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Cleopatra, Miss First Millennium of the Christian Era
Cleopatra VII was the last female Pharaoh of Egypt and her son, Pharaoh Ptolemy XV Caesarion, the last of a long line of thirty dynasties of god-kings that stretched back from 3100 BC to 30 BC. Ptolemy XV Caesarion was put to death by Augustus, after Cleopatra VII committed suicide.
Cleopatra had inherited the idea of goddess-queen on earth with the power of life and death. As her symbol of crook and flail indicated. The people's first duty was to her. The Pharaoh's unlimited power can only be imagined and appreciated in their monuments left. Pharaoh Cheop's Great Pyramid, 150 meters tall, was the tallest building of the world ever built my man, for four and and half millenniums!, from 2555 BC to 1889. The Eiffel Tower of 189 meters dominated the skyline of Paris, the city named to honor the Trojan Prince who took Helen. The Eiffel tower was built to commemorate Paris' Universal Exposition of 1889. Inside the Cheops' pyramid the cathedrals of St Peter of Rome, St Paul of London, Santa Maria del Fiore of Florence, Córdoba's Great Mezquita and La Giralda Cathedral of Seville would fit . All of these cathedrals were built with the idea of "the most high and sumptuous magnificence to dedicate to God, so that it was impossible to surpass, to make it taller, bigger and more beautiful with the industry ingenuity and power of humans".
Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra's father, was direct descendant of General Lagus one of Alexander the Great's boyhood friends and most trusted generals, later known as the diadochi or general descendants of the imperial power after Alexander's death. They all considered themselves direct descendants of the Heroes of the Iliad. Lagus' son, Ptolemy I, stole the body of Alexander which was in its long journey back to Vergina in Macedonia where Alexander's father, Philip II, was buried. Instead, Ptolemy I took the body to Memphis in Egypt where Alexander the Great had been crowned pharaoh nine years earlier in 332 BC. Later, Alexander was buried in Sema Royal Palaces of Alexandria, the city he had founded. This site was frequented by Caesar, Augustus and other Roman Emperors, just like Hitler visited the tomb of Napoleon in 1940, after conquering France. The Ptolemies have inherited the throne of Egypt from the Macedonian general Lagus who have come with Alexander the Great in 332 BC When Ptolemy XII died, his daughter Cleopatra challenged his brother and became Cleopatra VII at age 17. Her brother Ptolemy XIII opposed her. The Egypt of the Ptolemy Pharaoh Cleopatra VII was an exporter to the Mediterranean world of beans, beer, cabbage, cheeses, cumin, dates, figs, fruits (apricots, peaches), garlic, honey, ivory, lentils, mustard, oils (cotton, linseed, safflower), olives, onions, papyrus, radish, vines, walnuts, wood and wool provided by the river valley and delta. There were factories of papyrus, mills, breweries, brick works, stone yards, markets with all kinds of vendors and traders and animals (oxen, camels, chickens, sheep and goats).
Egypt was vulnerable from attack coming from the Mediterranean; it possessed one of the largest and most powerful navies based on the largest port of the world, Alexandria, the equivalent of a New York or Hong Kong. It celebrated games and a type of world fairs every four years. Alexandria had the most wide avenues of any city of antiquity. Some can still be seen in the city of Alexandria of today with room for several carriages across. It possessed magnificent complexes of royal palaces, a gymnasium, the largest library of the history of the world, the most modern harbor and a lighthouse, the Pharos, which was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The other wonders were: the oldest and the only one to survive, the pyramids, the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the 30 foot statue of Zeus at Olympia and the Colossus of Rhodes.
In the Library of Alexandria existed the scientific, literary and historical works of ancient world: the original works of the Greek poets Callimachus and Theocritus, Greek mathematicians and astronomers Euclid, Archimedes and Eratosthenes. Cleopatra was educated by the best teachers of the time that the Ptolemy Court could provide in the most advanced city of the times. She spoke all the languages of the Mediterranean world. She learned from Arabians, Ethiopians, Hebrews, Medes, Parthians and other countries. Her intellect, vision and judgment was unsurpassed by any of her contemporaries.
King Ptolemy XII, made an alliance with Julius Caesar, one of the Triumvirs of Rome, in 59 BC. Cleopatra's father died in 51 BC at age 55. He left a will that his ten year old son Ptolemy XII and his seventeen year old daughter Cleopatra VII should co-rule Egypt and be allied with Julius Caesar. The Ptolemies have been descendants of God-Kings and Goddess - Queens who have used incest as a way to continue their dynasty. In 53 BC, one of the Triumvirs, Cressus, was killed. Pompey fought Julius Caesar for absolute power. This example was followed by Ptolemy XIII who fought her sister Cleopatra and drove her out of Alexandria. After five years of civil war, Caesar defeated Pompey. Pompey sought refuge with his ally Ptolemy XIII, but Pompey was killed upon his arrival to Alexandria, stabbed on the beach, perhaps in an attempt of the fourteen year old Ptolemy XIII to befriend his enemy Caesar. Caesar invaded Egypt. Caesar summoned Ptolemy XIII to strike a deal but Cleopatra not to be left behind, decided to appear in front of Caesar. According to the Greek historian, philosopher and biographer Plutarch 46-120 AD: "Cleopatra won Caesar by her charm and wit. She entered in front of Caesar, undetected, wrapped in a roll of bedding". That year of 48 BC Cleopatra, aged 20, ruled over the fifty two year old Caesar, Egypt, Rome and the entire known world. Plutarch states: "her actual beauty, the attraction of her person, the charm of her conversation and the intelligence of all that she said and did was bewitching. She regained her co-rule with his warring brother Ptolemy XIII. She intended not to share her rule with her brother for long.
When the Romans killed Ptolemy XIII, another of his brothers became Ptolemy XIV. On June 23, 47 BC, Cleopatra bore Julius Caesar a son, Caesarion, who became Ptolemy XV . Cleopatra's beauty, like Helen's has been fabled in arts of all forms, plays, novels and movies. Cleopatra was the most important human being of the millennium which follows her. Her ideas of government by a god-sovereign dating back five millenniums of Egyptian History influenced Julius Caesar in such a way that he had a statue of the goddess Cleopatra VII be placed in the Temple of Venus. In Rome, Cleopatra VII was given all honors of an empress and goddess. Caesar changed the calendar and called it, Julian, in his honor.
Cleopatra went with Caesar to Rome to continue to rule the world. The Roman Senators fearing Caesar to become god, decided to assassinate him on March 15, 44 BC, the Ides of March. This event did not stop Cleopatra VII from pursuing her goal to continue to dominate the world like her ancestor General Lagus and Lagus' friend, Alexander the Great had done three centuries earlier. Her ancient ideas of an empire ruled by an absolute god -like emperor were revolutionary and ahead of her time for Rome. Cleopatra VII who spoke several languages, Greek and Latin among many, maintained ambassadors and spies with every kingdom. She has influenced the entire world for four years like a modern American President, George Bush did two millenniums later.
During the civil war which followed the assassination of Caesar, Mark Anthony killed the senators Cassius and Brutus who have murdered Caesar.
Cleopatra decided to conquer Mark Anthony, the same way she had conquered Caesar, by her charms. Antony was bewitched. Cleopatra VII imitated the way Helen had conquered the princes of Mycenae to an alliance, Menelaus to a marriage and Paris to an adventure which provoked the war resulting in the predominance of Sparta and the rest of the Mycenaean cities in the millennium prior to the age of Jesus Christ. Cleopatra VII convinced Antony to declare Caesarion, Caesar's son.
Julius Caesar had adopted as heir his eighteen year old great nephew Octavian because of his homosexual favors, over his three year old natural son, Caesarion. The Romans did not like a Greek nor a woman ruler, and Cleopatra was a Greek woman. The misogynist Cicero commented: "We chopped down the tree, not rooted it up". Back in Egypt, Cleopatra VII replaced her brother Ptolemy XIV for his her three year old son Ptolemy XV. She made her son Caesarion the divine god child of the Rising Sun. She meant to unite Egypt and Rome under one crown.
Octavian defeated Antony in the year 43 BC. Antony sought refuge in Egypt. From there, Cleopatra ruled Egypt and the eastern part of the Roman world under her control. For the following twelve years Cleopatra challenged Rome and terrorized it as no other human being had done it since Hannibal. Since Octavian sister, Octavia, was Antony's wife, a truce was accomplished between the two enemies. The Roman world was divided in two along the Adriatic Sea.
Cleopatra, who knew Greek, who could recite the Iliad by heart and who consider herself descendant of the heroes of the Trojan War, decided to play her last gamble during the naval battle of Actium on September 2, 31 BC against the forces of Octavian. Cleopatra was the commander in chief of the most powerful navy and navigated in her flagship with imperial grandeur unprecedented in the history of naval warfare. She commanded thousands of warships, the largest armada the ancient world had ever seen. She had ruled Egypt and the world for more than 20 years. She ruled it in the same way of the great ancestor of hers, Alexander the Great. The Roman poet Horace, Octavian's friend and lover, had the opinion that Cleopatra's mind had become grandiose delirious, clouded and disoriented due to wine. She wanted to be co-ruler with Antony of the entire Roman world, the same way she had been with Caesar, but Antony was no Caesar.
Cleopatra VII maintained Antony's Eastern empire with a powerful navy well supplied with grain, manpower and material, such as the timber from Lebanon for shipbuilding. Her voice was the centralized command of the Ptolemaic bureaucracy which extended to the entire eastern Mediterranean Sea. Rome was suspicious of a female oriental despot despised by republicans. Cleopatra lured Octavian into a decisive battle away from Rome.
Octavian admiral, Agrippa, used light more manageable ships similar to the ones used by the pirates he had defeated. They made fast punitive strikes and prevented the Egyptian supply ships to reach Antony's army.
The Battle of Actium changed the course of history. The rule established by Cleopatra and Antony in 43 BC came to an end twelve years later when Cleopatra lost the battle. Rome remained the owner of the world. Cleopatra VII's dreams of her city of Alexandria as the new center of the world vanished. Strategically Octavian defeated Cleopatra before the battle started. Her army was overextended in Asia Minor under the questionable command of Antony and her fleet had to supply the largest army her navy was not able to supply on an indefinite basis. Tactical delays and the aggressive attack of Agrippa's ships on Cleopatra VII's fleet sealed her army's future to defeat. Antony's supply route was cut. He faced starvation and disease, desertions increased.
Cleopatra's fleet were unable to clear Agrippa's grip. Cleopatra ordered Antony's army to fight at sea.
In Shake - speare's Antony and Cleopatra, a soldier told Antony:
Oh noble emperor, do not fight by sea;
Trust not to rotten planks. Do you doubt
This sword and these my wounds? Let the Egyptians
go a - ducking.
We have used to conquer standing on the earth, And fighting foot to foot.
Without rowers to man all the ships, many transport and other vessels were burnt. This act and the smoke in the air transmitted desperation to his enemies. Octavian did not need spies to know what was happening to Antony's army which was confirmed by the deserters. Awaiting Cleopatra and her fleet were the Roman galleys which carried a harpoon used to grapple and reel the enemy until they could be boarded and destroyed. Cleopatra managed to escape, but most of her ships were tangled in a deadly combat. Roman ships endowed with the latest technology of warfare, catapults, fired flaming missiles and burnt some of Cleopatra's ships. Agrippa had more troops in his ships a ratio of three to one. Antony left the battle in pursuit of Cleopatra, abandoning his men to their fate. Cleopatra lost her army.
Roman civil wars ceased. Octavian established a "Pax Romana", a Roman peace. The Senate gave him the title of Augustus. The emperor who was to rule the world, as Cleopatra had dreamt of doing, was decided in the battle of Actium on September 2, of the year 31 BC.
The following year, Octavian arrived in Egypt on the last day of July and the following day of the following month he entered in triumph in Alexandria. That month was named August in his honor. Antony killed himself. He had ruled the Roman Eastern Empire in the company of the Egyptian god-empress and Pharaoh of Egypt , Cleopatra VII, for fourteen years.
Octavian met Cleopatra. Cleopatra tried to conquer Octavian, as she had conquered Julius Caesar and Antony before. The fate of her Ptolemaic dynasty, Egypt and the entire world depended on his will. Octavian decided on his interest and that of Rome. He was determined to disgrace her. To transport her and her children out of Egypt and parade them in Rome as trophies of victory. Instead, Cleopatra VII chose to die the Egyptian way, the bite of the asp, the Egyptian cobra, the snake sacred to Amon - Ra, the pharaohs' insignia worn on their headdress, a non-painful quick death. The Egyptian gods welcomed their royal and holy daughter into their pantheon, after twenty one years of sacred rule. Her son Caesarion, heir to the Julian throne of Rome and Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt was executed.
Octavian, the adopted heir of Caesar, ruled the world after the death by suicide of the most powerful ruler the world had ever known, Cleopatra VII. Octavian assassinated her child, who had inherited by birth, the most important and powerful empire of antiquity. Octavian, the usurper of the throne, called himself Emperor Augustus. Augustus adopted some of Cleopatra's ideas in various degrees and became Pharaoh of Egypt. Augustus established a bureucracy similar to the one of the Ptolemaic centralized, dictatorial and absolute government.
The Roman emperors who followed her, especially Caligula, accepted Cleopatra's ideas of a god-ruler and tried to imitate her to the fullest, including trying to start a Ptolemaic type of dynasty with incestual marriage to his sister and both he and his sister created living gods . The Empire of an absolute ruler was a Cleopatra's change provoked by the expansion of Rome into Cleopatra's Egypt . When Emperor Constantine died on May 22, 337, his sons divided the empire. Constantius divided the empire in the year 360, into the Roman Empire of the East ruled by him, and the Roman Empire of the West ruled by his cousin Julian. This division was done to avoid the empire's collapse and to maintain the legions which will continue to hold a grip on the Mediterranean World. The last emperor of the West, Romulus, Abdicated on September 4, 476. The last Roman Emperor of the East, Constantine XI, died during the fall of Constantinople, attacked by the 23- year- old Turkish Sultan Muhammad Mahmet II in May 1453.
"William Shake speare" the pseudonym of the Lord High Chamberlain of England, Edward de Vere, the 17 th Earl of Oxford, author of Antony and Cleopatranone wrote in 1607 in a scene of the play inside a room of Cleopatra's palace in Alexandria:
Antony asks Cleopatra: "Must thou find a new heaven, a new earth?". The Earl de Vere interpreted that Cleopatra was in charge and seeking to dominate the world, not just Egypt.
Of Antony's daughters by Octavia, the sister of Augustus, one daughter became the mother of Emperor Claudius and grandmother of Emperor Caligula, and the other, grandmother of Emperor Nero. With the death of Nero in 68 AD the dynasty created by Julius Caesar and Antony with the help of Cleopatra VII, came to an end. Egypt became the personal territory of the Emperor of Rome, the breadbasquet of the empire.