Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator: The Fall Of Cleopatra

Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator was the last pharaoh of the Egyptian empire. Cleopatra’s hunger, power and ambition for the throne inevitably led to the downfall of her very own Egyptian empire at the hands of the Romans. Cleopatra VII historically known as simply Cleopatra was widely regarded as being the most famous of the seven pharaohs, yet she is forever acknowledged as the pharaoh whom led the Egyptian empire to failure. (SocialStudiesforKids) Cleopatra began and ended her life in the former Egyptian city of Alexandria in 69 BC and 30 BC respectively. Cleopatra was born from two former rulers being Ptolemy XII Authetes as her father and Cleopatra V of Egypt as mother. Cleopatra was 1 of 5 siblings whom she assassinated the majority of through

To begin with, as discussed in the paragraph above Cleopatra had been expelled from her kingdom and therefor need to re-uphold a position of power, which is what Julius Caesar could provide. Philip W. Sergeant, a former scholar of Trinity Collage Oxford focused on Cleopatra’s relationship between Antony and Caesar. Sergeant spends the second chapter of his book, antiquity’s queen of romance, which described the debauched history of Cleopatra. Sergeant mentions in his book the 2 slightly different accounts of the initial meeting between Cleopatra and Caesar. These accounts come from Roman writer Plutarch and Cassius Dio. Plutarch in his account is famous for being romanticized in his tale of Cleopatra being smuggled into the palace of Alexandria in a bedroll. Whereas, Dio simply writes that Cleopatra simply arrived at the palace in secret. This initial meeting is so crucial as this for Cleopatra set up a fruitful journey with Caesar to power. Although, it is important to take into account the different perspective of the fact that this relationship between the two was quite beneficial to Caesar as well. Caesar knew that this union between himself and Cleopatra will unite two great lands together. It is important to also keep in mind that Caesar unlike Cleopatra had the humble dream that his

Therefor this led to two equally as ambitious co-rulers. Quite soon, after this arrangement had been made, Octavius wished to be a single monarch. This decision on Octavius behalf may have been fueled through his suspected dislike towards Antony’s mother of his children. This was because Octavius shared the views of the Roman people who viewed Cleopatra as an manipulative witch. This was because of her controlling effects of both Caesar and Antony. Once Octavius declared that his wish was to be sole heir of the Roman throne Cleopatra gifted her troops to Antony in a civil power battle between himself and Octavius. This battle ended in Octavius being victor and therefor left Cleopatra and Antony powerless and which left the Egyptian Empire at an entirely new state of vulnerability. This amped the declaration of war made by Octavius against the country of Egypt whom had little to no army left and were therefor easily overcome. (Kennedy Hickman, 2015) This explanation of the Battle of Actium from Hickman is an extremely useful when describing a further complex view on the Battle of Actium. This source further looks at the more strategical side of the Battle of the Actium, which is an extremely valuable new perspective on the battle, that is not enlightened upon in many other sources. This loss of battle and therefor conquering of Rome is why Cleopatra