Cleopatra: The Woman Behind the Legend

The first thing to understand about Cleopatra is that she was not Egyptian. Not by ancestry. Cleopatra VII belonged to the Ptolemaic dynasty, a family of Macedonian Greeks who had ruled Egypt for almost 300 years by the time she was born in 69 BC. Her native language was Greek. Her court was Greek. Alexandria, her capital, was a Greek city.

But she was the first Ptolemy in 300 years to bother learning Egyptian, and by all accounts she spoke about nine languages fluently — including Ethiopian, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac and Median. That linguistic reach is a hint about the actual woman: not primarily a seductress but an unusually well-educated head of state in an extremely difficult political situation. For the broader Egyptian context see our complete history of ancient Egypt.

The world she was born into

By 69 BC, the Ptolemaic dynasty was in bad shape. Three centuries of sibling marriages had produced a family tree that folded in on itself. The Ptolemies routinely murdered each other for the throne, occasionally married their own siblings (Cleopatra herself married two of her brothers), and ruled a wealthy but fragile country.

The real threat was outside Egypt: Rome. Rome had annexed the entire Mediterranean over the previous century, and Egypt was the last major Hellenistic kingdom still independent. It was also the richest — Egyptian grain fed a huge chunk of the Roman market, and Roman senators were constantly looking for excuses to intervene.

Cleopatra’s job as pharaoh was essentially impossible: keep Egypt independent from Rome, while dealing with Roman politicians who might crush her at any moment.

Cleopatra and Caesar

She became co-ruler at 18 with her ten-year-old brother-husband Ptolemy XIII. Her brother’s advisors quickly pushed her out of Alexandria. When Julius Caesar arrived in Egypt in 48 BC chasing his rival Pompey, Cleopatra had herself smuggled into his rooms — allegedly rolled inside a rug or, more likely, a leather sack — to present her case directly. It worked. Caesar backed her, defeated her brother’s forces, and installed her back on the throne.

They also had a son, Caesarion, born in 47 BC. Caesar took Cleopatra and the boy to Rome and set her up in a villa outside the city. The Romans hated it. She was foreign, she was a queen (Rome had thrown out its kings 400 years earlier), and she was the mistress of the dictator. When Caesar was assassinated in March 44 BC, Cleopatra caught the next ship home.

Cleopatra and Mark Antony

Rome descended into civil war between Caesar’s heir Octavian and his general Mark Antony. In 41 BC Antony summoned Cleopatra to meet him at Tarsus (modern Turkey). Her arrival is one of the great set-pieces of ancient history — Plutarch describes her sailing up the river in a gold-prowed barge with silver oars, dressed as Aphrodite. She had understood exactly what Antony wanted to see.

They became partners, both politically and personally. Antony spent winters with her in Alexandria, they had three children (twins Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, plus Ptolemy Philadelphus), and Antony granted her chunks of Roman-controlled territory — Cyprus, parts of Syria, Cyrene — as gifts to their children. Back in Rome, Octavian used this to paint Antony as a traitor who had gone native, and to paint Cleopatra as a foreign seductress plotting to take over the empire.

Actium and the end

In 31 BC Antony and Cleopatra fought a naval battle against Octavian at Actium off the west coast of Greece. It went badly. Cleopatra’s squadron of 60 ships broke off mid-battle and sailed back to Egypt; Antony followed. Octavian pursued them the following year, invaded Egypt, and Antony killed himself. Cleopatra tried to negotiate with Octavian, understood she was going to be paraded through Rome in his triumph, and killed herself — probably by drug rather than the famous asp, which most Roman-era sources treat as folklore.

She was 39. Her son Caesarion, briefly the last pharaoh at 17, was hunted down and killed within weeks. Egypt became a Roman province and stayed one for the next 670 years. The Ptolemaic dynasty was over.

What the sources actually say

Almost everything we know about Cleopatra is written by Romans who hated her, decades after her death. Plutarch, our fullest source, is writing 130 years later. There is no surviving portrait we can be sure is her. The coins she minted show a sharp-nosed woman with a strong jaw who does not look like Elizabeth Taylor.

Egyptian sources tell a different story. To her subjects she was a competent ruler who stabilised the currency, expanded temple building at Dendera, spoke their language, and staved off direct Roman rule for 21 years. Almost no other Hellenistic kingdom lasted so long against Roman pressure.

Where Cleopatra’s story lives today

• Alexandria: most of Ptolemaic Alexandria is under the modern city or the Mediterranean, but the Roman theatre, the catacombs and Fort Qaitbey (built on the foundations of the Pharos lighthouse) all sit within a compact old-town area
• Dendera temple: the temple of Hathor at Dendera, north of Luxor, has one of the only surviving portraits of Cleopatra on its rear wall, alongside her son Caesarion
• Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo: Ptolemaic statues and coins
• Cape Zephyrion: the presumed site of Cleopatra’s summer palace, mostly underwater but part of ongoing marine archaeology

To plan the trip see our Egypt travel guide and Nile cruise guide. For daily costs see travel budget by country.

Frequently asked questions