Here's why Cleopatra was a catch (and her many faces)

i want to be free of you i'm wanting you being afraid that caesar would not permit it like that's ever gonna happen [Music] can you think of a more famous woman in history cleopatra is simply iconic art theater cinema tv fancy dress halloween marketing pop culture she is everywhere you could be clueless about history and still know something about cleopatra but this also means there are thousands of cleopatra in popular memory she conjures up completely different images depending on who you are and where you are in the world to some it might be egyptian pharaohs and mummies to others that egyptian walk come dance move of 80s glam rock and found in god knows how many depictions for cinephiles and baby boomers it's the mesmerizing elizabeth taylor or perhaps it's shakespeare or asterix and obelix more classical reimaginings involve cleopatra and an asp or cleopatra's nose or cleopatra bathing in ass's milk the myths are seemingly infinite and shaped by layer upon layer of reenactment and artistic imagination over centuries so this video navigates murky waters making character breakdowns of ancient figures is always problematic anyway but cleopatra is especially problematic separating the historical sources from later art and literature is hardly a challenge it's recreating the real cleopatra from the dodgy historical sources that's the issue our most reliable and perhaps our most comprehensive written source is plutarch greek polymath under the roman empire writing a century after the events though with plenty of biases of his own as well as being an enthusiastic dramatist cassius dio greek roman historian writing in the early 3rd century also left us accounts on cleopatra using earlier dodgy sources himself and a dramatist as well so before we explore the big question of what she might really have been like as usual let's get the bio in if you know cleopatra's story already and or you're short on time feel free to skip ahead to the start of the breakdown you'll find it marked in the video's timeline so without further ado hit that clock cleopatra the seventh phillipatta was likely born in the winter of 69 bc the third daughter of ptolemy pharaoh of egypt we don't know for certain if she was the legitimate daughter of ptolemy's wife cleopatra vi trifena but publicly and officially she likely was for those who don't know cleopatra was a descendant of the ptolemaic dynasty it had been established some two and a half centuries before cleopatra's time under ptolemy the first a macedonian general who had fought in alexander the great's campaigns and who for his service had been granted egypt to rule over as pharaoh under the ptolemies ancient egypt was infused with greek culture the mediterranean port city of alexandria named after the greek conqueror became the capital of ptolemaic egypt and a major city in the greek speaking world but the ptolemies did consider themselves the heirs of the ancient egyptians starting themselves as pharaohs claiming descent from egyptian gods adopting native customs and generally promoting hellenistic cultural fusion in the manner of alexander the great cleopatra would have been raised in court splendor as a princess she would have had an excellent classical education only fitting for her position but it might not have been as rigorous as that of her elder sister berenice seven years her senior or that of a younger brother ptolemy the reason for this was the egyptian throne was matrilineal meaning male pharaohs only inherited the throne by marrying a woman almost always their sister who would have been the eldest daughter of their father the king the idea was to keep the bloodline pure that is in the family though the queen didn't hold as much political power as the king she was nonetheless expected to be an important advisor so though cleopatra was second in line she would have benefited all the same her education was at the hands of the world's greatest scholars with the ancient world's greatest library and its adjoining museum right on her doorstep and she was of course a royal in the world's capital of learning alexandria the young princess grew up with the power jostles of her family particularly bloody between her father and berenice whom he had executed in 55 bc for attempting to overthrow him in 51 when she was 18 ptolemy xii died cleopatra who had been co-ruling with her father for about a year ascended the throne with her youngest brother called you guessed it ptolemy ptolemy the 13th nearly eight years cleopatra's junior details are murky but it appears cleopatra was a bit too power-hungry for the ptolemaic court egyptian coins only featured her face when female rule was more of a formality than anything else young ptolemy's ambitious aides conspired against her forcing her to flee for syria there she raised an army of mercenaries and returned in 48 bc leading an uprising in the east delta city of palousia around the same time ptolemy and his cabal had unwittingly attempted to meddle in the ongoing civil war between julius caesar and pompey pompey a supposed ally of the ptolemies sought refuge in egypt under the protection of its new ruler but on the shores of palusium pompey was murdered and decapitated ptolemy and his advisors were hoping to curry favor with caesar the man whom fortune favored to rule over rome the alexandrians presented pompey's severed head to caesar after the victorious general had arrived in egypt in pursuit of his enemy this backfired terribly caesar was horrified the fate of his rival once his ally and son-in-law he seized alexandria installed himself in the royal palace and declared a summons of cleopatra and ptolemy to settle their dispute it was in rome's interest arbitrate egypt was the granary of the ancient world the ptolemies also had debts to pay what's more rome had pledged to ptolemy xii that it would guarantee co-rule of his children upon his death while the young ptolemy refused to accept caesar's demands cleopatra saw an opportunity for an alliance with caesar in an episode much mythologized in the arts the young queen is said to have snuck into caesar's chambers after being clandestinely transported in an oversized sack and some might say in a rolled up carpet before long she had upgraded from the bedsack to caesar's bedsheets well more precisely they were cleopatras as lest we forget caesar was in cleopatra's family home and though the affair was romantic it would have been just as much if not more political caesar needed egypt to repay its debts he also needed economic stability for egypt to be a reliable client state to rome cleopatra meanwhile wanted the throne for herself but she also wanted to expand egypt eastward into the levant increase its power and wealth and restore the glory of her ptolemaic ancestors both leaders shared a common vision of uniting west and east just like their ideological forebear alexander the great ptolemy and his aides obviously weren't very happy with all this as were a few egyptians who were hostile to the notion of a roman general seizing alexandria and shacking up with their queen albeit a contested one the young ptolemy declared war on caesar he and his forces were defeated though the following spring after the arrival of roman reinforcements cleopatra and caesar's affair in the winter of 48-47 bc while under siege at the royal palace had produced a sun in june of 47 bc the boy was named ptolemy caesar but was known to egyptians as caesarean or little caesar the great general himself didn't recognize him as his heir naming his grandnephew octavian instead in fact despite strong evidence in caesarean's favor there's no way of truly knowing if he was actually caesar's son in any case with the death of ptolemy xiii by drowning at sea cleopatra was installed on the egyptian throne while her younger brother ptolemy xiv was made co-ruler following political tradition caesar spent several more months in egypt visiting egyptian heritage sites with cleopatra exploring the nile river on cleopatra's pleasure barge and indulging in much of alexandria's hellenistic culture on his departure caesar left roman legions in the city to shore up cleopatra's tenuous rule and egypt was re-established as a close client state of rome after caesar had defeated the bulk of pompey supporters he returned to rome in 46 bc cleopatra and her puppet co-ruler visited the eternal city a number of times staying in caesar's country estate on the west bank of the tiber outside the city walls the affair was still well known to most romans although they would have kept a low profile particularly given caesar was married on the 15th of march 44 bc caesar was murdered he was killed by a band of disgruntled senators known as the liberatoris led by cassius and brutus cleopatra would certainly have been in rome at the time possibly to see the unveiling of a statue in her image in the temple of venus genetrix definitely a no-no for many romans who would have scoffed at the notion of a foreign queen being associated with one of their most prized mythological ancestors she stayed in rome until mid-april perhaps with the vain hope of making her son caesarean ruler of rome but with octavian caesar's adopted son and great nephew pressing his claim to the mantle she departed for egypt several months after her return she had her co-ruler and younger brother murdered by poisoning and replaced him with her own son caesar's right-hand man mark anthony joined forces with octavian as well as the consul marcus emilius lepidus vowing to avenge caesar's death and kill the assassins together they formed what's now known as the second triumvirate following what's known as the liberators civil war the forces of cassius and brutus were defeated in 42 bc at the battle of philippi the roman republic was divided among caesar's avengers marc anthony who was granted rome's eastern provinces including egypt summoned cleopatra in tarsus modern-day turkey for an audience word had it she had assisted brutus and cassius in the civil war when in fact the opposite was closer to the truth after a meeting with anthony she successfully cleared her name and through her charms and intellect captivated the general marking the beginning of a long and legendary affair but again one that was likely just as much political and dynastic as it was romantic like caesar mark anthony completely forgot about his existing wife folvia in fact folvia was in italy doing all she could to protect her husband's claims to power and curb the growing ambitions of a young octavian mark anthony stayed with cleopatra in alexandria in the winter of 41 bc during this time the couple formed what is often referred to as the society of inimitable livers perhaps cult to the god of dionysus but also a great excuse to get drunk eat copious amounts of decadent food and have lots of parties and sex anthony treated cleopatra not so much as a client queen but as a sovereign ruler in her own right this set off alarm bells back in rome even more concerning for the roman elite was the ensuing pregnancy of cleopatra with mark anthony's children fraternal twins later named cleopatra celine and alexander helios for cleopatra the situation couldn't have been better in the power vacuum left by caesar's death anthony had emerged as arguably the most powerful man in the world through him she could retain her rule and even reclaim land in the levant that had been lost to the romans as triumva over rome's eastern territories anthony proceeded with caesar's unfulfilled plans to invade parthia in monday iran with cleopatra's help he could defeat the parthians once and for all together they could create a dynasty and she could fulfill her political ambitions of ruling over a world empire connecting the east and the west of course all this would have appealed to anthony as well the conquest of parthia was virtually an obsession for him and his ambition called for the expansion of rome following in the footsteps of alexander and his former commander and idol julius caesar between 40 bc and 37 bc cleopatra and mark anthony didn't see each other while cleopatra was running the state anthony was engaged in parthia but his campaigns were interrupted by the events of the periscine war this was a war waged by anthony's wife fovea against octavian her aim was to put an end to the triumvirate and establish mark anthony as sole ruler of the roman republic folvia's forces were defeated and anthony was forced to return to italy open war between octavian and anthony seemed imminent but it was temporarily averted the two came to an agreement in what's now known as the treaty of brandisium in september and october 40 bc the roman world was redivided anthony retained roman lands to the east of the ionian sea and octavian rested control over the west as a treaty obligation anthony also married octavian's sister octavia the younger by 37 bc anthony's relationship with octavian had soured incessant power jostling and one-upmanship convinced anthony that octavian would continue to flout treaty agreements and seize more territory from the two other triumvas though the triumvirate was extended that same year thanks to the peacemaking efforts of octavia anthony left western rome for the east to rekindle his parthian campaign on the way he renewed his affair with cleopatra flouting his marriage to octavia who was also assisting him in his parthian campaign while in antioch anthony saw his children for the first time this was probably when they were given their names highly symbolic ones too alexander helios helios meaning the sun and cleopatra celine as in the moon in 36 cleopatra and anthony had a third child ptolemy the 16th part of the reason for anthony's meeting with cleopatra was he needed money for parthia cleopatra obliged generously as it was in her interest to do so in return cleopatra's kingdom was enlarged gaining sways of territories mainly in the levant but also in crete and libya the parthian campaign was ultimately a disaster however the temporary conquest of armenia in 34 bc was fated as a great victory even if it wasn't anthony returned to alexandria in a great triumph romans back home were not happy in late 34 bc in what is now known as the donations of alexandria anthony boldly proclaimed cleopatra queen of kings he proclaimed caesarean as caesar's heir and co-ruler alongside cleopatra cleopatra and anthony's son alexander helios was granted armenia and territory east of the euphrates his infant brother ptolemy was given land west of it finally cyrene in modern-day libya was handed to cleopatra celine alexander's twin to many romans and especially to octavian who from anthony's proclamation had literally just been cast as an illegitimate ad caesar this was a brazen takeover of the civilized world by a man who seemed bent on creating his own dynasty and it was reducing rome to a mere province of a hellenistic empire puppeteered by a scheming foreign queen the result was a vicious smear campaign from both sides anthony the slave to a foreign [ __ ] queen and witch who dishonored his roman wife the virtuous and loyal octavia mark anthony the traitor of rome who wanted to relocate the capital to alexandria how dare he and anthony too had plenty of material to work with octavian the illegitimate pretender octavian who'd illegally deposed lepidus from the triumvirate and denied mark anthony troops in italy octavian the sexual deviant even guilty of buggery with his adopted father julius caesar you know how the romans were in 32 bc octavian convinced the senate to wage war on antony and cleopatra styling it as a war against egypt and not against a fellow roman civil war broke out in september of 31 bc the fleets of marc anthony and cleopatra faced off with the fleets of octavian off the coast of actium in greece it wasn't the crushing defeat as octavia's propaganda would have us believe but it was the beginning of the end for anthony and cleopatra it is a sea battle which has puzzled many and divided opinion for centuries for reasons that are unclear and debated anthony and cleopatra made a strategic exit from the sea battle perhaps it was to save the war chest on cleopatra's fleet perhaps it was to break octavian's naval siege and attempt to war on land perhaps it was a miscalculation under pressure in any case the majority of anthony's ships were abandoned left to fight without a commander cleopatra returned to egypt soon to be followed by marc anthony military failures and affections grew though she remained by a lover's side cleopatra began to see marc anthony as a liability and looked towards the future she started planning for cesarean's expedited ascension to the ptolemaic throne meanwhile she plotted a bold escape route to the east a plan which involved dragging her ships by land from alexandria to the red sea from there she hoped to set up a new court in the east probably as far as india to reassemble her forces and safeguard her dynasty but her fleet on wheels was burned by pro-octavian rebels negotiations between anthony and octavian also broke down and octavian invaded egypt in the spring of 30 bc after anthony's navy surrendered to octavian in august cleopatra hid in a mausoleum she had been building for herself since her return from actium this would be cleopatra's final bargaining chip she filled it with huge reserves of royal treasure capitalizing an octavian's greed and the need to pay his legions she threatened to set herself on fire reducing to ash all the tombs riches along with her she sent a message to anthony that she had committed suicide a cue to him that he was now alone in reality if there was any chance for her survival and that of a dynasty she would have to dissociate herself from octavian's nemesis anthony despairing at the fabricated news committed ritual suicide but alas he botched the job and failed to die from his wounds it's not clear who first learned of the other's fate whether anthony discovered that cleopatra was alive or that cleopatra discovered that anthony was only half dead but anthony was carried and hoisted into cleopatra's mausoleum through a high window there he finally succumbed to his wounds and died we're told in his lover's arms before drawing his final breath anthony had told cleopatra to rest her faith in gaius peculius a friend of anthony's his trust was deeply misplaced on octavian's orders proculius infiltrated cleopatra's tomb and detained her he had been instructed to prevent her suicide and more importantly no doubt to rescue the riches from fire the tomb was emptied the treasure carted off back to rome cleopatra was allowed to embalm and bury anthony in her tomb as she had wanted but she was escorted back to the palace under strict supervision to prevent her from suicide octavian we're told intended to parade cleopatra as part of his triumphant entry into rome octavian entered alexandria on the 1st of august the day of anthony's death he occupied the palace and seized cleopatra's three children in a private audience cleopatra was reassured she and her children wouldn't be harmed and that she would be treated in a manner befitting her status however octavian didn't present his intentions for the future of egypt nor did he guarantee that cleopatra wouldn't be paraded in chains in his triumphant return to rome this was out of the question for cleopatra for whom a noble death was the only possible ending upon discovering that octavian was departing for rome and that he intended to bring cleopatra and her children cleopatra took action she requested a final farewell to her entombed lover a wish she was granted for the 10th of august two days before octavian's planned departure the story goes that after an emotional farewell cleopatra had epaphroditus a roman century standing guard send a message to octavian in the brief moment that epaphrodites was gone she dismissed her retinue except for two close chambermaids iris and charmian and closed the mausoleum doors behind her and then the perfect end to a greek tragedy the great queen and her servants took their lives how you ask well that's the big debate and one that's still going 2 000 years on the long-held belief that she allowed herself to be bitten by a snake is now considered implausible more credible theories are that she administered poison into herself through an instrument like a needle or else through ingestion but we simply can't know for sure poison does appear to be the cause of death however her request to be buried alongside mark anthony which was the contents of a final letter to octavian was honored cleopatra's death marked the end of the ptolemaic dynasty that had ruled egypt for nearly three centuries she had ruled egypt for the last 22 years 18 days after she died her son cesarean who had fled the city but was lured back into alexandria was murdered on octavian's orders her children to marc anthony cleopatra celine alexander helios and ptolemy philadelphos were hardly considered political threats they were sent to rome to live under the guardianship of octavia the younger mark anthony's former wife despite this they were paraded in a roman triumph one year later we don't know the fates of the two boys they might have been assassinated on octavian's orders cleopatra celine though was married after king juba ii of mauritania a client king of rome becoming an influential and wealthy consort in her own right with the end of the ptolemies egypt became a province of rome octavian became sole ruler and established himself as princeps or first citizen in a historic watershed the roman republic became the roman empire octavian rebranded as augustus i.e the revered was its very first emperor throughout history the myth of cleopatra has been shaped by time and place to many ancient roman chroniclers she was a witchy femme fatale who practiced sorcery on two powerful roman commanders and so destruction in awake to the islamic world in its golden age she was a model scholar a gifted scientist physician and philosopher who could work miracles with botanicals for chaucer she was a model for fashionable medieval ideas of courtly love for giovanni boccaccio associated with the renaissance she was the embodiment of sin time and time again from cicero to plutarch shakespeare to hollywood cleopatra has been a canvas onto which societies and civilizations across history have cast their views on women and much of this has been negative cleopatra is certainly a tragic figure not just because of her own personal and political downfall but because of two millennia of damning and generally unfair press is it even possible you may ask to decipher the queen when we're dealing with such distortion not just from art and myth but also just through sheer bias and constructed gender roles well let's at least give it a go cleopatra the woman ladies and gentlemen enjoy the show history is written by the victors or so the adage goes fortunately history is never set in stone that said it has taken us quite a long time to ditch the roman propaganda which has shaped so much of the standard narrative around cleopatra after becoming emperor octavian rebranded as augustus by this point wrote his memoirs in these now lost to us he went to great lengths to slander anthony and cleopatra he needed to paint himself as the upstanding upright roman if he was to justify his rule as emperor especially as he himself had been a die-hard republican so anthony was the degenerate layabout who had turned his back on rome to rule over egypt and he did so while under the spell of the witchy temptress cleopatra that abundantly wealthy queen from the exotic eastern world of lust and loose morals twice the corrupter of what had otherwise been great roman leaders and octavian meanwhile had defended rome's honor and rescued it from foreign rule and ruin even resisting her witchy attempts to seduce him while she was pleading for her life and these arguments were the same ones used in octavian's propaganda war with marc anthony pro-anthony propaganda was of course swept under the rug burned or suppressed under octavian most romans both during her lifetime and after didn't like cleopatra through the writings of the literate elite alone we can just imagine the rants behind the scenes the fuming the slandering the dirty jokes all their visceral offenses to her independence her power her intelligence her abundant wealth especially and to cap it all that as a woman just take cleopatra and the snake for example how many times have we heard that trope eve medusa elektra daughter of agamemnon when a woman and a snake pair up there's always something shifty going on and you could head your bets on the gender of the writers without too much risk these myths by the way the sexual snare the crafty power lusting deviant are still very much around today didn't she like bang caesar yes most probably but when we think of caesar a prolific philanderer do we think about perhaps the hundreds of women he seduced cleopatra is not only at best a love interest and at worst a manipulative nympho her history is often relegated to that of the lover of julius caesar and mark anthony rarely is she credited with actually being a working queen the fact she was supreme commander over a country of seven million people often goes unspoken those are seven million people to feed to control and to assuage not to mention managing a global power now on the decline surrounded by opportunistic enemies both at home and abroad as supreme religious authority she owed a duty to the people of overseeing rights and rituals often sacrifices and offerings at temples to stave off earthly apocalypse she was a formidable pr whiz organizing the most spectacular ceremonies of public appearances highly effective power displays for illiterate masses she declared herself a living goddess in the figure of isis mother of the egyptian sun god rey as well as to the people of egypt as prime lawmaker she passed laws and meted out justice combating widespread corruption and abuses across the bureaucracy she oversaw the distribution of grain from the royal granary in times of popular hardship she regulated the currency oversaw taxation and agricultural matters and she mitigated the economic effects of serious droughts during her reign cleopatra was also at the helm of a highly complex bureaucracy which would have occupied most of her taxing daily tasks she handled diplomacy with foreign powers suppressed insurrections led fleets and armies lest we forget she was head of state and supreme commander over the wealthiest land of the mediterranean a descendant of a powerful lineage at the heart of the hellenistic world meanwhile her affairs with julius caesar and mark anthony have always been treated as deeply passionate or licentious or both and if not from cleopatra's end then at least from caesar and anthony somehow the affairs have always been tinged with emotion and drama but never so much cool calculated politics were these not political alliances too perhaps far more so than wild romances or dynastic arrangements which are so common in human history the picture that emerges in most cases is one of a highly intelligent astute politician constantly calculating who strove to preserve egyptian power in the eastern mediterranean she was a woman who used the tools available to her and in the context of growing roman power particularly military she created alliances with caesar and anthony two men who could bolster and improve the prospects of their kingdom to a great degree this involved keeping egypt sovereign and free from roman annexation at a time when rome was the dominant power in the mediterranean very possibly it could also have been with the prospect to rule over east and west under one empire alongside a powerful roman leader while it's important to remember that she likely made good use of her charms for her own designs genuine romance between herself and caesar and later anthony is hardly out of the question it could have been luck of the draw that she was attracted to the most powerful men in the world perhaps it was their power that was the aphrodisiac cleopatra was clearly extremely ambitious just as ambitious as the two generals in her particularly caesar they would have found kindred spirits with shared visions of mediterranean civilization we see her plotting from the moment she got a taste of power as co-ruler alongside her father after his death she had tried like her older sister to rule alone sidelining her younger brother this would backfire as it provided the opportunity for a group of influential advisers to use him as a puppet for their own ambitions of course throughout her life she didn't shy away from using violence to secure her political goal she murdered her husband and co-ruler ptolemy xiii after the death of caesar when her rule seemed tenuous cleopatra's younger sister arsenau iv was executed at her behest for conspiring against her and caesar during the siege of alexandria torture of her enemies and even foreign diplomats was never out of the question there's no reason not to believe the ancients when they described her testing poisons on convicted prisoners and servants too even if the frequency might have been exaggerated given the standards of the ancient world these are hardly blemishes on her character and given the track record of the ptolemies cleopatra was pretty lenient like caesar she was a level-headed strategist from a cool objective look at her political career she could usually be counted on to make the most intelligent decision positioning herself for every favorable outcome if she couldn't hold power herself she could do so through her children and she was strategizing till her final hour after the battle of actium when it became clear anthony would lose the civil war and end in ruin she began to sideline him and prepare for her own survival should she have ditched him earlier well supposing that being the case without her he wouldn't have had the funds to supply his fleets and armies the chances of anthony's defeat would have been even greater therefore both clung onto each other by that point they were individually stronger together than if they were apart so she did well to stick with him until it became clear he was a liability at which point she planned for a great escape transporting her fleet overland from alexandria to the gulf of suez then sailing off into the red sea and beyond this i should add was hardly an impossible nor too much of a desperate task both herpharyonic and ptolemaic predecessors had achieved greater feats against greater odds she was unlucky the plan had to be abandoned when the first boats were captured and burned by malcus the nabataean king in retaliation for the devastation left by anthony's cavalry on his land as a result cleopatra ramped up her lethal experiments in the months before her death and also built her mausoleum filled with treasure and flammable materials as her very last trump card against octavian ultimately she failed in realizing her aims allying herself to anthony and not octavian as caesar's avenger was the logical choice and if cesarean was to become heir with cleopatra potentially ruling in the shadows octavia needed to go but it meant having octavian as the enemy he wasn't only an extremely crafty and able leader he benefited by physically being in rome and near the senate when the triumvirate was breaking down he also had a much better hand in the ensuing propaganda war using among other arguments time-tested tropes of powerful women being sexual snares cleopatra goes down on the losing side of history but that shouldn't reflect on her capacities as a ruler quite the contrary and one thing that sets cleopatra apart from her ptolemaic predecessors is that she appears to have been the only one in her lineage who bothered to learn egyptian that is the language of the roughly seven million people over which she and many of her predecessors ruled all of them just stuck to greek they're in cleopatra's mother tongue with all the time and energy it must have taken to learn egyptian a notoriously difficult ancient language one of the oldest in recorded human history in fact it demonstrates one thing cleopatra actually cared there is one aspect on which most of the ancient sources are unanimous no matter how hostile cleopatra was a wit for one she had an excellent education her father ptolemy xii who was a great sponsor of learning in the arts made sure of that she would have received a classical greek education at the hands of the greatest luminaries of the hedonistic world with the library of alexandria and its great museum just a stone's throw away particularly she would have been expertly trained in the oral arts the techniques to persuade philosophize debate reason outwit the art of speaking essentially which is one of the most prized talents in the hellenistic world and the ptolemaic queen of egypt would have been trained with the very best to become one of the very best it was her wit not her beauty as most ancient sources wrote which had the most disarming effect on those she encountered plutarch wrote interaction with her was captivating and her appearance along with a persuasiveness in discussion and a character that accompanied every interchange was stimulating these sorts of comments are echoed in most of the written sources about her it's difficult to tell the exact influence of cleopatra's persuasion powers on caesar and anthony especially considering their alliances were mutually beneficial but they would have helped a great deal along the way her initial talks with caesar though hardly the mythologized event of drama and film likely involved serious negotiations to convince the general it was in his interest to back cleopatra when she tried to cast aside her brother convincing marc anthony that she had not supported brutus and cassius in the civil war when some of the facts were clearly against her like the fact the governor of cyprus which was under egyptian dominion had backed caesar's assassins might have been difficult to explain away by oral testimony alone yet she would have had the training and the wits to provide anthony with a seemingly bulletproof case she could think quickly on her feet not only a great strategist but a tactician as well in her final meeting with octavian after she had been prevented from taking her life and from burning the treasure inside her mausoleum cleopatra pulled something really quite special a last-ditch attempt to ingratiate herself with octavian involved providing an inventory of the royal treasures it could also be read as a sort of surrender after octavian was shown the list one of cleopatra's stewards a man called seleucus spoke up he told octavian that the queen had omitted some particularly valuable treasures this sent cleopatra flying into a rage to the point where she actually started beating the guy she quote seized him by the hair and showered blows upon his face end quote octavian could hardly feign his amusement but he did intervene to stop the queen she finally composed herself and said something along these lines reimagined by plutarch but is it not a monstrous thing caesar that when you have deigned to onomi with a visit in my wretched condition one of my slaves should denounce me for reserving some woman's adornments not for myself indeed unhappy woman that i am but that i may make some trifling gifts to octavia and to your livia and through their intercession hope to find you more merciful and more gentle if this actually happened this is pure genius she's saying i merely wanted to spare some gifts for your dear wife and sister how are they by the way darling send them my love will you and in my wretched state i'm called a liar by my pipsqueak of a slave with anthony she was also a class act after the battle of actium there are signs mark anthony doubted cleopatra's loyalties according to pliny the elder anthony feared cleopatra or members of her court might attempt to poison him in order to ingratiate themselves with octavian he refused to eat or drink anything that hadn't been tested by a slave we're told cleopatra found quite a creative way to profess her innocence pliny writes she is said to have played on his fear and dipped the tips of the flowers in his crown in poison and then put the crown on his head soon as the revelry proceeded she suggested to anthony that they drink their crowns when he raised his cup to his lips bearing the wine mixed with the poisoned flowers she intercepted him saying something along the lines of don't worry if i wanted to kill you and if i could afford to i'd have done it already a prisoner was then brought into the room and ordered to drink from the cup he died promptly thereafter cleopatra seems to have been a bit of a social chameleon a kindred spirit of catherine the great in her ability to flit easily between crowds and environments the nine or more languages she spoke definitely would have helped her also a testament to her intellect curiosity and formidable self-discipline plutarch also extolling her velvet tongue writes quote it was a pleasure to hear the sound of her voice with which like an instrument of many strings she could pass from one language to another so that there were few of the barbarian nations that she answered by an interpreter to most of them she spoke herself perhaps her adaptability is best shown in the reports we have of her and mark anthony anthony for all his military brilliance doesn't appear to have scored high in intellectual openness in that regard he was no caesar a voracious encyclopedic reader who would likely have had a great deal more to talk about with cleopatra we're told by first century greek historian appian that she tried to interest anthony in education and learned discussion we don't really know how that went down but we do know the sorts of activities anthony preferred those were sword fighting drinking and sex mark anthony was the ancient world's embodiment of work hard party harder one day you could catch him sprawled out sloth-like on a gilded couch surrounded by concubines while drooling over his 20th cup of wine the very next day however he could be whizzing around his chambers barking orders planning complex military strategy with the sharpness of a hawk cleopatra cognizant of the political need to stick by anthony and probably enthralled by this uncouth albeit dashing and larger than life general seemed happy to adjust herself to him this incredible account is left to us by plutarch she played dice with him drank with him hunted with him and watched him as he exercised himself in arms and when by night he would station himself at the doors or windows of the common folk and scoff at those within she would go with him on his round of mad follies wearing the garb of a serving maiden side thought what is it about ancient roman leaders going out in the streets at night and mucking around how was this allowed nero did this as well what were the security standards anyway these nighttime escapades were much more roman in character than ptolemaic alexandria was no less sin city than rome was probably even more decadent but the egyptian queen wouldn't normally have done that it goes to show how adaptable she was with anthony a man who wouldn't typically have been a monarch's preferred guest partaking in all this might also have been part of a general strategy to keep him on her radar there's no reason to doubt she genuinely enjoyed all this either you can just imagine the escapism the mediterranean's most powerful woman usually overwhelmed with a taxing daily schedule turning to state affairs by then she was in her late twenties she might have enjoyed putting her hair down and frolicking around with the heir apparent of rome free of the burdens of queenship while in the childish company of this totally unfiltered hedonist she played along by all appearances she seemed to take the back seat but then she could pull some marvelous feats of silliness herself not only keeping up with but outmatching her play friend on one of the days when they weren't at the races or cleopatra wasn't playing the dutiful lover as mark anthony trained in sword fighting the two were out fishing with their retinues nearby i'll quote the hilarious stacy schiff directly to kick off the story quote mark anthony is frustrated he commands whole armies but on this occasion somehow cannot coax a single fish from the teeming famously fertile egyptian waters and of course cleopatra is right there anthony has to do something to remedy the embarrassment of the situation so what does he do he orders his servants to dive underwater and attach pre-caught fish onto his hook just one after the next it all seemed to go swimmingly for the first few catches the ruse appeared to be working on cleopatra but when the catchers became awkwardly more regular and anthony's reactions became laughably more predictable the queen cottoned on to the ploy she nonetheless pretended she hadn't noticed and was full of praise oh anthony you do know your way around a rod alright she probably didn't say that she played the game though and later she hatched her own little plan which she would play out the very next day anthony was invited to go fishing again this time a whole fleet set sail for the great occasion courtiers had been personally invited by cleopatra to watch and feast their eyes on the great angler at work that morning cleopatra had ordered a special little submarine operation of her own an unsuspecting anthony cast his line almost immediately he felt the tug and weight of the catch as he reeled his line in the sight of the fish was met with roars of laughter on anthony's hook was a dead salted herring it had been imported from the black sea to be incongruously fished straight out of the nile river anthony's cheating had backfired catastrophically cleopatra's moment of triumph had arrived quote leave the fishing rod general to us your prey are cities kingdoms and continents it was the perfect punchline a superb combination of humiliation and flattery plutarch summed it up rather well even with characteristic puritanism quote for such a rebuke as this is just like the bites of a lecherous woman it tickles and provokes and pleases even while it pains you like teasing him for being caught with his trousers down but then marveling at his great wrought and not the fishing kind i despise the queen such was the conclusion of marcus cicero the great statesman and lawyer of the late roman republic quote the queen's insolence he scorned when she was living in caesar's house and the gardens beyond the tiber i cannot recall without indignation cicero found cleopatra haughty and aloof through his letters he left us with one of the most damning character slurs of the egyptian queen by a contemporary so why exactly did cicero dislike the queen well the trigger for that particular outburst was that she had forgotten to lend him a book or some kind of manuscript that he'd requested perhaps from the library of alexandria to cicero this was the greatest of offenses to a man as important and as learned as he was he was also a hardline republican so on that front queen cleopatra probably wouldn't have endeared herself much to him but then the visceral acid spew from cicero suggests there might have been something more possibly cleopatra's wealth offended the great opportunist born into humble beginnings and who married into wealth cleopatra's library was also bigger than cicero's the much flaunted pride and joy of one of ancient rome's greatest egotists she was probably just as witty perhaps just as learned the fact that he requested a text from the queen also implies some kind of prior report she might even have charmed him a dynamic and learned conversation between two quick minds could have prompted either one to arrange for the book lending but it appears that she cold-shouldered or simply didn't care enough about him to remember leaving him extremely sour whining quote they as in cleopatra and retinue seem to think i have not only no spirit but no feelings at all his vitriol and actually the only source we have on cleopatra during her stay in rome has shaped a damning legacy for cleopatra simply over a book and one man's inflated ego despite cicero's clear whining and likely misogyny there might be some truth in cicero's claims to her arrogance cleopatra to say the least had a lot going for herself she was most likely the wealthiest person in the world not a great beauty as two thousand years of myth-making would have us believe but pretty she was vivacious and quick-witted and she certainly possessed an aura and tongue that could disarm and beguile most at caesar's side and particularly mark anthony's the future of the world was seemingly in the palm of her hand it's then to no surprise that humility might have been of little concern to her and reading between the lines you do get the impression of somebody who likely didn't take world of criticism who was intolerant of slights who might have acted disdainfully towards those beneath her or appear in any way subordinate to any person or state her relationship with marc anthony seems to suggest so at their first meeting in tarsus anthony invited cleopatra in a retinue to a banquet that he would host cleopatra refused status was a play here after all it is the host who's in control of the event as the guest you are the passive recipient of their generosity in a power move reminiscent of tony sopranos you eat i pay cleopatra would be the first to host anthony conceded at this most romans would have scoffed the idea of a commander of roman legions submitting to the hospitality of a shady east and sovereign was cause for outrage but to anthony the great hedonist it was a no-brainer indulge the pretty lady make her seem like she's on top and in the meantime have an absolute blast the alexandrians you might have reasoned with all their wealth could throw a much better party than any roman could any day of the week and he was right if marc anthony had any expectations at all cleopatra surpassed them she treated him and his friends to a dinner fit for kings this on her gilded ship fitted with silver ores and magnificent purple sails made of silk incense flutes pipes and liars set the scene beautiful artificial lighting forming squares and circles illuminated the [ __ ] on her body alone cleopatra would have adorned precious gems and clothing costing more money than the average roman patrician could dream of earning in a lifetime and at the end of the meal all of the gilded plates they dined on studded with precious stones were simply handed to anthony and his guests like party bags at cleopatra's next banquet the following day even more lavish we're told the guests were encouraged to leave with anything they wanted from the room from the ridiculously lavish tableware to the gilded couches this was alexandrian hospitality at its finest cleopatra was hardly a pioneer on that front the ptolemies were legendary hosts but the nightly meals always more decadent than the last and the theatricality of her arrival to tarsus in a magnificent boat this was cleopatra wowing her guests into submission the ptolemies were not as strong militarily or geopolitically but they did have money they could buy their allies and mark anthony was easy pickings at the fourth banquet cleopatra ordered the entire room to be covered with rose petals the flower bill alone was worth the average yearly income of a middling roman landowner by the end of the week the guests were taking home gifts that were just absurd quote litters and bearers for the men of high rank and horses decked out with silver-plated trappings for the majority of them not to mention exquisite furniture art and tapestries every man was even welcomed to an ethiopian slave for his return home there was absolutely no way marc anthony could outmatch this it seems he basically accepted his fate early on in the visit we're told he had tried to outmatch cleopatra's floating banquet with a feast of his own the contents of which were apparently so underwhelming they're not even on record he was ambitious to surpass her in splendor and elegance plutarch writes cleopatra was probably too polite to comment on what would have been a colossal anti-climax marc anthony never wanted to pass up a joke at his own expense poked fun at quote the meeganos and rusticity of the banquet the ultimate icebreaker essentially and cleopatra the chameleon played long now with the license to eviscerate marc anthony in his efforts quote she perceiving that his railery was broad and gross and savored more of the soldier than the courtier rejoined in the same taste and fell into it at once without any sort of reluctance or reserve from all this then we do get a sense of a competitive spirit a desire and knack for outsmarting and coming out on top but then with marc anthony at least her grace and her way with words meant it rarely came across as a zero-sum game a rhetorical or political victory for her wasn't a loss for mark anthony she could have fun especially if the politics called for it any jabs were well meant always good sportsmanship i mean returning to the fishing incident anthony was clearly outwitted he was exposed as a cheat insecure about his virility at the same time by telling him to leave the fishing to the egyptians cleopatra put him in the limelight as the world's alpha male essentially and it's just like with the banquets the message was clear listen darling leave the banquets to us we've got the cash she had no constraints about flattering his ego by playing the supporting role you do your war thing and conquer parthia will supply the money and the ships underneath it all though was cleopatra's great ambition you do the world conquering together we'll consolidate and rule of course cleopatra was proud she had plenty of reasons to be so because of this she intended to go out in style when the war was lost to octavian her preoccupation over the weeks and months was to die nobody to us with the advantage of hindsight we can say well of course who wouldn't do the same but then how many other great rulers in history have prepared for their deaths in advance particularly how many have rehearsed it with as much thought into ensuring the quickest and most painless passing i mean let's just look at anthony's fate anthony's defeat was fairly inevitable after the battle of actium as octavian closed in on alexandria and anthony was erroneously informed of cleopatra's suicide he accepted his fate eros the servant who had been ordered by anthony to put him to the sword turned the weapon onto himself instead all very noble but obviously not ideal for his master anthony then realized he would have to do it himself and botched it by running the sword straight into his ribs missing his heart and puncturing his abdomen when he asked his servants to deliver the final blow they deserted him after being spotted by cleopatra's servants he was pathetically hoisted up into cleopatra's mausoleum to bleed out it's all really rather bleak now let's turn to cleopatra's death we still don't know exactly how she took her life but we know more or less in what state she was found by octavian's men after breaking down the mausoleum's walls she was found on a golden couch donning her finest clothes that is serenely dead not in a pile of her own guts and blood likely clasped firmly in her hands with a crook and flail she would not be mummified but she was an egyptian pharaoh till the very end not only was her death quick and painless it was on her terms that is unchained on her soil and by her own hand now i will say this though to counter the classical narrative of cleopatra escaping octavian's clutches at the last moment it's entirely possible octavian allowed cleopatra to commit suicide the roman centuries on strict orders to watch over the queen of egypt who by the way had twice already tried to kill herself just wandered off to deliver the queen's letter to octavian and when they returned oh wait she barricaded herself in oh no she's dead octavian wasn't a fool to historians he's also well known for being a stickler religiously attentive to detail speculation aside we don't know if a suicide was allowed octavian might not have foreseen this and the guards could have just blundered even if this one blunder sets artists and writers up for the perfect shakespearean plot device and after all it would be quite tragic to deny her that one final victory especially after 2 000 years of slander so we'll turn a blind eye on this one and pretend for the sake of argument that she did outwit one last man that she cunningly spared herself the shackles of octavian's triumph just don't take my word for it it was a death totally in sync with their character majestic clever and highly resourceful the fruits of strategic methodical planning with egyptian glory and ptolemaic sovereignty always on her mind cleopatra will never be cleopatra the great she did all in her power to retain her throne and advance the interests of her kingdom restoring it to its former glory however allying herself with a powerful roman leader at a time when proper succession laws were extremely primitive and dangerous came with extremely high costs these two men could make or break her reign ultimately the last one would break it but that is not to say that she wasn't a great queen she should in fact be remembered as such and not as pro-octavian smears would have her out to be the mythologizing is inevitable and makes for great art and entertainment but the narrative should be reframed to better illustrate what she was really like as a woman and indeed as a ruler there's every reason to be optimistic that it will be [Music] you