Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth Book

Book was translated from French by David Lorton.

I have always enjoyed reading about strong women and where else would you find one? But it took me a while to venture beyond the Introduction and Chapter 1 purely because I found myself suddenly in the Hellenistic era and I had to readjust my time clock. In the end, I have to keep another reference open to now and then check on the personalities mentioned in the book as I progressed. Yes, the book expects readers some background knowledge of Hellenistic Egypt.

Thanks to the author's warning that there is really very little or no ancient account of Cleopatra VII's reign - not even a simple biographic summary of it - thus had allowed romantic legends to flourish. What existed consists of little of the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton stuff! History recorded that Cleopatra was the last queen of ancient Egypt whose defeat had given birth to Rome's imperial regime.

After the death of Alexander The Great in 323 BCE, Ptolemy, a commander in the Macedonian army and son of Lagos, one of Alexander's bodyguard, established the Lagides Dynasty in Egypt with Alexandria as it's capital. My other reference states that with that his rivals for power, Cassander of Macedonia, and Seleucus of Syria, countered by declaring themselves kings of their respective dominions. Thus came into existence the three great monarchies that were to dominate the Hellenistic world until, one by one, they were absorbed into the Roman Empire, ending the ancient Egypt Ptolemaic period.

The Greeks practised incestuous marriages. While the crown had devised a system of exploitation, dynastic struggles, frantricidal conflicts were very prevalent. To cut the story short, Cleopatra VII represented a line of determined women who did not hesitate to exercise effective power in the place of inept and discredited husbands or sons. Details of earlier queens were lacking more due to lack of partners or adversaries of the stature of Julius Caesar or Mark Anthony. Furthermore, the Lagides were simply a dismal kingdom. Only when the Romans were ravaging Asia Minor did the intellectuals flocked to seek refuge in Alexandria.