Cleopatra

This book describes the critically acclaimed life of the infamous Queen of Egypt. Cleopatra was intimately involved in the critical years that saw the Roman Republic transformed into the Roman Empire. How this transition appeared to the Queen of Egypt — and the part she played in it — is the subject of Pat Southern's engrossing new biography. Descended from the first Ptolemy, one of the companions of Alexander the Great, Cleopatra was the last in a long line of Macedonian rulers of Egypt. It was Julius Caesar's involvement in an Alexandrian civil war that led to her being set up as the Queen of Egypt. She also had an affair with Caesar and for two years, was his guest in Rome. On his assassination, she returned to Alexandria — where, in turn, Mark Antony was to become her guest and lover. Over the years of their acquaintance, they produced three children. Their behaviour allowed Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) to brand the Egyptian Queen as Rome's arch enemy: worse than Hannibal, nearer than the Parthians — and powerful, as she had access to Mark Antony's legions. In the civil war that followed, Cleopatra failed to revive Antony's fighting spirit after their defeat at Actium. He was to die in her arms, having committed suicide. A few days later, she too was to die.