by Pat Brown
To a profiler, the importance of Cleopatra’s appearance has nothing to do with supporting claims that this or that race has made specific contributions to history. This is irrelevant in profiling Cleopatra’s life and death. What is important is how she viewed herself, whom she viewed herself as, and how others viewed her. She was comfortable with the Greek and Roman world to her north, and travelers from these places were quite content to spend time in her country as well. They were Mediterraneans, all of them, not Nubians, and Octavian’s propaganda campaign against Cleopatra was really about her massive wealth, which he didn’t want Antony to get his hands on, so he excoriated her lascivious and lavish lifestyle, which quite frankly he was not wrong about; but while the Ptolemies were big spenders, they were far less promiscuous than the Roman ruling class were noted to have been. Regardless of the truth of these matters, Octavian purported that he feared Cleopatra would steal the Roman general away, and with him, pull the Roman people into an indolent, immoral lifestyle. The most difficult pill Cleopatra had to swallow was that for centuries Egypt was bigger and better than any another country in the known world but, due to the rising military strength of Rome and the foolishness of her father’s rule, Cleopatra had to kowtow to more powerful but less cultured regimes. However, it is because Cleopatra considered herself a Greek Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt and not for Egypt that she felt comfortable putting herself and her children’s future before the Egyptian populace’s well-being, to make choices that made it possible for her to keep her riches, maintain her rule, and increase her status, whether it be combining forces with Rome or fleeing it. She certainly wasn’t worried about going down with the ship (i.e., dying in a tomb on behalf of her people). I believe the manner in which Cleopatra represented herself as a purely Macedonian pharaoh is key to Cleopatra’s character and the charting of her final destiny.
Cleopatra became queen at age eighteen. Her father and mother were dead, and her siblings wanted her dead. Ah, to be a Ptolemy in the year 51 BCE. It was anything but fortuitous to ascend the throne of a dynasty that was in its decline, and to stop its demise would take a great deal of strategy, iron will, moxie, and a great deal of luck, given that Rome was breathing down her neck. Not nearly enough credit is given to the last pharaoh of Egypt, who lasted far longer than she should have under such conditions and who almost pulled off a coup of melding her country with a would-be conqueror that, had she been successful, might well have caused many in the highest classes of both countries to spin around and ask those beside them, “What on earth just happened?”
What Cleopatra was made of, the core of her being that would allow her to take on this mighty challenge and almost cross the finish line, was her ability to combine the strengths of each of the Ptolemies before her, thereby making herself a formidable foe whom Octavian would eventually have to face.
As I pointed out concerning her bloodline and heritage, Cleopatra would see herself as the next Macedonian in line for the throne when her father died. She did not see any other Ptolemy of her family who deserved the honor, and she worked to make sure that the crown passed to her, the one to whom she believed it was owed.
The early pharaohs, Ptolemy I, Ptolemy II, and Ptolemy III, were the leaders Cleopatra saw as her mentors, the ones who built and made Egypt great, who vaulted the Macedonian Ptolemies to the height of their power. Having been thoroughly educated, which was encouraged for both male and female Ptolemies, Cleopatra would no doubt have been quite aware of the history of her brilliant and capable early forebears. She would also be quite cognizant of the later Ptolemies, including her father and her older sister, Berenike, who systematically depleted the strength of Egypt until Rome, desiring the wealth the country still had and especially its immense amount of wheat, added Egypt to its list of countries to be conquered rather than bartered with.
In spite of the fact that women did not receive education of any significance in the Macedonian culture due to a solidly entrenched patriarchy—it was only the boys who were sent to the gymnasium to receive education—the Ptolemies loved learning and clearly provided excellent tutors for their daughters as well as their sons. Since the Cleopatra of this work is the seventh, there were a number of prior Cleopatras who ruled or coruled Egypt for number of years, as well as queens with the names of Arsinoe and Berenice, who also held power during the Ptolemaic Dynasty. All of these women no doubt had intelligence and ability in the skills of governance adequate to hold onto their positions of power even if they were overlooked by many historians because Cleopatra VII was the last one to rule and her intense relationships with Caesar and Antony as well as her death dramatically described by Plutarch caused her to remain more firmly in our memory. By the time our Cleopatra was growing up in the Alexandrian Lagide household (Lagide is another name for the Ptolemaic family descended from Ptolemy I, who also was titled Ptolemy Lagide because he was legally the son of Arsinoe and Lagus of Macedon), she had access to the museum on the grounds of the royal palace, the meeting place of world-renowned mathematicians, poets, historians, and artists. Clearly, with Plutarch and others singing the praises of her intelligence, wit, and ability with languages (even if this is highly exaggerated), she excelled as a student and her lessons prepared her well to take over as pharaoh and rule the country for almost two decades.
Cleopatra learned many valuable lessons from her unusual ancestors. For example, a good leader doesn’t waste the family genes and encourage unnecessary strife and dissent by partnering and spawning children with leaders of lesser dominions; in fact, so concerned were the Ptolemies that their line be pure and the future royals be Egyptian Ptolemies that they introduced incestuous relationships that had not been part of Macedonian history: Ptolemy II married his own sister Arsinoe II in 274 BCE and established a precedent for future pharaohs, guaranteeing no outsiders on the throne and enhancing the claim of divinity for the royals. Early non-Macedonian pharaohs were incestuous on and off during their dynasties; it would seem that the Ptolemies embraced the concept quite avidly, and this would continue into Cleopatra’s reign. She married each of her two brothers (and most likely killed them off in order to be sure she retained the throne), and then found more suitable husbands in her pseudomarriages to Julius Caesar and Mark Antony—a brilliant and unique political strategy for a Ptolemy to marry “out” and “up”—to produce children with a dual claim to both the Egyptian throne and the Roman emperor (or emperor-to-be) who would undoubtedly co-opt Egypt in the future. Cleopatra’s unusual choice of fathers for her children was her best effort to ensure she and her Ptolemaic offspring would continue to rule in Egypt and the Mediterranean world. The Ptolemies were hardly a peaceful lot, and Cleopatra had many fine examples of using murder as a method of eliminating one’s rivals and making sure to be the first to do the family downsizing. Cleopatra’s father, Auletes, had her older sister, Berenike, murdered. Berenike had taken over the throne when her father fled Alexandria during a revolt by his people in 58 BCE. He had her killed when he returned to reclaim his position as pharaoh. Cleopatra’s other older sister, Cleopatra VI, mysteriously vanished around the same time, and nothing much has been noted about her in history. Cleopatra’s younger sister, Arsinoe IV, the remaining one whom Cleopatra always saw as a threat, was eventually killed off by Antony at Cleopatra’s behest.
Auletes wasn’t the first pharaoh or Ptolemy to kill off his family or rivals to the throne in order to succeed to power. Here is a condensed history of Ptolemy intra-family annihilation that may be a bit overwhelming with the many similar names and titles and intrigues. I present this compilation not to detail each specific event or to present an analysis of these goings on, but to acquaint you with the vicious past activities of the Ptolemies that would educate Cleopatra on methods of dealing with threats to her continuation as a ruler. Do not worry about who did what and when, but rather allow the violence of the years leading up to Cleopatra’s rule to set the tone for her entrance into Ptolemaic history.
Let us begin with the sist
er of Ptolemy II, Arsinoe II. She eventually ended up marrying her brother, the then king of Egypt, but she first married the elderly king Lysimachos, who controlled all of Macedonia in 285 BCE. Wanting one of her own three sons with the king to be successor to the throne, she got the king to poison his own very capable eldest son from his first wife on trumped up treason charges. After King Lysimachos was killed in battle, Arsinoe II married her half brother, Ptolemy Keraunos, son of Ptolemy I, who then killed Arsinoe’s two younger sons after she and her sons conspired against him. Arsinoe’s eldest son went into hiding. Never one to give up, Arsinoe II then went to her other brother, Ptolemy II, in Alexandria; encouraged him to exile his wife (Arsinoe I); and promptly married him. She became quite an influential queen. This incestuous marriage in the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Arsinoe II to her brother Ptolemy II was a fine example to the young Cleopatra that ruthlessness and determination are necessary if one wants to be an important part of the ruling family.
Ptolemy III, son of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe I, took over the throne in 246 BCE and promptly married his sister, Berenice II. When he died, his twenty-year-old son, Ptolemy IV, took over and immediately married his sister, Arsinoe III. The most powerful man in his court, Sosibios, who quite frankly was dictating what the young pharaoh would do, quickly murdered the top three members of the ruling family, including the pharaoh’s mother, to ensure his continued control of the king. It is at this point that the downfall of the Ptolemies began. Ptolemy IV wasn’t terribly good at his administrative duties, and he preferred partying to handling more important matters. When he died at age forty, he left a son, Ptolemy V, as the new king at age six.
Unfortunately for Egypt, Sosibios also died soon thereafter, leaving an even nastier man in his stead, an Alexandrian by the name of Agathoklos, to watch over the new little king as regent. He swiftly eliminated Arsinoe III, the pharaoh’s mother, capturing the place of power for himself. But apparently his bad behavior wasn’t appreciated by the Alexandrian mob that, in 203 BCE, executed him in the stadium along with his family. Cleopatra would learn from this that the Alexandrians could turn on their leaders and the results could be extremely unpleasant. Thereafter the “mob” was to be considered a serious threat. Even after Octavian came to Egypt and defeated Antony and Cleopatra at the battle of Actium, he was very well aware of the power the Egyptian people held, and he made good use of his time winning their favor. As we will see later in this story of Cleopatra’s death, there was good reason for him to want to appease this group and not incur their wrath over his mistreatment of their beloved queen.
Ptolemy V, who succeeded his father, Ptolemy IV, actually didn’t marry his sister. At sixteen years of age, he married a Syrian named Cleopatra I, who was just ten years old. His rule was an unmitigated disaster during which he managed to lose most of Egypt’s foreign possessions in Europe and in Asia. When he died, his six-year-old son, Ptolemy VI, was placed on the throne and ruled jointly with his mother, Cleopatra I. After his mother died and he was all of eleven years old, Ptolemy VI married his little sister, Cleopatra II. It was during the administration of Ptolemy VI that Rome gained a foothold in Egyptian fortunes and would continue to be both a thorn in Egypt’s side as well as a necessary partner.
The power struggles continued when Ptolemy VIII, younger brother of Ptolemy VI, also became a coruler in a triumvirate of the two brothers and their sister, Cleopatra II. In a struggle for power between the two brothers, Ptolemy VI found himself ruling Cyprus with his sister-wife Cleopatra II, and Ptolemy VIII became sole ruler of Egypt. The lone pharaoh wasn’t well liked; he was a tyrannical king and was hated for it. The Alexandrians wanted the older brother back. They drove Ptolemy VIII out and had Ptolemy VI as their pharaoh for a year, but then Ptolemy VIII made a play for the position of pharaoh again with an assassination attempt on his brother and won back the spot. Meanwhile, in an attempt to regain Syria, Ptolemy VI fell from his horse and died. Ptolemy VIII then married his widow-sister, Cleopatra II. Ever the loving brother, he had his nephew murdered in his mother’s arms during the wedding celebration. He let his wife-sister live. Then he married his niece, Cleopatra III, setting the stage for massive bitterness and hatred between mother and daughter as he now had them both as wives.
After a nasty bit of time as a ruling threesome, a fire was set to the palace and Ptolemy VIII fled with his second wife, Cleopatra III, to Cyprus. Cleopatra II, his first wife, became the sole ruler. This quite displeased Ptolemy VIII, so he had his own son with Cleopatra II brutally murdered right in front of him and sent the body parts back to Alexandria to his first wife as a birthday present. When Ptolemy VIII died, the throne went to Cleopatra III. The murders continued. Cleopatra III and her son Ptolemy X had a falling out, and after ousting him, she relented and allowed him to return to Egypt, after which he had her murdered. Ptolemy X was eventually driven out of Egypt and killed. His elder brother, Ptolemy IX, came back from Cyprus (where he had been forced to flee). He actually died of natural causes in his bed, and his daughter Cleopatra Berenike III became pharaoh. She ruled for one year, then married her stepson, Ptolemy XI. Ptolemy XI ruled with her for fifteen days before he murdered her. He was then dragged out by the mob to the gymnasium and killed.
If you are now exhausted by reading these machinations of the Ptolemies, we are thankfully nearing Cleopatra VII’s time. With their rulers both dead, the Alexandrian elite put Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy XII (also known as Auletes the flute player), in power, after which he married his sister, Cleopatra V (some say Cleopatra VI). Berenike IV was born to them, then Cleopatra VI (some call her Cleopatra Tryphaena), then Cleopatra VII and her other three siblings—Arsinoe IV, Ptolemy XIII, and Ptolemy XIV. By the time she reached adulthood, Cleopatra VII fully represented the Ptolemy mind-set: their high level of intelligence, their incredible lust for power, and their desire to keep Egypt as a separate country or at least not completely under the thumb of another country. When Cleopatra VII arrived on the scene, in spite of the decline of the country, she still saw herself assuming a seat of great power and wealth, and she would put all her Ptolemaic abilities to work. It was in her nature and, quite frankly, it is not clear that she had much of a choice; it was rule or be destroyed, kill or be killed. She would either step up and take control of the reins of power or be eliminated; and once she assumed the role of pharaoh, there would always be efforts afoot to unseat her. She wasn’t likely to come out like a fighter in the early rounds and then go out with a whimper. Cleopatra VII was a Ptolemy through and through.
Cleopatra inherited quite an array of problems when she was born into the Ptolemaic Dynasty in 69 BCE. She had a reported fool for a father, not one of the more accomplished or acclaimed Ptolemies in the long line of rulers; a country on the verge of being gobbled up by Rome; and far too many siblings in a fight for the throne to have a good chance of winning it (she had two older sisters who could claim it first, two brothers who no doubt would be preferred as rulers due to their gender, and one younger but very aggressive sister who couldn’t be discounted as a threat). That she won out is a testament to her aggressiveness and astuteness—neither of which she seemed to have inherited from her father, so the earlier Cleopatras must have been running solidly in her blood.
Her father, Auletes, was not chosen by his father to ascend the throne. He was rather a desperation choice by the Alexandrians since the recently killed couple left no children. Auletes was the elder son of one of the Ptolemies who had been in hiding in Syria, and his mother was not of royal lineage (that Ptolemy was not expecting to be pharaoh), but Alexandrian elites had to pick someone, some Ptolemy, and he was the best they thought they could do. All they could hope was that he wouldn’t be a total failure in the role. It is important to remember that although the pharaohs held great power, they did not actually rule entirely alone; they had the Alexandrian elite, the high priests, and a great many administrators who kept the country afloat when they were flagging in their duties, off fighting wars, or hiding from fa
milial attempts to assassinate them. Even Cleopatra had times when she left the management of Egypt in the hands of others when she spent time in Rome with Julius Caesar or was off in battle with Mark Antony. Her father, Auletes, Ptolemy XII, would not have lasted any time at all on the throne if there were not others around to mind the store for him.
Cleopatra’s father was well aware—he wasn’t totally ignorant of the facts—that the Alexandrian mob put him in his place of power and they could just as easily remove him. Since that mob was always quite fickle and contentious, he needed some strong backing to keep him on the throne, and the only place he could get it from was Rome. He could be a temporary patsy, one to be totally used by the Romans without any say or sway, or he could be a puppet, meaning he could at least levy some favors to his and Egypt’s benefit. He chose to be a puppet.
It all worked rather well for Ptolemy XII, bribing the Roman officials on a regular basis; that Lagide treasury and taxes kept him going for quite a while since his ascension to the throne in 80 BCE. In fact, rather than having Egypt become a mere province of Rome, he managed to bribe his way to having the Romans title him “King,” so he was able to continue as pharaoh and keep Egypt a sovereign country. To be fair to him, considering that all the other countries in the Mediterranean were fully under Roman dominance even if they were nominally independent, Egypt was still solidly under its own rule and Alexandria was still their own city and the one port the Romans didn’t control. But, as always seems to occur when one has to keep forking over money to virtual loan sharks, the price keeps increasing over time. In 58 BCE, Ptolemy XII ceded Cyprus to Rome, and the Ptolemy family member ruling there at the time took poison rather than endure the insult. Cyprus remained in Roman hands until Caesar returned it to Cleopatra ten years later.
