24 It is possible to catch a glimpse of ‘real’ people going about their daily business, but to do this we have to look principally at the graffiti and doodles left by dynastic Egypt’s unofficial artists. During the Ptolemaic age the situation changed slightly as the elite started to commission art that was less idealised and, to modern eyes, more realistic. This change is not apparent in royal art. See R. S. Bianchi (1988), ‘The Pharaonic Art of Ptolemaic Egypt’, in Cleopatra’s Egypt: Age of the Ptolemies, Brooklyn Museum, New York: 55–80.
25 The extent to which priestly decrees outlined how pose, material, scale and placement should be used in these propaganda pieces is discussed further in Stanwick (2002): 6–14.
26 As her fertility was important to the queen, it was necessary that she be depicted as eternally young. When we do find an image of an older queen it therefore comes as something of a shock. The 18th Dynasty Queen Tiy and her daughter-in-law Nefertiti lived in an age of artistic experimentation, and both were depicted as older women. In contrast, it was always considered acceptable to depict men at all stages of life.
27 The significance of the triple uraeus is discussed, with further references, in R. Bianchi, ‘Images of Cleopatra VII Reconsidered’, in Walker and Ashton, eds, (2003): 13–23. See also S.-A Ashton (2005), ‘The Use of the Double and Triple Uraeus in Royal Iconography’, in A. Cooke and F. Simpson eds, Current Research in Egyptology II, BAR International Series 1,380, Oxford: 1–9.
28 A title which, given the uncertainty over Cleopatra’s marital status, might more appropriately apply to Arsinoë II.
Chapter 3: Alexandria-next-to-Egypt
1 R. T. Kelly (1912), Egypt, Adam and Charles Black, London: 5. Kelly is describing his first visit to Egypt in 1883.
2 Plutarch, Life of Alexander: 26. Translated by B. Perrin.
3 Historian Michel Chauveau (2000: 57) has suggested that ‘Rhakotis’ may have been not a proper town name but simply the misunderstood Greek form of the Egyptian Rá-qed or ‘building site’.
4 Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander. Translated by E. J. Chinnock 1893. Arrian lived c. AD 86–146.
5 Pseudo-Callisthenes, The Alexander Romance. This is at best an unreliable source, but in the matter of the two architects there is little reason to doubt its accuracy.
6 Suetonius, Divine Augustus, 18. Translated by R. Graves.
7 Cassius Dio, Roman History, 51: 61.5. Translated by E. Cary.
8 Historians have looked in Egypt (Alexandria, Memphis and Siwa), in Macedonia and beyond. See, for example, A. M. Chugg (2004), The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great, Richmond, London, where the author argues that the body of St Mark, currently housed in the St Mark’s Basilica, Venice, is actually the body of Alexander the Great.
9 Flavius Josephus, Against Apion, 2: 53–6. A version of the drunken elephant story is told in 3 Maccabees 5–6, where the king involved is Ptolemy IV.
10 Discussed in more detail in Fraser (1972): 93–131.
11 Strabo, The Geography, 17: 8. Translated by H. L. Jones.
12 H. A. R. Gibb (1929), Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325–1354, George Routledge and Sons, London: 47–50.
13 Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, 12: 184. Translated by C. D. Yonge.
14 Ibid., 11: 67. Athenaeus wrote his Deipnosophists (Banquet of the Learned) during the third century AD. The text, essentially a lengthy conversation, ranges over a variety of topics dear to the author’s heart, including sex (both ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’), luxury, food and drink, and is packed full of quotations from earlier authorities.
15 Ibid., 13: 37.
16 Ibid., 7: 2–3.
17 Ibid., 5: 25–36.
18 This can be compared to the Ptolemaic town of Kerkeosiris, which, with a population of approximately 1,500 in the second century BC, had three Egyptian shrines to Thoth, two to Isis, two to Taweret and one each to Petesouchos, Orsenouphis, Harpsenesis, Anubis, Bast and Amen, plus Greek shrines to Zeus and the twin gods Castor and Pollux. Figures given in Bowman (1990): 171.
19 Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 34: 42. Translated by H. Rackham. This, together with other uses of magnetism in temples, is discussed in Empereur (1998): 92–5.
20 Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 36: 14. Translated by H. Rackham.
21 Philo, The Embassy to Gaius, 149–51. Translated by F. H. Coulson (1962), Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and Heinemann, London.
Chapter 4: Cleopatra and Julius Caesar
1 G. H. Macurdy (1932), Hellenistic Queens: Study of Womanpower in Macedonia, Seleucid Syria, and Ptolemaic Egypt, Johns Hopkins University Studies in Archaeology 14, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore: 189.
2 Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus), Pharsalia (The Civil War), 10: 11off. Translated by E. Ridley (1896), The Pharsalia of Lucan, Longmans, Green, and Co., London.
3 Suetonius, Divine Julius, 35. Translated by R. Graves.
4 Recorded in Caesar’s The Alexandrian Wars, which was most probably written by Aulus Hirtius.
5 Ibid., 23. Translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn.
6 Cassius Dio, Roman History, 42: 44. Translated by E. Cary.
7 Suetonius, Divine Julius, 52. Translated by R. Graves.
8 Appian, The Civil Wars, 3: 2: 90.
9 Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, 5: 37–40. See T. W. Hillard (2002), ‘The Nile Cruise of Cleopatra and Caesar’, Cambridge Quarterly, 52: 2: 549–54.
10 Lucan, Pharsalia (The Civil War), 10: 192–331. Translated by J. D. Duff (1928), Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and Heinemann, London. Lucan did not finish his Book 10, and so never described the actual voyage.
11 Plutarch, Life of Caesar, 49: 10; Life of Antony, 54: 6.
12 Cassius Dio, Roman History, 47: 31.5; Suetonius, Divine Julius, 52: 2–3.
13 This piece is discussed in J. P. V. D. Balsdon’s 1960 review of H. Volkmann’s Cleopatra, in Classical Review, 10: 1: 68–71. There are difficulties in translating the stela date, as both the Roman and Egyptian calendars were operating incorrectly at the time and it is possible to argue with some validity that this date should be read as September rather than June.
14 D. Devauchelle (2001), ‘La stèle du Louvre IM8 (Sérapéum de Memphis) et la prétendue date de naisance de Césarion’, Enchoria, 27: 41: 56 (27).
15 See D. Todman (2007), ‘Childbirth in Ancient Rome: From Traditional Folklore to Obstetrics’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 47: 82–5.
16 Cassius Dio, Roman History, 43: 27.3. Translated by E. Cary.
17 Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 15: 15.2. Translated by L. P. Wilkinson, quoted and discussed in Grant (1972): 96.
18 See E. Gruen (2003), ‘Cleopatra in Rome: Facts and Fantasies’, in D. Braund and C. Gill eds, Myth, History and Culture in Republican Rome, University of Exeter Press, Exeter, 256–74.
19 Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 14: 8.1.
20 Ibid., 14: 20.2.
21 See, for example, Chauveau (2002): 32–3; J. Carcopino, Passion et politique chez les Césars (1958) :37. Carcopino has suggested that Mark Antony may have been Caesarion’s father. Just one further piece of evidence can be cited in support of a late birth date for Caesarion. We have already noted the bronze Cypriot coin which shows Cleopatra suckling the infant Caesarion (page 61). Unfortunately, there is no firm date for this coin. If we imagine that it is a literal representation of Caesarion and his mother, we might also imagine that it was produced soon after Caesarion’s birth, at a time when Cleopatra ruled Cyprus. The first firm evidence for Cleopatra ruling Cyprus dates to 43. But, as Caesar is reported to have gifted Cyprus to Egypt in 48, it could equally well be argued that the coin was struck as early as 47, following Cleopatra’s union with Ptolemy XIV.
22 Speculation about this ‘second child’ abounds. See, for example, R. Ellis (2006), Cleopatra to Christ, Edfu Books, Cheshire, which identifies the phantom daughter of Cleopatra and Caesar as the grandmother of Jesus.
Chapter 5: The New Isis
1 Mond and Myers advertise for assistance in the Geographical Journal (1936), 87: 1: 95.
2 Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 15: 89. Translated by W. Whiston (1895, updated and republished 2001).
3 Tyldesley (2006).
4 The palette, recovered from Hierakonpolis, is today displayed in Cairo Museum.
5 Herodotus, The Histories, 2: 41. Translated by A. de Sélincourt (1954).
6 See R. E. Witt (1971): 20: ‘Isis was all things to all men. That was what made her so formidable a foe to Jesus and oecumenical Paul.’ Other serious rivals were Mithras and, to a lesser extent, Dionysos.
7 Plutarch’s version, adapted to fit with traditional Egyptian accounts of the same myth, has been used as the basis of this retelling which is adapted from J. A. Tyldesley (2004), Tales from Ancient Egypt, Rutherford Press, Bolton: 16–25.
8 Cleopatra’s Egyptian titulary is discussed in J. Tait (2003), ‘Cleopatra by Name’, in Walker and Ashton, eds (2003): 3–7.
9 A. B. Edwards (1877), A Thousand Miles up the Nile, George Routledge and Sons, London. The quotation is taken from page 122 of the 1888 edition.
10 The history of this curious piece has been reconstructed in A. Rammant-Peeters (1998), ‘L’Affaire Cléopâtre: ou comment la photographie servit de véhicule à l’imagination du XIX siècle’, in W. Clarysse, A. Schoors and H. Willems, eds, Egyptian Religion the Last Thousand Years: Studies Dedicated to the memory of Jan Quaegebeur, Peeters, Leuven: 1,449–57.
11 Lucius Apuleius, Metamorphoses, or, The Golden Ass, 11: 47. Translation adapted from W. Adlington (1566; 1639 published edition), ‘Imprinted at London in Fleatstreate at the sign of the Oliphante, by Henry Wykes’. Compare with the translation given by R. Graves (1950, revised edition 1990), The Golden Ass, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth.
12 Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, 5: 382. Translated by F. C. Babbitt (1936), Moralia V, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and Heinemann, London.
13 Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, I: 83.8. Translated by C. H. Oldfather.
14 The cult temples, situated in the cities, may be contrasted with the mortuary temples which were built in the desert as part of the king’s own funerary provision.
15 Translated by Ashton (2003): 105.
16 Translated by J. Quagebeur (1988), ‘Cleopatra VII and the Cults of the Ptolemaic Queens’, in Cleopatra’s Egypt, Age of the Ptolemies, Brooklyn Museum, New York: 41–54: 43.
17 Translation adapted from J. D. Ray (1976), The Archive of Hor, Egypt Exploration Society, London: 11–12 (text 1.11–18).
Chapter 6: Cleopatra and Mark Antony
1 Grant (1972): 84.
2 Seneca, Quaestiones Naturales, 4a2.16.
3 Flavius Josephus, Against Apion, 2: 60. Translated by W. Whiston.
4 Offering formulae were magical lists of food and other goods that the deceased might require in the tomb. The lists acted as an aide mémoire to the living who brought food to the tomb and the reading out of the list would cause the goods to magically and invisibly appear for the spirit of the deceased.
5 J. P. Lesley (1868), ‘A Classified Catalogue of Antiquities Collected by Mr Harris, and Now in his Museum in Alexandria, in Notes on Some of the Historical and Mythological Features of the D’Orbiney Papyri’, Proceedings of the American Philological Society 10: 80: 543–82: 565.
6 M. Lichtheim (1990), Ancient Egyptian Literature 3: The Late Period, University of California Press, Berkeley and London: 63.
7 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 9: 3–4. Translated by B. Perrin.
8 See P. Walcot (1998), ‘Plutarch on Sex’, Greece and Rome, 45: 2: 166–87.
9 Discussed in more detail in K. Welch (1995), ‘Antony, Fulvia, and the Ghost of Clodius in 47 BC’, Greece and Rome, 42: 2: 182–201. Fulvia had also previously been married to Gaius Scribonius Curio.
10 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 10: 3. Translated by B. Perrin.
11 Appian, The Civil Wars, 4: 5.8. They may well have met in Alexandria, but it seems unlikely that Antony would have fallen so violently in love.
12 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 25: 3–4. Translated by B. Perrin.
13 Cassius Dio, Roman History, 48: 27.5. Translated by E. Cary.
14 Quoting Socrates the Rhodian: Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, 4: 29.
15 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 28. Translated by B. Perrin.
16 Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 19.59: 119–21.
17 For a fascinating account of experiments with pearls and sour wine, see B. L. Ullman (1957), ‘Cleopatra’s Pearls’, Classical Journal, 52: 5: 193–201. ‘When I boiled a pearl for thirty-three minutes the vinegar boiled off when I was reading a detective story. I can still smell that vinegar. The pearl seemed not to be affected, though I thought it looked a trifle peaked.’ I am grateful to the author for saving me the necessity of sacrificing my own somewhat insignificant pearl earrings in the interest of science.
18 Suetonius, Divine Julius, 43.
19 Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 21.12. The story of Lollia Paulina is told in 9: 117.
20 Discussed in A. Wright (2002), ‘Velleius Paterculus and L. Munatius Plancus’, Classical Philology, 97: 2: 178–84. It is apparent that Velleius is deliberately setting out to blacken Plancus’s name and the accuracy of his story must therefore be questioned.
21 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 10: 4. Translated by B. Perrin.
22 Athanaeus, Deipnosophists, 11: 85. Translated by C. D. Yonge.
23 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 29. Translated by B. Perrin.
24 H. Volkmann (1958), translated by C. J. Cadoux, Cleopatra: Politics and Propaganda, Elek Books, London: 72.
25 P. van Minden (2000), ‘An Official Act of Cleopatra (with subscription in her own hand)’, Ancient Society, 30: 29–34. The papyrus is today housed in Berlin Museum.
26 For further Ptolemaic correspondence, consult Rowlandson (1998).
27 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 36. Translated by B. Perrin.
28 Ibid., 36. 13. Translated by B. Perrin.
29 Cleopatra’s new title, ‘Philopatris’, has sparked huge debate among academics, with some arguing that the ‘homeland’ which Cleopatra loves is either Egypt or Alexandria and others that she is referring to her family’s traditional homeland of Macedonia. See, for example, Bingen (2007): 57–62.
30 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 53. 3. Translated by B. Perrin.
31 Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 15: 97. Translated by W. Whiston.
32 Cassius Dio, Roman History, 49: 40: 4. Translated by E. Cary.
33 Suetonius, Divine Augustus, 69. Translated by R. Graves.
34 See, for example, A. Meadows in Walker and Higgs (2001): 29. R. Holland (2004), Augustus: Godfather of Europe, Sutton Publishing, Stroud: 241, uses ‘fucking’ but omits the vital uxor mea est.
35 To take just one of many possible examples, ‘Cleopatra was naturally hoping to persuade him [Antony] to divorce Octavia officially under Roman law’. ibid.: 235.
Chapter 7: Death of a Dream
1 W. W. Tarn, writing in the Cambridge Ancient History (1934, 10: defines Cleopatra by her gender and fails to name her.
2 Cassius Dio, Roman History, 50: 5. Translated by E. Cary.
3 K. Scott (1929), ‘Octavian’s Propaganda and Antony’s De Sua Ebrietate’, Classical Philology, 24: 2: 133–41.
4 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 56. Translated by B. Perrin.
5 M. Reinhold (1981), ‘The Declaration of War against Cleopatra’, Classical Journal, 77 :2; 97–103.
6 The Sibylline Oracles are more correctly known as The Pseudo-Sibylline Oracles. For a full translation, including this quoted extract, see M. S. Terry (1899), The Sibylline Oracles. Translated from the Greek into English Blank Verse, Hunt and Eaton, New York. For more discussion, see J. J. Collins ‘Sibylline Oracles (Second Century BC – Seventh Century AD)’, in J. Charlseworth, ed. (1982), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Darton, Longman and Todd, New York, 1
: 223–316.
7 Cassius Dio, Roman History, 50: 15. Translated by E. Cary.
8 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 66–7. Translated by B. Perrin.
9 W. W. Tarn (1931), ‘The Battle of Actium’, Journal of Roman Studies, 21: 173–99. See also G. W. Richardson (1937), ‘Actium’, Journal of Roman Studies, 27: 2: 153–64. The assumption is that a quinquereme at Actium would carry a minimum of 420 men, while a trireme would carry 200–300 and a larger ship might carry as many as 600.
10 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 71: 4–5. Translated by B. Perrin.
11 Ibid., 73: 2.
12 Ibid., 75: 3. The story of Antony’s abandonment by his gods inspired Constantine Cavafy’s hauntingly beautiful poem ‘The God Abandons Antony’: see The Poems by C. P. Cavafy (1971), translated by J. Mavrogordato, Hogarth Press, London.
13 Suetonius, Life of Domitian, (The Twelve Caesars), 11. Translated by R. Graves.
14 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 76. Translated by B. Perrin.
15 Whitehorne (1994): 188.
16 The theory that Octavian murdered Cleopatra has been around for many years. It was discussed most recently and most publicly in Atlantic Production’s Who Killed Cleopatra? Revealed (broadcast 2004). There can be little doubt that Octavian wanted Cleopatra dead, although the argument that he wished to end the troublesome Ptolemaic line once and for all holds little water when we consider that he spared the lives of three of Cleopatra’s children and allowed Cleopatra’s daughter to marry and have children of her own. However, a murder at this late stage, and in such spectacular style, makes little sense. Octavian had already had plenty of opportunities to kill Cleopatra – when she was barricaded in her mausoleum with Proculeius, for example, and later when she was under his protection in the palace – and, of course, he had no need to hide his actions. Cleopatra was a defeated enemy and as such could openly and justifiably be executed.
17 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 84. Translated by B. Perrin.
18 Cassius Dio, Roman History, 51. Translated by E. Cary.
19 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 86. Translated by B. Perrin.
20 Figures given in S. H. el Din (2006), A Guide to the Reptiles and Amphibians of Egypt, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo: 11.
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