Cleopatra - the last Egyptian Queen

A realistic, non-idealized portrait of Cleopatra VII in regal Ptolemaic-Egyptian attire and jewelry. — Roman historian Plutarch noted that Cleopatra’s beauty was not in her physical appearance but in her captivating intellect, voice, and presence. This illustration visualizes that power, combining her specific Greek features and stunning Egyptian royal attire to show how she fascinated both the Roman generals and the Egyptian public.

Cleopatra was the last queen of ancient Egypt and one of the most famous rulers of the ancient world. Her story is one of power, ambition, and romance. Cleopatra was born in 69 BCE, long after the era of the pharaohs had passed, yet she was worshipped by many Egyptians. Cleopatra was born in Egypt, but her ancestry was Greek. She was part of a ruling family that had controlled Egypt for hundreds of years.

The Ptolemies

Alexander the Great was a military genius from Macedonia, a mountainous land north of Greece. He led his army into Egypt and freed the Egyptians from Persian rule. After his death in 323 BCE, Alexander’s empire was divided among his top generals. Ptolemy became the ruler of Egypt and the first ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Ptolemy XII was Cleopatra’s father. When Ptolemy XII died in 51 BCE, his will decreed that seventeen-year-old Cleopatra and her twelve-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII, were to marry and rule Egypt. The marriage was a political arrangement, and while no personal records survive, the evidence suggests it was not a traditional marriage.

Cleopatra and Julius Caesar stand side by side, both looking intently into the distance, showing confidence and authority in ancient Egypt — Cleopatra was about 21 when she met Julius Caesar, who was 54 and Rome’s most powerful general. By then, Caesar had conquered Gaul and dominated Roman politics. In Egypt, Cleopatra was worshipped as a living goddess, giving her a kind of authority no Roman leader could claim.

Cleopatra Breaks with Tradition

When Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy XII, died in 51 BCE, his will decreed that seventeen-year-old Cleopatra and her twelve-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII, were to rule Egypt together — as husband and wife. Cleopatra was a very different ruler than the other members of the Ptolemy family. She learned the Egyptian language while the other members of her family spoke only Greek. Cleopatra also practiced the religious customs of Egypt, and many Egyptians viewed her as a pharaoh. In 48 BCE, the Queen’s generals found they could not control her, so they ousted Cleopatra and made her brother the sole monarch of Egypt.

Alliance with Julius Caesar

A few months later, Julius Caesar led a Roman army to Egypt in pursuit of a rival Roman general. His army was much larger than the Egyptian forces, so Cleopatra devised a plan to use Caesar to regain power. According to a well-known story, Cleopatra arranged to have a carpet delivered to the 54-year-old Caesar. When he unrolled the carpet, he found the 21-year-old former queen wrapped inside. Caesar and Cleopatra became allies, and he restored her to power. Ptolemy XIII drowned in the Nile while trying to flee Caesar’s army.

Egyptian custom did not allow a queen to rule without a king, so Cleopatra married another brother, Ptolemy XIV, but her relationship with Julius Caesar went far beyond politics. The two spent the next several months traveling along the Nile, where Caesar saw how the Egyptian people worshipped Cleopatra as a pharaoh. Cleopatra later gave birth to Caesar’s son, Caesarion. Caesar was a powerful general who had conquered many lands. In Egypt, he saw that Cleopatra had a kind of power he desperately wanted but could never claim.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s 1883 painting of Cleopatra reclining on her incense-filled barge, watching with a calculating, intelligent gaze as Mark Antony boards from a small boat. — The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1885. This painting shows Cleopatra arriving in luxury, as described by ancient writers. The meeting is real, but the dramatic details—perfumed sails, rose petals, and theatrical display—come mainly from later accounts and were likely exaggerated to tell a more memorable story.

Cleopatra in Rome

Caesar returned to Rome in 46 BCE with Cleopatra and their newborn son, Caesarion. Caesar was so popular with the Roman people that he was named dictator and given complete power. Cleopatra was less popular with the Romans. The people were uneasy about Caesar’s close relationship with a foreign queen, especially since he was already married. Cleopatra had also angered the Roman people by calling herself the “new Isis.” When a group of senators murdered Caesar in 44 BCE, Cleopatra returned to Egypt, where she apparently poisoned Ptolemy XIV and named the four-year-old Caesarion as the new Egyptian king.

A Power Struggle in Come

Rome was in turmoil after Caesar’s murder as several armies competed for control. The two greatest were led by Mark Antony and Octavian. Octavian was the adopted son of Julius Caesar, but Antony commanded a powerful army. When Antony asked Cleopatra to meet with him, she saw another opportunity to return to power in both Egypt and Rome. A legend says that when Cleopatra met Antony, she adorned her ship with so many rose petals that the Romans knew of her fragrance before they could see her. She stepped off the ship dressed as Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Antony was immediately love-struck. He was already married to Octavian’s sister, but he had three children with Cleopatra.

The Death of Cleopatra

Octavian defeated Antony’s forces and led an invasion of Egypt in 30 BCE. Antony took his own life by falling on his sword. Fearing that she would be paraded through Rome as a captive, Cleopatra decided it would be better to end her life. A legend says the former queen asked for an asp, an Egyptian cobra, to be delivered to her in a basket of figs. The asp was a symbol of royalty to the Egyptians, so by allowing the asp to bite her, Cleopatra avoided humiliation by ending her life on her own terms.

Cleopatra sits calmly in a stone chamber, dressed in a white linen gown and blue cloak, wearing gold jewelry and a diadem. She looks down with quiet resolve at a small cobra rising from a basket of figs in her hands, her posture steady and deliberate. — Ancient writers describe Cleopatra’s death by snakebite, but the details are uncertain. The famous image of an Egyptian asp, a type of cobra, hidden in a basket of figs comes from later storytelling, and historians still debate what really happened.

Separating Fact From Fiction

Cleopatra’s life was filled with such drama that she has been the subject of three major motion pictures, an opera by Handel, and hundreds of paintings and sculptures. Yet some of the most famous details of her life may be more story than fact.

Most of the dramatic stories about Cleopatra come from Plutarch, a Greek writer living under Roman rule who wrote more than one hundred years after her death. He described her being smuggled to meet Julius Caesar in a carpet, her spectacular arrival to meet Mark Antony on a lavish barge, and her death by the bite of an asp—stories that may be as much legend as history.

In Plutarch’s account, Cleopatra was carried into Caesar’s quarters hidden in a bundle of bedding. While she likely arranged a secret meeting, a bundle large enough to hide a person would have been difficult to carry unnoticed. Over time, storytellers turned Plutarch’s bundle into a carpet for dramatic effect. In the 1963 film Cleopatra, actress Elizabeth Taylor emerges fully dressed, her hair and clothing perfectly in place.

Plutarch may have exaggerated when he described Cleopatra’s first meeting with Mark Antony. He wrote that her ship was so richly perfumed that people could smell it before they could see it—an image that is easy to question for anyone who has been to the beach.

Most historians agree that Cleopatra took her own life rather than face the humiliation of captivity, but the method may be more colorful than reality. Ancient writers described a deadly asp hidden in a basket of figs, but a snake could not be counted on to stay still, especially during transport. An asp’s bite is painful, and the venom takes time to act—a situation that would likely have drawn the attention of her captors.

Cleopatra’s story is more than two thousand years old, and over time, colorful details may have been added. While parts of her life may have been embellished, there is no question that Cleopatra was one of the most interesting figures in history.

Resources

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Mr. Donn has an excellent website that includes a section on Ancient Egypt.

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