For the student of Caesar, there are inexplicable features to the next year and more of his life and they all come down to one reality: his meeting with one of the most remarkable women in history, Cleopatra of Egypt. Instead of concentrating his forces against his remaining opposition in northern Africa, Caesar spent nine critical months with a minor force in Egypt, fighting an unnecessary war that, in its early stages, more than once almost destroyed him and his small army. His delay permitted Cato, Scipio, and other Republicans time to re-energize their demoralized forces and reinforce their forces. It allowed events in Rome to spiral almost out of control and permitted Pompey's surviving sons to flee to Spain without real interference. When he did finally leave Egypt in June, 46, Caesar had made a strong political and personal alliance with its young Queen but the costs were high in term of initiative lost and battles to be refought. It can be argued that the history of the Civil War, and Caesar's future assassination, were partly fueled by his long Alexandrian revels. So - why Cleopatra? In a career that without exception shows no time wasted over emotional entanglements, why did Caesar install her in Rome, where she learned of his murder? The answer is simply that Rome demanded Egypt, and Cleopatra, in every literal and figurative sense, was Egypt.

Often considered the most authentic of various busts attributed as Cleopatra VII, from the Vatican Museum.

The protagonists of the great Alexandrian drama have passed into legend; Caesar, Antony, and Cleopatra. For Cleopatra's fascination, the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. We know she was intelligent, ruthless, learned, ambitious, not classically beautiful but seemed so, and could play the pawns on the board of international chess as ruthlessly as any men of her time. We can suspect that her personal attractions were extraordinary and her ambition boundless that Egypt should not become a mere satellite of Rome. We can guess that Caesar, however enamored of her charms, never lost sight of her political value and the value of securing Egypt's revenue in his pocket. One wonders if Antony was as shrewd. But Cleopatra's fascination exceeds these facts; history can only provide the frame for many unanswerable questions. She was, in her own lifetime, and thereafter, the most famous woman of antiquity.

For political and xenophobic purposes, the victorious Romans maligned Cleopatra in every way possible for the rest of Rome's imperial sway. In recent decades, feminists have chosen her as a symbol of a strong woman subjected to unfair and jealous male propaganda before and after her death. Either viewpoint - Cleopatra the slut or Cleopatra the noble queen - does her an injustice. Like Caesar himself, Cleopatra was composed of many layers, many of them unpleasant in modern eyes, all of them extraordinary

The Dynasty in Decline

The Ptolemy dynasty in Hellenized Egypt began with Ptolemy I, a commander under Alexander the Great, whose portion of the spoils was a kingdom centered in Egypt and an empire including parts of modern Libya, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Cyprus (with overseas provinces in modern Turkey and Greece), later Ptolemies promptly began incorporating age-old Egyptian religious and political norms to camouflage their foreign extraction, including the brother-sister marriages which horrified others in the West. Rome and Egypt had maintained a cordial and (on the part of the Ptolemies) increasingly deferential relationship with the emerging Roman superpower. As perhaps the wealthiest nation on earth, it was inevitable that any Egyptian weakness - growing at least from the second century BC - would attract Rome's covetous eye. Throughout the second and well into the first centuries BC, the Ptolemies sank further and further into the quicksand of asking Rome to bail them out of their own dynastic difficulties. Murder and assassination of heirs to the throne became commonplace. Over the decades, the pharaohs lost most of their original overseas territories and returned to the core lands near Egypt, particularly after the "reorganization" of the east by the victorious Pompey the Great in the '60's. The legitimate royal line had failed through murder and assassination in 80 BC. The King Ptolemy XII, the illegitimate son of Ptolemy IX, took the throne after his father's death, but remained precariously upon it. To cap it all, there was a persistent rumor, however hotly denied, that Ptolemy X Alexander, dead in a vain attempt to put down a massive revolt, had willed his entire kingdom to Rome before he died.

Daughter of the "Flute Player"

Side view of the Vatican Cleopatra. Note the royal Diadem denoting rule of Egypt.

Cleopatra VII was born in 69 BC, daughter of Ptolemy XII (nicknamed Auletes, the flute-player) and, probably, of his sister, Cleopatra V. She was Ptolemy's third child and was not expected to become queen. Her childhood was extraordinarily insecure. Her father was more than once ousted from his kingdom usually because he was not viewed as strong enough to stand up to Rome. He essentially mortgaged his kingdom by borrowing staggering sums to pay bribes to prominent Romans (including Crassus and Caesar) for military and political support. He was suspected of paying for dozens of prominent Alexandrines traveling to Rome to be murdered, before they could protest his return to rule. When Caesar, as consul, raised questions about his legitimacy, Ptolemy is said to have bribed him with 6,000 silver talents in return for official recognition. He later paid Aulus Gabinius, governor of Syria, 10,000 silver talents (borrowed from a Roman banker). Gabinius invaded Egypt on Ptolemy's behalf in 55 BC and forcibly restored the king to his tottering throne. Cleopatra was 13 and may have met an important young cavalry officer under Gabinius, Marcus Antonius (known to history as Marc Antony).

Ptolemy Auletes, a peculiar combination of ruthlessness and foolishness, died in 51 BC. He had his eldest daughter, Berenice IV (and possibly a second daughter, Cleopatra VI, elder sister of our Cleopatra) murdered when he discovered that, leaving them behind while he sought Roman support, they had seized his throne. Her father's death left Cleopatra the surviving eldest child and, at age 17, she ascended the throne ruling jointly with her younger brother, Ptolemy XIII, aged 13. Her father's debts to Rome were still unpaid and his will had been sent there to be deposited in the public record office. It was now Rome's decision whether its testamentary dispositions were to be enforced.

Cleopatra was traditionally expected to marry her brother and to jointly rule with him. Instead, the few documents surviving from her early years suggests she ignored him, issuing coinage and documents solely in her own name. Rome, however, would be her undoing here, as elsewhere. In early 49 BC, the Civil War broke out between Pompey the Great and the senatorial forces in Rome and the armies of Julius Caesar. Pompey moved to the east and promptly sent his eldest son, Gnaeus, to demand ships, troops, and supplies of Egypt. Gabinius' forces were still largely in Egypt, and he had served under Pompey. Cleopatra cooperatively released 50 ships and grain supplies for Pompey's support. To those Alexandrians already unhappy that she had assumed sole rule, this pro-Roman treatment provoked a backlash. Sometime in 48, Cleopatra was ousted by ministers supporting her younger brother. She fell back upon Arabia and Palestine and set about raising an army to retrieve her throne. By the time she had done so, and her army began moving westward to face her brother's forces at the eastern end of the Delta, Caesar had comprehensively destroyed Pompey's forces at the Battle of Pharsalus on August 9, 48 BC. Cleopatra had supplied the losing side.

Caesar in Alexandria

After Caesar arrived and took in Pompey's murder, set up residence in the Palace and prepared to mediate the dispute between Ptolemy and his absent sister. He intended to recover the monies promised by Ptolemy Auletes and never paid, as well as to decide Egypt's future rulers. He had brought with him just 4,000 men.

One of history's most famous stories (as historically accurate as anything else we know of Cleopatra's life) is her first meeting with Julius Caesar in early October, 49 BC. Caesar was 52; Cleopatra 21. Alexandria was in the hands of her brother's ministers and she could not pass the gauntlet of guards in her own former palace. As Plutarch notes,

"Taking just one of her courtiers, Apollodorus the Sicilian, she boarded a small boat and landed near the palace at dusk. Unable to think of any other way to enter unnoticed, she lay down full length in a bed-linen sack, and Apollodorus tied the sack up with a strap and carried it through the gates to Caesar. Caesar, it is said, was immediately taken with this trick of Cleopatra, and the coquettish impression it made..." Plutarch, Life, 49.

Debate has raged for millennia about the precise nature of Cleopatra's charms. Few authenticated contemporary images of her survived antiquity. She was a byword for beauty and sexuality in classical times, but that image was largely supplemented by historians writing long after her death. Plutarch refers to her, repeatedly, as beautiful, but also notes

"Her own beauty, so we are told, was not of that incomparable kind which instantly captivates the beholder. But the charm of her presence was irresistible, and there was an attraction in her person and in her talk, together with a peculiar force of character which pervaded her every word and action, and laid all who associated with her under her spell." Plutarch, Life of Antony, 27.

While Plutarch highlights the Queen's beautiful voice, he also - in the Roman tradition - describes Cleopatra as an Egyptian Cerise, enchanting and seducing men to their destruction. Whatever her looks, it is clear from existing busts that she had a prominent, slightly hooked nose, full lips, and was Greek in facial features and dress. Therefore she must have been one of those extraordinary women of history whose manner and company made her more beautiful than any mere physical feature. Whatever she had, it was enough.

Caesar decided the issue of who should rule Egypt in favor of Cleopatra but palace intrigues led to a revolt by the Alexandrians in in November, 48 BC, who proclaimed Cleopatra's younger sister, Arise, as queen. For some months Caesar and Cleopatra were essentially besieged with their small forces within the royal enclaves of the city, while Ptolemy, Arise, and the king's ministers and generals escaped to rally their own army. In March of the next year, upon arrival of reinforcements, Caesar promptly defeated Ptolemy's forces (he was drowned while trying to escape) and captured Arise to walk in his own Roman Triumph in 46 BC. Cleopatra, now secured upon her throne by the death or destruction of all her siblings except the youngest brother, Ptolemy XIV (age 11), was now firmly in charge of her kingdom with three of Caesar's four legions left behind as an occupying army.

After the conclusion of the war, Caesar and Cleopatra set off on a power cruise on the Nile. Far from capitulation to romance, Caesar took along his army in a fleet of 400 ships, to intimidate the Egyptians as much as to impress them. He left Egypt in June, 47, to return to his neglected wars in Asia and Africa. Cleopatra bore her first child, a son, on June 23, 47 BC. Although later historians made every effort to imply that the child was not Caesar's, he himself apparently acknowledged one of only two known children born to him. From the age of three, the boy would reign with his mother as Ptolemy XV, known as "Caesarion." Meanwhile, Cleopatra followed tradition and married her youngest brother.

The Roman Interlude, 46-44 BC

For more than a year after Caesar's departure, Cleopatra ruled Egypt without incident. In the summer of 46, Caesar returned to Rome, having completed wars in Asia and Africa against the last of his senatorial opponents. Cleopatra and her brother (and her son) then took the extraordinary step of leaving Alexandria in the hands of her ministers and traveling to Rome, where the Queen was set up in state in Caesar's own villa in Trastavere, across the Tiber from Rome. They would remain there until Caesar's death. It was in this interlude that Cleopatra first felt the l force of Roman xenophobia and misogyny. She, an Oriental absolute monarch, a powerful and sexual woman born of a race of Greek and Egyptian kings in what Rome saw as a degenerate empire, was viewed with distaste and suspicion by the more conservative (and powerful) factions in Rome. This was not only for her unnatural status as a reigning queen who did not defer to a husband, but particularly in view of her liaison with Caesar, her bastard child, her assumption of Egyptian divinity, and the fact that Caesar continued to live with his wife, Calpurnia, but visited the Queen. Although she probably used much of her visit for diplomatic contacts, her reputation for ruthlessness and ambition had long preceded her. Cicero, typically, was appalled at her, although there are hints he was not impervious to her charms. Roman sensibilities were further shocked when Caesar unveiled his magnificent new Temple of Venus Genetrix - legendary ancestress of his own family - in which he placed a life-size golden statue of Cleopatra. No foreign king or queen had ever been so honored in Rome's history, let alone one so controversial.

A recreation of Cleopatra's Alexandria.

Those who hated Caesar and his dictatorship later made much of his liaison with Cleopatra, claiming she had a malign influence over him. Rumors abounded that he intended to marry Cleopatra; to move the capital of the Roman Empire to Alexandria; to become not only a king over Rome, but a divine ruler in the eastern tradition. All these claims were put about by his, her, or Antony's enemies in the years ahead. What is known is that, immediately after Caesar's murder on March 15, 44, Cleopatra and her household left for Alexandria. Upon her return to Egypt, he last surviving brother, Ptolemy XIV, conveniently died. Cleopatra then declared Caesar's three-year-old son as Ptolemy XV, co-ruler of Egypt. To be Caesar's son, in a Rome containing Octavian, Caesar's legal heir, was far too dangerous.

The men in Cleopatra's world (top to bottom): coins representing Pompey the Great,
Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, and Octavian/Augustus.

Egypt could not escape the civil war that followed Caesar's death. Cleopatra was approached by Cassius, who with Brutus had fled to the east and were raising armies, for supplies and support. Cleopatra was diplomatic, but she apparently decided Egypt's advantage lay with Antony and Octavian. She began building a fleet to assist them in their battle against Brutus and Cassius, but before it sailed, the conspirators were dead upon the field of Philippi. Antony and Octavian had divided the Roman world, Antony receiving the eastern provinces. Like Caesar, Antony hoped to conquer Parthia. It was indispensable to have a willing Egypt for both supplies and a land base. Marc Antony summoned Cleopatra to meet him in Tarsus, in southern Asia Minor.

The Inimitable Livers Club

Plutarch's description of Cleopatra's magnificent barge with perfumed purple silk sails, silver oars, cloth of gold, and Cleopatra dressed as Venus surrounded by Cupids, Nereids, and Graces, is so breathtaking that Shakespeare lifted it almost entire in his Antony and Cleopatra. Plutarch writes at length that Antony immediately became so infatuated with the Queen that his good judgment deserted him, and he was excited "to the point of madness." From Cydnus onwards, theirs is the best-known tale of tragic mature love in western literature. Trying to determine the core motives behind the relationship is far more difficult.

Coins issued during the period of Antony and Cleopatra, ?37-30 BC

From Plutarch and other accounts, it seems that there was genuine affection between Antony and Cleopatra, although both were ruthless rulers whose private passions seldom hindered their political advantage. With Cleopatra, Antony had access to the wealth and resources of Egypt. With Antony, Cleopatra had extraordinary influence with the Roman in charge of her part of the world. Antony returned to Alexandria with Cleopatra in 40 BC and, in 41, Cleopatra bore him twins, Alexander and Cleopatra (known as Cleopatra Selene to distinguish her from her mother). Immediately after their birth, Antony returned to Rome to sort out conflicts with Octavian. Antony's Roman wife, Fulvia, who had helped raise an army against Augustus, had failed and soon after died. The two men met in Italy to patch up the peace. To seal their new amity, Octavian pressed Antony to marry his only sister, Octavia. Antony did not hesitate. After the marriage, he and his bride moved to Athens to govern the east, and Cleopatra and her children were forgotten for three years. There, Octavia bore him two daughters, even issuing coinage bearing Octavia's portrait. But by 37, while Octavia was pregnant with her second child, the incessant quarrels between Antony and Octavian had worsened to the point where he no longer believed - or cared - to maintain the peace. Promptly abandoning Octavia in Athens, he sailed back to Antioch in Syria and summoned Cleopatra.

Antony was determined to conquer Parthia, that area in modern Iran and Iraq which had seduced Julius Caesar and Crassus. He needed Cleopatra's assets. He made new settlements in eastern kingdoms, putting in new kings who would be loyal to him and gave former Egyptian territories back to Cleopatra, including areas of southern Syriaicia, and Iturea, which secured his rear for the forthcoming war. While Cleopatra remained in Egypt to bear her fourth child (Ptolemy Philadelphus), Antony set out 60,000 legionaries and 10,000 cavalry on his Parthian offensive. This was a shrewd political move to seize the initiative with Octavian by a magnificent world conquest, but it would lead Antony - as it had Crassus before him - into near-disaster. In a valiant but unlucky and frequently misjudged campaign, Antony lost a more than a third of his army and, starving and exhausted, brought his army back to Syria in January, 35 BC. The couple left the army and returned to Alexandria for the winter.

Antony had not yet abandoned Octavia, and used her as a go-between to secure additional Roman troops from her brother so that he could resume his Parthian campaign (Octavia was unsuccessful). Octavian saw that Antony's mistreatment of his wife could be politically useful; he refused the promised troops and put his sister in the impossible position of traveling to Greece to publicly tell Antony of her brother's betrayal. Antony finally resumed the eastern campaign in 34. Cleopatra traveled with him as far as the River Euphrates; she had supplied the money and most of the campaign supplies, and Antony had awarded her yet more territory (this time, lands belonging to Herod the Great). Antony returned late in 34 after a limited victory in Armenia and declared a grand celebration which has come to be known as the "Donations of Alexandria."

Antony now had three children by Cleopatra to be provided for. He had for some time followed the policy of installing kings in eastern territories of whose loyalty he was assured. The Donations were so controversial because he now applied this policy to his own children by Egypt's Queen:

To the Romans with their parochial intolerance of alien lands, religions, and absolute kings, Antony had severed his Roman connections. He appeared to be mediating over a wholesale transference of Roman imperial assets to his own children; he was living with a foreign whore committed to Rome's destruction at the expense of Octavian's noble sister; he appeared wearing Egyptian clothing, attended Egyptian religious ceremonies, and was notorious for excess. He had "gone native." Only the Victorian English, perhaps, could have been equally appalled when one of their own betrayed their standards in a foreign land as the Romans were by Antony.

Throughout his antics in Alexandria, Antony yet managed to administer the East fairly efficiently; unhappily for Octavian back in Italy, who was anxious to probe the political weaknesses of the great commander in order to remove him from triumviral power. With the Donations, Antony handed Octavian his own head, propaganda-wise, on a plate. The Romans, ever-parochial, loathed the decadence implied in everything Antony was doing, but they hated far worse the idea that he was capitulating to the seductive charms of a corrupt and ambitious Queen. It was against nature for any Roman to be ruled by a woman. Antony appeared to be helping Cleopatra increase her lands and powers at the expense of Rome. Octavian made sure the word was spread throughout Italy that Antony was in league with Rome's enemy.

Following the donations, Antony appears to have realized the extent to which Octavian would now go to destroy him. Both sides gathered their forces and began to maneuver. A botched sea battle would give the word a new metaphor for destruction, long before Waterloo - the battle of Actium.

The Battle of Actium

Political machinations continued between the two triumvirs in 33 and 32. There appears little doubt that Octavian, who had fought campaigns in Illyricum in 35-33 BC, had been blooding his troops to face Antony's loyal legions. Early in January, 32, Antony's supporters in the Senate made speeches attacking Octavian. Octavian, massing armed retainers, claimed he had proof of Antony's evil deeds and would shortly produce them. Both Consuls and about 300 senators precipitately fled to Antony's side, leaving a rump of the Senate to support Octavian.

When they arrived at Antony's headquarters, these senators found

...the triumvir [Antony] in the company of Cleopatra, who had sailed with him to Athens from Ephesus. The pair were surrounded with all the splendor of a Hellenistic court. Here at last she prevailed upon the man she considered her husband to divorce Octavia. Whether she and Antony ever married in an official ceremony is not known...They observed the influence of the leader's consort on political and military decisions. They found Octavian's claims that the gods of Egypt had declared war on the Romans' Jupiter personified in Cleopatra...Antony refused to recognize how dangerous the situation was becoming for him and played into his opponent's hands. Eck, Age of Augustus, 34.

Several senators fled back to Octavian, bringing him important information about Antony's dispositions. More importantly, they brought news that Antony had written a Will in which he not only asked to be buried beside Cleopatra in Alexandria, but had disposed of Roman territories in the East to his and Cleopatra's children, as monarchs. Octavian forced his way into the House of the Vestals, obtained the original of the Will, and read it aloud in the Senate. This seemed to prove all the anti-Roman allegations against Antony. Octavian quickly secured Senatorial approval to revoke all Antony's powers and to declare war, jointly, on both Antony and Cleopatra. Early in 31 BC, Octavian and Agrippa surprised Antony - who had planned a leisurely war in Italy - by transporting their legions across the Adriatic, meeting his forces gathered in northwestern Greece. Agrippa attacked Antony's supply lines while Octavian marched south; Antony's forces were soon hemmed in between the two Octavian forces near the Gulf of Actium. There was no possibility of victory by land; Agrippa's Roman fleets lurked outside the Bay, barring any attempt to break out by sea. Constant pressure from the Roman forces began to cause desertions in Antony's forces, which rapidly became a flood draining his legions. The summer heat began to decimate both sailors and soldiers. By August, 31, Antony had lost over half his forces to disease and desertion. His situation was desperate.

Most historians agree that the famous Battle of Actium was, in part, a feint to permit Antony and the Queen intended to flee from an impossible military situation behind an initial line of fighting ships. When the naval battle commenced about midday on September 2, 31 BC, Agrippa's smaller, more maneuverable vessels quickly gained the advantage over Antony's heavier warships. Antony appeared unable to break out; therefore Cleopatra (who waited with her own magnificent ships inside the Gulf of Actium) ordered her entire fleet forward to force a passage through the Roman naval lines. As the enemy wavered, the Egyptians escaped and Antony followed his queen. His ships and legions, left behind, promptly surrendered to Octavian. Octavian would later celebrate the victory as one of the gods of Rome over the gods of Egypt, which shows how clearly identified Antony had become with Cleopatra's world.

Immortal Longings

Fleeing to Egypt, both Antony and Cleopatra attempted to regroup their forces, shattered by the losses at Actium. Almost a year later, a final battle was fought outside Alexandria. Abandoned by Romans, Antony fought alone with Egyptian supporters and was promptly defeated on August 1, 30 BC. Antony fell on his sword, dying in Cleopatra's arms. The Queen herself, after some preliminary skirmishing, realized that Octavian intended to take Egypt from her and to parade her in Rome for his Triumph. In the most legendary suicide in history, she had poisonous snakes (either asps or cobras) smuggled into her chambers and died by their bites. It was a realistic choice: there was nothing ahead of her in Octavian's possession by powerless horror. Within an extremely short time, her son Caesarion (by Caesar) disappeared, obviously murdered by Octavian - who had no intention of allowing Julius Caesar's natural son to live. Her remaining children by Antony were sent to Rome be brought up, with supreme irony, by Antony's discarded wife, Octavia, in Caesar's own household.

Plutarch made a cryptic entry that, after both Antony and Cleopatra were dead and Octavian controlled Egypt, "...all his [Antony's] statues were torn down but those of Cleopatra's were allowed to stand, because Archibius, one of her friends, gave Octavius Caesar two thousand talents to save them . . ." (Plutarch, Antony, 86). Interestingly, this was an astronomical sum at the time; if true, it is likely that, instead of coming from any one man, it came from the temple treasuries of Egypt, for whom the last Pharaoh, and an incarnate goddess, deserved eternal memory.

At last, the Roman Civil War, which had lasted two decades since Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC, was over. Cleopatra and the Ptolemaic dynasty were gone. Egypt now entirely belonged to Rome.

Lass Unparalleled

John William Waterhouse's famous version of Cleopatra, 1888

SOURCES:

Translations of Plutarch taken in part from Cleopatra of Egypt, ed. Susan Walker and Peter Higgs, companion to the remarkable British Museum and Field Museum of Chicago exhibitions. Map of the Roman Empire at the time of the Triumvirate from The House of Ptolemy. Images of Cleopatra from several sources including the Cleopatra Image Archive. Painting of Jean Leon Gerome's Cleopatra Before Caesar (1866) from Arcadian Galleries. Fresco of sea battle from The Actium Project. Recreation of Alexandria from the extraordinary Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth.