What kind of pharaoh was cleopatra

Arab writers refer to her as a scholar, and years after her death a cult statue of Cleopatra was being honoured at Philae, a religious centre that also attracted pilgrims from further south, outside Egypt. Cause of death: Took her own life, possibly with poison. Legend has it that she encouraged a snake to bite her.

A woman immortalised in film, on canvas and in print. An enigmatic heroine to whom William Shakespeare devoted one of his greatest tragedies. Her story is one that has been retold throughout history — full of romance and love, riches and betrayal. But beneath the gold and glamour lies a far darker tale of sibling rivalry taken to the extreme, and a thirst for power that would change the course of history. For Cleopatra, life as a royal daughter was one of luxury.

The Egyptian capital Alexandria, the seat of Ptolemaic power, was a thriving cultural centre, attracting scholars, artists and philosophers from all over the world.

It was also home to the great Pharos of Alexandria — the metre-tall lighthouse that towered over the city and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. There may have been a further elder sister, Cleopatra VI Tryphaena, but she too had died by this point. In true pharaonic tradition, which aimed to keep the royal bloodline as pure as possible, Cleopatra married her younger brother and co-ruler, but it soon became clear that she had no intention of sharing power with him.

Yet, as Joann Fletcher reveals, such simplistic portrayals obscure her true legacy as a strong, politically astute monarch…. Cleopatra is often portrayed by Hollywood as a glamorous femme fatale. Mary Hamer argues that most of what we think we know about Cleopatra is merely the echo of Roman propaganda. Here, she reveals six lesser-know facts about the Egyptian ruler…. In Rome this caused a scandal. Caesar took up residence at Alexandria's royal palace and summoned the warring siblings for a peace conference, which he planned to arbitrate.

Aware that Caesar's diplomatic intervention could help her regain the throne, Cleopatra hatched a scheme to sneak herself into the palace for an audience with Caesar. She persuaded her servant Apollodoros to wrap her in a carpet or, according to some sources, a sack used for storing bedclothes , which he then presented to the year old Roman. The image of young Cleopatra tumbling out of an unfurled carpet has been dramatized in nearly every film about her, from the silent era to a TV miniseries, but it was also a key scene in the real Cleopatra's staging of her own life.

Like most monarchs of her time, Cleopatra saw herself as divine; from birth she and other members of her family were declared to be gods and goddesses. Highly image-conscious, Cleopatra maintained her mystique through shows of splendor, identifying herself with the deities Isis and Aphrodite, and in effect creating much of the mythology that surrounds her to this day. Though Hollywood versions of her story are jam-packed with anachronisms, embellishments, exaggerations and inaccuracies, the Cleopatras of Elizabeth Taylor, Vivien Leigh and Claudette Colbert do share with the real queen a love of pageantry.

When Cleopatra emerged from the carpet—probably somewhat disheveled, but dressed in her best finery—and begged Caesar for aid, the gesture won over Rome's future dictator-for-life.

With his help Cleopatra regained Egypt's throne. Ptolemy XIII rebelled against the armistice that Caesar had imposed, but in the ensuing civil war he drowned in the Nile, leaving Cleopatra safely in power. Caesar was assassinated in 44 B. To solidify her grip on the throne, she dispatched her rebellious sister Arsinoe as well.

Such ruthlessness was not only a common feature of Egyptian dynastic politics in Cleopatra's day, it was necessary to ensure her own survival and that of her son. With all domestic threats removed, Cleopatra set about the business of ruling Egypt, the richest nation in the Mediterranean world, and the last to remain independent of Rome. What kind of pharaoh was Cleopatra? The few remaining contemporary Egyptian sources suggest that she was very popular among her own people. And killed each other with impunity and regularity.

My favorite Ptolemaic story is Cleopatra II, who was married to her brother. They got in a massive argument and the brother was killed. Then she married another brother. The uncle then sent her Cleopatra II a package containing her own son, cut up into little bits, as a birthday present.

Then they all get back together for political reasons. Cleopatra is probably the only woman in our story who uses her reproductive abilities like a man, to create a legacy. Cleopatra used her productive womb to have children with two Roman warlords. She had one child with Julius Caesar, three children with Mark Antony—twins, no less— and she survived it.

She then carefully placed each child in charge of a different part of her growing Eastern Empire, in competition with the Western Roman Empire. She has come down to us as a great beauty, but we have to assume that she was partially a product of incest. And incest did not make people beautiful. What is written about her talks, rather, of her wit, conversation, and intelligence.

Whatever it was that drew these Roman warlords to her, she used it. She used personal connections better than any of the other women in our story. Nefertiti is the trickiest of our women to talk about because she is only just now being discovered by Egyptologists for what she was.

That is, a leader of her people. But when she became a political leader she changed her identity. She had herself renamed and was no longer depicted in that feminine way. When I say that Nefertiti was the most successful of our feminine leaders what I mean is that she cleaned up the mess that the men before her had made. She used her feminine emotionality to do so. She hid all the evidence of herself having taken power. Egyptologists still fiercely debate whether she became co-king at all, and certainly whether she became sole king.

If she did, she had to erase her feminine identity of beauty and allurability. That, right there, speaks volumes about what political power is—and what it does to a woman. The United States is no exception. Most of the world has an aversion to powerful female leaders. The places where female leaders were elected are parliamentary systems where you have no direct election, one person, one vote.

You elect your parliamentary representative and they then elect your prime minister. You see that in Britain or India, and other places around the world, that when a female is elected, there is no direct, organic vote.

Number one: My book is a tragedy. I am here to say it the way I see it.