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I am User:PericlesofAthens, and this is my sandbox.

See my other sandboxes here:

Examples of Aphrodite-Venus with a diadem and other crowns

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Art History Journal: https://arthistoryjournal.org.uk/submit/

  • Plantzos, Dimitris (1999). Hellenistic Engraved Gems. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Snippet view from Google Books, p. 68: "Ge Ion and the Armed Aphrodite A garnet ring-stone from the Erotes tomb at Eretria"' depicts Aphrodite in three-quarter back view, her knees bent, her hima- tion round her hips, and holding a round shield and a spear (no. 165). The intaglio .." Snippet view from p. 69: "...was recut to a ring-stone. Whether the figure is wearing a diadem, fillet, or (less probable) stephane is not clear, and although an illusion to royalty might be intended, not much can..."

Cleopatra with a scepter

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  • Example in clay seal portrait from Edfu: "175 Clay seal impression with a portrait of Cleopatra VII" by Sally-Ann Ashton (Walker and Higgs, 2001: p. 176)...she wears a stephane crown here.

This well-preserved seal impression show [sic] the portrait of a royal female, as identified by the stephane (crown) that she wears and the sceptre behind her shoulders. The style of the image and the attributes are Greek, as is the chiton that the queen wears. The strong, aquiline nose and hair tied back in a bun identify the subject as Cleopatra VII. The earring and necklace, which is partly obscured, accord with the representations of the queen on coinage (cat. nos 221-222).

  • Example in coinage: "186 Bronze coin of Cleopatra VII" (Walker and Higgs, 2001: p. 178)...she also wears a stephane here!

Aprhodite-Venus and shields

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Ancient Macedonian paintings of Hellenistic-era military armor, arms, and gear from the Tomb of Lyson and Kallikles in ancient Mieza (modern-day Lefkadia), Imathia, Central Macedonia, Greece, dated 2nd century BC ---- the lunette here above an entrance in the tomb has a similar central position for the shield, comparable to the medallion in Pompeii.

This cast is a detail of a relief on Trajan's Column. Victory was used to divide the scenes of Trajan's first battle against the Dacians (who lived in present-day Romania) from those of his second encounter.

Situated in Trajan's forum, this honorary column is more than forty yards high, including the base and capital. It was inaugurated in 113 AD...

The scene of victory writing on the shields (Victoria in clipeo arcibens) has one notable iconographic precedent: Aphrodite triumphs over Ares (who is reflected in the shield) through the power of love, displaying in triumph the weapons of her lover. Aphrodite has taken possession of two of Ares's arms. She is holding his shield but using it as a mirror and has his helmet under her foot. The god of war has been disarmed. He strips himself of his weapons for the love of Aphrodite, and she holds in her possession his shield and helmet. Looking at herself in his shield, she turns it into a means for admiring her beauty.

Attributes were added and removed, while contaminations [sic] and suggestions came from other iconographic typologies. The right-hand gesture was modified; and so, in the first century A.D. Aphrodite became a Victoria in clipeo arcibens. In this form a bronze statue of her was placed in the forum of Brescia as a symbol of the city in the first century A.D. Two wings were added to the Aphrodite of Brescia and she was transformed into a Victory, becoming the iconographic model visible in the relief on Trajan's Column.

The bronze statue of Aphrodite—a Greek original and probably brought to Rome from Egypt at Octavian's order following Cleopatra's death in 29 BC—was placed in the forum of Brescia as Victoria Arcibens, probably by Vespasian after his victory in 69 A.D., when he renewed the monuments in the city's capitol. The original subject of the Greek bronze was thus used as an allegory celebrating the emperor's public glory. The Victory of Brescia is the result of a modification dating from Vespasian's time (69-79 A.D.) and is probably the archetype of the iconographic type known as 'Victory with the shield', the precedent of the Victory depicted on Trajan's Column and a prototype that enjoyed great popularity in the imperial age.

The image on Trajan's Column derives from the slender and harmonious figure of the Victory of Brescia, which in turn goes back to the Greek prototype of the Aphrodite of Capua. This name was drawn from the custom among archaeologists to group various finds that are part of the same iconographic scheme under the name of a particular exemplar. The Venus of Capua, which dates from the early 2nd century A.D., was found in the amphitheater of Capua without its arms or sword. The Aphrodite of Capua is also thought to have originated from a bronze model from the second half of the fourth century B.C. Another iconographic precedent of Aphrodite writing on the shields is found in the Aphrodite of Perge from the second century A.D. (Museum of Antalya, Turkey), who has Mars's shield hanging from her left hand and indicating it with her right. Because of the drapery from which the bare torso emerges, these variations also recall the Aphrodite of Milos (second century B.C.), now in the Louvre in Paris. The shield on which Victory is writing, like the helmet where her foot rests, no longer symbolizes Aphrodite's triumph over Ares's martial fury, but the emperor's triumph in war over his enemies.

The medallions of Faustina, apart from types of goddesses, common to the coins, offer some interesting new themes. A reverse, with the first obverse, FAVST1NAE AVG Pit AVG FIL, shows a peacock bearing a small girl, between dancing figures (no. 9), and apparently a young Juno, as type of Faustina, comparable to the young Jupiter on the goat Amalthaea. With the obverse, FAVSTINA AVG PI I AVG (AVGVSTI) FIL, comes a richer series of types — Diana unveiling (no. 17), Cybele enthroned with Atys (no. 21), Mars and Venus (no. 11), Isis on the dog (vol. iii, no. 44), a goddess plucking a branch from a tree in a garden amid a bevy of Cupids (no. 13). The Venus of the coins, holding sceptre and apple, is shown here with richer detail — with doves at a basin and a Cupid (no. 12), or with Cupid on a dolphin and a Triton (nos. 6, 7). A fine type of Sol as charioteer is too poorly recorded to be interpreted precisely (no. 23). The type of Faustina, with a child on her left arm, and children beside her with the cornu-copiae of the Golden Age is herself a goddess — a Fecunditas of that blissful time : or again, as Astraea-Justitia, she sits on the chair of crossed cornuacopiae, attended by Spes, Annona (?) and Concordia (?) (no. 34). In the next series, with obv. FAVSTINA AVGVSTA AVGVSTI PI I F, the Golden Age is still presented in the type of the Four Seasons (no. 28). Faustina, with two children beside her (no. 29), appears as Fecunditas or Pietas, and again, as Venus Victrix, holding Victory and resting elbow on shield set on captive, while a second captive kneels before her (no. 30). A dedication to the ‘ Domus Augusta’, wishing it all good fortune, is coupled with the obverse, FAVSTINA AVG ANTO-NINI AVG Pll FIL (vol. iii, no. 36). Discussion of later medallions, with obverse, FAVSTINA AVGVSTA. falls under the reign of Marcus.

On some late sarcophagi, individual mythological figures could also be excerpted from their narrative contexts and represented with portrait heads...These isolated figures share some characteristics with the representations of humans in the forms of gods in statues or reliefs. Wrede's discussion of these figures, which appear from the later first century, suggests that they were used to embody particular qualities such as beauty, chastity, or success in business; their significance linked to this one point of correspondence. Similar figures also appear on sarcophagi where the deceased is shown in the guise of Venus or as one of the Muses, outside a narrative context. Here we might see the identification as stressing the beauty or education of the figure.

On p. 194, Newby provides the following footnote, #22, for an example of a figure on a sarcophagus shown in the guise of Venus:

Venus: e.g. clipeus portrait with deceased as crouching Venus, ASR V.1, no. 92; Zanker and Ewald 2004, 126–7, fig. 110.

Marcus Fabius Rufus paintings online

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Note that the painting with the medallion is located in a part of this larger domestic complex known as the House of Maius Castricius.

Books about the Pompeii painting

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VI 17 INSULA OCCIDENTALIS, 32-36, Ivan Varriale chapter

A. Capurso, Pompei-La casa di Marco Fabio Rufo-2015

Varriale 2006, pp. 439–440 translation:

The well-preserved back wall has a red plinth with motifs on the edges of the carpet, a median area with panels with a black background, decorated with edges of rappero and at the center swans. The upper register is held over the entire field of the red-bottomed bezel, with a medallion in the center, enclosed by an elegant golden frame, contained in a tympanum formed by a pair of taut garlands arranged obliquely. Inside the clipeo [i.e. shield, the clipeus], on the red background, there is a figure of female divinity with a purple robe, quilt of golden flowers. The goddess wears a refined gold necklace and a double row of pearls and emeralds, with double dangle earrings pearl. The precious crown that adorns the head and the golden scepter identifies it as the Venus Physica Pompeiana14, venerated in the temple near the Forum.

Varriale 2006, p. 442, image caption translation:

Environment (7), wall N, central section,

upper register

Clipeo with Venus Physica Pompeiana

From the followup work for the Bologna conference of 2008, here's Varriale 2009, pp. 464–467, translation:

The dating of the house in its current extension to the late Republican age finds confirmation in the extended decorative, pictorial and mosaic phase, due to the final period of the II style2. However, at least as regards the plan placed at the level of the Vicolo dei Soprastanti, there are numerous elements that testify to a pre-Roman phase of the dwelling. The perimeter wall is punctuated by a series of limestone half-columns of the Sarno, surmounted by Tuscan capitals in gray tuff. The courtyard [2], strongly transformed during the first century. d.C., preserves a portico with columns in tufa, stuccoed in white and surmounted by capitals of Ionic order. The pavement floors of the rooms [7], [13], [14], [16] can be traced back to types dating back to the second half of the second century. a.C.3 (Fig. 4). Moreover, on the north wall of the room [o] a piece of decoration in I style is preserved, which decorated the pierced door that connected the room with the portico [2]; later, the door was closed and the room was annexed to the service area occupying the eastern sector of the first floor (Fig. 5). All these elements can confirm the presence of houses in this area of ​​the Insula Occidentalis as early as the second century. a.C.4. The name Maius Castricius derives from a graffito in osco, an eituns, found on a tufa pillar at the southeastern corner of the insula 6 of the regio VII, which indicated to the soldiers of the patrol the way to follow around the walls, passing between the houses by Maius Castricius and Mara Spurnus5. A guard post is located along the perimeter wall on the Vicolo dei Soprastanti, further west of the entrance to the Casa di M. Castricius. A triangular window, formed of three blocks of limestone, allowed patrol soldiers to control the entire western front of the walls, later occupied by the terrace houses6 (Fig.6). The epigraphic testimony can not be used as evidence of attribution of property, but it can be considered a further demonstration of the presence of houses within the band facing the walls, already from the Samnite age. The House VII 16, 17 borders to the north with that of M. Fabius Rufus (VII 16, 22) and communicates with it through a modern breach, open to the environment [9]. In the last phase of city life the two houses were certainly separate. It was thought, however, that they were united in the Republican age and had, the House of M. Fabius Rufus, a residential and representative function and, that of Castricius, a service function. This last hypothesis arises from the presence of the rooms [8], [9], [13], [18] and [29] decorated in the schematic style, with simple white-background paintings of a type attested in the Republican age in secondary environments of high-level houses, including the House of Augustus in Rome and the Villa B of Oplontis7. Another element to take into consideration is the absence of a real atrium, whose presence, however, characterizes all the houses that face this side of the walls, including the House of M. Fabius Rufus. Moreover, the existence in the Castricius House of a spa quarter repainted in III style, but with structures and floors referring to the late Republican age, with close comparisons to Pompeii in stately homes, could suggest that in this period the house at no. 17 was annexed to the house at no. 22 which, although of the highest level, appears without thermal plants. However, the hypothesis that the two houses had once been united is based solely on assumptions and on the analysis of the decorative apparatuses and therefore, without an analytical study of the masonry structures, remains within the scope of conjecture.

Varriale 2009, pp. 467–468, translation:

The portico [2] is adorned with an Ionic colonnade, with columns in Nocera tuff, angular pillars in mixed work and plutei to the intercolumns. The floor is in cocciopesto, decorated with small scales of black limestone and white tesserae. The eastern portico ambulatory shows an assignable decoration for the final phase of the III style. The east wall is divided into two sections by a pillar which conditions the development of the decoration. In the northern section, compressing and simplifying it, the decorators adopt the same pattern as the rest of the wall in a smaller space. The black plinth adorned with bushes is higher than in the southern tract, while the median area is composed of narrow side panels with a red background. The southern section is larger and shows a more complete unfolding of the decorative scheme. The eastern section of the south wall has a coarse joint between two sections of the wall. The plaster of the east section is visibly overlapped with that of the central section. Furthermore, the western part of the south wall has a black plinth with a geometric pattern and red plinth, very different from the rest of the decoration that presents plants in the field of the plinth and black plinth (Fig. 7). In the central part of the east wall, a gap in the plaster allows a glimpse of a portion of the red plinth covered by another layer of fresco8. This makes it possible to suppose that the east section of the south wall and the entire east wall have been re-frescoed at a later time in the III style phase or in the IV style period. Difficult to understand the cause of the renewal of the paintings and what reasons have led the decorators to perform the painting by imitating the pattern preserved only in a short stretch.

Varriale 2009, pp. 468–469, translation:

Around the portico there are numerous rooms, among which the barrel vault [7] and IV style decorations stand out, which include a bust of Venus, painted inside a medallion, placed at the center of a red-bottomed lunette9. The image of the deity, richly jeweled, was interpreted by De Caro as an echo of Poppea's visit to Pompeii, testified by the graffiti in the House of Giulio Polibio10 and, according to the scholar, by the gold lamp found near Porta Marina11. From the west wing of the peristyle [2] one enters the portico [14], which has six brick columns and a decoration in the IV style that assign the chronology to at least the second half of the first century. A.D. The floor mosaic in cocciopesto, with a meandering modular pattern alternating with squares within which dots are inscribed, instead, should be assigned to the pre-Roman phase of the dwelling. On this porticoed area there is the room [15], with a barrel vault and a panoramic window, and the triclinium [16], which preserves decorations that can be assigned to the passage phase between the II and III style. From the western wing of the portico [2] one can also access the lower floor through a staircase followed by a corridor [21], covered by a lava floor, dotted with white tesserae. This level, obtained by digging the filling between the two curtain walls, develops in correspondence of the upper rooms facing the gulf and ends at the west in correspondence of the external wall curtain (Fig. 3).

In Bragantini 1997, p. 894, the image caption basically says that the red lunette is decorated with a medallion containing an image of Venus, surrounded by garlands, and that these belong to the Pompeian Fourth Style.

In Bragantini 1997, p. 895, the next image caption explains further that in the bust of Venus Pompeiana ("Venere Pompeiana") in the medallion, the goddess is wearing a diadem and holds a scepter in her left hand. The caption also says that she wears fine jewelry and ornate clothing, but that the painting itself is rather modest in terms of quality.

Roman medallion, roundel and tondo paintings

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  • This book, in the "About the cover art" section on p. v, describes the famous 'Sappho' tondo painting from Pompeii and explains Roman tondo portrait paintings in general.

    Although the best-known paintings from ancient Pompeii are the frescoes depicting Greek mythological subjects, portraits adorned the walls of many Roman houses, especially in the atrium, the grand reception hall in which families often also displayed wax masks of their ancestors. Perhaps the finest of the preserved painted portraits from Pompeii is this tondo (painting in a circular frame) depicting a young woman wearing her hair in curls over her forehead and ears, a coiffure popular during the mid-first century CE. Nicknamed "Sappho" (after the famous ancient Greek poetess) because of the stylus and wax writing tablet she holds, she gazes at the viewer but seems lost in thought. The objects she holds are standard attributes in private portraits of Romans who wished to present themselves as cultured individuals. Her gold hairnet and earrings attest to her wealth, real or imagined. In similar portraits from other Pompeian houses, the woman often appears beside her husband. The male portraits also conform to a set pattern. They hold a scroll beneath the chin and therefore share the literary pretensions of their spouse. In fact, a tondo portrait of a man with a scroll was a pendant image on the same wall as the 'Sappho' tondo before excavators cut both portraits out of the wall and transferred them to the Archaeological Museum in Naples. The man and 'Sappho' were undoubtedly husband and wife."

Fred S. Kleiner (2013) [2005]. Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Global History, Volume 1 (14th edition). Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. v.

Pfrommer's Greek Gold from Hellenistic Egypt

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Pfrommer, Michael; Towne-Markus, Elana (2001). Greek Gold from Hellenistic Egypt. Los Angeles: Getty Publications (J. Paul Getty Trust). ISBN 0-89236-633-8.

Read the entire PDF here: http://d2aohiyo3d3idm.cloudfront.net/publications/virtuallibrary/0892366338.pdf

Woman shown by Pfrommer on page 22, allegedly Berenice II of Egypt
  • Page 22, image caption: "Figure 19: Berenike II wearing a Stéphane with a medallion (detail). From Roman villa at Boscoreale. First century B.C. Wall-painting. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1903 (03.14.5)."
  • Pages 22-23, QUOTE: "Although these and similar knots were highly valued for their magical power, it was not until the time of Philip n and Alexander the Great that Greek jewelers first developed an artistic concept for the sacred knot. Despite appearing quite late in the history of Greek jewelry, the Herakles knot nevertheless dominated the world of Hellenistic jewelry. The explanation for its sudden popularity is not difficult to discern. The era of Alexander and the two following centuries, which were dominated by Macedonian dynasties, are replete with Herakles iconography. Although pieces of jewelry with the Herakles knot were very fashionable in this period, the use of the motif should not be seen exclusively as an allusion to the owner's Macedonian descent. Even though this connotation is likely, the use of these knots also shows a trend toward magical symbolism in jewelry. The knot of the Getty Stéphane illustrates that its ancient owner was completely aware of the dominating trends of her time. It is the centerpiece of an elaborate headdress, and it was meant to rest directly above the forehead of its wearer. A number of small terra-cotta statuettes show a Stéphane [PAGE BREAK] with a Herakles knot [FIGURE 18]. In another view of how a Stéphane would have looked when it was worn, FIGURE 19 illustrates the Ptolemaic queen Berenike n (r. 245—222 B.C.) from a wall-painting in a Roman villa in Boscoreale that was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius inA.D. 79. (Berenike's Stéphane, however, has a medallion and not a Herakles knot in the center.)
  • Page 23, QUOTE: "Today these headdresses are most often referred to as diadems (a crownlike ornament), but "stephane" (headdress) is the more appropriate term for the present discussion, for it does not imply royal rank. In antiquity a diadem was a very special item that was linked almost exclusively to Alexander the Great, his successors, and the sphere of kings. It was simply a purple textile band that was rarely decorated. Originally, diadems were part of the royal accoutrements of the Achaemenid kings; when Alexander captured the Persian Empire, he incorporated some of their regal elements into his royal costume. Accordingly, the bandlike diadem, tied in the hair with its tasseled ends dangling on the neck or flowing around the shoulders, came to symbolize kingship. No man except the king himself could wear or even touch the diadem, as illustrated in a famous story about Alexander and his diadem. During a boat excursion in Mesopotamia the wind swept the diadem off the king's head and carried it away. An ordinary sailor volunteered to rescue this symbol of the king and dove into the water. He was successful in retrieving the diadem, but in order to protect it, he put it on his own head, and by so doing gambled with his life. The action could have sentenced him to death for having profaned the symbol of kingship. Luckily he was given a monetary reward instead. Because the diadem is a symbol of royalty, applying the term to the Getty piece might suggest a royal status for the anonymous owner—a conclusion that cannot be corroborated in this case."

From the Met Museum site: "Most recently it has been suggested that the pair may represent a Macedonian queen, or princess, and her daughter or younger sister. The gilded kithara and richly adorned, thronelike chair, as well as the carefully rendered gold jewelry and headbands, give the impression of royal personage. Whatever the exact subject, this painting and others in the villa were admired as excellent copies of Hellenistic art that emphasized the erudition and worldliness of the villa's owner."

Bingen's Hellenistic Egypt

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Hellenistic Egypt : monarchy, society, economy, culture / Jean Bingen ; edited with an introduction by Roger S. Bagnall Berkeley : University of California Press, [2007] ISBN 9780520251427 DT92 .B54 2007 3rd floor

Bringmann, a History of the Roman Republic

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  • Bringmann, Klaus (2007) [2002], A History of the Roman Republic, translated by W. J. Smyth, Cambridge: Polity Press, ISBN 0-7456-3371-4.

After Julius Caesar defeated his rival Pompey the Great at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, the latter fled to Ptolemaic Egypt, but was executed on on 28 September by order of the Ptolemaic government under Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator.[1] Caesar and his forces arrived at Alexandria in early October, hoping to negotiate with his chief rival to end their civil war, only to be presented with Pompey's severed head at the Ptolemaic court.[2] During the winter, when Caesar attempted to mediate a royal dispute between Ptolemy XIII and his sister-bride Cleopatra VII, he found himself trapped and besieged with her in the palace quarters by the forces of Ptolemy XIII, only to be rescued in March 47 BC by a relief force sent by Mithridates of Pergamon.[3] During a subsequent battle outside of Alexandria, Ptolemy XIII died by drowning in the Nile.[3] Caesar then made Cleopatra the ruler of Egypt with her then eleven-year-old brother Ptolemy XIV.[3] Caesar became Cleopatra's lover, joining her for an extended sightseeing tour of the Nile and ancient Egyptian monuments, a tourist attraction even then, before leaving her in June.[3] Soon after Caesar departed from Egypt she bore him a son named Caesarion.[3]

The Parthian invasions of Anatolia and the Levant lasting from 40-37 BC forced Mark Antony to make concessions with Octavian that allowed the latter to build his strength in the west, subduing his rivals Lepidus and Sextus Pompeius.[4] After the Parthians were driven out of Roman territory, Antony set about reorganizing the east, establishing loyal rulers of client states in Cilicia, Pontus, Cappadocia, and Lesser Armenia, with Herod the Great, king of the Jews, keeping the peace in Palestine.[4] Cleopatra VII, who maintained a love affair with Antony, received lands in Cilicia, Palestine, and Lebanon in exchange for offering Antony much-needed financial support for a military campaign against the Parthians.[4] Antony's Parthian War ultimately ended in defeat, deepening Antony's reliance on Cleopatra as he sent his wife Octavia the Younger back to her brother Octavian, who had sent Antony only 1,200 of a promised 20,000 legionaries for his Parthian campaign.[4]

Antony was successful, however, in conquering Armenia and installing Alexander Helios, his eldest son with Cleopatra, as its king.[5] In an elaborate ceremony held with Antony at Alexandria in 34 BC, Cleopatra was proclaimed the New Isis and "queen of kings" over her kingly sons, with Caesarion made her co-regent, Alexander promised lands east of the Euphrates and Ptolemy Philadelphus the lands west of it.[5] Before Antony and Octavian's joint imperium expired on 31 December 33 BC, Antony declared Caesarion as the true heir of Julius Caesar in an attempt to undermine Octavian.[6] Octavian responded with a speech in the Roman Senate on the first day of his consulship, i.e. 1 January 33 BC, accusing Antony of attempting to subvert Roman freedoms and authority as a slave to his Oriental queen, who he said was given lands that rightfully belonged to the Romans.[6] However, Antony still had significant support in the Senate and when his allies Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Sosius became consuls on 1 January 32 BC they lambasted Octavian, who was not present now that he was a private citizen without a public office.[7] During the following session, however, Octavian appeared in the Senate house with armed guards and sat between the consuls as if he continued to hold the authority of a triumvir, intimidating them but allowing them and their allies to flee to Antony in the east.[8] Antony and Octavian then made military preparations against each other for what would be the Final War of the Roman Republic.[8]

Antony's official divorce with Octavian's sister and Cleopatra's presence with Antony on his campaign led some in his camp, already affected by Octavian's propaganda campaign, to defect and join the latter instead.[8] This included Lucius Munatius Plancus, who informed Octavian of Antony's will deposited with the Vestal Virgins.[8] Octavian forced the surrender of this document and publicly revealed that Antony was to be buried alongside Cleopatra in Egypt, whereas Octavian, in a show of loyalty to Rome, decided to begin construction of his own mausoleum at the Campus Martius.[8] His legal standing was also improved by claiming the consulship in 31 BC, reentering public office.[8]

In 32 BC Antony concentrated his forces in Greece at the Gulf of Ambracia, near Actium, where he intended to sail to Italy across the Adriatic Sea the following year.[9] However, Octavian's naval fleet, led by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, managed to blockade the Gulf of Ambracia.[9] On 2 September 31 BC, in the Battle of Actium, Antony's naval forces attempted to break the blockade, but they were defeated, he and Cleopatra fled back to Egypt, and his land army marching to Macedonia surrendered to Octavian with the promise that they would be granted pensions of farmland as Roman veterans.[10] By the summer of 30 BC Octavian's forces had landed in Egypt and by 30 August they had taken over the city of Alexandria.[10] Antony committed suicide, followed shortly thereafter by Cleopatra once she realized Octavian intended to parade her through the streets of Rome as a captive in his triumphal procession.[10] The Ptolemaic dynasty thus came to an end and Octavian became Cleopatra's successor as ruler of Egypt, where he installed an equestrian viceroy to oversee the transition of Egypt as a province under Roman rule.[10] In January 27 BC Octavian was renamed Augustus ('the revered') and amassed constitutional powers that established him as the first Roman emperor in the Principate period.[11]

Burstein's The Reign of Cleopatra

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The reign of Cleopatra / Stanley M. Burstein. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2004. ISBN 9780313325274 DT92.7 .B87 2004 3rd floor

Chauveau's Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra

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Egypt in the age of Cleopatra : history and society under the Ptolemies / Michel Chauveau ; translated from the French by David Lorton. Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2000] ISBN: 0801435978 DT61 .C4613 2000 3rd floor

Chauveau's Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth

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Cleopatra : beyond the myth / by Michel Chauveau ; translated from the French by David Lorton. Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2002. ISBN 0801438675 DT97.2 .C4713 2002 3rd floor

Fletcher's Cleopatra the Great

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  • Fletcher, Joann. (2008). Cleopatra the Great: The Woman Behind the Legend. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN: 978-0-06-058558-7.

DT92.7.F58 2011 3rd floor

  • pp. 237-238: WOW: Fletcher not only mentions the ringlets of hair mentioned by Donatella Mazzoleni (2004: pp 389-392), but she also compares this directly to Isis-Aphrodite! And explains how the ringlets were formed using heated metal tongs. She also mentions the gold and silver hairpins, which not only seem to be featured in the House of Marcus Fabius Rufus medallion painting of Venus-Aphrodite, but also correlate with the pearl-studded hairpins shown in Cleopatra's portrait from Herculaneum that is covered by Fletcher. Goddamn!
  • pp. 238-239: OMG! Again! Cleopatra's pearl necklace is described here; relate this to medallion painting of Aphrodite-Venus from the House of M. Fabius Rufus illustrated by Mazzoleni.
  • pp. 250-251: AGAIN! After talking about the dissolving of the pearl in vinegar wine tale, Fletcher brilliantly discusses PTOLEMAIC QUEENLY JEWELRY, including pearls and necklaces, along with their connection to APHRODITE.
  • Image plates between pp. 246-247 has a caption about Cleopatra's curly hair along her forehead in a coin image: "bronze eighty drachma coin of Cleopatra VII from her Alexandrian mint, portraying her distinctive profile, royal diadem, and 'melon'coiffure with wavy curls around her forehead."


Index page 447

Jones' Cleopatra: a Sourcebook

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Cleopatra : a sourcebook / Prudence J. Jones. Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2006] ISBN 9780806137414 DT92.7 .J66 2006 3rd floor

Mazzoleni's Domus: wall painting in the Roman house

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Mazzoleni, Donatella (2004). Domus: Wall Painting in the Roman House. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. ISBN 0892367660. Essay and texts on the sites by Umberto Pappalardo ; photographs by Luciano Romano.

  • Page 388 (picture on p. 389): "Facing page: The Second Style painted decoration has been partially covered by a later wall, which takes up the same decorative scheme. The upper register has an architectural view with a temple from which the goddess Aphrodite emerges carrying a cupid on her shoulder."
  • Page 388: "The neighborhood on the west slope of Pompeii contains some of the most sumptuous houses in the city, all of which enjoyed a panoramic view of the Bay of Naples. Built for the most part on sloping sites, the houses generally have several floors connected by narrow stairs. One of the loveliest of these is the House of Marcus Fabius Rufus."
  • Page 388: "This black-painted room, decorated like an architectural stage set, was rebuilt shortly after it was first finished. The owners added a new wall in front of the east wall, and it, too, was painted as an architectural stage set in the Second Style. In its final phase, the room was completely whitewashed. The pictorial decoration, visible on the upper part of the walls, reveals a view of a sanctuary, and he goddess Venus emerges from its central door, accompanied by a figure of Eros. Only the lower part of the second stage is preserved it shows a podium that opens onto a stairway flanked by two wings of three columns, with a censer in the center."
  • Page 388: "The passageway from the peristyle to an interior room, possibly intended for cult use and summarily decorated in a Second Style schema, has a lunette [sic] decorated with a medallion. In this medallion a divinity graces a tympanum delineated by two garlands hung against the red ground. At the center the goddess Aphrodite is painted wearing a sumptuous embroidered tunic that is fastened at the shoulders with brooches. She is adorned with three pearl necklaces, and earrings of twin pearls of a type frequently seen at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Her hair is elaborately dressed in ringlets, and she wears a golden diadem on her head; two pairs of veils hang down her back from the nape of her neck. The goddess holds a scepter decorated with a bird in her right hand. The rest of the painting is very simple—a red socle [sic] with horizontal lines, and a black middle register with squared panels edged with carpet borders and decorated with vignettes representing swans."
  • Page 390, the medallion image of Aphrodite with image caption: "painted decoration in the room between the peristyle and an interior space. There is a medallion with an image of Aphrodite at the center of the lunette and within a tympanum formed of garlands."
  • Page 392, image caption with miniature pic (larger pic on p. 399): "Page 399: The House of Marcus Fabius Rufus. Detail of the Second Style painted decoration partially covered by a later wall. Venus emerges from the central doorway of a sanctuary accompanied by a figure of Eros."
  • Illustrations of Aphrodite-Venus (aka Cleopatra with the cupid Caesarion) can be seen on pp. 389, 392, 399. The medallion pic of Aphrodite, also wearing a golden diadem (!!!) can be seen on pages 390 (full view of the room) and 400 (close up detail).

Miles' Cleopatra: a Sphinx Revisited

[edit]

Cleopatra : a sphinx revisited / edited by Margaret M. Miles. Berkeley : University of California Press, [2011] ISBN: 9780520243675 DT92.7 .C54 2011 3rd floor

Nikoloutsos' Ancient Greek women in film

[edit]

Ancient Greek women in film / edited by Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780199678921 PN1995.9.M97 A63 2013 4th floor

Roller's the World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene

[edit]

Roller, Duane W. (2003). The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene: Royal Scholarship on Rome's African Frontier. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415305969.

Roller's Cleopatra: a Biography

[edit]
  • Roller, Duane W. (2010). Cleopatra: a biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195365535.

DT92.7 .R65 2010 3rd floor

CHAPTER: INTRODUCTION

  • p. 1: QUOTE: "Cleopatra VII (69-30 BC), queen of Egypt...was an accomplished diplomat, naval commander, administrator, linguist, and author, who skillfully managed her kingdom in the face of a deteriorating political situation and increasing Roman involvement. That she ultimately lost does not diminish her abilities. yet her persona in popular culture and the arts often overrides her real self, and even scholarly accounts of her career may rely on information from early modern drama and art or the movies, which are interesting and significant in their own right but of no relevance in understanding the queen herself. Although she is the subject of an extensive bibliography, she can be unfairly represented as a person whose physical needs determined her political decisions. Some of the most unbiased evidence form her own era, the art and coinage produced while she was alive, is too frequently ignored."
  • pp. 1-2: QUOTE: "Like all women, she suffers from male-dominated historiography in both ancient and modern times and was often seen merely as an appendage of the men in her life or was stereotyped into typical chauvinistic female roles as seductress or sorceress, one whose primary accomplishment was ruining the men that she was involved with. In this view, she was nothing more than the 'Egyptian mate' of Antonius and played little role in the policy decisions of her own world. Even into the twentieth century she could still be seen as a remarkably insignificant figure in Greco-Roman history. In the 1930s the great Roman historian Ronald Syme —without whom so much less would be known about the ancient world—astonishingly wrote: 'Cleopatra was of no moment whatsoever in the policy of Caesar the Dictator, but merely a brief chapter in his amours,' and 'the propaganda of Octavianus magnified Cleopatra beyond all measure and decency.'"
  • p. 2: QUOTE: "Yet she was the only woman in all classical antiquity to rule independently—not merely as a successor to a dead husband—and she desperately tried to salvage and keep alive a dying kingdom in the face of overwhelming Roman pressure. Descended from at least two companions of Alexander the Great, she had more stature than the Romans whom she opposed. As a woman, her dynastic survival required personal decisions unnecessary to men. Depicted evermore as the greatest of seductresses, who drove men to their doom, she had only two known relationships in 18 years, hardly a sign of promiscuity. Furthermore, these connections—to the two most important Romans of the period—demonstrated that her choice of partners was a carefully crafted state policy, the only way that she could ensure the procreation of successors who would be worthy of the distinguished history of her dynasty."
  • pp. 2-3: QUOTE: "Role models for Cleopatra were limited but dynamic. First there was the most famous of Egyptian queens Hatshepsut (ruled ca. 1479/3-1458/7 B.C.), who succeeded upon the death of her husband, Thutmosis II. She saw herself as the one who liberated Egypt form years of Hyksos rule and was patroness of a remarkable building program, still conspicuously visible. She also extended the boundaries of the Egyptian state: like Cleopatra, she was especially concerned with creating a presence in the Levant. Another inspiration for Cleopatra was Artemisia, queen of Halikarnassos in 480 B.C. Although little is known about her, she is remembered for commanding her own fleet and playing a crucial (if somewhat enigmatic) role in the Battle of Salamis, the great concluding event in the war between the Greek states and Persia. And finally there was the first major Ptolemaic queen, Arsinoe II (ca. 316-270 B.C.), daughter of Ptolemy I, who defined the characteristics of female royalty within the dynasty. Although she never ruled on her own, her status in Egypt was equal to that of her brother-husband, Ptolemy II. She established the concept of sibling marriage—an essential dynastic tool—among the Ptolemies and was also married to two Macedonian kings. Like Cleopatra, she carefully chose her partners to enhance her own status."
  • p. 3: QUOTE: "All three of these queens had qualities that molded Cleopatra VII. There were many other influences, including Alexander the Great, Mithridates VI the Great of Pontos, and her male Ptolemaic ancestors, as well as the dynamic women of Greek mythology, such as Penelope, who, although married, ruled a kingdom alone for 20 years. Even the aristocratic Roman women who were her competitors, such as Fulvia, Octavia, and Livia, were models, resulting in a cross-fertilization between the role of the Hellenistic queen and that of the Roman matron."
  • p. 3: QUOTE: "Because there are no certain portraits of Cleopatra except the two dimensional-shorthand on her coinage, little can be said about her physical appearance. The coins show a prominent nose (a family trait) and chin, with an intensity of gaze and hair inevitably drawn back into a bun. That she was short is explicitly stated in one source and perhaps implied in the famous bedsack tale. A notice by Plutarch is often misquoted to imply that she was not particularly beautiful, but what was actually written is that the force of her personality far outweighed any physical attractiveness. Sources agree that her charm was outstanding and her presence remarkable, something still noticeable even a few days before her death. As a proper royal personage she was skilled in horseback riding and hunting; in fact more than once she was described as male in Egyptian records."
  • pp. 3-4: QUOTE: "Cleopatra VII was born around the beginning of 69 B.C.; she was the last of the Ptolemaic dynasty, rulers of Egypt for 250 years. She was the second oldest of five siblings, children of Ptolemy XII, who had become increasingly entangled in the politics of the emergent Roman state. When Ptolemy XII fled to Rome in 58 B.C. to escape the anger of his people in the face of declining economic conditions and a feeling that he was too beholden to the Romans, Cleopatra may have joined him. He was restored three years later, with significant Roman help, including the efforts of the young cavalry officer Marcus Antonius. Ptolemy's eldest daughter, Berenike IV, who had seized the throne in her father's absence, was executed at this time, putting Cleopatra in line for the succession. Ptolemy XII died in 51 B.C. and Cleopatra did become queen, but jointly with her younger brother Ptolemy XIII, as there was significant opposition to a woman's ruling alone. In fact this coalesced into a faction, and civil war broke out between the siblings. This was was still under way [sic] when Julius Caesar arrived in 48 B.C. and invoked long-standing legal grounds for Roman involvement in Egyptian politics."
  • p. 4: QUOTE: "Caesar spent the winter of 48-47 B.C. settling the war—Ptolemy XIII was a casualty—and left in the spring after placing Cleopatra alone on the throne. That summer she bore a son, whom she named Caesarion, and claimed that he was Caesar's. With her rule secure, she devoted herself to stabilizing the kingdom: her father's debts, economic problems, and the looming Roman presence made her task difficult, but it was manageable. To assert her position in the ever-changing Roman political scene, she journeyed to Rome in 46 B.C. and received legal recognition as an allied monarch. A second trip in 44 B.C. put her in the city when Caesar was assassinated, and she remained there for several weeks afterward in an unsuccessful attempt to have her son accepted as Caesar's heir."
  • pp. 4-5: QUOTE: "As the Roman triumvirate of Antonius, Octavian (Caesar's grand-nephew and heir), and Lepidus moved to take vengeance against Caesar's assassins, Cleopatra was approached by both sides and temporized, but she eventually cast her fortunes against the tyrannicides and with the avengers, sending her fleet under her own command to Greece. After the defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi in 42 B.C., Antonius was left in command of the East. The following year he summoned Cleopatra to his headquarters at Tarsos. At first she refused to go, not recognizing his authority, but eventually, in one of the famous events of her career, she sailed up the Kydnos to the city. Antonius well recognized that in these turbulent times Cleopatra's Ptolemaic Empire was the strongest hope for stability in the East, although he supported her as part of a network of several allied monarchs. Yet he steadily moved to restore her kingdom to the greatest previous extent of Ptolemaic territory, and he began a policy of expanding her possessions in the Levant, Asia Minor, and toward the Aegean. He also came to Egypt for a personal vacation with the queen in the winter of 41-40 B.C. When he returned to Rome in the spring, Cleopatra was pregnant again, and she soon bore twins. Yet in Italy Antonius married Octavia, the sister of his fellow triumvir Octavian, and presumably the personal relationship between Antonius and Cleopatra was over."
  • p. 5: "Little is known about Cleopatra's activities during the next three years: presumably she was devoted to running her kingdom and raising her three children. In 37 B.C. Antonius returned to the East in preparation for a Parthian expedition, a long-standing need of Roman foreign policy. Before long he summoned Cleopatra to his current headquarters, Antioch, and, in his continuing reorganization of the East, further enhanced her territory, especially at the expense of another allied king, Herod the Great, better known to moderns through the Christian nativity story. But all the territories given to Cleopatra had been historically Ptolemaic, and Antonius's donations were fully within his power as triumvir."
  • p. 5: "The Parthian expedition, largely funded by Cleopatra, set forth in 36 B.C. She returned home pregnant again and soon bore her fourth and last child. The expedition was a total disaster, and Antonius returned to the Mediterranean coast and requested that Cleopatra send money and supplies. Feeling totally disgraced, he probably believed that he could not go back to Rome (in fact he never did), and returned to Alexandria with the queen. Further attempts at a Parthian expedition over the next two years got nowhere."
  • pp. 5-6: "In 34 B.C. Cleopatra and Antonius formalized, in a ceremony in Alexandria, the territorial adjustments that he had bestowed on her, and they designated her children as rulers of much of the region. This did not go over well in Rome, and Antonius's fellow triumvir Octavian, now the sole power in Italy and the west, began to see him as a rival. The fact that Antonius had sent Octavia home and was living permanently with Cleopatra turned the political disputes into a family quarrel. A fierce propaganda war, largely centered on who was the true heir of Julius Caesar, erupted between the two triumvirs. Cleopatra was embroiled in this, and all the Roman prejudices against foreigners and barbarian women came forward; most of the popular tales about her personality and lifestyle date from this period. Events drifted towards war which Octavian declared on Cleopatra in 32 B.C. The Ptolemaic fleet, again commanded by her, accompanied by the land forces under Antonius's control, moved to the west coast of Greece to prevent any possible attack on Egypt by Octavian. An engagement took place off the promontory of Actium in September 31 B.C.; Cleopatra, realizing that the defense of Egypt was threatened, removed her ships from the battle and returned home, carrying Antonius along with her."
  • p. 6: "Back in Egypt she understood that her position was desperate and made attempts to flee to India and to ensure that her son Caesarion was placed on the throne. Antonius, on the other hand, was suicidal and withdrawn for much of the rest of his life. Protracted negotiations between Octavian and the couple failed to resolve anything, and in the summer of 30 B.C. Octavian invoked the military option, invading Egypt. Cleopatra, finding Antonius dispensable and hoping that she or her kingdom might survive without him, tricked him into suicide, but when she found that she herself was being saved to be exhibited in Octavian's triumph in Rome, she also killed herself. In August of 30 B.C. the Ptolemaic kingdom came to an end."
  • pp. 6-7: "The bibliography on Cleopatra VII is enormous, running to thousands of entries. Yet because the queen is a figure in popular culture and indeed world history, many of these works are not relevant to the classical scholar, or, indeed, to those who wish to know about the queen herself and her role in the history of the first century B.C. For obvious reasons a wide variety of scholars have their own interest in Cleopatra, from students of Renaissance drama to art historians, musicologists, and filmographers. Study of Cleopatra from these points of view is totally legitimate, but this approaches the queen as a constructed icon of cultural history, not an historical personality of the late Hellenistic period. The recension of the myth of Cleopatra is not the concern of the present volume, and indeed however interesting has nothing to do with the queen herself besides demonstrating the power of her reputation. Yet the strength of her afterlife is so great that not even the best classical scholars can be free of it, and they often fall into the trap of an apt quotation from drama or a discussion of a nineteenth century work of art. Certainly there is nothing wrong with this, and the modern evolution of the classical tradition is an inevitable part of classical studies. But in the case of Cleopatra it can be dangerous for the simple fact that the post-antique material so greatly overwhelms the extant information from the classical world, that it is thus possible—more than with anyone else from antiquity—to lose sight of Cleopatra as she becomes tangled up in the encumbrance of her reputation."
  • p. 7: "In fact, some of the most familiar episodes of her career simply did not happen. She did not approach Caesar wrapped in a carpet, she was not a seductress, she did not use her charm to persuade the men in her life to lose their judgment, and she did not die by the bite of an asp. She may not even have borne a child of Caesar's. Yet other important elements of her career have been bypassed in the post-antique recension: she was a skilled naval commander, a published medical authority, and an expert royal administrator, who was met with adulation throughout the eastern Mediterranean, perhaps even seen by some as a messianic figure, the hope for a future eastern Mediterranean free of Roman domination."
  • p. 7: "Even though Cleopatra is probably the most famous woman from classical antiquity, the literary accounts of her life and career are sparse. This is attributable largely to the limited information about women, even famous ones, that pervades Greek and Roman literature and to the effects of the destruction of her reputation in the propaganda wars of the latter 30s B.C. Nearly 50 ancient authors mention the queen, but the bulk of these are brief repetitive notices about the Battle of Actium, her suicide, or the alleged deficiencies of her character. The most thorough date from a century or more after her death, when her Augustan recension had become well established. It thus became difficult for any later author to provide a balanced portrait."
  • pp. 7-8: "The most complete source is Plutarch's Life of Antonius, written in the latter first century A.D. It is not a biography of Cleopatra, but about the most important man in her life, yet the queen pervades the work. Although Plutarch was remove from events, he often used sources from her era, such as Philotas of Amphissa, a friend of Plutarch's family who had access to the royal palace; Plutarch's great-grandfather Nikarchos, who was in Athens when Octavian arrived after the Battle of Actium; Cleopatra's personal physician Olympos; and, most of all, Quintus Dellius, the confidant of Cleopatra, Antonius, and Herod the Great. Plutarch was not free fro the traditional views of the queen that had become canonized by his day, yet his insights were astute, he used a number of eyewitness reports, and his contact with sources outside the Augustan viewpoint provides a somewhat more balanced view."
  • p. 8: "Next in importance is the Roman History of Cassius Dio, written in the early third century A.D., and thus much later than the events that he described. Dio was a public official in a world where the convulsions of the collapse of the Roman Republic and the environment of the Hellenistic kingdoms were no longer relevant and hardly understood. He thus often lacked subtlety and comprehension of the complexities of the first century B.C., yet he remains the only surviving continuous history of the era of Cleopatra and thus is of great significance. The third source for Cleopatra is Josephus, a contemporary of Plutarch's, whose works focus narrowly on the Jews and Judaea, but thus provide the only information for an important phase of Cleopatra's life, her relationship with Herod the Great and her policies towards the southern Levant. Josephus relied heavily on two authors who had agendas of their own but both knew Cleopatra, Herod himself, through his memoirs, and Nikolaos of Damascus, tutor to Cleopatra's children wo moved on to Herod's court and became a major advisor [sic] and chronicler of his reign. As Herod's apologist, Nikolaos was extremely negative toward Cleopatra, despite their earlier relationship, but nevertheless as a source he is extremely valuable."
  • pp. 8-9: "Other authors add details. Despite the existence of Julius Caesar's own memoirs and those written by his unknown staff officer under the title de bello alexandrino (On the Alexandrian War), the queen is hardly mentioned. Yet Cicero, who also knew her, provided a starkly negative portrait. The familiar authors of the Augustan period—Vergil, Horace, Propertius, and Ovid—lie fully within the politically correct view of the era and are eloquent in their condemnation, although Horace showed a certain admiration. Other authors, from the Augustan period and later, such as Strabo, Velleius, Valerius Maximus, Pliny the Elder, and Appian, provided occasional details not known elsewhere. There are faint hints of a pro-Cleopatra tradition preserved outside the Augustan version of events, in the remnants of the historical work of Sokrates of Rhodes, probably a member of her court, and the Libyka of her son-in-law Juba II of Mauretania. As always, inscriptions and coins and—because the area of interest is Egypt—papyri offer a significant amount of valuable evidence, all from the queen's point of view. But the preponderance of the literary material comes from Plutarch, Josephus, and Dio. Yet much of the modern popular image of Cleopatra is based on the post-antique elaboration of her career, especially in drama, rather than any information from her era."
  • p. 9: "The matter of handling personal and place names from antiquity is difficult and admits of no obvious resolution. Transmission of proper names from one language to another, and also from one form of writing to another, causes numerous problems. This is a difficulty anywhere in classical studies but it is worse with Cleopatra than in many cases because the heavy modern overlay has created popular forms such as 'Antony' (for Antonius) or 'Pompey' (for Pompeius) that have no authority from antiquity and are probably no earlier than the sixteenth century. There is the further problem of indigenous names passing through Greek into Latin and then English, often inaccurately. Moreover, the late Hellenistic eastern Mediterranean was a region of intense linguistic diversity—one need only remember that Cleopatra herself knew many languages— and names moved through several forms. Malchos, the king of Nabataea, may have his name also represented as Malchus, Malichos, or Malichus, dependent on the language and orthography of the written source, all versions of the original Maliku (mlkw or mnkw). Egyptian names can be even more confusing, transliterated according to a variety of competing schemes."
  • pp. 9-10: "With a certain amount of reluctance, the present author has used popular English spellings of well-known ancient names (Cleopatra, Ptolemy, Herod), rather than direct transliterations from the original (Kleopatra, Ptolemaios, Herodes). Less common names that may not have an accepted English form are directly transliterated insofar as this is possible. But any system is full of difficulties and inconsistencies, and it is recognized that modern constructs may be more useful than precise accuracy."
  • p. 10: "It should also be noted that Octavian, the grandnephew and heir of Julius Caesar, and Cleopatra's Roman opponent, took the name Augustus in 27 B.C. Although most of the references to him are before that date, those afterward use the latter name."


  • p. 132, about the PEARL EARRING IN VINEGAR, QUOTE: "Although most of the anecdotes from the propaganda war can be dismissed as slander, there are occasional insights into the activities of Cleopatra during this period, of note because there is little direct evidence of her between late 34 and early 32 B.C. Many of the familiar tales about palace life probably come from these years, largely from the account of L. Munatius Plancus, who had been governor of Syria probably into 34 B.C., and then spent time in Alexandria as Antonius's secretary, probably the one who packaged the communiques sent off to Rome. It was Plancus who reported on one of the best-known events of Cleopatra's career, her dissolving of a pearl in vinegar. The queen, already known for the extravagance of her banquets, announced that she could spend two and a half million drachmas on a single dinner. She had prepared an ordinary banquet, probably expensive enough in its own right, and then took off one of her earrings and melted it in vinegar—perhaps a sleight-of-hand rather than the slow chemical process—but Plancus prevented her from doing the same with the other earring, as the pair were the most expensive pearls known and an ancient family inheritance. The surviving pearl was reset into earrings that came to adorn the statue of Venus in the Pantheon in Rome. Although this has remained one of the more familiar episodes in of the queen's life, it may be a created example of her excessive foreign extravagance, probably based on the similar tale of a certain Clodius and his friend Metella that was in circulation in Rome at the time. This story first appeared in Horace's Satires, perhaps evidence that, as one would expect, Cleopatra read contemporary Latin literature."
  • p. 132-133 (SAME PARAGRAPH AS ABOVE), QUOTE: "Plancus also appeared at another party costumed as the water divinity Glaukos. Eventually he felt that Antonius was not effective enough in refuting the charges originating in Rome and went over to Octavian's side. By summer 32 he was back the city [sic], no doubt bringing with him numerous useful anecdotes about Cleopatra's court."
  • p. 173, QUOTE: "The iconography of Cleopatra VII is elusive, although the subject of much scholarship. Two excellent catalogues have appeared in the last decade, one produced by the British Museum in 2001 and the other from an exhibit in Hamburg in 2006-7. The outstanding visual representations in both of these books, especially the former, provide easy access to essentially the totality of the know and suggested iconography of the queen, although obviously interpretations will continue to change. Determining her extant representations remains a difficult problem, because only her coins and Egyptian reliefs and steles have inscriptions that identify her, and both these genres have their own issues of interpretation. None of the suggested portraits of the queen within the Greco-Roman tradition can be attributed on anything other than art-historical grounds, a methodology with obvious pitfalls, and although many of the conclusions are probably valid, one still lacks definitive evidence. As with the biographical details of the queen's life, the information is frustratingly limited."
  • p. 173-174, QUOTE: "Her iconography falls into four categories. There are a few pieces of Hellenistic sculpture and other artistic media, all identified by style ad details. There are coins from more than a dozen cities on which the queen is identified by legend, mostly from the Levant but as far west as Cyrene and Patrai and including a few struck by Antonius. There are a number of Egyptian portraits, sculptures, and reliefs; the latter often cite the queen by name. And finally, there is a genre of works produced immediately after her death as a parallel to the Augustan literary output, serving the same purpose of establishing the politically correct view of the queen within the new regime and the self-conception of the Augustan era. These works—whether wall paintings or three-dimensional media—have diagnostic elements that make their interpretations reasonable. Since most were produced within a generation of Cleopatra's death, they can be assumed to be accurate visual representations of her physical features, even if turned to a narrow purpose."
  • p. 174, QUOTE: "Hellenistic-Roman portrait sculpture provides the best chance of showing the queen drawn from life and within the most familiar artistic tradition. Unfortunately the examples are few in number, and none is undisputed. Provenance is often equally uncertain. Probably the best known is a Parian marble portrait in Berlin (fig. 2), by all accounts found somewhere south of Rome, although its history before being obtained by the museum in 1976—the piece seems to have been known since the early nineteenth century—is torturous. It is a fine work, well preserved, showing Cleopatra with a melon hairstyle and a royal diadem. Details, such as the hair and the prominent nose, are similar to the consistent portrait of Cleopatra on her coins. If the suggestion of an Italian provenance is correct, the Berlin head may have been produced while the queen was in Rome in the 40s B.C. Despite the vagueness, the head remains the most probable extant representation of the queen in Hellenistic-Roman art. It was carved when she was in her mid-twenties and demonstrates the dignity and resoluteness that characterized her life."

Introduction chapter

[edit]

Cleopatra VII (69-30 BC), queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, was a diplomat, naval commander, administrator, linguist, and author.[12]

It is perhaps due to her gender that she has been depicted as a minor if not insignificant figure in ancient, medieval, and even modern historiography about Egypt and the ancient Greco-Roman world.[13] For instance, the historian Ronald Syme (1903-1989) asserted that she was of little importance to Julius Caesar and that the propaganda of Octavian magnified her importance to an excessive degree.[13] Roller writes that the common view of Cleopatra as a prolific seductress should be tempered by the fact that she had only two known sexual partners, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, the two most prominent Romans of the time period who were most likely to ensure the survival of her dynasty.[14]

For her own rule, Cleopatra found inspiration in previous female monarchs such as her ancestor Arsinoe II, the sister-wife of Ptolemy II, as well as Egyptian queen Hatshepsut and Artemisia I of Caria, Queen of Halikarnassos, the latter of whom also commanded her own naval fleet.[15]

Cleopatra's coinage shows her to have had a prominent nose, a family trait of the Ptolemies, with her hair pulled back into a bun.[16] Plutarch wrote that her charm and personality far outweighed her physical attractiveness.[16] She engaged in masculine activities such as hunting and horseback riding.[16]

Cleopatra, the last Ptolemaic pharaoh of Egypt, was the second oldest of five siblings and children of Ptolemy XII.[17] She may have accompanied Ptolemy XII during his exile to Rome in 58 BC, when his subjects revolted due to economic troubles and fervor against his pro-Roman policies.[17] Ptolemy XII returned to Egypt in 55 BC and defeated and executed his daughter Berenice IV, who had claimed the throne in his absence.[17] Ptolemy XII died in 51 BC and was succeeded by his daughter Cleopatra VII and younger son Ptolemy XIII, who initially ruled as joint monarchs.[17] However, these two rulers were soon at odds and engaged in a civil war that was still ongoing when Julius Caesar arrived in Egypt in 48 BC and involved himself in their conflict.[18] The war was settled by the end of winter in early 47 BC, with Ptolemy XIII dying during battle and Cleopatra placed on the throne.[18] By the summer of 47 BC she bore him a son, Caesarion, and in 46 BC traveled to Rome to be recognized as an ally and friend of Rome.[18] In 44 BC she made a return visit to Rome, during which Julius Caesar was assassinated.[18] Following this she spent several weeks in Rome attempting to have Caesarion made the official heir of Caesar, but her attempts failed.[18]

Cleopatra sided with the Second Triumvirate of Mark Antony, Octavian, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus against the assassins of Caesar, commanding her fleet that sailed to Greece to offer military support.[19] After the defeat of Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger and Gaius Cassius Longinus at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, Mark Antony summoned Cleopatra to Tarsos, a request she eventually and reluctantly accepted.[19] However, Antony offered to restore former Ptolemaic lands in the Levant and Asia Minor under the rule of Cleopatra, and he stayed in Egypt with her between 41-40 BC.[19] In the spring of 40 BC Mark Antony returned to Italy and Cleopatra bore him twins, a daughter and son, yet Antony married Octavia the Younger, sister of Octavian.[19]

In 37 BC, during preparations for his invasion of the Parthian Empire, Antony summoned Cleopatra to Antioch where he arranged to increase her holdings in the Levant at the expense of Herod the Great, but which were formerly controlled by the Ptolemaic kingdom.[20] She bore her fourth and last child at this time, sired by Antony.[20] In 36 BC Antony's Parthian War, largely funded by Cleopatra, resulted in failure and forced Antony to return to Alexandria, requesting supplies and further funds from Cleopatra.[20]

In a ceremony held at Alexandria in 34 BC, known as the Donations of Alexandria, Cleopatra and Antony made an official decree that much of the territories then held by the Roman Republic in West Asia and Northeast Africa would be bestowed to their children as client rulers allied to Rome.[21] This event caused Octavian, triumvir of the western half of the Roman world, to initiate a propaganda campaign against Antony, who he viewed as a rival, and Cleopatra, whose son Caesarion was a contestant with Octavian in the claim of being the true heir of Julius Caesar.[21] Octavian declared war on Cleopatra in 32 BC.[21] Antony's land forces in Greece were supported by the Ptolemaic naval fleet, commanded by Cleopatra, in an effort to block Octavian from invading Egypt.[21] At the Battle of Actium in September 31 BC Antony and Cleopatra were defeated by Octavian's forces, as Cleopatra withdrew her fleet and fled to Egypt with Antony.[21]

In Egypt, Cleopatra made plans to flee to either India or Ethiopia and eventually restore Caesarion on the throne, but Antony remained despondent and suicidal.[22] When Octavian invaded Egypt in the summer of 30 BC, Cleopatra tricked her erstwhile lover Antony into committing suicide.[23] However, she soon realized that Octavian planned to have her paraded through the streets of Rome during his inevitable triumph, so she decided to take her own life in August of 30 BC, marking the end of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and beginning of Roman Egypt.[23]

In modern times Cleopatra has become an icon of popular culture, a reputation shaped by theatrical dramas dating back to the Renaissance as well as later visual arts, such as paintings and films.[24] This material largely surpasses the scope and size of existent historiographic literature about her from Classical Antiquity and has made a greater impact on the general public's view of Cleopatra than the latter.[25] Whereas myths about Cleopatra persist in popular media, such as meeting Caesar after being rolled out of a carpet, important aspects of her career go largely unnoticed, such as her command of naval forces, administrative acts, and publications on Ancient Greek medicine.[26]

Although almost fifty ancient works of Roman historiography mention Cleopatra, these often include only terse accounts of the Battle of Actium, her suicide, and Augustan propaganda about her personal deficiencies.[26] Although not a biography of Cleopatra, the Life of Antonius written by Plutarch in the 1st century AD provides the most thorough surviving account of Cleopatra's life.[27] Plutarch lived a century after Cleopatra but relied on reliable primary sources such as Philotas of Amphissa, who had access to the Ptolemaic royal palace, Cleopatra's personal physician named Olympos, and Quintus Dellius, a close confidant of Antony and Cleopatra.[28] Plutarch's work included both the Augustan view of Cleopatra that became historical canon in his day as well as sources outside of this tradition, such as eyewitness reports.[27] The Jewish Roman historian Josephus, writing in the 1st century AD, provides valuable information on the life of Cleopatra via her diplomatic relationship with Herod the Great.[29] However, this work relies largely on Herod's memoirs and the biased account of Nicolaus of Damascus, the tutor of Cleopatra's children in Alexandria before he moved to Judea to serve as an adviser and chronicler at Herod's court.[29] The Roman History published by the official and historian Cassius Dio in the early 3rd century AD, while failing to fully comprehend the complexities of the late Hellenistic world, nevertheless provides a continuous history of the era of Cleopatra's reign.[29]

Cleopatra is barely mentioned in the De Bello Alexandrino, the memoirs of an unknown staff officer who served under Julius Caesar.[30] Cicero's writings provide an unflattering portrait of Cleopatra, who knew him personally.[30] The Augustan-period authors Vergil, Horace, Propertius, and Ovid perpetuated the negative views of Cleopatra approved by the ruling Roman regime.[30] The historians Strabo, Velleius, Valerius Maximus, Pliny the Elder, and Appian, while not offering accounts as full as Plutarch, Josephus, or Cassius Dio, provided some details of her life that had not survived in other historical records.[30] Inscriptions on contemporary Ptolemaic coinage and some Egyptian papyrus documents demonstrate Cleopatra's point of view, but this material is very limited in comparison to Roman literary works.[30] The now fragmentary Libyka commissioned by Cleopatra's son-in-law Juba II, provides a rare glimpse at a possible corpus of historiographic material that supported Cleopatra's point of view.[30]

Cleopatra's ancestry and background

[edit]

Cleopatra VII was born in early 69 BC to the ruling Ptolemaic pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes and an unknown mother, perhaps of mixed Macedonian-Greek and native Egyptian descent.[31] Through her father she was a descendant of two prominent companions of Alexander the Great, including the Macedonian-Greek general Ptolemy I, founder of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, and Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid Empire of West Asia.[32] Cleopatra was the name of Alexander the Great's sister, as well as Cleopatra Alcyone, husband of Meleager in Greek mythology, and through the marriage of Ptolemy V Epiphanes and Cleopatra I Syra (a Seleucid princess), the name entered the Ptolemaic dynasty.[33] Cleopatra had two sisters, Berenice IV and Arsinoe IV, and two brothers, Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV.[34] Berenice IV, daughter of Cleopatra VI, was killed by her own father Ptolemy XII when he returned to Egypt from exile in Rome and challenged her short-lived rule as queen.[34] None of Ptolemy XII's children would die of natural causes, as Cleopatra had a hand in the deaths of her other three siblings and none of Cleopatra's four children would succeed her as ruler of Egypt.[35]

Roman interventionism in Egypt predated the reign of Cleopatra VII.[36] When Ptolemy IX Lathyros died in late 81 BC he was succeeded by his daughter Berenice III.[37] However, with opposition building at the royal court against the idea of a sole-reigning female monarch, Berenice III accepted joint rule and marriage with her cousin and stepson Ptolemy XI Alexander II, an arrangement made by the dictator Sulla, the first powerful Roman figure to intervene directly in the dynastic affairs of kingdoms neighboring the Roman Republic to the east.[37] Ptolemy XI had his stepmother-wife killed shortly after their marriage in 80 BC, but he was also killed soon thereafter in the resulting riot over the assassination.[37] Since it was either Ptolemy X Alexander I or Ptolemy IX who willed the Ptolemaic Kingdom to Rome as collateral for loans, the Romans had legal grounds to take over Egypt.[37] However, they chose instead to carve up the Ptolemaic realm to be ruled by Ptolemy IX's two illegitimate sons, bestowing Cyprus to Ptolemy of Cyprus and Egypt to Ptolemy XII.[37]

Ptolemy XII was given the epithet "Auletes" (i.e. "the flute-player") due to his adoption of the title "New Dionysos" and alleged flute-playing performances in the Dionysian festivals.[38] He gained a reputation as an aloof monarch who enjoyed a life of luxury, while causing dynastic troubles with the expulsion of his sister-wife Cleopatra VI from the court in late 69 BC, a few months after the birth of Cleopatra VII.[39] His three younger children were all born in the more than decade-long absence of his wife.[40] In 65 BC the Roman censor Marcus Licinius Crassus argued before the Roman Senate that Ptolemaic Egypt should be annexed (perhaps based on the previous will in exchange for loans), but his proposal was scuttled by the rhetorical efforts of Cicero.[41] Ptolemy XII responded to the threat of possible annexation by offering remuneration and lavish gifts to powerful Roman statesmen and military commanders, such as Pompey the Great during his campaign against Mithridates VI of Pontus in the Third Mithridatic War (73-63 BC) and eventually Julius Caesar after the latter became consul in 59 BC.[42] However, Ptolemy XII's profligate behavior bankrupted him and he was forced to acquire loans from the Roman banker Gaius Rabirius Postumus.[43] His increase of the tax rate to pay for these expenditures angered the poor and led to strikes by farmers.[43]

In 58 BC the Romans annexed Cyprus and drove Ptolemy XII's brother Ptolemy of Cyprus to commit suicide rather than exile to Paphos as a priest of Apollo.[44] Ptolemy XII remained publicly silent on the death of his brother, a decision which, along with ceding traditional Ptolemaic territory to the Romans, damaged his credibility among subjects already enraged by his economic policies.[44] Whether by force or voluntary action Ptolemy XII left Egypt in exile, first to Rhodes, where his Roman host Cato the Younger verbally castigated him for losing his own kingdom, then to Athens, where he erected a monument in honor of his father Ptolemy IX and half-sister Berenice III, and finally to the villa of Pompey in the Alban Hills near Praeneste.[44] Ptolemy XII spent nearly a year there on the outskirts of Rome, ostensibly accompanied by his then 11-year-old daughter Cleopatra.[44] Events in Egypt are unclear around this time, as it is thought Ptolemy XII's estranged wife Cleopatra VI ruled jointly with their daughter Berenice IV before being ousted by the latter and dying at an uncertain date.[45] Berenice IV sent an embassy to Rome to advocate for her rule and oppose the reinstatement of her father Ptolemy XII, but Ptolemy employed his assassins to kill the leaders of the embassy, an incident that was covered up by his powerful Roman supporters.[46] When the Roman Senate denied Ptolemy XII the offer of an armed escort and provisions for a return to Egypt, he decided to leave Rome in late 57 BC and reside in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.[47]

To shore up her legitimacy among her subjects, Berenice III married Archelaos, an alleged descendant of Mithridates VI of Pontus, but the Romans, especially the desperate financiers of Ptolemy XII such as Rabirius Postumus, were determined to restore Ptolemy XII.[48] Pompey persuaded Aulus Gabinius, the Roman governor of Syria, to invade Egypt and restore Ptolemy XII, offering him 10,000 talents for the proposed mission.[48] Although it put him at odds with Roman law, Gabinius invaded Egypt in the spring of 55 BC by way of Hasmonean Judea, where Hyrcanus II had Antipater the Idumaean (father of Herod the Great) furnish the Roman-led army with supplies.[48] Under his command was the young cavalry officer Mark Antony, who distinguished himself by preventing Ptolemy XII from massacring the inhabitants of Pelousion and rescuing the body of Archelaos after the latter was killed in another battle, ensuring him a proper royal burial.[49] Cleopatra, now 14 years of age, would have traveled with the Roman expedition into Egypt; years later Mark Antony would profess that he had fallen in love with her at this time.[49]

Gabinius was put on trial in Rome for abusing his authority, for which he was acquitted, but his second for accepting bribes led to his exile, from which he was recalled seven years later in 48 BC by Julius Caesar.[50] Crassus replaced him as governor of Syria and extended his provincial command to Egypt, but he was killed by the Parthians at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC.[50] Ptolemy XII had his rival daughter Berenice and her wealthy supporters executed, seizing their properties while allowing Gabinius' Roman garrison—the Gabiniani—to harass people in the streets of Alexandria and installing his longtime Roman financier Rabirius Postumus as his chief financial officer.[51] Rabirius Postumus was unable to collect the entirety of Ptolemy XII's debt by the time of the latter's death, hence it was passed on to his successors Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII.[52] Within a year Rabirius Postumus was placed under protective custody and sent back to Rome after his life was endangered for draining Egypt of its resources.[52] Despite these problems, during the last four years of his reign Ptolemy XII, who died of natural causes, created a will designating Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII as his joint heirs, oversaw major construction projects such as the completion of the Temple of Edfu and establishment of the Dendera Temple, and stabilized the economy that was largely reliant on trade with East Africa and India.[53] In 52 BC Cleopatra was made a regent of Ptolemy XII as indicated by an inscription in the Temple of Hathor at Dendera.[54]

Ptolemaic heritage and involvement with Rome

[edit]

The Ptolemaic rulers, who governed Egypt as Greek-style monarchs from the multicultural and largely-Greek city of Alexandria established by Alexander the Great, never bothered to learn the native Egyptian language until Cleopatra VII.[55] Ptolemaic monarchs were crowned by the priests of Ptah at Memphis, Egypt, but they resided at their royal residence in Hellenistic Alexandria.[56] The incestuous Ptolemaic practice of sibling marriage was introduced by Ptolemy II and his sister Arsinoe II, a long-held royal Egyptian practice but one abhorred by contemporary Greeks who considered it to be scandalous.[57] By the reign of Cleopatra VII, however, it was considered a normal arrangement for Ptolemaic rulers.[57]

Cleopatra's Youth and Education

[edit]

Cleopatra presumably studied at the Musaeum, including the Library of Alexandria, and wrote medical works that were perhaps inspired by physicians at her father's royal court.[58] Her childhood tutor since 30 BC was Philostratos, from whom she learned the Greek arts of oration and philosophy.[59] Only fragments exist of the medical and cosmetic writings attributed to Cleopatra, such as those preserved by Galen, including remedies for hair disease, baldness, and dandruff, along with a list of weights and measures for pharmacological purposes.[60] Aëtius of Amida attributed a recipe for perfumed soap to Cleopatra, while Paul of Aegina preserved alleged instructions of hers for dying and curling hair.[60]

As outlined by the historian Plutarch, Cleopatra could understand and speak multiple languages, including Ethiopian, Trogodyte, Hebrew (or Aramaic), Arabic, the Syrian language (Syriac?), Median, Parthian, Egyptian, and Latin, although her Roman colleagues would have preferred to speak with her in her native Koine Greek.[61] Her knowledge of Syriac, Hebrew, and Arabic demonstrated the old Ptolemaic inclination to retain or reclaim its territories in Syria, Judea, and Arabia, respectively, while her knowledge of Median and Parthian were most likely related to Antony's Parthian War and her desire to rule over the Parthian Empire, demonstrated by the naming of her son Alexander Helios as the king of Parthia.[62] While Cleopatra could read and write in Greek, Egyptian, and Latin, it is not known for certain if she could do the same in the other languages she spoke.[63]

In 25 BC her daughter Cleopatra Selene married Juba II of Mauretania in North Africa.[64]

Becoming Queen

[edit]

Ptolemy XII had died sometime before 22 March 51 BC, the date of Cleopatra's first known act as queen: her voyage to Hermonthis, near Thebes, to install a new sacred Buchis bull, worshiped as an intermediary for the god Montu in the Ancient Egyptian religion.[65] By August 29 official documents started listing Cleopatra as the sole ruler, evidence that she had rejected her brother as a co-ruler by this point.[66] Cleopatra faced several pressing issues and emergencies shortly after taking the throne, including food shortages and famine caused by drought and low-level flooding of the Nile, assaults by gangs of armed brigands, and lawless behavior instigated by the Gabiniani, the now unemployed and assimilated Roman soldiers left by Gabinius to garrison Egypt.[67] Inheriting her father's debts, Cleopatra also owed the Roman Republic 17.5 million drachmas by the time Julius Caesar arrived at Alexandria in 48 BC.[66]

In 50 BC Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, proconsul of Syria, sent his two eldest sons to Egypt, most likely to negotiate with the Gabiniani and recruit them as soldiers in the desperate defense of Syria against the Parthians.[68] However, the Gabiniani tortured and murdered these two, perhaps with secret encouragement by rogue senior administrators in Cleopatra's court such as the eunuch regent Potheinos, causing Cleopatra to send the Gabiniani culprits to Bibulus as prisoners awaiting his judgment.[68] Although a seemingly shrewd act by the young queen, Bibulus sent the prisoners back to her and chastised her for interfering in Roman affairs that should have been handled directly by the Roman Senate.[69] Bibulus, siding with Pompey in Caesar's Civil War, was then charged with preventing Caesar from landing a naval fleet in Greece, a task that he failed and which ultimately allowed Caesar to reach Egypt in pursuit of Pompey.[69]

Although Cleopatra had rejected her 11-year-old brother as a joint ruler in 51 BC, Ptolemy XIII still retained strong allies, notably Potheinos, his tutor and administrator of his properties, and who the Romans, including Caesar, initially viewed as the power behind the throne.[70] Others involved in the cabal against Cleopatra included Achillas, a prominent military commander, and Theodotus of Chios, another tutor of Ptolemy XIII.[70] Cleopatra seems to have attempted a short-lived alliance with her brother Ptolemy XIV, but by the autumn of 50 BC Ptolemy XIII had the upper hand in their conflict and began signing documents with his name before that of his sister, followed by the establishment of his first regnal date in 49 BC.[71]

Cleopatra and her forces were still holding their ground within Alexandria when Gnaeus Pompeius, son of Pompey, arrived at Alexandria in the summer of 49 BC seeking military aid on behalf of his father.[71] After returning to Italy from the wars in Gaul and crossing the Rubicon in January of 49 BC, Caesar forced Pompey and his supporters to flee to Greece in open civil war.[72] In perhaps their last joint decree, both Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII agreed to Gnaeus Pompeius' request and sent his father 60 ships and 500 troops, including the Gabiniani, a move that helped erase some of the debt owed to Rome by the Ptolemies.[72] The Roman writer Lucan claims that by early 48 BC Pompey named Ptolemy XIII as the legitimate sole ruler of Egypt; whether true or not Cleopatra was forced to flee Alexandria and withdraw to the region of Thebes.[73] However, by the spring of 48 BC Cleopatra traveled to Syria with her little sister Arsinoe IV to gather an invasion force that would head to Egypt.[74] She returned with an army, perhaps right around the time of Caesar's arrival, but her advance to Alexandria was blocked by her brother's forces, including some Gabiniani mobilized to fight against her, and she had to make camp outside Pelousion in the eastern Nile Delta.[75]

In Greece, Caesar and Pompey's forces engaged each other at the decisive Battle of Pharsalus on 9 August 48 BC, leading to the destruction of most of Pompey's army and his forced flight to Tyre, Lebanon.[75] Given his close relationship with the Ptolemies, he ultimately decided that Egypt would be his place of refuge, where he could replenish his forces.[76] Ptolemy XIII's advisers, however, feared the idea of Pompey using Egypt as his base of power in a protracted Roman civil war.[76] In a scheme devised by Theodotos, Pompey arrived by ship near Pelousion after being invited by written message, only to be ambushed and killed by Ptolemaic forces led by Achillas.[76] Ptolemy XIII believed he had demonstrated his power and simultaneously diffused the situation by having Pompey's severed head sent to Caesar, who had recently arrived in Alexandria where he resided at the royal palace, but Caesar called on both Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra VII to disband their forces and reconcile with each other.[77]

Caesar's request for partial repayment of the 17.5 million drachmas owed to Rome (to pay for immediate military expenditures) was met with a response by Potheinos that it would be done later if Caesar would leave Alexandria, but this offer was rejected.[78] Ptolemy XIII arrived at Alexnandria at the head of his army, in clear defiance of Caesar's demand that he disband and leave his army before his arrival.[78] Cleopatra initially sent emissaries to Caesar, but upon allegedly hearing that Caesar was inclined to having affairs with royal women, she came to Alexandria to see him personally.[78] Historian Cassius Dio records that she simply did so without informing her brother, dressing in an attractive manner and charming him with her wit and linguistic skills.[78] Plutarch provides an entirely different and perhaps mythical account that alleges she was bound inside a bed sack to be smuggled into the palace to meet Caesar.[78] When Ptolemy XIII realized that his sister was in the palace instead of at Pelousion and consorting directly with Caesar, Ptolemy attempted to rouse the populace of Alexandria into a riot, but he was arrested by Caesar who used his oratorical skills to calm the frenzied crowd gathered outside the palace.[79] Caesar then brought Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII before the assembly of Alexandria, where Caesar revealed the written will of Ptolemy XII—previously possessed by Pompey—naming Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII as his joint heirs.[80] Caesar then attempted to arrange for the other two siblings, Arsinoe IV and Ptolemy XIV, to rule together over Cyprus, thus removing potential rival claimants to the Egyptian throne while also appeasing the Ptolemaic subjects still bitter over the loss of Cyprus to the Romans in 58 BC.[81]

Potheinos, judging that this agreement actually favored Cleopatra over Ptolemy XIII and that the latter's army of 20,000, including the Gabiniani, could most likely defeat Caesar's army of 4,000 unsupported troops, decided to have Achillas lead their forces to Alexandria to attack both Caesar and Cleopatra.[81] The resulting siege of the palace with Caesar and Cleopatra trapped inside lasted into the following year of 47 BC and included a counterattack by Caesar using fire that potentially burned down part of the Library of Alexandria.[82] After Caesar managed to execute Potheinos, Arsinoe IV joined forces with Achillas and was declared queen, but soon afterwards had her tutor Ganymedes kill Achillas and take his position as commander of her army.[83] Ganymedes then tricked Caesar into requesting the presence of the erstwhile captive Ptolemy XIII as a negotiator, only to have him join the army of Arsinoe IV.[83]

However, by the spring of 47 BC Caesar's reinforcements arrived, including those led by Antipater the Idumaean, who would receive Roman citizenship for his timely aid (a status that would be inherited by his son Herod the Great).[83] Ptolemy XIII and Arsinoe IV withdrew their forces to the Nile River, where Caesar attacked them and forced Ptolemy XIII to flee by boat, only to have it capsize and drown (his body later found nearby in the mud).[84] Ganymedes was perhaps killed in the battle, Theodotos was found years later in Asia by Marcus Brutus and executed, while Arsinoe IV was forcefully paraded in Caesar's triumph in Rome before being exiled to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.[85] Cleopatra was conspicuously absent from these events and resided in the palace, most likely because she was pregnant with Caesar's child (perhaps since September 47 BC), giving birth to Caesarion on 23 June 47 BC.[86]

Caesar's term as consul had expired at the end of 48 BC.[85] However, his officer Mark Antony, recently returned to Rome from the battle at Pharsalus, helped to secure Caesar's election as dictator lasting for a year, until October 47 BC, providing Caesar with the legal authority to settle the dynastic dispute in Egypt.[85] Wary of repeating the mistake of Berenice IV in having a sole-ruling female monarch, Caesar appointed 12-year-old Ptolemy XIV as 22-year-old Cleopatra VII's joint ruler in a nominal sibling marriage, but Cleopatra continued living privately with Caesar.[87] The exact date at which Cyprus was returned to her control is not known, although she had a governor there by 42 BC.[88] Before returning to Rome to attend to urgent political matters, Caesar is alleged to have joined Cleopatra for a cruise of the Nile, although this may be a romantic tale reflecting later well-to-do Roman proclivities and not a real historic event.[89] The historian Suetonius provided considerable details about the voyage, including use of a Thalamegos pleasure barge first constructed by Ptolemy IV, which during his reign measured 300 ft (91.4 m) in length and 80 ft (24.3 m) in height and was complete with dining rooms, state rooms, holy shrines, and promenades along its two decks resembling a floating villa.[89] Cleopatra allegedly used the Thalamegos again years later to sail to Mark Antony's provisional headquarters at Tarsos.[90] Caesar could have had an interest in the Nile cruise owing to his fascination with geography, as he was well-read in the works of Eratosthenes and Pytheas and perhaps wanted to discover the source of the river, but his troops reportedly demanded they turn back after nearly reaching Ethiopia.[91]

Caesar departed from Egypt in about April 47 BC.[92] While the motive for his departure was said to be that Pharnaces II of Pontus, son of Mithridates the Great, was stirring up trouble for Rome in Anatolia and needed to be confronted, it is possible that Caesar, married to the prominent Roman woman Calpurnia, wanted to avoid being seen together with Cleopatra when she bore him their son.[92] He left three legions in Egypt, later increased to four, under the command of the freedman Rufio, to secure Cleopatra's tenuous position but also perhaps to keep her activities in check.[92]

Consolidating the Empire

[edit]

Cleopatra's alleged child with Caesar was born 23 June 47 BC, as preserved on a stele at the Serapeion in Memphis.[93] In the stele he was named "Pharaoh Caesar", but the Alexandrians preferred the patronymic Caesarion.[94] Perhaps owing to his still childless marriage with Calpurnia, Caesar remained silent about Caesarion, and there is conflicting evidence that he publicly denied fathering him but privately accepted him as a son.[95] Cleopatra, on the other hand, made repeated official declarations about Caesarion's parentage, with Caesar as the father.[95]

Cleopatra VII and her nominal joint ruler Ptolemy XIV visited Rome sometime in late 46 BC, presumably without Caesarion, and were given lodging in Caesar's Villa within the Horti Caesaris.[96] Since Cleopatra was also present in the city in 44 BC during Caesar's assassination, it is unclear if this represented a single, two-year-long trip to Rome or two separate visits, yet the latter is more likely according to Duane W. Roller.[97] Like he did with their father Ptolemy XII, Julius Caesar awarded Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIV with the legal status of friendly and allied monarchs to Rome.[98] Cleopatra's distinguished visitors at Caesar's villa across the Tiber included the senator Cicero, who was not flattered with her and found her to be arrogant, especially after one of her advisers failed to provide him with requested books from the Library of Alexandria.[99] Sosigenes of Alexandria, one of the members of Cleopatra's court, aided Caesar in the calculations for the new Julian Calendar, put into effect 1 January 45 BC.[100] The Temple of Venus Genetrix, established in the Forum of Caesar on 25 September 46 BC, contained a golden statue of Cleopatra (which still stood there during the 3rd century AD), associating the mother of Caesar's child directly with the goddess Venus, mother of the Romans.[101] The statue also subtly linked the Egyptian goddess Isis with the Roman religion, and Caesar may have had plans to build a temple to Isis in Rome, as was voted by the Senate a year after his death.[99] Cleopatra's presence most likely had an effect on the events at the Lupercalia festival a month before Caesar's assassination.[102] Mark Antony attempted to place a royal diadem on Caesar's head, which the latter refused in what was most likely a staged performance, perhaps to gauge the Roman public's mood about accepting Hellenistic-style kingship.[102] Cicero, who was present at the festival, mockingly asked where the diadem came from, an obvious reference to the Ptolemaic queen who he abhorred.[102]

Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March (15 March 44 BC), but Cleopatra stayed in Rome until about mid-April, in the vain hope to have Caesarion recognized as Caesar's heir.[103] However, Caesar's will named his grandnephew Octavian as the primary heir, and Octavian arrived in Italy around the same time Cleopatra decided to depart for Egypt.[103] A few months later Cleopatra decided to kill her brother and joint ruler Ptolemy XIV by poisoning, elevating her son Caesarion instead as her co-ruler.[104]

Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate in 43 BC, in which they were each elected for five-year terms to restore order in the Republic and bring Caesar's assassins to justice.[105] Cleopatra received messages from both Gaius Cassius Longinus, one of Caesar's assassins, and Publius Cornelius Dolabella, proconsul of Syria and Caesarian loyalist, requesting military aid.[105] She decided to write Cassius an excuse that her kingdom faced too many internal problems while sending the four legions left by Caesar in Egypt to Dolabella.[105] However, these troops were captured by Cassius in Palestine, while they traveled en route to Syria.[105] While Cleopatra's governor of Cyprus defected to Cassius and provided him with ships, Cleopatra took her own fleet to Greece to personally assist Octavian and Antony, but her ships were heavily damaged in a Mediterranean storm and she arrived too late to aid in the fighting.[105] By the autumn of 42 BC Antony defeated the forces of Caesar's assassins at the Battle of Philippi in Greece, leading to the suicide of Cassius and Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger.[105]

By the end of 42 BC, Octavian gained control over much of the western half of the Roman Republic and Antony the eastern half, with Lepidus largely marginalized.[106] Antony moved his headquarters from Athens to Tarsos in Anatolia by the summer of 41 BC.[106] He summoned Cleopatra to Tarsos in several letters, invitations she initially rebuffed until he sent his envoy Quintus Dellius to Alexandria, convincing her to come.[107] The meeting would allow Cleopatra to clear up the misconception that she seemed to support Cassius during the civil war and would address pressing issues about territorial exchanges in the Levant, but Mark Antony undoubtedly desired to form a personal, romantic relationship with the queen.[108] Cleopatra sailed up the Kydnos River to Tarsos in her Thalamegos, inviting Antony and his officers for two nights of lavish banquets on board her ship, while Antony attempted to return the favor on the third night of dining with his own far less luxurious banquet.[109] Cleopatra managed to clear her name as a supposed supporter of Cassius, arguing she had really attempted to help Dolabella in Syria, while convincing Antony to have her rival sister Arsinoe IV dragged from her place of exile at the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and executed.[110] Her former governor of Cyprus who had rebelled against her and joined Cassius was also found at Tyre and handed over to Cleopatra.[110]

Cleopatra invited Antony to come to Egypt before departing from Tarsos, which led Antony to visit Alexandria by November 41 BC.[110] Antony was well-received by the populace of Alexandria, for his heroic actions in restoring Ptolemy XII to power and coming to Egypt without an occupational force like Caesar had done.[111] In Egypt, Antony continued to enjoy the lavish royal lifestyle he had witnessed aboard Cleopatra's ship docked at Tarsos.[112]

Of all the queens of antiquity, those who did at times rule independently were married for most of their careers.[113] Cleopatra, on the other hand, reigned for most of her 22 years as a sole monarch, with nominal joint rulers and a possible marriage to Antony very late in her life.[113] Having Caesarion as her sole heir produced both benefits and dangers, in that his sudden death could extinguish the dynasty, but rivalry with other potential heirs and siblings could also spell his downfall.[113] Cleopatra carefully chose Antony as her partner for producing further heirs, as he was deemed to be the most powerful Roman figure following Caesar's demise.[114] With his triumviral powers, Antony also had the broad authority to restore former Ptolemaic lands to Cleopatra that were currently in Roman hands.[115] While it is clear that both Cilicia and Cyprus were controlled by Cleopatra by 19 November 38 BC with a mention of her governor Diogenes who administered both, the transfer probably occurred earlier in the winter of 41-40 BC, during her time spent with Antony.[115]

By the spring of 40 BC Mark Antony was forced to end his vacation in Egypt with Cleopatra due to troubles in Syria, where his governor Lucius Decidius Saxa was killed and his army taken by Quintus Labienus, a former officer under Cassius who now served the Parthian Empire.[116] Cleopatra provided Antony with 200 ships for his campaign and as payment for her newly-acquired territories.[116] She would not see Antony again until 37 BC, but she maintained correspondence and evidence suggests she kept a spy in his camp.[116] By the end of 40 BC Cleopatra gave birth to twins, a boy named Alexander Helios and a girl named Cleopatra Selene II, both of whom Antony acknowledged as his children.[117] Helios (Greek: Ἥλιος), the sun, and Selene (Greek: Σελήνη), the moon, were symbolic of a new era and societal rejuvenation.[118]

Mark Antony's focus on confronting the Parthians in the east were disrupted by the events of the Perusine War (41-40 BC), initiated by his ambitious wife Fulvia against Octavian in the hopes of making her husband the undisputed leader of Rome.[118] Although it has been suggested that part of her motivations were to cleave Antony away from Cleopatra, this is unlikely, as the conflict emerged in Italy even before Cleopatra's meeting with Antony at Tarsos.[119] Fulvia and Antony's brother Lucius Antonius were eventually besieged by Octavian at Perusia (modern Perugia, Italy) and then exiled from Italy, after which Fulvia died at Sikyon in Greece while attempting to reach Antony.[120] Her sudden death led to a reconciliation of Octavian and Antony at Brundisium in Italy in September 40 BC.[120] Although the agreement struck at Brundisium solidified Antony's control of the Roman Republic's territories east of the Ionian Sea, it also stipulated that he marry Octavian's sister Octavia the Younger, a potential rival for Cleopatra.[121]

In December 40 BC Cleopatra received Herod I (the Great) in Alexandria as an unexpected guest and refugee who fled a turbulent situation in Judea.[122] Herod had been installed as a tetrarch there by Mark Antony, but he was soon at odds with Antigonus II Mattathias of the long-established Hasmonean dynasty.[122] The latter had imprisoned Herod's brother and fellow tetrarch Phasael, who was executed while Herod was in mid-flight towards Cleopatra's court.[122] Cleopatra attempted to provide him with a military assignment, but Herod declined and traveled to Rome, where the triumvirs Octavian and Mark Antony named him king of Judea.[123] This act put Herod on a collision course with Cleopatra, who would desire to reclaim former Ptolemaic territories of his new Herodian kingdom.[123]

Peak years

[edit]

Relations between Mark Antony and Cleopatra perhaps soured when he not only married Octavia, but also bore her two children, Antonia the Elder in 39 BC and Antonia Minor in 36 BC, moving his headquarters to Athens.[124] However, Cleopatra's position in Egypt was secure. Her rival Herod was occupied with civil war in Judea that required heavy Roman military assistance, but received none from Cleopatra.[124] Since the triumviral authority of Mark Antony and Octavian had expired on 1 January 37 BC, Octavia arranged for a meeting at Tarentum where the triumvirate was officially extended to 33 BC.[125] With two legions granted by Octavian and a thousand soldiers lent by Octavia, Mark Antony traveled to Antioch, where he made preparations for war against the Parthians.[126]

Antony summoned Cleopatra to Antioch to discuss pressing issues such as Herod's kingdom and financial support for his Parthian campaign.[126] Cleopatra brought her now three-year-old twins to Antioch, where Mark Antony saw them for the first time and where they probably first received their surnames Helios and Selene as part of Antony and Cleopatra's ambitious plans for the future.[127] In order to stabilize the east, Antony not only enlarged Cleopatra's domain, but also established new ruling dynasties and client rulers who would be loyal to him yet would ultimately outlast him, including Herod I of Judea, Amyntas of Galatia, Polemon I of Pontus, and Archelaus of Cappadocia.[128] In this arrangement Cleopatra gained significant former Ptolemaic territories in the Levant, including nearly all of Phoenicia (centered in what is now modern Lebanon) minus Tyre and Sidon, which remained in Roman hands.[129] She also received Ptolemais Akko (modern Acre, Israel), a city that was established by Ptolemy II.[129] Given her ancestral relations with the Seleucids, she was granted the region of Koile-Syria along the upper Orontes River.[130] She was even given the region surrounding Jericho in Palestine, but she leased this territory back to Herod.[131] At the expense of the Nabataean king Malichus I (a cousin of Herod), Cleopatra was also given a portion of the Nabataean Kingdom around the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea, including Ailana (modern Aqaba, Jordan).[132] To the west Cleopatra was handed Cyrene along the Libyan coast, as well as Itanos and Olous in Roman Crete, restoring much of the territory lost by the Ptolemies, but not including any territories in the Aegean Sea or southwest Asia Minor.[133] Although Cleopatra's control over much of these new territories was nominal and still administered by Roman officials, it nevertheless enriched her kingdom and led her to declare the inauguration of a new era by double-dating her coinage in 36 BC.[134]

Antony's enlargement of the Ptolemaic realm by relinquishing directly-controlled Roman territory was exploited by his rival Octavian, who tapped into the public sentiment in Rome against the empowerment of a foreign queen at the expense of their Republic.[135] Octavian also fostered the narrative that Antony was neglecting his virtuous Roman wife Octavia, granting both her and Livia, Octavian's wife, extraordinary privileges of sacrosanctity.[135] Cornelia Africana, daughter of Scipio Africanus, mother of the reformists Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, and love interest of Cleopatra's great-grandfather Ptolemy VIII, was the first living Roman woman to have a statue dedicated in her honor.[134] She was followed by Octavian's sister Octavia and his wife Livia, whose statues were most likely erected in the Forum of Caesar to rival that of Cleopatra's statue erected there earlier by Julius Caesar.[134]

In 36 BC, Cleopatra accompanied Antony to the Euphrates River, perhaps as far as Seleucia at the Zeugma, on the first leg of his journey towards invading the Parthian Empire.[136] She then went on a tour of some of her newly-acquired territories, traveling past Damascus and entering the lands of Herod, who escorted her in lavish conditions back to the Egyptian border town of Pelousion.[137] Her main motivation for returning back to Egypt was her advanced state of pregnancy and by the summer of 36 BC gave birth to Ptolemy Philadelphus, her second son with Antony.[137] He was also named after the second monarch of the Ptolemaic dynasty in what Cleopatra almost certainly intended as a prophetic gesture that the Ptolemaic kingdom would be restored to its former glory.[137]

Antony's Parthian campaign in 36 BC turned into a complete debacle and was stymied by a number of factors such as extreme weather, spread of disease, and the betrayal of Artavasdes II of Armenia, who defected to the Parthian side.[138] After losing some 30,000 men, more so than Crassus at Carrhae (an indignity he had hoped to avenge), Antony finally arrived at Leukokome near Berytus (modern Beirut, Lebanon) in December, engaged in heavy drinking before Cleopatra arrived to provide funds and clothing for his battered troops.[138] Octavia offered to lend him more troops for another expedition, but Antony desired to avoid the political pitfalls of returning to Rome and so he traveled with Cleopatra back to Alexandria to see his newborn son.[138]

As Antony prepared for another Parthian expedition in 35 BC, this time aimed at their ally Armenia, Octavia traveled to Athens with 2,000 troops in alleged support of Antony, but most likely in a scheme devised by Octavian to embarrass him for his military losses.[139] Antony received these troops but told Octavia not to stray east of Athens as he and Cleopatra traveled together to Antioch, only to suddenly and inexplicably abandon the military campaign and head back to Alexandria.[139] When Octavia returned to Rome Octavian portrayed his sister as a victim wronged by Antony, although she refused to leave Antony's household and return to that of Octavian's in Rome.[140] Octavian's confidence grew as he also eliminated his rivals in the west, including Sextus Pompeius and even Lepidus, the third member of the triumvirate, who was placed under house arrest after revolting against Octavian in Sicily.[140]

Quintus Dellius was sent as Antony's envoy to Artavasdes II of Armenia in 34 BC to negotiate a potential marriage alliance between the Armenian king's daughter and Antony and Cleopatra's son Alexander Helios.[141] When this was declined, Antony marched his army into Armenia, defeated their forces and captured the king and Armenian royal family.[141] They were sent back to Alexandria as prisoners in golden chains befitting their royal status.[141] Antony then held a military parade in Alexandria in mock of a Roman triumph, dressed as Dionysos as he rode into the city on a chariot and presenting the royal prisoners to Queen Cleopatra, who was seated on a golden throne above a silver dais.[141] News of this event was heavily criticized in Rome as being distasteful, if not a perversion of time-honored Roman rites and rituals to be enjoyed instead by an Egyptian queen and her subjects.[141] Soon afterwards at the Gymnasium, in an event known as the Donations of Alexandria, Cleopatra dressed as Isis and declared that she was the queen of kings with her son Caesarion, king of kings, while Alexander Helios, dressed as a Median, was declared king of Armenia, Medes, and Parthia, and two-year-old Ptolemy Philadelphos, dressed as a Macedonian-Greek ruler, was declared king of Syria and Cilicia.[142] Cleopatra Selene was also bestowed with Crete and Cyrene.[143] Given the polemic, contradictory, and fragmentary nature of primary sources from the period, it is uncertain if Cleopatra and Antony were also formally wed at this ceremony or if they had any marriage at all.[143] However, coins of Antony and Cleopatra depict them in the typical manner of a Hellenistic royal couple.[143] Antony then sent a report to Rome requesting ratification of these territorial claims, which Octavian wanted to publicize for propaganda purposes, but the two consuls, both supporters of Antony, had it censored from public view.[144]

Downfall

[edit]

In late 34 BC, following the Donations of Alexandria, Antony and Octavian engaged in a heated war of propaganda that would last for years.[145] Antony claimed that his rival had illegally deposed Lepidus from their triumvirate and barred him from raising troops in Italy, while Octavian accused Antony of unlawfully detaining the king of Armenia, marrying Cleopatra despite still being married to his sister Octavia, and wrongfully claiming Caesarion as the heir of Caesar instead of Octavian.[145] The litany of accusations and gossip associated with this propaganda war have shaped the popular perceptions about Cleopatra from Augustan-period literature all the way to various media in modern times.[146] Aside from casual criticisms of her extravagant lifestyle and corruption of simple Antony with her opulence, she was also said by some Roman authors to have resorted to witchcraft as a lethal sorceress who not only toyed with the idea of poisoning many, Antony included, but also intended to conquer and punish Rome itself, a woman as dangerous as Homer's Helen of Troy in toppling the order of civilization.[147] Antony was generally viewed as having lost his judgment, brainwashed by Cleopatra's magic spells.[148] Antony's supporters rebutted with tales of Octavian's wild and promiscuous sex life, while graffiti now often appeared slandering either side as being sexually obscene.[148] Cleopatra had a conveniently-timed Sibylline oracle claim that Rome would be punished but that peace and reconciliation would follow in a golden age led by the queen.[149] In an account of Lucius Munatius Plancus preserved in Horace's Satires, Cleopatra was said to have made a bet that she could spend 2.5 million drachmas in a single evening, proving it by removing a pearl, one of the most expensive known, from one of her earrings and dissolving it in vinegar at her dinner party.[150] The accusation that Antony had stolen the books of the Library of Pergamon to restock the Library of Alexandria, however, was an admitted fabrication by Gaius Calvisius Sabinus, who may have been the source of many other slanders of Antony in support of Octavian's side.[151]

A papyrus document dated February 33 BC granting military commander Publius Canidius Crassus tax exemptions in Egypt and containing the signature of Cleopatra VII in a different hand, with her statement "make it happen" (Greek: γινέσθωι, ginesthō)[152]

A papyrus document dated to February 33 BC contains with little doubt the signature handwriting of Cleopatra VII.[152] It concerns certain tax exemptions in Egypt granted to Publius Canidius Crassus, former Roman consul and Antony's confidant who would command his land forces at Actium.[153] A subscript in a different handwriting at the bottom of the papyrus reads "make it happen" (Greek: γινέσθωι, romanized: ginesthō), undoubtedly the autograph of the queen, as it was Ptolemaic practice to countersign documents in avoidance of forgery.[153]

By 1 January 32 BC the triumviral authority of Octavian and Antony expired and the Antonian loyalists Gaius Sosius and Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus were elected as consuls.[153] On 1 February 32 BC Sosius gave a fiery speech condemning Octavian, introducing pieces of legislation against him.[153] During the next senatorial session, Octavian entered the Senate house with armed guards and levied his own accusations against the consuls.[153] Intimidated by this act, the next day the consuls and many senators still in support of Antony fled Rome and joined the side of Antony, who established his own counter Roman Senate.[153] Although Antony held military office and his reputation was still largely intact, he was still fundamentally reliant on Cleopatra for military support.[153] The couple traveled together to Ephesus in 32 BC, where Cleopatra provided him with 200 naval ships of the 800 total he was able to acquire.[153]

Domitius Ahenobarbus, wary of the effect of Octavian's propaganda, attempted to persuade Antony to have Cleopatra entirely excluded from the military efforts launched against Octavian.[154] Publius Canidius Crassus made the counterargument that Cleopatra was funding the war effort and, as a long-reigning monarch, was by no means inferior to the male allied kings Antony had summoned for the campaign.[154] Cleopatra refused Antony's requests that she return to Egypt, judging that by blocking Octavian in Greece she could more easily defend Egypt from him.[154] Cleopatra's insistence that she be involved in the battle for Greece led to defections of prominent Romans such as Domitius Ahenobarbus and Lucius Munatius Plancus.[154]

During the spring of 32 BC Antony and Cleopatra traveled to Samos and then Athens, where Cleopatra was reportedly well-received.[154] She persuaded Antony to send Octavia an official declaration of divorce.[154] This encouraged Munatius Plancus to advise Octavian that he should seize Antony's will, invested with the Vestal Virgins.[154] Although a violation of sacred customs and legal rights, Octavian forcefully acquired the document from the Temple of Vesta, a useful tool in the propaganda war against Antony and Cleopatra.[154] In the selective public reading of the will, Octavian highlighted the claim that Caesarion was heir to Caesar, that the Donations of Alexandria were legal, that Antony should be buried alongside Cleopatra in Egypt instead of Rome, and that Alexandria would be made the new capital of the Roman Republic.[155] With this document Octavian had his casus belli and Rome declared war on Cleopatra.[155] The legal argument for war was based less on her territorial acquisitions, with former Roman territories ruled by her children with Antony, and more on the fact that she was providing military support to a private citizen now that Antony's triumviral authority had expired.[156]

Antony and Cleopatra had greater amounts of troops (i.e. 100,000 men) and ships (i.e. 800 vessels) than Octavian, who reportedly had 200 ships and 80,000 men.[157] However, the crews of Antony and Cleopatra's navy were not all well-trained, some of them perhaps from merchant vessels, whereas Octavian had a fully professional force.[158] Antony wanted to blockade Octavian at either Tarentum or Brundisium but Cleopatra, concerned primarily with defending Egypt, overrode the decision to attack Italy directly.[157] Antony and Cleopatra set up their winter headquarters at Patrai in Greece and by the spring of 31 BC they moved to Actium along the southern Ambracian Gulf.[157] With this position Cleopatra had the defense of Egypt in mind, as any southward movement by Octavian's fleet along the coast of Greece could be detected.[157]

Cleopatra and Antony had the support of various allied kings, but conflict between Cleopatra and Herod had previously erupted and an earthquake in Judea provided an excuse for him and his forces not to be present at Actium in support of the couple.[159] They also lost the support of Malichus I of Nabataea, which would prove to have strategic consequences.[160] Antony and Cleopatra lost several skirmishes against Octavian around Actium during the summer of 31 BC, while defections to Octavian's camp continued, including Antony's long-time companion Quintus Dellius.[160] The allied kings also began to defect to Octavian's side, starting with Amyntas of Galatia and Deiotaros of Paphlagonia.[160] While some in Antony's camp suggested abandoning the naval conflict to retreat inland and face Octavian in the Greek interior, Cleopatra urged for a naval confrontation instead to keep Octavian's fleet away from Egypt.[161]

On 2 September 31 BC the naval forces of Octavian met those of Antony and Cleopatra for a decisive engagement, the Battle of Actium.[161] Cleopatra, aboard her flagship the Antonias, commanded 60 ships at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf, at the rear of the fleet, in what was likely a move by Antony's officers to marginalize her during the battle.[161] Antony had ordered that their ships should have sails on board for a better chance to pursue or flee from the enemy, which Cleopatra, ever-concerned about defending Egypt, used to swiftly move through the area of major combat in a strategic withdrawal to the Peloponnese.[162] Antony followed her and boarded her ship, identified by its distinctive purple sails, as the two escaped the battle and headed for Tainaron.[162] Antony reportedly avoided Cleopatra during this three-day voyage, until her ladies in waiting at Tainaron urged him to speak with her.[163] The Battle of Actium raged on without Cleopatra and Antony, until the morning of 3 September, followed by massive defections of both officers and troops to Octavian's side, even the allied kings.[163]

While Octavian occupied Athens, Antony and Cleopatra landed at Paraitonion in Egypt.[163] The couple then went their separate ways, Antony to Cyrene to raise more troops and Cleopatra sailing into the harbor at Alexandria in a misleading attempt to portray the activities in Greece as a victory.[163] Conflicting reports make it unclear if Cleopatra had financial difficulties at this juncture or not, as some claims, such as robbing temples of their wealth to pay for her military expenditures, were likely Augustan propaganda.[164] It is also uncertain if she actually executed Artavasdes II of Armenia and sent his head to Artavasdes I, king of Media Atropatene, his rival, in an attempt to strike an alliance with him.[165]

Lucius Pinarius, Mark Antony's appointed governor of Cyrene, received word that Octavian had won the Battle of Actium before Antony's messengers could arrive at his court.[165] Pinarius had these messengers executed and defected to Octavian's side, surrendering to him the four legions under his command that Antony desired to obtain.[165] Antony nearly committed suicide after news of this but was stopped by his staff officers.[165] In Alexandria he built a reclusive cottage on the island of Pharos that he nicknamed the Timoneion, after the philosopher Timon of Athens, who was famous for his cynicism and misanthropy.[165] Herod the Great, who had personally advised Antony after the Battle of Actium that he should betray Cleopatra, traveled to Rhodes to meet Octavian and resign his kingship out of loyalty to Antony.[166] Octavian was impressed by his speech and sense of loyalty, so he allowed him to maintain his position in Judea, further isolating Antony and Cleopatra.[166]

Cleopatra perhaps started to view Antony as a liability by the late summer of 31 BC, when she prepared to leave Egypt to her son Caesarion.[167] As an object of Roman hostility, Cleopatra would relinquish her throne and remove herself from the equation by dragging her fleet from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and then setting sail to a foreign port, perhaps in India where she could spend time recuperating.[167] However, these plans were ultimately abandoned when Malichus I of Nabataea, as advised by Octavian's governor of Syria Quintus Didius, managed to burn Cleopatra's fleet, in revenge for his losses in a war with Herod that Cleopatra had largely initiated.[167] Cleopatra had no other option but to stay in Egypt and negotiate with Octavian.[167] Although most likely pro-Octavian propaganda, it was reported that at this time Cleopatra started testing the strengths of various poisons on prisoners and even her own servants.[168]

Cleopatra had Caesarion enter into the ranks of the ephebi, which, along with reliefs on a stele from Koptos dated 21 September 31 BC, demonstrated that Cleopatra was now grooming her son to become the sole ruler of Egypt.[169] In a show of solidarity Antony also had Marcus Antonius Antyllus, his son with Fulvia, enter the ephebi at the same time.[167] Separate messages and envoys from Antony and Cleopatra were then sent to Octavian, still stationed at Rhodes, although Octavian seems to have only replied to Cleopatra.[168] Cleopatra requested that her children should inherit Egypt and that Antony should be allowed to live in exile in Egypt, offering Octavian money in the future and immediately sending him gifts of a golden scepter, crown, and throne.[168] Octavian sent his diplomat Thyrsos to Cleopatra after she threatened to burn herself and vast amounts of her treasure within a tomb already under construction.[170] Thyrsos advised her to kill Antony so that her life would be spared, but when Antony suspected foul intent he had this diplomat flogged and sent back to Octavian without a deal.[171] From Octavian's point of view, Lepidus could be trusted under house arrest, but Antony had to be eliminated and Caesarion, the rival heir to Julius Caesar, couldn't be trusted either.[171]

After lengthy negotiations that ultimately produced no results, Octavian set out to invade Egypt in the spring of 30 BC, stopping at Ptolemais in Phoenicia where his new ally Herod entertained him and provided his army with fresh supplies.[172] Octavian moved south and swiftly took Pelousion, while Cornelius Gallus, marching eastward from Cyrene, defeated Antony's forces near Paraitonion.[173] Octavian advanced quickly onto Alexandria, but Antony returned and won a small victory over his tired troops outside the city's hippodrome.[173] However, on 1 August 30 BC Antony's naval fleet surrendered to Octavian, followed by his cavalry.[173] Cleopatra hid herself in her tomb with her close attendants, sending a message to Antony that she had committed suicide.[173] In despair, Antony responded to this by stabbing himself in the stomach and taking his own life at age 53.[173] According to Plutarch he was allegedly still dying, however, when brought to Cleopatra at her tomb, telling her he had died honorably in a contest against a fellow Roman, and that she could trust Octavian's companion over anyone else in his entourage.[173] It was Proculeius, however, who infiltrated her tomb using a ladder and detained the queen, denying her the ability to burn herself with her treasures.[174] Cleopatra was then allowed to embalm and bury Antony within her tomb before she was escorted to the palace.[174]

Octavian, previously camped at the hippodrome, entered Alexandria and gave a speech of reconciliation at the gymnasium before settling in the palace and seizing Cleopatra's three youngest children.[174] When she met with Octavian she looked disheveled but still retained her poise and classic charm, telling him bluntly that "I will not be led in a triumph" (Greek: οὑ θριαμβεύσομαι, romanized: ou thriamvéfsoume) according to Livy, a rare recording of her exact words.[175] Octavian promised that he would keep her alive but offered no explanation about his future plans for her kingdom.[176] When a spy informed her that Octavian planned to move her and her children to Rome in three days she prepared for suicide, as she had no intentions of being paraded in a Roman triumph like her sister Arsinoe IV.[176] It is unclear if Cleopatra's suicide, at age 39 on 10 August 30 BC, took place within the palace or her tomb.[177] It is said she was accompanied by her servants Eiras and Charmion, who also took their own lives.[176] Octavian was said to be angered by this outcome but had her buried in royal fashion next to Antony in her tomb.[176] Cleopatra's physician Olympos did not give an account of the cause of her death, although the popular belief is that she allowed an asp, or Egyptian cobra, to bite and poison her.[178] Plutarch relates this tale, but then suggests an implement (knestis) was used to introduce the toxin by scratching, while Cassius Dio says that she injected the poison with a needle (belone) and Strabo argued for an ointment of some kind.[179] No venomous snake was found with her body, but she did have tiny puncture wounds on her arm that could have been caused by a needle.[178]

Cleopatra, though long desiring to preserve her kingdom, decided in her last moments to send Caesarion away to Upper Egypt and perhaps with plans to flee to Ethiopia or India.[180] Caesarion, now Ptolemy XV, would reign for a mere eighteen days until executed on the orders of Octavian on 29 August 30 BC, as he was returning to Alexandria under the false pretense that Octavian would allow him to be king.[181] Octavian hesitated to have him killed at first, but he was convinced by the advice of the philosopher and friend Arius Didymus that there was room for only one Caesar in the world.[182] Thus the Ptolemaic period of Egypt came to an end and the country was made into a Roman province.[183]

Epilogue

[edit]

By 27 BC Octavian would become emperor Augustus and, although banning Egyptian religious rites within the city of Rome, would adopt many elements of Egyptian culture such as art and architecture, erecting the 6th-century BC Egyptian Obelisk of Montecitorio as a giant sundial at the Solarium Augusti in the Campus Martius.[184]

A cult dedicated to Cleopatra still existed as late as 373 AD when Petesenufe, a scribe of the book of Isis at Philai, explained that he "overlaid the figure of Cleopatra with gold."[185]

Cleopatra's three surviving children Cleopatra Selene II, Alexander Helios, and Ptolemy Philadelphos were sent to Rome with Octavian's sister Octavia as their guardian.[186] Cleopatra Selene II and Alexander Helios were present in the Roman triumph of Octavian in 29 BC.[186] The fates of Alexander Helios and Ptolemy Philadelphus are unknown after this point.[186] Octavia arranged the betrothal of their sister Cleopatra Selene II to Juba II, son of Juba I whose North African kingdom of Numidia had been turned into a Roman province in 46 BC by Julius Caesar due to Juba I's support of Pompey.[187] The emperor Augustus installed Juba II and Cleopatra Selene II, after their royal wedding in 25 BC, as the new rulers of Mauretania, where they transformed the old Carthaginian city of Iol into their new capital, renamed Caesarea Mauretaniae (modern Cherchell, Algeria).[187] Cleopatra Selene II imported many important scholars, artists, and advisers from her mother's former royal court in Alexandria to serve her in Caesarea, now permeated in Hellenistic-Greek culture.[188] She also named her son Ptolemy of Mauretania, in honor of their Ptolemaic dynastic heritage.[189] Cleopatra died around 5 BC and when Juba II died in 23/24 AD he was succeeded by his son Ptolemy.[189] However, Ptolemy was eventually executed by the Roman emperor Caligula in 40 AD, perhaps under the pretense that Ptolemy had unlawfully minted his own royal coinage and utilized regalia reserved for the Roman emperor.[190] Ptolemy of Mauretania was the last known monarch of the Ptolemaic dynasty, although Queen Zenobia of the short-lived Palmyrene Empire during the Crisis of the Third Century would claim descent from Cleopatra.[191]

Siebler's Roman art

[edit]

Roman art / Michael Siebler ; Norbert Wolf (ed.). Köln ; Los Angeles : Taschen, 2007. ISBN 9783822854549 N5760 .S54 2007 4th floor

Walker and Ashton's Cleopatra Reassessed

[edit]

Cleopatra reassessed / edited by Susan Walker, Sally-Ann Ashton. London : British Museum, [2003] ISBN: 0861591038 DT92.7 .C54 2003 1st (3rd?) floor

Walker and Higgs' Cleopatra of Egypt : from history to myth

[edit]

Walker, Susan; Higgs, Peter (2001). Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691088358.

Reflist

[edit]
  1. ^ Bringmann (2007), p. 259.
  2. ^ Bringmann (2007), pp. 259–260.
  3. ^ a b c d e Bringmann (2007), p. 260.
  4. ^ a b c d Bringmann (2007), p. 301.
  5. ^ a b Bringmann (2007), pp. 301–302.
  6. ^ a b Bringmann (2007), p. 302.
  7. ^ Bringmann (2007), pp. 302–303.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Bringmann (2007), p. 303.
  9. ^ a b Bringmann (2007), pp. 303–304.
  10. ^ a b c d Bringmann (2007), p. 304.
  11. ^ Bringmann (2007), pp. 304–307.
  12. ^ Roller (2010), p. 1.
  13. ^ a b Roller (2010), pp. 1–2.
  14. ^ Roller (2010), p. 2.
  15. ^ Roller (2010), pp. 2–3.
  16. ^ a b c Roller (2010), p. 3.
  17. ^ a b c d Roller (2010), pp. 3–4.
  18. ^ a b c d e Roller (2010), p. 4.
  19. ^ a b c d Roller (2010), pp. 4–5.
  20. ^ a b c Roller (2010), p. 5.
  21. ^ a b c d e Roller (2010), pp. 5–6.
  22. ^ Roller (2010), pp. 6, 46–47.
  23. ^ a b Roller (2010), p. 6.
  24. ^ Roller (2010), pp. 6–7.
  25. ^ Roller (2010), pp. 6–9.
  26. ^ a b Roller (2010), p. 7.
  27. ^ a b Roller (2010), pp. 7–8.
  28. ^ Roller (2010), pp. 7–8, 44.
  29. ^ a b c Roller (2010), p. 8.
  30. ^ a b c d e f Roller (2010), pp. 8–9.
  31. ^ Roller (2010), p. 15.
  32. ^ Roller (2010), pp. 15–16.
  33. ^ Roller (2010), pp. 16, 39.
  34. ^ a b Roller (2010), p. 16.
  35. ^ Roller (2010), pp. 16–17.
  36. ^ Roller (2010), pp. 38–42.
  37. ^ a b c d e Roller (2010), p. 17.
  38. ^ Roller (2010), pp. 17–18.
  39. ^ Roller (2010), pp. 18–19.
  40. ^ Roller (2010), p. 19.
  41. ^ Roller (2010), p. 20.
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