The Life of Cleopatra..

Cleopatra Bust from Altes Museum in Berlin, Germany.
Public Domain. Courtesy of Wikipedia.


Cleopatra (January 69 B.C. - August 12, 30 B.C.) was the last pharaoh of Egypt. Following her death, Rome took over as ruler of Egypt. Cleopatra was not an Egyptian, however, despite being pharaoh, but a Macedonian in the Ptolemaic dynasty which the Macedonian Ptolemy I Soter started. Ptolemy was a military leader under Alexander the great and possibly a close relative.

Cleopatra was one of several children of Ptolemy XII Auletes, a descendant of Alexander's general. Her two older sisters were Berenice IV and Cleopatra VI who may have died early in life. Berenice staged a coup while Auletes was in power. With Roman backing, Auletes was able to regain the throne and have his daughter Berenice executed.

An Egyptian custom that the Macedonian Ptolemies adopted was to have pharaohs marry their siblings. Thus when Ptolemy XII Auletes died, he left the care of Egypt in the hand of Cleopatra (aged about 18) and her younger brother Ptolemy XIII (aged about 12).

Ptolemy XIII was influenced by his courtiers and forced Cleopatra to flee from Egypt. She regained control of Egypt through the help of Julius Caesar, with whom she had an affair and a son named Caesarion.

Following the death of Ptolemy XIII, Cleopatra married an even younger brother, Ptolemy XIV. In time she ruled along with her son Caesarion.

Cleopatra is known for her affairs with Caesar and Mark Antony, by whom she had three children, and her suicide by snake bite after her husband Antony took his own life.

After the death of Cleopatra, Octavian took control of Egypt, putting it into Roman hands.

(About.com)

Three Famous Queen of Egypt

Girls of ancient Egypt had it a lot better than most. By age 12, they could wear makeup. They walked their pet geese and played ball for fun. As women, they had rights not accepted elsewhere. They could buy and sell property, inherit stuff—even sue someone!


Still, men were usually in charge. But that didn’t stop some women from defying tradition and taking over. Cleopatra, Hatshepsut, and Nefertiti were three outrageous queens who showed the ancient world what girl power was all about.


Cleopatra:Political Party Girl
(Reign: 51 B.C. to 30 B.C.)




Marc Antony was fuming. The ruler of half the Roman empire waited impatiently for the queen of Egypt to arrive. She was late—on purpose. And when she finally glittered up the Cydnus River on a ship with silver oars, Cleopatra had the nerve to make him board her ship. How dare she?

Antony shouldn’t have been surprised at the queen’s bold behavior. Cleo had star power with the brains to match. Queen by 18, she had her hands full: bad harvests, a forced marriage to her brother, plots to overthrow her. (To fight back, she even ordered hits on some of her relatives!) Forced to flee her capital of Alexandria, she convinced powerful Roman leader Julius Caesar to help her regain control. But four years later Caesar was assassinated. Cleo was back to square one.

Enter Marc Antony. She needed his political support. He needed money. Rich party girl Cleo tempted him with excess by betting that she could blow a fortune on dinner. Intrigued, Antony watched as Cleo crushed a pearl earring into her now-priceless drink. That’s all it took for the charmed yet greedy Antony to become hopelessly devoted to the queen. With his help, Cleopatra battled to keep Egypt out of the hands of her enemies. She lost. But instead of surrendering, she took her life—probably with the help of a poisonous snake.

Cleopatra left few words. But Egyptologists think they may have found an order signed by the queen. On it, the busy ruler had scribbled: “Make it so.”


Hatshepsut: Built to Last
(Reign: 1479 B.C. to 1458 B.C.)



Wearing the royal headdress, with a pharaoh’s traditional fake beard on her chin, Hatshepsut was officially the “female king” of Egypt. Not bad for a girl who was forced to wed her 8-year-old half brother at 13.

Now for action! Hatshepsut waged successful warfare against fierce invaders. She created a magnificent temple to the sun god, Amun. Organizing a five-ship expedition to faraway lands, she brought ivory, ebony, gold, and trees to Egypt. Trees? Egypt needed them to grow fragrant incense, burned by the ton in the temple’s ceremonies.

To celebrate her 15th year of rule, Hat had two 100-foot obelisks erected. (They looked a lot like the tall, narrow Washington Monument.) Getting the granite for the structures down the Nile River took a long barge, 27 boats, and 850 rowers!

Hat was an excellent ruler—so good that she kept the pharaoh-to-be on the sidelines until she died. But she lives on in spirit. In modern Egypt, Hatshepsut’s wonders, from an obelisk to an incense tree, are still standing after nearly 3,500 years.



Nefertiti: Rebel With a Cause
(Reign: 1336 B.C. to 1334 B.C.)






Although Nefertiti translates as “the beautiful one has come,” Egyptologists hotly debate what she really looked like. But this queen was more than just a face.

Nefertiti co-ruled with her pharaoh-husband, and they had big changes in mind. One day they made a shocking proclamation that Egyptians would now worship only one god. To honor the religion, the royal couple built a new capital city called Akhetaten that was filled with exciting new art and architecture.

Their world didn’t last. When Tutankhamun (King Tut to us) became pharaoh, the new capital was abandoned. Though some of the art was rescued, gone was the one-god religion from the ancient world. In the modern world, though, Nefertiti remains a name—and a face—that won’t soon be forgotten.

(National Geographic)

Cleopatra Was Not That Pretty???

              
Cleopatra wasn't that pretty??Guess what.. Cleopatra was the legendary queen of Egypt who seduced two of the most powerful men in the ancient world. She is a symbol for seducing beauty. 

But a silver coin that went on display at a British university February 14, 2007 suggests Cleopatra's beauty may be only Hollywood fiction.

On one side the coin shows the Egyptian ruler with a shallow forehead, long nose, narrow lips, and a sharply pointed chin (at left above). On the other, her longtime lover, the powerful Roman general and politician Mark Antony, is depicted with a large hooked nose and thick neck (right).

The unflattering images suggest that fictional accounts—from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra to the HBO TV series Rome—overplay the attractiveness of the doomed couple.

"The image on the coin is far from being that of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton," said Lindsay Allason-Jones, director of archaeological museums at Newcastle University, in a statement.

"Roman writers tell us that Cleopatra was intelligent and charismatic, and that she had a seductive voice but, tellingly, they do not mention her beauty. The image of Cleopatra as a beautiful seductress is a more recent image."

However she looked in reality, Cleopatra's charm helped change the course of Roman history.

In 48 B.C. she seduced Rome's first emperor, Julius Caesar—30 years her senior—and bore him a son.

But her relationship years later with Antony, with whom she had three children, ended in tragedy.

After Antony's defeat by Octavian, Rome's soon-to-be second emperor, in 31 B.C., both Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide. According to legend, Cleopatra chose to perish by an asp's bite.


(National Geographic)