Cleopatra – Ancient Egypt’s Femme Fatale?

/ historicallywoman

The last, and most famous, of the Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs is also perhaps one of the most misrepresented. Today’s image of Cleopatra VII is that of a seductress, history’s greatest femme fatale, who brought about the downfall of not one, but two Roman leaders. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that these images were first propagated by Octavian – Caesar’s great-nephew and Cleopatra’s enemy.

Cleopatra’s story – at least the version that we know today – is full of romance, scandal, and murder. She is a woman who would do anything for power, including murdering her whole family and seducing two Roman generals.

Cleopatra and Caesar (1866) by Jean-Léon Gérôme

At its basics, this is true. At eighteen, Cleopatra became co-ruler with her brother-husband, Ptolemy XIII, but she had no intention of sharing power with him. Their relationship broke down after a tense four years and she was expelled from Alexandria. Her only hope was Rome, so she smuggled herself into Caesar’s quarters while he was staying as a guest of Ptolemy’s. She seduced him, spent the night with him, and persuaded him to help her. The subsequent feud saw Cleopatra and Caesar warring with her brother-husband and younger sister, Arsinoë. 

Cleopatra came out on top. Ptolemy XIII drowned in the Nile and Arsinoë was captured and later murdered on Cleopatra’s orders. Despite this, and despite the fact that she was now carrying Caesar’s child, she ended up marrying her last brother, Ptolemy XIV, who was aged around thirteen.

In 47 BC, Cleopatra gave birth to her son, Ptolemy Caesar, or Caesarion. They lived with Caesar in Rome until his assassination in 44 BC, upon which Cleopatra returned to Egypt. Ptolemy XIV’s death followed shortly after – likely poisoned by his sister-wife.

Once Ptolemy was dead, Cleopatra was finally free to rule alone as co-regent with her three year-old son. Her solo reign lasted for more than a decade, and it was a time of relative peace and prosperity for Egypt. Cleopatra was a skilled, intelligent, and wise ruler. Her relationship with Rome, and with other leaders throughout her kingdom, brought stability and cohesion to her empire. She made a point of learning her people’s languages – she is thought to have been the first Ptolemy to learn the native tongue, and she was fluent in up to ten languages. 

No doubt, this helped her in diplomacy and her ability to connect with her people, as she spoke to them directly. Furthermore, she minted coins in each local economy, familiarising them with the image of their queen. 

Be it known that we, the greatest, are misthought.

Cleopatra, in Shakespeare’s ‘The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra‘

Cleopatra was a skilled queen – she could communicate well with diplomats and leaders along with the general populace, she knew how to appeal to people, and she was able to form strong alliances. In a time where Roman expansion was at its peak, Cleopatra achieved an economically independent and prosperous Egypt.

Indeed, until Octavian began to feel threatened by Cleopatra and Mark Antony’s relationship (Cleopatra had borne his children in 40 BC and the pair married in 37 BC), Rome and Egypt co-existed in relative peace. 

Cleopatra VII

But in late 42 BC, Octavian declared war on Cleopatra and Antony. After a resounding defeat at the Battle of Actium, Antony fell on his sword upon hearing that Cleopatra was dead. For the time being, this was only a rumour; Antony was taken to the mausoleum where she was hiding and shortly died of his wounds.

Declaring, ‘I will not be lead in a triumph’, as her sister Arsinoë had once been, Cleopatra chose suicide over humiliation and imprisonment, reportedly letting an asp bite her. She died on 12th August 30 BC.

With Cleopatra’s death, the Ptolemy line was ended and the pharaohs gone. Much of Cleopatra’s fame today comes from her powers of seduction and beauty (which, by modern-day standards, is something of a myth). 

However, she succeeded in an inherently patriarchal society in a way no woman had before. She ruled fairly and smartly, a pioneer of strategy and communication, and maintained peace in Egypt for more than a decade. Cleopatra is history’s first example of a lone woman ruler and her legacy was so much more than the sensational story we have all been told.

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