Cleopatra - the last Pharaoh of Egypt

On 12th August 30 B.C.E., the last Egyptian pharaoh died in Alexandria, but the world has never forgotten her. She was the mother of Julius Caesar’s son; she started a war between Rome’s most famous general, Marc Antony, and its future emperor, Augustus; Shakespeare wrote one of his best plays about her; the Arabs think her a great and intelligent ruler; she was the first pharaoh to learn the Egyptian language of her people; she is the star of many films; and, in the west, we see her as a woman so attractive that no man could refuse her anything she wanted. She was Cleopatra.

When Cleopatra became Pharaoh of Egypt, Rome was the greatest power in the world. When he died, her father left his kingdom to Cleopatra and her brother, Ptolemy, who was just a boy of eleven or twelve at the time. Cleopatra was not only six years older but she had some experience of ruling Egypt because she had helped her father when he was sick and weak in the year before he died. She had an excellent education and could speak many languages, including Latin, the one spoken in Rome. She was also intelligent and hard-working and, from the little we know about her, had a lively personality and big heart. She was certainly worried about her people when they were hungry and made sure that they got enough food.

But the picture we see of her in Europe is of a surprisingly beautiful queen who could control any man she met. Shakespeare showed her as a childish but extraordinarily beautiful woman, who always got what she wanted; a woman who could not control herself and was only interested in power and luxury. This was a picture that Roman historians painted, because she lost the war against the future emperor and, anyway, was a woman playing politics in a man’s world.

When Cleopatra became queen, her country was almost bankrupt. Her father spent far too much money and there was very little left. As queen, she also had to marry her younger brother, whose advisors wanted to see her dead so that they had all the power in Egypt. (It was normal for the kings of Egypt to marry their sisters so that the royal blood of the pharaohs stayed pure.) When the most important Roman, a married man of fifty-two called Julius Caesar, arrived in the Egyptian capital, Alexandria, she had a lot of difficulty seeing him because her younger brother and husband’s soldiers did not want her to meet their great visitor. They thought she would try to get Caesar on her side. Cleopatra decided to send him an expensive and lovely carpet as a present. When his servants opened the carpet, Cleopatra was inside, an extremely attractive seventeen- or eighteen-year-old girl. Nine months later, she gave Julius Caesar a baby boy, called Caesarion.

Julius Caesar, of course, took Cleopatra’s side in the war against her husband (who was also her younger brother), Ptolemy. He was killed. Her other brother, who was even younger, now became Pharaoh with her, but everyone knew the real ruler of the country.

When Julius Caesar returned to Rome, Cleopatra followed him and probably stayed there for two years. We know that she was certainly there when Caesar was killed by Brutus in 44 BC. She hurried back to Egypt immediately. Very shortly after, her younger brother died mysteriously and, so, Cleopatra made her own three-year-old son, Caesarion, Pharaoh with her.

It was not long before Marc Antony, Caesar’s life-long friend, wanted to meet her. He needed soldiers and food from Cleopatra because the civil war that had started after Julius Caesar’s death had cost Rome so much money. He called her to Tarsus (which is now in southern Turkey). When she arrived, it was not in a warship but in her own boat, with purple sails, smelling of perfume. Marc Antony was sitting in the centre of the town waiting for her but she did not get off her ship. Instead, he had to follow all the people from the town who ran to see her wonderful boat.

That was the beginning of one of the most famous love stories in history. Cleopatra gave Marc Antony three children. Although he went east to fight Rome’s enemies, he did not return to Rome afterwards to see his wife, the future Emperor Augustus’ sister, and to tell the people about how his Roman soldiers beat their enemies. Instead, he went back to see Cleopatra in Alexandria and gave away the land he had won for Rome to their three children. Of course, this made the future Emperor furious: Marc Antony was openly sleeping with Cleopatra while he was married to the Emperor’s sister; he gave Roman land to his and Cleopatra’s children; and he was living in eastern luxury, not the disciplined life of a Roman soldier.

Soon, Marc Antony had to fight the future emperor. Cleopatra wanted to be by his side in the coming war. Although Antony thought this was a poor idea, he agreed. It was a disastrous mistake. In the middle of the sea battle between the two Romans, just as Antony seemed to be winning, Cleopatra’s boat sailed away and her lover followed her. The battle was lost.

Marc Antony killed himself and died in Cleopatra’s arms. She returned to Alexandria but decided she could never be a prisoner of Rome. After a wonderful dinner for her many friends, she asked for a basket full of poisonous snakes and followed Antony to the other world.

Although Antony and Cleopatra have been dead for many years, their love is as famous now as it was when they were alive. We do not remember Cleopatra’s abilities as a queen, her intelligence and political skills, we only see the woman that made her partner lose a war for love.