Cleopatra VII Biography

She is one of the most known and celebrated queens and rulers of Egypt in history who regained her throne in 1st BC, one of Shakespeare’s plays and several movies were inspired by her life. Macedonian dynasty took over entire Egypt during the late 4th Century and Cleopatra VII was an integral part of that dynasty. Cleopatra was described in various Cleopatra VII biographies that she was well-educated, intelligent and had a very strong strategic mind and was fluent in many languages. She was one of the most dominant rulers of her dynasty and dominated all her three co-regencies. 

(image will be uploaded soon)

According to Cleopatra VII biography states that during her regime she forged political alliances with Roman military chiefs like Julius Caesar and then Mark Antony until she died in 30 BC. It was her sheer intelligence, extreme beauty and the power of seduction that have made her the popular female ruler of history along with many myths. An unusual ruling and life of Cleopatra inspired Shakespear to write down a play based on the only female ruler at the time and the play was titled, Antony and Cleopatra. Then there were many following dramatizations in the form of movies and plays that were followed through many decades. The most famous of them all was released in 1963 starring the iconic actress Elizabeth Tylor as the protagonist.      

The Early Life of Cleopatra VII and Macedonian Linage

Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator was the last born ruler of the Macedonian dynasty who was born around 69 BC. The Macedonian regime was established during 323 BC after the death of Alexander the Great. The Macedonian era began shortly after the ruling was shifted from the general of Alexander to Ptolemy who once served as a general of Alexander during 332 BC when Alexander the Great conquered entire Egypt. All his descendants have followed his path for the next three centuries. When Plotemy’s regime and the ruling were at their peak it is considered to be the most powerful ruling in the history of Egypt. Cleopatra’s father was known as King Ptolemy XII but little is known about her mother and her ethnicity. Some of the biographers believe that she was a child of her father’s sister named Cleopatra V Tryphaena. But some biographers believe that she has been a part of Black African descendants. 

Soon after the death of her father, she was declared to take up the throne when she was 18 and her brother was 10 and named Ptolemy XIII. But as she was taking over her father’s position, the ministers and the advisers of the Macedonian empire started acting against the decision of Cleopatra being the ruler and she was forced to flee from Egypt and take shelter in Seriya in 49 BC. There she slowly established her own soldier of fortune and returned the following year with the troop to face her brother and his army at Pelusium in a civil war in Egypt. Meanwhile, to please Julius Caesar Pompey his foe was murdered by her brother and the arrival of Egypt’s and his empire’s rival Julius Caesar. But Cleopatra smuggled into the royal estate to put her plea in front of Julius and to convince him to support her to be the heiress of Macedonian ruling.        

Julius Caesar Cleopatra

Many of the times in almost all the biographies of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra their alleged relationship have been mentioned. At the time of the civil war between the rival Caesar and Ptolemy XIII, the younger brother of Cleopatra. Caesar was in need of funds to restore his position in Rome and he wanted to clear the debt incurred because of Auletes by taking over Egypt. But after the continuous civil war between Julius’s outnumbered soldiers and that of Ptolemy XIII flooded the army, finally, the Roman soldiers arrived in large numbers and Ptolemy XIII was forced to flee from Alexandria and was believed to have drowned in the River Nile. Later Caesar owned the throne of Ptolemy XIII as an unpopular conqueror. But by the charm of Cleopatra, Julius rendered the throne to Cleopatra and her younger brother Ptolemy XIV. But he remained in Egypt with Cleopatra for quite a long time and is believed to have a son together who was a boy who was born around 46 BC. The Egyptians thus used to call him Caesarion or little Caesar. 

Between 46 to 45 BC Cleopatra with her brother Ptolemy XIV went to visit Julius Caesar in Rome as he left Egypt much prior to the year of their meeting in Rome. Soon after the death of Julius in 44 BC, Cleopatra’s younger brother, Ptolemy XIV was also murdered and it is believed that Cleopatra’s agents might have been assigned by herself to kill her brother. After his death, her three-year-old son was declared as the co-regent with his mother for the throne of Egypt. By that time the Egyptians have already related Cleopatra with Isis who was the sister-wife of Osiris and mother to Horus as it is a tradition of ancient Egypt to relate the royalties with the god and goddesses for divinity before they claim their thrones as kings or queens.      

Cleopatra and Mark Antony

While Cleopatra with her co-regent, three years old son have secured the throne to herself like never before. But soon the flood of the Neil river in Egypt resulted in destroying all the crops and giving rise to inflation in markets and hunger equally. Meanwhile, there was a conflict that started with the Second Triumvirate that included Caesar allies, Mark Antony, Octavian and Lepidus and the assassins of Caesar, Brutus and Cassius. As the conflict was raging between the two forces both of them asked for the support of Egypt. Soon Cleopatra decided to shift the four Roman legions that were stationed in Egypt on the order of Caesar to support the Second Triumvirate and the war between the two resulted in a win of the second Triumvirate. In 42 BC soon after Brutus and Cassius’ forces were defeated in the war of Phillips, the power of Rome was divided equally between Mark Antony and Octavian.

Soon after the division of the power, Antony summoned Cleopatra to visit him in the Sicilian City of Tarsus that is in the North of modern Turkey today. The reason for the invite was to explain to Cleopatra her contribution to the winning of the war. It is said that soon after receiving the summon headed to the city in a huge ship and dressed in the robes of Isis that was later even dramatized by Shakespeare in his play. Antony, who was said to be associated with the Greek deity Dionysus instantly fell in love with the charm of Cleopatra. Antony assured to protect the crown of Cleopatra and her dynasty in Egypt by killing her only rival, her younger sister named Arsinoe who was in exile at that point in time. After Cleopatra returned to Egypt, Antony soon arrived to be with her living with his wife named Fulvia and his three children and this was supposedly his third wife named Fulvia and his three children and it was supposedly his third marriage. He spends most of his time from 41 to 40 BC with Cleopatra when they together built a drinking society famously known as “ The Inimitable Livers”. In 40 BC, Cleopatra gave birth to twins named Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene after the returning of Antony to Rome.           

The Power Struggle of Cleopatra

After the death of Fulvia, Antony was forced by Octavian to prove Antony’s loyalty towards him by agreeing to forcefully marry Octavia who was Octavian’s half-sister. Meanwhile, Egypt was prospering and flourishing under the rule of Cleopatra in 37 BC. thus Antony soon returned to Egypt and met Cleopatra to get some funds in order to mobilise the long-delayed military actions against the war with Parthia and he agreed to give away the eastern empire of Egypt to Cleopatra’s ruling that included Cyprus, Crete, Cyrenaica, Jericho and a very large portion of Syria and Cyprus in exchange of the fund. But soon they fell in love and had another boy together named Ptolemy Philadelphus who was born in 36 BC. 

After undergoing a humiliating defeat in Parthia he rejected all the efforts of his wife Octavia to rejoin him and went back to Egypt to stay with Cleopatra. In one of the public celebrations known as the “Donation of Alexandria '' in 34 BC, Antony officially declared the child of Caesar as the rightful heir of Egypt and gifted all his other children to Cleopatra with individual lands. This started creating turmoil between Octavian and Antony as Octavian started believing that Antony was totally under the control of Cleopatra and will soon abandon Rome and will form a new capital in Egypt. Thus Octavian with other Roman Senators took away all the titles from Antony in 32 BC and declared war against Cleopatra.  

Soon after Octavian declared war on Egypt, Cleopatra and Antony together with their combined army faced him in 32 BC. The battle took place in the Atrium which is situated on the west coast of Egypt. After suffering a heavy defeat by the Roman rival, Mark Antony killed himself believing that Cleopatra is dead. 

Death and Legacy

Cleopatra was believed to have committed suicide after Mark Antony killed himself and she suffered a heavy loss to the Roman rival Octavian. After her death on August 12, 30 BC she was buried beside Antony but the location of their grave is still unknown. Soon after their death, Octavian included Egypt as the external province of the Roman empire.

Cleopatra Facts

• Her life was captured by many historians and the story of her life was written in numerous ways by many biographers along with many myths that are still unknown to be true or not.

• She was the first female ruler who ruled Egypt for such a long period of time

• Egypt became prosperous and flourished under the ruling of Cleopatra.

• She had an unparalleled charm at her time and could seduce men with her intelligence and her capability to speak a dozen languages.

• She was recognized as the goddess Iris while she reclaimed her throne.