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)

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)