Facts about Cleopatra
Caesar wintered in Egypt in 48–47 B.C.E., and Cleopatra shored up her political advantage by becoming his lover.
The earliest film on Cleopatra as the main subject was Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt (1912), starring Helen Gardner.
The similarity between several statues and engravings of Cleopatra with images of queens of Ancient Egypt is obvious.
Cleopatra arrived in great state, and so charmed Antony that he chose to spend the winter of 42–41 B.C.E.
All seven queens bearing the name Cleopatra were featured in the BBC mini-series The Cleopatras (1983).
Cleopatra may have been the first member of her family in their 300-year reign in Egypt to have learned the Egyptian language.
Significantly, the charge of illegitimacy was never made against Cleopatra, which is surprising considering the wealth of Roman propaganda against her, which adds credence to the latter theory regarding her mother.
Finally, numerous stories, novels, and even motion pictures, have been made about the fabulous wealth contained in King Solomon's mines.
The earliest Cleopatra-related motion picture was Antony and Cleopatra (1908) with Florence Lawrence as Cleopatra.
Cleopatra's story has fascinated scores of writers and artists through the centuries.
After Antony's rival and Caesar's legal heir, Octavian, brought the might of Rome against Egypt, Cleopatra took her own life on August 12, 30 B.C.E.
Cleopatra's winter liaison with Caesar produced a son whom they named Ptolemy Caesar (nicknamed Caesarion, little Caesar).
Arguably, Cleopatra was a marginal figure in terms of the wider stage of history on which she moved, the expansion of Roman power and the emergence of Imperial Rome from Republican Rome.
The fiction, film, and art that Cleopatra's life has inspired evidences the impact she has made on history.
Her legacy survives in the form of numerous dramatizations of her story, including William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and several modern films.
Contemporary descriptions of Cleopatra describe her as being short, slightly overweight, with a hawk-nose and red-brown hair.
During the winter, she became pregnant with twins, who were named Cleopatra Selene and Alexander Helios.
The 2005 HBO/BBC mini-series Rome featured the character Cleopatra portrayed by Lyndsey Marshal.
Cleopatra and Antony both committed suicide, Cleopatra doing so on August 12, 30 B.C.E.
Egyptologists say the Ptolemaic family tree indicates that there was a great deal of interbreeding in the family, and that because Cleopatra was the first monarch to learn the Egyptian language that Cleopatra was white.
Ancient busts and coins of Cleopatra also appear to point to her Caucasian ancestry.
After a short war, Ptolemy XIII was killed and Caesar restored Cleopatra to her throne, with Ptolemy XIV as new co-ruler.
Perhaps because of her independent streak a cabal of courtiers led by the eunuch, Pothinus, removed Cleopatra from power—possibly in 48 B.C.E., possibly earlier—a decree exists with Ptolemy's name alone from 51 B.C.E.
Cleopatra was present with a fleet of her own, but when she saw that Antony's poorly equipped and undermanned ships were losing to the Romans' superior vessels, she took flight.
Caesar was so repelled by this treachery that he seized the Egyptian capital and imposed himself as arbiter between the rival claims of Ptolemy and Cleopatra.
Debate about Cleopatra's skin-color and racial identity is an example of identity or cultural politics.
The three children of Cleopatra and Antony were spared and taken back to Rome where they were reared by Antony's wife, Octavia.
Egyptologists say that Cleopatra was descended from the Ptolemaic dynasty, a Macedonian family, whose patriarch Ptolemy I Soter was one of Alexander the Great's generals, among whom his empire was distributed after his death.
Antony committed suicide after losing the Battle of Actium to Octavian's forces, and Cleopatra followed suit. According to a popular belief, she killed herself by means of an asp bite on August 12, 30 BC.
According to Plutarch, Cleopatra tested various deadly poisons on condemned persons and concluded that the bite of the asp (from aspis—Egyptian cobra, not European asp) was the least terrible way to die; the venom brought sleepiness and heaviness without spasms of pain.
The long-lost Tomb of Antony and Cleopatra, the burial crypt of Mark Antony and Cleopatra (VII), from 30 BC, remains unknown somewhere near Alexandria, Egypt. According to historians Suetonius and Plutarch, the Roman leader Octavian (later renamed Augustus) permitted their burial together after he had defeated them.
Caesarion was born in Egypt on June 23, 47 BC. His mother Cleopatra insisted that he was the son of Julius Caesar. Caesarion was said to have inherited Caesar's looks and manner, but Caesar apparently did not officially acknowledge him.
Caesarion. Caesarion, in full Ptolemy Philopator Philometor Caesar, also called Ptolemy XV Caesar, (born June 47 bce—died 30 bce), king of Egypt (reigned 44–30 bce), son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra VII. Ptolemy was his mother's co-ruler, killed by Octavian, later the emperor Augustus, after Cleopatra's death in 30.
Cleopatra, (Greek: “Famous in Her Father”)in full Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (“Cleopatra the Father-Loving Goddess”), (born 70/69 bce—died August 30 bce, Alexandria), Egyptian queen, famous in history and drama as the lover of Julius Caesar and later the wife of Mark Antony.
When her father Ptolemy XII died in 51 BC, Cleopatra became co-regent with her 10-year-old brother Ptolemy XIII. They were married, in keeping with Egyptian tradition.
Cleopatra first began her legendary love affair with the Roman general Mark Antony in 41 B.C.Aug 12, 2015
According to Plutarch, Cleopatra tested various deadly poisons on condemned persons and concluded that the bite of the asp (from aspis—Egyptian cobra, not European asp) was the least terrible way to die; the venom brought sleepiness and heaviness without spasms of pain.