She would gain her power by having Caesar one and only son, Caesarion, the loyalty of Marc Antony, a well-known general who was popular among the troops in Rome, and of course by using her intelligence and Egypt’s resources. Cleopatra was a successful ruler because she had a thirst for power.
Cleopatra marrying her eldest brother who was as of ten years old to be co-ruler to her dynasty and to keep it alive, but it would be the help of Julius Caesar that made it happen. The will save Cleopatra to retain her power and to start the love affair to all we know about. She had a son with him name Caesarian, although Caesar did not mention it was his child. Ptolemy XIII, thereafter died in a failed rebellion and was replaced as co-ruler with his and Cleopatra's younger brother Ptolemy XIV. Cleopatra, who would eventually have planned to kill the two brothers after she regain her emotions of power and lastly murder her younger sister Arsinoe IV with the help of Marc Antony soldiers, friend of Julius