THIS BOOK GREW OUT of a course Julia Gaisser and I developed at Bryn Mawr College on Cleopatra and the reception of her image.
WHO WAS CLEOPATRA? Who is Cleopatra? Portrayed as both goddess and monster in her own lifetime, through the ages she has become both saint and sinner, heroine and victim, femme fatale and starcrossed lover, politician and voluptuary, black and white. A protean figure, Cleopatra defies categorization.
This sourcebook holds up not only a mirror to Cleopatra but also a prism, to detail what we know of the historical Cleopatra and, in addition, to show the diversity of representations that emerge as various cultures and periods receive and recreate her image. Part one searches for Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemaic queens, in primary sources from the ancient world. These texts, written by people from Cleopatra’s world (and, in some cases, by people who knew her), provide the evidence from which we must reconstruct Cleopatra. And yet we must be wary of these witnesses. All have biases; some are overtly hostile. Cleopatra was an enemy of Rome, after all, and many of those who wrote about her lived in an empire founded on her defeat.
In the barest outline of her life, Cleopatra VII was born in 69 B.C. to Ptolemy XII Auletes and (most probably) his sister-wife Cleopatra V Tryphaena. They were members of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Macedonian Greeks, who ruled Egypt after the death of its conqueror, Alexander the Great. Following the custom of the Egyptian pharaohs, the Ptolemies practiced brother-sister marriage; thus, Cleopatra was married to and ruled with her brother, Ptolemy XIII.
A power struggle between the two of them resulted in Cleopatra’s exile to Syria. She returned to Alexandria and gained the support of Julius Caesar, who had arrived there in 48 B.C. after defeating Pompey to become the most powerful man in Rome. Caesar restored the balance of power between Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII, but Cleopatra succeeded in engineering the murder of her brother-husband. Cleopatra then was married to and ruled with her other brother, Ptolemy XIV, though in fact, as Caesar’s ally and mistress, she was the dominant partner. In 47 B.C. she gave birth to a son, Ptolemy XV, whom she called Caesarion in order to let it be known that he was Caesar’s son. Cleopatra accompanied Caesar to Rome in 46 B.C. After Caesar’s assassination in 44 B.C., Cleopatra returned to Alexandria. Upon her arrival there, she saw to it that her brother-husband Ptolemy XIV was killed.
So the story it’s very interesting for my, how about your all?
To continue reading you can download this ebook here
WHO WAS CLEOPATRA? Who is Cleopatra? Portrayed as both goddess and monster in her own lifetime, through the ages she has become both saint and sinner, heroine and victim, femme fatale and starcrossed lover, politician and voluptuary, black and white. A protean figure, Cleopatra defies categorization.
This sourcebook holds up not only a mirror to Cleopatra but also a prism, to detail what we know of the historical Cleopatra and, in addition, to show the diversity of representations that emerge as various cultures and periods receive and recreate her image. Part one searches for Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemaic queens, in primary sources from the ancient world. These texts, written by people from Cleopatra’s world (and, in some cases, by people who knew her), provide the evidence from which we must reconstruct Cleopatra. And yet we must be wary of these witnesses. All have biases; some are overtly hostile. Cleopatra was an enemy of Rome, after all, and many of those who wrote about her lived in an empire founded on her defeat.
In the barest outline of her life, Cleopatra VII was born in 69 B.C. to Ptolemy XII Auletes and (most probably) his sister-wife Cleopatra V Tryphaena. They were members of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Macedonian Greeks, who ruled Egypt after the death of its conqueror, Alexander the Great. Following the custom of the Egyptian pharaohs, the Ptolemies practiced brother-sister marriage; thus, Cleopatra was married to and ruled with her brother, Ptolemy XIII.
A power struggle between the two of them resulted in Cleopatra’s exile to Syria. She returned to Alexandria and gained the support of Julius Caesar, who had arrived there in 48 B.C. after defeating Pompey to become the most powerful man in Rome. Caesar restored the balance of power between Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII, but Cleopatra succeeded in engineering the murder of her brother-husband. Cleopatra then was married to and ruled with her other brother, Ptolemy XIV, though in fact, as Caesar’s ally and mistress, she was the dominant partner. In 47 B.C. she gave birth to a son, Ptolemy XV, whom she called Caesarion in order to let it be known that he was Caesar’s son. Cleopatra accompanied Caesar to Rome in 46 B.C. After Caesar’s assassination in 44 B.C., Cleopatra returned to Alexandria. Upon her arrival there, she saw to it that her brother-husband Ptolemy XIV was killed.
So the story it’s very interesting for my, how about your all?
To continue reading you can download this ebook here
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