The Plutarch's Story Of Cleopatra

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Cleopatra’s story was told in many ways, but the best found was written by a historian named Plutarch, who lived about a century after Cleopatra. Cleopatra was born in 69 B.C. Although her family ruled Egypt, Cleopatra was Macedonian Greek. She became queen of Egypt at eighteen years old in 61B.C. She led Egypt with her younger brother Ptolemy XIII, who was ten. She did not get along well with her brother, and they started a civil war in Egypt. Cleopatra feared losing her power, so she decided to sneak into Caesar’s palace by having Apollodorus wrap her up in a piece of bedding. She wanted to make allies with Caesar because he was such a powerful man. When Cleopatra and Caesar met, they decided to get married for political reasons. Egypt had …show more content…

When Mark Antony met Cleopatra, he married her not only for political reasons, but because he fell in love with her. Cleopatra and Mark Antony had three children together. The oldest children were twins, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene. The youngest child was Ptolemy Philadelphus. Mark Antony held a ceremony Known as The Donations of Alexandria. During this ceremony, Mark Antony gave Cleopatra and all her children a part of Rome’s eastern provinces. He also gave Cleopatra and her children land that had not been conquered yet. After this, he gave Caesarian the title king of kings and Cleopatra the title Queen of Kings. The Romans were shocked that Mark Antony had given Roman land to a foreign ruler. Then Mark Antony decided to divorce Octavian’s sister Octavia, who he had a political marriage with. This enraged Octavian, so declared war on Cleopatra only. If he would have declared war on Mark Antony, it would have looked like Octavian was trying to begin a civil war. After this they went to battle at Actium, which they lost. Cleopatra and Mark Antony had to go into hiding because they had lost the war. Then, Mark Antony killed himself in a panic because he received false information that Cleopatra was dead. He killed himself by driving his sword through his chest. Cleopatra knew that if she would have stayed alive Octavian would have paraded her through the streets of Rome, and put her to shame. Cleopatra did not want to be dishonored, so She decided to commit