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Cleopatra was determined to preserve Egypt. Her personal ambitions will show her unwavering love, compassion, and commitment to making Egypt one of the greatest empires man has ever known. Her contributions to Egypt and the world have continued to be discussed and debated over the years. Cleopatra was born in 69 B.
C. in Alexandria, Egypt. Her father King Ptolemy XII had five other children, Cleopatra VI, Berenice IV, Arsinoe IV, Ptolemy XIII, and Ptolemy XIV. Her mother died when she was very young. King Ptolemy eventually remarried, but there are no records of his second wifes name. There was not much love between the siblings.
They each tried to out shine one another in a kind of race to win power over the throne. Their ambitious guardians, who were eager for their share of royal power, encouraged the fierce competition. As a result Cleopatra on her siblings grew up in an atmosphere of corruption and devious schemes to get to the top. Cleopatra had an unusually good education. At a very young age Cleopatra was quick and eager to learn, and as she grew older she moved on to more advanced literature, the arts, science and medicine, and the study of languages. She learned the stories and myths of Greek and Egyptian gods and goddess.
She picked up bits of Egyptian lore from her female servants. Cleopatra was especially drawn to the Egyptian goddess Isis who was believed to have power over the heaven and earth, but whose greatest appeal was her compassion, mercy and concern for women and children. The Ptolemy dynasty were of Greek and Macedonian decent, none had a drop of Egyptian blood and none had bothered to learn the Egyptian language. The Princess Cleopatra was the first Ptolemy to learn the native Egyptian language so as to be able to communicate with her Egyptian subjects. She also knew Arabic and Hebrew and could talk to the many Jews who had settled in Alexandria. She was also extremely interested in philosophy, especially the philosophy of governing that sought to justify kingship and to demonstrate how to be a strong yet benevolent ruler.
By the first century B. C. the weakened Ptolemy dynasty was faced with a threat from the Roman Republic. Rome, the capital of the Roman Republic in Italy, filled the East with terror due to its renown military might. As Rome came closer and closer to Egypt, they grew more eager to capture Egypt's wealth.
There was a wide spread ethnic hatred between the East and West of the Mediterranean world. The Greeks of Alexandria and the Egyptians despised the Romans. As the threat from Rome increased, Cleopatra's city grew more and more turbulent. When she was still a young girl, an angry mob lynched a Roman visitor for killing a cat, an animal sacred to the Egyptians. Soon Princess Cleopatra began forming her own ideas of how she would handle the Romans in the future.
Cleopatra's father King Ptolemy was a weak ruler. He had a passion for playing the flute as well as a fondness for wine. King Ptolemy had been given the honorary title of the New Dionysus. Dionysus was the god of wine, the arts, music and dance.
The entire Ptolemy monarch was honored with divine titles. These titles were mainly for prestige and to impress people. Cleopatra's father did not impress the people of Egypt. They found him neither kingly nor godly and called him the Flute Player. King Ptolemy often joined the musicians and dancers in the Dionysian festivals. Cleopatra could see her father playing his flute and dancing through the streets of Alexandria in a most unreal way.
Although she found no fault with her fathers behavior, it may have bothered her to see how little his subjects respected him. She knew he was shrewd and intelligent if not a strong leader, and he had done much for his kingdom in repairing old buildings and temples and creating new ones. He supported the arts and learning. He shared his special interest in philosophy with Cleopatra, who was thought to be his favorite child. Beyond Cleopatra's joys of learning and celebrating the many festivals, she was worried about her kingdoms decline.
Her own name meant glory to her race and Cleopatra became obsessed with the idea of restoring Egypt's great past and power. But Rome was still a growing threat to Egypt. Cleopatra knew that the Egyptian army was inadequate and that the recent Ptolemy kings had felt forced to appeal to Rome for military help to control the sporadic outbreaks of the Alexandrian mobs. There was even a rumor that Cleopatra's grandfather had willed Egypt to Rome in exchange for helping him keep his right to the throne. He was soon found murdered by an Alexandrian mob.
Cleopatra vowed that in the future, she would not let the Romans use her to make her country a Roman province. Rather, she would use them in any way to make Egypt the proud leader of the Mediterranean world it once had been. With no strong army to back him, King Ptolemy was now having trouble. He feared losing his throne even his life as his father had. King Ptolemy decided to go to Rome for help.
Cleopatra found this humiliating, but she admired his shrewdness. She knew it was wiser for the survival of both the kingdom and King Ptolemy to seek Romes support rather than to risk confronting its armies. Cleopatra was only ten-years-old when her father set off for Rome. Her interest in politics made her curious to know how he would deal with the Romans and what he could accomplish.
Though nation after nation was falling to Romes military might, the Roman Republic was having its own troubles. Equally as corrupt as Egypt, its republican government was on the verge of collapsing. Three hungry politicians, Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus, using bribery and voter intimidation, had seized control of the government. This made a mockery of republican institutions. Egypt had become a hot political issue among Caesar, Pompey and Crassus. All three of them knew that Egypt would be a prize, but they had agreed that it would be best to make deals to keep Egypt happy for the moment.
When King Ptolemy arrived in Rome in 59 B. C. , the three made a deal with him. In exchange for a huge bribe of six thousand talents, a sum equal to Egypt's yearly income, they agreed to support King Ptolemy's claim to the Egyptian throne. Cleopatra was twelve-years-old when her father returned to Alexandria with the decree that he was the right full king of Egypt. King Ptolemy was back on his throne for only a short time when Rome had taken over the rich island of Cyprus, Egypt's only remaining overseas possession. King Ptolemy's brother was the King of Cyprus at the time.
He committed suicide rather that submit to Roman rule. The annexation of Cyprus happened just as the Flute Player was beginning to tax his subjects to repay his huge debt to Rome. The people of Egypt grew angry at being taxed. They were also angry with King Ptolemy for not helping his brother resist the Roman takeover of Cyprus.
A rebellion broke out, and King Ptolemy was forced to flee Alexandria. He set off to Rome for help, again. In Cleopatra's father absence her oldest sister, Cleopatra Tryphaena She Who Lives in Luxury VI, seized the throne. She was only on the throne for a short time. Berenice, Cleopatra's next older sister, killed Cleopatra VI for the right to the throne. An angry Alexandrian mob and palace intriguers backed Berenice.
In Rome, King Ptolemy managed one more deal. This time he made a deal with just Pompey. Pompey now promised King Ptolemy military support to put him back on his throne. Ptolemy had to pay an even larger bribe.
King Ptolemy returned to Alexandria followed by Roman soldiers from Pompey's legion that was stationed in Syria. Mark Antony led this legion. Mark Antony seemed to be a very powerful man, with a build and face that spelled courage and confidence. He resembled paintings and statues of the god-hero Hercules and he claimed that his family was descended from Hercules.
Mark Antony stayed only a short time in Alexandria, but long enough to meet Cleopatra, who was now fourteen. He would not forget her charm and her delightful way of speaking. Mark Antony and Cleopatra would soon meet again. Restored to power a second time King Ptolemy had to deal with his daughter Berenice, who had taken over his throne. King Ptolemy had her put to death for treason.
The King went back to playing his flute and squeezing taxes out of his people to repay his increasing debt to the Romans. This time with the Roman legions on hand the people could not openly rebel. There was an uneasy peace in Alexandria for a few years while Rome was slowly repaid. But the people knew that their kingdom was slowly becoming a puppet state under the control of Rome. In 51 B. C.
King Ptolemy died. He willed his throne jointly to his oldest daughter, Cleopatra VII, now eighteen, and to his ten-year-old son Ptolemy XIII. Cleopatra had hoped to avoid marrying her brother, but this was an old custom of brother-sister marriages in the royal family. Such brother-sister marriages were considered divine and it was to prevent any commoner from contaminating the royal bloodline. The Ptolemies had adopted this ancient custom of royal intermarriages from the Egyptians, along with the Egyptians use of divine titles. Cleopatra, dutifully and reluctantly, married her little brother.
There were two marriage ceremonies: one Greek with Cleopatra dressed and the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, and Ptolemy as Dionysus. The other ceremony was Egyptian, with Cleopatra as the goddess Isis and her brother as Osiris, god of the Nile River. Cleopatra loved the pageants; this gave her the opportunity to show of her artistic talent and flair for showmanship. Cleopatra paid no attention to the brother-sister rule. This was her chance to rule. This was her chance to make Egypt the dominant power of the Mediterranean.
She ruled as though she was the only monarch. This angered her brother Ptolemy and his guardians, who had another agenda. They were already teaching young Ptolemy to hate and envy his sister. Cleopatra knew her ten-year-old brother was not capable of coping with the problems she inherited. Cleopatra set off on her first goodwill tour up the Nile River to Hermon this in Upper Egypt to observe the religious ceremony of the sacred bull Buchis.
When Cleopatra arrived she was hailed as the Lady of the two Lands Cleopatra Thea Philopater, the Goddess Who Loves Her Father. Cleopatra was probably the first Ptolemy to attend as well as lead such a ceremony. This was good public relations on Cleopatra's behalf and it enhanced her popularity among her Egyptian subjects. But she was anything but popular in Alexandria because of he...
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