Cleopatra: The Last Queen of Egypt
69 BCE O.S. – 30 BCE O.S.50 items
ancient worldwomenCleopatra VII, 69–30 BCE
The last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which had held Egypt since Alexander’s death, and the last independent ruler of a kingdom Rome had been circling for a century. She came to the throne at eighteen, bargained with Pompey, Caesar and Antony in turn, and died at thirty-nine, a few days after Octavian took Alexandria.
How it is built
Bands for the reigns: her father Ptolemy XII’s reign, his exile and return, her own reign, and each of her four co-rulers in turn: her father, her brothers Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV, and her son Caesarion. Her sister Arsinoe IV’s rival claim gets a band of its own.
Bands for the stories: the Alexandrian War, her years in Rome, the alliance with Antony and the last war with Octavian.
Places from Philae and Dendera up the Nile to Rome, Tarsus, Antioch, Ephesus and the sea off Actium.
Filter by rome for her dealings with Roman power, court for the family war over the throne, family for her children, religion for the Egyptian queen of the temples, war for the fighting, and legend for the famous stories: the bedsack, the pearl, the asp. Those are the ancient writers’ claims, all written by Romans or Greeks after she was dead, and the notes say where modern historians doubt them.
Dates
Every date is BCE in the Julian calendar, but it means two different things. Caesar’s reform, worked out with the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes, took effect on 1 January 45 BCE; from then on a Julian date is the date Romans actually wrote, so the Ides of March, Actium and the fall of Alexandria are given to the day. Before it, the Roman calendar had drifted about two months ahead of the seasons: Pharsalus was fought on 9 August 48 BCE by the Roman calendar, around 7 June by the Julian one. Those events are converted only to the month, with the Roman date in the notes. Egyptian documents count by the queen’s regnal years instead, and those, too, are in the notes.
Plutarch, who had it from his grandfather’s friends, on her appeal:
“For her beauty, as we are told, was in itself not altogether incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her; but converse with her had an irresistible charm.”
Plutarch, Life of Antony 27, translated by Bernadotte Perrin, on LacusCurtius.
Items
Cleopatra is born
Rome recognises Ptolemy XII, for a price
Gabinius restores Auletes; Berenice IV executed
Ptolemy XII dies; his will names Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII
The Buchis bull at Hermonthis
She hands Bibulus’s sons’ killers to Rome
Driven out of Alexandria
Pompey murdered at Pelusium
Smuggled to Caesar in a bedsack
Fire in the harbour
Caesar swims for it at the Pharos
Battle of the Nile; Ptolemy XIII drowns
Up the Nile with Caesar
Caesarion is born
Arsinoe paraded in Caesar’s triumph
A golden statue in the Temple of Venus Genetrix
The Julian calendar takes effect
The Ides of March
Ptolemy XIV dies
The barge at Tarsus
Arsinoe IV killed at Ephesus
The pearl dissolved in vinegar
Twins: Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene
Reunion at Antioch; Antony gives her lands
Ptolemy Philadelphus is born
The White Village: Antony waits for her
A visit to Herod; Jericho’s balsam
The Donations of Alexandria
“Let it be done”: an order in her own hand
Octavian reads Antony’s will
Battle of Actium
The Partners in Death
Pelusium falls
The god abandons Antony
Octavian takes Alexandria; Antony dies
Cleopatra dies
Caesarion killed