EgyptaTours take you on a long journey to explore one of the most important queens in ancient Egypt.
Cleopatra VII, known as Queen Cleopatra (70/69 BC – August 10, 30 BC), queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt from 51 to 30 BC and its last king. Cleopatra belongs to the Ptolemaic dynasty and traces her lineage back to the founder of the dynasty, Ptolemy I, a Greek-Macedonian general and companion of Alexander the Great. After queen Cleopatra’s death, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, and this event marked the end of the last Hellenistic state in the Mediterranean established as a result of the disintegration of the Macedonian Empire. It is worth noting that queen Cleopatra’s primary language was mixed colloquial Greek, and she was the only known Ptolemaic queen who mastered the Egyptian language.
Cleopatra is believed to have accompanied her father, Ptolemy XII, when he was exiled to Rome in 58 BC after a revolt in Egypt, then a Roman province, allowed his rival daughter Berenice IV to claim his throne. Berenice IV was killed in 55 BC when Ptolemy XII returned to Egypt with Roman military assistance.
Queen Cleopatra Reign
Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIII jointly assumed power after the death of Ptolemy In 48 BC, the Roman statesman Pompey fled to Egypt after his defeat at the Battle of Pharsalus in Greece against his rival Julius Caesar (Roman dictator and consul) in Caesar’s civil war. Pompey was a political ally of Ptolemy XII, but Ptolemy XIII, acting on the advice of his court, ambushed and assassinated Pompey before Caesar arrived and occupied Alexandria.
Caesar made efforts to mediate and reconcile the feuding Ptolemaic brothers after the murder of Pompey, but Pothinus saw that Caesar’s proposed terms for reconciliation were biased in favor of Cleopatra, so he ordered his forces to besiege Cleopatra and Caesar in the royal palace.
Shortly after the siege was broken by reinforcements, Ptolemy In the wake of these events, Caesar announced that Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIV were joint rulers. However, Caesar maintained a special relationship with Cleopatra, and she bore him her son (Caesarion). Between 46 and 44 BC, Cleopatra traveled to Rome and stayed in Caesar’s villa.After Caesar’s assassination, followed shortly thereafter by the murder of Ptolemy XIV (on her orders) in 44 BC, Cleopatra appointed her son Caesarion co-ruler as Ptolemy XV.
Cleopatra sided with the Second Roman Triumvirate formed by Octavian (Caesar’s grandson and heir), Mark Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus during the Civil War of the Liberators from 43 to 42 BC. Cleopatra had an affair with Antony after their meeting at Tarsus in 41 BC, who had Arsinoe IV executed at her request, and who became increasingly dependent on Cleopatra for funding and military aid during his conquests of the Parthian Empire and the Kingdom of Armenia.
During the Donations of Alexandria, the sons of Cleopatra and Mark Antony: Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene II, and Ptolemy Philadelphus were declared rulers of various territories previously under Antony’s triumvirate. This event, along with the marriage of Cleopatra and Mark Antony and Antony’s divorce from Octavia the Younger (Octavian’s sister), led to the Final War of the Roman Republic. Octavian engaged in a propaganda war, forced Antony’s allies in the Roman Senate to flee Rome in 32 BC and declared war on Cleopatra.
After defeating Antony and Cleopatra’s naval fleet at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Octavian’s forces invaded Egypt in 30 BC, leading to Antony’s defeat and subsequent suicide. When Cleopatra learned that Octavian planned to bring her to the Roman triumphal procession, she killed herself with poison, contrary to popular belief. I was bitten by a snake.
Cleopatra’s Strategic Alliances and Political Maneuverings
“Both Cleopatra and Caesar spent a long winter confined to the Palace of Alexandria. It ended when Roman reinforcements arrived in 47 BC. Her brother, Ptolemy Ptolemy XIV.
Then after that, she married Julius Caesar and gave birth to her son, Ptolemy XV, whom the people of Alexandria called Caesarion as a mockery and mockery. Caesar and Cleopatra had common interests, and each sought to use the other, as Egypt supplied Rome with wheat. While Cleopatra was determined to retain her throne, and if possible, restore the glories of the early Ptolemies and regain as much of their power as possible. After giving birth to her son, Caesarion, Cleopatra traveled to Rome and stayed there for about a year.
When Julius Caesar dead , the Romans entered into a civil war that run out with Marcus Antonius coming to power with Octavius participating. The Roman Empire was divided between them. When Antony came to Egypt, he fell in love with Cleopatra and gave birth to her twins, “Alexander Helus,” which means the sun, and “Cleopatra Selene,” which means the moon.
When relations between Mark Antony and Octavius deteriorated, Cleopatra joined Antony, who entered into conflict with Octavian, and the “Naval Battle of Actium” took place between them in Greece in 31 BC. The victory was for Octavian, who forced Antony to flee, and Cleopatra returned to Alexandria and began collect her forces. Mark Antony then united her in a desperate try to stand up to Octavian.
Queen Cleopatra and Mark Antony
When Julius Caesar dead, Mark Antony became an advisor to Octavius Allo Bedos, and he was counted to be one of the wise men of Rome. He went to Cleopatra asking her to help him in his war against the Parathenes, and something surprised happened. Mark Antony fell in love with her.
In this time, queen Cleopatra found Mark Antony a suitable chance to help her achieve her ambition to regain rule of Egypt. She helped Antony in his war against the Parthenians and they were able to eliminate them, so they became allies after they had been enemies.
Lately, queen Cleopatra fell in love with Antony as well, and they had three children. When Octavius found out, Antony threatened war against him and Cleopatra. Indeed, the war broke out and Antony defeated queen Cleopatra in a crushing defeat.
There were many stories about their killing. Some stories say that a rumor spread that Cleopatra had been killed. Antony could not control himself and committed suicide with his sword. When Cleopatra found out, she fled to a cemetery to kill herself, but Augustus took her prisoner and seized all her treasures. But queen Cleopatra I preferred suicide.
In another story, it says, “After Antony’s defeat from Octavius, he killed himself with a sword, and when queen Cleopatra found out, she bought a cobra and bit it, causing it to die immediately.”
Queen Cleopatra’s Power
The Ptolemaic dynasty was almost dead before Cleopatra came to rule Egypt, but it hastened the Roman occupation of Egypt, not only through military force, but also by inflaming the hearts and minds of its leaders, which prompted them to occupy it and turn it into part of the Roman Empire.
After the death of her father, Ptolemy Good to go back.
Cleopatra was planning to return to power, and the struggle in Rome to control it was intense between Julius Caesar and his friend and partner Pompey. The conflict ended with Pompey’s defeat and his escape to Egypt, hoping that he would find a response to his favor from the sons of Ptolemy the Piper, as Pompey was the one who returned him to Egypt, as The book “Queens from Ancient Egypt” by Egyptologist Dr. Hussein Abdel Basir confirmed this.
Pompey arrived in Egypt, but he was killed, and Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria, and when he learned of Pompey’s killing, he was very sad for his friend, and honored his resting place. After Julius Caesar calmed down from the shock of killing his friend, he began to walk around the city as if he was a king of the country. This provoked many patriotic Alexandrians. By seeking for the power of queen Cleopatra let’s know how she dead.
Queen Cleopatra Tragic End and the Impact on Ancient Egyptian History
The death of Queen Cleopatra VII, the last ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, occurred on the 10th or 12th of August, 30 BC, in Alexandria, when she was 39 years old. Strabo, who provided the earliest historical account of the death, says that Cleopatra committed suicide either by allowing a snake (an Egyptian cobra) to bite her or by using a poisonous ointment, for example using a sharp object such as a hairpin.
Modern scholars have debated the veracity of ancient reports of snakebite as a cause of death and whether or not they were killed. Some academics theorize that her Roman political rival Octavian forced her to commit suicide by the method she chose. The location of Cleopatra’s tomb is unknown. It is recorded that Octavian allowed her and her husband, the Roman politician and general Mark Antony, who had stabbed himself with a sword, to be properly buried together.
With queen Cleopatra’s death, the final war of the Roman Republic between members of the triumvirs Octavian and Antony, Cleopatra’s husband and father of three of her children, effectively ended. Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt after losing at the Battle of Actium in Roman Greece in 31 BC, after which Octavian invaded Egypt and defeated their forces. She was allowed to commit suicide to avoid the humiliation of being paraded as a prisoner in a Roman triumph celebrating the military victories of Octavian, who became the first emperor of Rome in 27 BC and was known as Augustus.
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