Cleopatra’s Life

I was born into a time in the late Egyptian civilisation, long after the pyramids had been erected and the sphinx carved out of desert rock. These were the days of our decline, the times of the great Ramesses II were far, far behind us, with the Greek empire having had its best days and Rome taking all the power and glory. Although many people believe me to be Egyptian, my roots were actually Greek following the occupation of my country by Alexander the Great, who gave the country new rulers. Most of my ancestors failed to learn Egyptian and generally shunned the country’s native culture, but I fell in love with the place and embraced Egypt, as I felt her in my blood. I learned the language and custom of the country and I became an incarnation of the mother goddess, Isis, as all queens had done before me.

My father Ptolemy XII lived quite a short life, dying when I was only eighteen leaving me in joint control of the country with my thirteen year old brother, Ptolemy XIII who was too young to be emperor, but had to be in the ascendancy as he was the prime male heir. I had no intention of sharing power with my brother and found myself in exile whilst he staked his claim to the throne. My chance to seize power came when Ptolemy had the Roman general Pompey murdered, enraging Julius Caesar. I took my opportunity and seduced the Roman leader, and used his anger against my young brother to persuade him to go to war. The war ended when my brother was found face down floating in the Nile leaving me free to rule Egypt, although on paper I did have to share my power with my even younger brother, although this was just to please the traditionalists. I had a son, Caesarion (I know, I just couldn’t talk Julius out of naming him this) and was in the process of murdering my other younger brother in a poisoning conspiracy when Caesar was bumped off by his so called friends whilst we were staying in Rome. I was never really welcome in the place as the people found it difficult to accept me as Caesar’s wife as the old boy was already married. I beat a quick retreat back to Egypt where I returned to find my brother dead leaving me again in need of a male co-regent. This time however I was clever enough to give the job to my son, who at the time could hardly talk, leaving me with free reign to rule the country.

Unfortunately for me the same time I achieved peace in Egypt, bloody civil war arose in Rome. Caesar had ruled the various factions beneath him with an iron fist, but now he was gone they were out of control and engaged in bitter conflict. I sided with Marc Antony and Octavian who were loyal to my dead husband in their battle against Brutus and Cassius. Luck was on my side however as Cassius looked all set to invade Egypt, before the foolish Brutus summoned him away from his campaign for simple matters of appeasing his ego at court. This mistake was amongst the many that allowed Marc Antony and Octavian to emerge victorious from their strife, sharing the rule of Rome in joint leadership as they had done their armies in battle.

Marc Antony became my lover when I seduced him in Tarsus to cement the safety of my reign in Egypt. We had many happy years together when he secured my place on the throne even further by having my sister murdered at my request. However, his time away from Rome allowed his co-ruler Octavian to plot against him and when he declined the hand of Octavian’s sister in marriage, Octavian used this as a PR stunt against my husband and the two went to war. We were all set for a sea battle with Octavian, but when I turned up I was so shocked by the state of my husband’s vessels, that I took one look at them and fled away to a hide-away deep in Egypt leaving instructions for my husband to follow. The battle turned out to be a decisive one in Octavian’s campaign against us, leaving the coast of Egypt undefended against his invasion. Marc Antony felt that I had betrayed him and so he killed himself, feeling he had nothing left to live for following my action. When I heard of his death however I was mortified and decided to kill myself. Although the romantics out there like to think I was killed by the bite of an asp, the truth is that this would have been a drawn out, painful death, so I actually committed suicide with a dose of poison.