CLEOPATRA

Known as “the witch of Alexandria,” Cleopatra was a seductress for her own ambitions. Her legendary beauty swayed men’s reason and entwined her fate with the leading figures of Rome.

Cleopatra was born in 69 BC, and shared the throne with her brother Ptolemy. Julius Caesar supported her in a victorious war over her brother, making her queen at the age of 17. Cleopatra so intrigued the middle aged Caesar that she kept him in Egypt for over a year and bore him a son. Her enchantments deluded Caesar into the belief that he was a deity, and she, his goddess. She returned with him to Rome where his infatuation with her was considered obscene and the populous resented their alliance. He became so unbearably obnoxious that his former friends and supporters assassinated him.

After Caesar’s death, she concentrated her charms on Marc Anthony, the new leader of the Roman Province of Egypt. Legend tells that she was concealed in a rolled carpet and smuggled into his chambers. He, too, succumbed to her, and became her divine king. The Romans again disdained their extravagant hedonism, and soon Anthony fell from favor. Public contempt grew so strong that a war was launched against him, and in 31 BC Augustus Octavian attacked from the sea. In the heat of battle, Cleopatra fled with sixty ships, and Marc Anthony deserted his men to follow his lover. His fleet was destroyed. When surrounded in Alexandria, Marc Anthony mistakenly believed that Cleopatra had committed suicide and threw himself on his sword. Mortally wounded, he was taken into her presence to die.