Cleopatra VII, known as “fatale monstrum” or a fatal omen to the Romans, is one of the most cunning, captivating, and alluring figures in ancient history. She has been repeatedly romanticized in popular culture, such as in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra and Hollywood’s Cleopatra (1963) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. However, while most people only know her as the Egyptian queen who was romantically involved with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony; she actually played an important role in the history of Egypt and the Roman Republic.
Cleopatra was born in January 69 BC in Alexandria, Egypt to Ptolemy XII Auletes (117 BC- 51 BC) and Cleopatra V Tryphaena (95 BC- 57 BC.) She ruled Egypt as co-reagent, first with her younger brothers and then her son, for thirty years. As fate would have it, Cleopatra would become the last monarch of Ptolemaic Empire, established in 323 BC after Alexander the Great’s reign. However, soon after her brother, Ptolemy XIII’s, ascension to the throne, Ptolemy’s advisors acted against Cleopatra, forcing her to flee Egypt to Syria in 49 BC. She eventually returned a year later with an army of mercenaries to face her brother’s forces at Pelusium, on Egypt’s eastern border. Meanwhile, after Ptolemy XIII allowed Roman general, Pompey, to be murdered, he invited Pompey’s rival, Julius Caesar, to Alexandria. To plead her case to Caesar, Cleopatra reportedly smuggled
…show more content…
Alexandria was still under attack from Octavian, and after Antony heard a rumor that Cleopatra had committed suicide, he killed himself just as the rumor was proved to be false. Legend says that after Cleopatra buried Antony, she too killed herself by using a poisonous snake called asp, a symbol of divine royalty. Consequently, this left Octavian, who later became Emperor Augustus I, as the undisputed ruler of the Roman