[215] With his powers as a triumvir, Antony also had the broad authority to restore former Ptolemaic lands, which were currently in Roman hands, to Cleopatra. [179][180] Sosigenes of Alexandria, one of the members of Cleopatra's court, aided Caesar in the calculations for the new Julian calendar, put into effect 1 January 45 BC. [365] She also named her son Ptolemy of Mauretania, in honor of their Ptolemaic dynastic heritage. [283][281], During the spring of 32 BC Antony and Cleopatra traveled to Athens, where she persuaded Antony to send Octavia an official declaration of divorce. [21][19][22][note 12] Aside from Greek, Egyptian, and Latin, these languages reflected Cleopatra's desire to restore North African and West Asian territories that once belonged to the Ptolemaic Kingdom. [195][199], By the end of 42 BC, Octavian had gained control over much of the western half of the Roman Republic and Antony the eastern half, with Lepidus largely marginalized. # Cleopatra? [444] The sculpture also has pronounced eyes that share similarities with Roman copies of Ptolemaic sculpted works of art. [223] Fulvia and Antony's brother Lucius Antonius were eventually besieged by Octavian at Perusia (modern Perugia, Italy) and then exiled from Italy, after which Fulvia died at Sicyon in Greece while attempting to reach Antony. Cleopatra was born in 69 B.C. the asp) rises between her legs, Eros floats above, and Anton, the alleged ancestor of the Antonian family, looks on in despair as his descendant Antony is led to his doom. [181][182][183] The Temple of Venus Genetrix, established in the Forum of Caesar on 25 September 46 BC, contained a golden statue of Cleopatra (which stood there at least until the 3rd century AD), associating the mother of Caesar's child directly with the goddess Venus, mother of the Romans. [371][372] A cult dedicated to Cleopatra still existed as late as 373 AD when Petesenufe, an Egyptian scribe of the book of Isis, explained that he "overlaid the figure of Cleopatra with gold. When, at the Battle of Philippi in 42 bce, Caesar’s assassins were routed, Mark Antony became the heir apparent of Caesar’s authority—or so it seemed, for Caesar’s great-nephew and personal heir, Octavian, was but a sickly boy. Answer: Cleopatra was the last queen of the Macedonian dynasty that ruled Egypt between 323 and 30 BC. She and the rest of the Ptolemys were of almost pure Macedonian Greek ancestry. [45] During her youth Cleopatra presumably studied at the Musaeum, including the Library of Alexandria. Daughter of King Ptolemy XII Auletes, Cleopatra was destined to become the last queen of the Macedonian dynasty that ruled Egypt between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 bce and its annexation by Rome in 30 bce. [308] In a show of solidarity, Antony also had Marcus Antonius Antyllus, his son with Fulvia, enter the ephebi at the same time. [307][304] Octavian sent his diplomat Thyrsos to Cleopatra after she threatened to burn herself and vast amounts of her treasure within a tomb already under construction. [295] Antony reportedly avoided Cleopatra during this three-day voyage, until her ladies in waiting at Tainaron urged him to speak with her. [141][126][148][note 38] Ptolemy XIII and Arsinoe IV withdrew their forces to the Nile, where Caesar attacked them. [307] Cleopatra requested that her children should inherit Egypt and that Antony should be allowed to live in exile in Egypt, offered Octavian money in the future, and immediately sent him lavish gifts. [294][290][286] Cleopatra, aboard her flagship, the Antonias, commanded 60 ships at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf, at the rear of the fleet, in what was likely a move by Antony's officers to marginalize her during the battle. [211] Her rival Herod was occupied with civil war in Judea that required heavy Roman military assistance, but received none from Cleopatra. [97], By 29 August 51 BC, official documents started listing Cleopatra as the sole ruler, evidence that she had rejected her brother Ptolemy XIII as a co-ruler. Caesar then attempted to reconcile the rival Ptolemaic siblings, but Ptolemy's chief adviser Potheinos viewed Caesar's terms as favoring Cleopatra, so his forces besieged her and Caesar at the palace. [463], In Victorian Britain, Cleopatra was highly associated with many aspects of ancient Egyptian culture and her image was used to market various household products, including oil lamps, lithographs, postcards and cigarettes. [56][57] In it she wears a royal diadem, red or reddish-brown hair pulled back into a bun,[note 74] pearl-studded hairpins,[440] and earrings with ball-shaped pendants, the white skin of her face and neck set against a stark black background. [364][238] Cleopatra Selene II imported many important scholars, artists, and advisers from her mother's royal court in Alexandria to serve her in Caesarea, now permeated in Hellenistic Greek culture. 'spine, cheese-grater') was used to introduce the toxin by scratching, while Dio says that she injected the poison with a needle (βελόνη, belónē), and Strabo argued for an ointment of some kind. Please select which sections you would like to print: Corrections? Cleopatra now ruled with her infant son, Ptolemy XV Caesar. This is the story of Cleopatra, the last of the Macedonian monarchs, not the Hollywood or Shakespearean version. [352] Although the command economy that she managed was more of an ideal than a reality,[353] the government attempted to impose price controls, tariffs, and state monopolies for certain goods, fixed exchange rates for foreign currencies, and rigid laws forcing peasant farmers to stay in their villages during planting and harvesting seasons. [458], Cleopatra appeared in miniatures for illuminated manuscripts, such as a depiction of her and Antony lying in a Gothic-style tomb by the Boucicaut Master in 1409. [475] In preparation for the film starring Taylor as Cleopatra, women's magazines of the early 1960s advertised how to use makeup, clothes, jewelry, and hairstyles to achieve the "Egyptian" look similar to the queens Cleopatra and Nefertiti. [450], In modern times Cleopatra has become an icon of popular culture,[374] a reputation shaped by theatrical representations dating back to the Renaissance as well as paintings and films. [119][118][116][note 30] Ptolemy XIII's advisers, however, feared the idea of Pompey using Egypt as his base in a protracted Roman civil war. The line of rule was established in 323 B.C., following the death of Alexander the Great. Cleopatra VII ruled ancient Egypt as co-regent (first with her two younger brothers and then with her son) for almost three decades. [2][413][414] Her masculine facial features on minted currency are similar to that of her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes,[415][114] and perhaps also to those of her Ptolemaic ancestor Arsinoe II (316–260 BC)[2][416] and even depictions of earlier queens such as Hatshepsut and Nefertiti. [432] Roller affirms that "there seems little doubt that this is a depiction of Cleopatra and Caesarion before the doors of the Temple of Venus in the Forum Julium and, as such, it becomes the only extant contemporary painting of the queen. [154][155][156], Caesar's term as consul had expired at the end of 48 BC. [242][229] At the expense of the Nabataean king Malichus I (a cousin of Herod), Cleopatra was also given a portion of the Nabataean Kingdom around the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea, including Ailana (modern Aqaba, Jordan). [394][395] Plutarch described Cleopatra as having had a stronger personality and charming wit than physical beauty. [127][129][128] Historian Cassius Dio records that she did so without informing her brother, dressed in an attractive manner, and charmed Caesar with her wit. [331][334][330], Cleopatra decided in her last moments to send Caesarion away to Upper Egypt, perhaps with plans to flee to Kushite Nubia, Ethiopia, or India. Upon hearing the news, the despondent Roman leader committed suicide by stabbing himself. [75][77] Ptolemy XII had Berenice IV and her wealthy supporters executed, seizing their properties. [278][280] During the next senatorial session, Octavian entered the Senate house with armed guards and levied his own accusations against the consuls. [123][126][125][note 32], Ptolemy XIII arrived at Alexandria at the head of his army, in clear defiance of Caesar's demand that he disband and leave his army before his arrival. [247] Octavian, fostering the narrative that Antony was neglecting his virtuous Roman wife Octavia, granted both her and Livia, his own wife, extraordinary privileges of sacrosanctity. [313][318][319] It was Proculeius, however, who infiltrated her tomb using a ladder and detained the queen, denying her the ability to burn herself with her treasures. [278][281] Intimidated by this act, the consuls and over 200 senators still in support of Antony fled Rome the next day to join the side of Antony. [432][note 71] Her ivory-white skin, round face, long aquiline nose, and large round eyes were features common in both Roman and Ptolemaic depictions of deities. [454] His depiction of Cleopatra and Antony, her shining knight engaged in courtly love, has been interpreted in modern times as being either playful or misogynistic satire. [446][448], A large Ptolemaic black basalt statue measuring 104 centimetres (41 in) in height, now in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, is thought to represent Arsinoe II, wife of Ptolemy II, but recent analysis has indicated that it could depict her descendant Cleopatra due to the three uraei adorning her headdress, an increase from the two used by Arsinoe II to symbolize her rule over Lower and Upper Egypt. [468] In his unfinished 1825 short story The Egyptian Nights, Alexander Pushkin popularized the claims of the 4th-century Roman historian Aurelius Victor, previously largely ignored, that Cleopatra had prostituted herself to men who paid for sex with their lives. [380][381] The Roman History published by the official and historian Cassius Dio in the early 3rd century AD, while failing to fully comprehend the complexities of the late Hellenistic world, nevertheless provides a continuous history of the era of Cleopatra's reign. [500][35] The confused accounts in ancient primary sources have also led scholars to number Ptolemy XII's wife as either Cleopatra V or Cleopatra VI; the latter may have actually been a daughter of Ptolemy XII, and some use her as an indication that Cleopatra V had died in 69 BC rather than reappearing as a co-ruler with Berenice IV in 58 BC (during Ptolemy XII's exile in Rome). [235][236] Cleopatra brought her now three-year-old twins to Antioch, where Antony saw them for the first time and where they probably first received their surnames Helios and Selene as part of Antony and Cleopatra's ambitious plans for the future. [35][498][note 86] Strabo was the only ancient historian who claimed that Ptolemy XII's children born after Berenice IV, including Cleopatra, were illegitimate. The Ptolemy dynasty was descended from the Greek Macedonian named Ptolemy Soter, whom Alexander the Great installed in Egypt, so much of Cleopatra's ancestry was Macedonian Greek. [255][256] When Octavia returned to Rome Octavian portrayed his sister as a victim wronged by Antony, although she refused to leave Antony's household. Roman historiography and Latin poetry produced a generally critical view of the queen that pervaded later Medieval and Renaissance literature. [161][162] Caesar could have had an interest in the Nile cruise owing to his fascination with geography; he was well-read in the works of Eratosthenes and Pytheas, and perhaps wanted to discover the source of the river, but turned back before reaching Ethiopia. [379] Plutarch's work included both the Augustan view of Cleopatra—which became canonical for his period—as well as sources outside of this tradition, such as eyewitness reports. When Cleopatra learned that Octavian planned to bring her to his Roman triumphal procession, she killed herself by poisoning, contrary to the popular belief that she was bitten by an asp. 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