After her death, her country was annexed to Rome, her family was wiped out, and her enemies were beginning a long period of grandeur and prosperity. Cleopatra VII was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. Cleopatra joined Caesar when he returned to Rome for his Triumph. In the end, she proved far more useful to Rome than she did to Egypt. Cleopatra VII was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. But in more recent year’s scholars seem to recognise her cleverness and ambition that saw her through many confrontations with powerful men and gained her many successes. Cleopatra fled with her forces at the height of the battle. Their relationship had a political component—Cleopatra needed Antony to protect her crown and maintain Egypt’s independence, while Antony needed access to Egypt’s riches and resources—but they were also famously fond of each other’s company. After losing the battle Antony heard rumours that Cleopatra had committed suicide, the news causing him to fall on his sword and die just as news arrived that the rumour was false. Cleopatra first began her legendary love affair with the Roman general Mark Antony in 41 B.C. With Caesar already notorious for his sexual energy, the two became lovers almost immediately. Cleopatra at Dendara. Antony, having lost the battle and the war, joined her there. Those who remained loyal to Caesar, general Mark Antony and Caesar’s successor Octavian, sought Egypt’s support. To help her win the war against her brother Cleopatra would smuggle herself into the royal palace to plead her case to Caesar who was a guest to Ptolemy VIII after he allowed Ceasar’s rival, Pompey, to be murdered. It’s known, in part from a first century AD Roman poem, that the niches were made to hold the great bronze marine battering rams from some of … (Those calling Gadot a “colonizer” would do well to remember this.) Together Ceasar and Cleopatra were conquerors! Additionally, Gadot’s homeland of Israel was annexed by the Roman Empire, as Egypt was following Cleopatra’s death. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window). Ptolemy had Pompey executed, and presented Caesar with his opponent’s head, but earned only Caesar’s indignation. We shouldn’t forget however, that Cleopatra had a long and successful reign before she met either of her Roman men. The Roman Senate finally declared war against Cleopatra and on September 2, 31 BC, at the naval Battle of Actium, Octavian defeated the combined forces of Antony and Cleopatra. Following her father’s passing, Cleopatra was next to take the throne at the tender age of 18 in 51 B.C. Still, this was not to be the last of Cleopatra’s interactions with Rome. Rome was not merely a disinterested observer when these quarrelsome siblings took the throne. This all came to a head when Ceasar’s conspirators continued to wage war against his legacy led by the assassins themselves Brutus and Cassius (both Roman senators). Aaron Jakubenko as Commodus. With Aaron Irvin, Corey Brennan, Jerry Toner, Steve West. Tai Berdinner-Blades as Lucilla. Cleopatra VII Philopator was one of Egypt's most notable queens, remembered for her intelligence, charisma, boldness, and willingness to flout societal conventions in order to pursue personal and political goals. And so, little Ptolemy Caesar at 3 years old became co-regent of Egypt with his mother. Although she was to be Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra was a Greek, both by ancestry and culture. With unreliable flooding of the Nile resulting in failing crops, and conflict raging in Rome, the two regions were again brought together in their troubles. The specter of an oriental despot imposing her style of governance upon Roman citizens through her intoxicating effect on Antony rendered both of them dangerous enough to justify another round of civil war to remove them. Finally, Rome had a civil war of its own, the one between Julius Caesar and Gnaeus Pompey, and both factions desired access to the wealth of Egypt. Great as he was, Antony was decidedly a lesser man than Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar, dictator of the Roman Republic, was one of the key figures in the oft-chronicled downfall of the republic and rise of the Roman Empire. Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C., setting the stage for another wave of civil wars, and Cleopatra fled Rome before the wrath of the plotters might visit itself upon her. Roman Empire: Reign of Blood: (Trailer) Episodes Roman Empire ... Caesar is victorious in the war, then swiftly makes a powerful new ally and lover in Egypt's ruler, Cleopatra. Edwin Wright as Cassius Dio. Indeed, Cleopatra also had a “most delicious voice and knowledge of how to make herself agreeable to everyone,” according to the ancient Roman historian Lucius Cassius Dio. Cleopatra VII (69-30 BCE) had the misfortune to ascend the throne at a time when Egypt’s wealth and military power were in decline and an aggressive and assertive Roman Empire was expanding. The romance between Antony and Cleopatra might have changed the world. The family moved briefly to Rome, but when Ceasar was murdered in 44 BC, Cleopatra returned to Egypt, where her youngest brother died soon after. He became the family patron. Cast. 323 BCE: Alexander dies in Babylon upon his return from the conquest of what is now Afghanistan, … Her cause of death is unknown, but Plutarch and other writers proposed the story that she used to a poisonous snake, a symbol of divine royalty, to commit suicide at age 39. In 48 B.C., as Cleopatra plotted to regain power amid a civil war with her brother, the Roman historian Cassius Dio wrote that Egypt’s last pharaoh “reposed in her beauty all her claims to the throne.” She arranged a meeting with the Roman dictator Julius Caesar — a man notorious for his affairs with noblewomen — to ask his help. She was both well-educated and natively clever, and she had a dramatic flair that made her intoxicating to powerful men. Cleopatra's father had thrown in his lot with Pompey the Great, the brilliant Roman general on whom good fortune seemed eternally to shine. With her infant son as co-regent, Cleopatra’s power over Egypt was more secure than ever. Pertinax. What did seriously threaten Octavian's political position, however, was the acknowledgement of Caesarion as legitimate and heir to Caesar's name. Taking a cue from Egyptian mythology and intermittent royal practice, the Ptolemies made a habit of incestuous marriages; unlike Egyptian norms, such marriages also served as co-regencies. +39 069 028 0651Via Venti Settembre, 118, 00187 Roma RM, Italy (By appointment only), © Copyright 2021 | Sightseeing Tours Italy |, Rome Day Tour with Colosseum & Vatican €101. Caesar and Cleopatra were besieged in the royal palace for six months until Roman reinforcements were able to arrive and break the Egyptian lines. The secret meetings worked in her favour as Ceasar brought a Roman army to Alexandria, outnumbering Ptolemy’s XIII forces. A number of Roman historians and writers (the poets Horace and Lucan for example) reinforced the image of Cleopatra Empire an incestuous, adulterous whore who used sex to try and emasculate the Roman Empire. Distributing Roman lands and lands never conquered by Rome amongst the children of Cleopatra was not a peace move, but it was not a serious problem either. Ella Becroft as Bruttia Crispina. During his time in Rome, other family members assumed the throne; after some dithering, Rome sent troops to defeat the latest upstart, and replace Ptolemy XII upon his throne. Adding insult to injury, he had children by her and named them his heirs. Incest, that intimate relationship between first-degree relatives, is now prohibited by law, but in the past, it has been a widespread practice, especially in royal families. She entered Rome as if she were Caesar’s wife, although he was known to have one already; she also seemed to many as if she were frighteningly like Rome’s Queen, and fiercely Republican Rome would have nothing of this prospect. Died: August 1, 30 B.C., in Alexandria, Egypt. Although it is impossible to quantify the effect that Cleopatra had on those who plotted against Caesar, it is safe to say that she magnified the fears of those who were already concerned about Caesar’s extraordinary rule. She ruled as co-regent of ancient Egypt for three decades, a status that deserved to be remembered, especially being a woman at that time. Roman Influence. He… To Cleopatra, however, Antony represented more than just the prospect of maintaining her position, and even regaining some of Egypt’s freedom of action: a successful Antony offered the prospect of splitting the Roman world into eastern and western states. Cleopatra was the last ruler of Egypt and was known as Cleopatra VII. However, Cleopatra did not like sharing the throne with her husband/brother, and soon began to rule out his name in official documents. At the death of Ptolemy Auletes, the Egyptian succession was already under foreign influence: the disposition of Ptolemy’s will, including the succession, was left in the care of the Republic of Rome. She stayed out of Rome’s way as Octavian and Marc Antony drove Cassius and Brutus to ruin. Before the Roman victory over Ptolemy XIII, however, Cleopatra’s half-sister, Arsinoe, who h… Fate did not give her the chance. Taken as a whole, Cleopatra did little for her own country. When Octavian arrived (summer 30), first Antony and then Cleopatra committed suicide. Antony killed himself in response, and shortly thereafter, Cleopatra followed suit, hoping to rob Octavian of the pleasure of parading her about Rome in his Triumph. Antony and Cleopatra took up the prospect of war with energy, gathering forces in Greece that would pose a grave risk to Octavian’s forces, should he campaign there, or threaten a credible invasion of Italy if Octavian should not. She came from a long line of Hellenistic rulers, going back to the general Ptolemy who took Egypt as his inheritance after the death of Alexander the Great. As for Antony, he seems truly to have been smitten by his paramour, but beyond the personal attractions, he was also seduced by the wealth of Egypt, wealth sufficient to support victory after victory in his own ambitions. After burying Antony, Cleopatra locked herself in her chambers and joined her lover in death. Cleopatra was born in 69 BC - 68 BC. She was seen as cunning, charming and beautiful, an overly captivating individual. Furthermore, much of Egypt’s wealth lay in its agricultural surpluses, which were most tempting to a state whose capital had long outstripped the capacity of its own countryside and suffered from occasional subsistence crises. Genevieve Aitken as Marcia. Her story is one of success, battle, love and tragedy. She was a powerful queen and a much stronger monarch than any of the latter Ptolemaic Dynasty. Octavian also had a powerful naval force, comprised of ships much smaller than the pride of the Egyptian fleet, but also more agile and in greater numbers. If Antony had succeeded in winning sole control of Rome with Cleopatra as his queen, He could have changed the course of the Roman Empire, making the world we live in today a different place. Her romantic liaisons and military alliances, as well as her supposed exotic beauty and charming powers, have earned her an enduring place in history and popular myth. In around 47 BC, Cleopatra gave birth to a son, Ptolemy Caesar. Cleopatra VII Philopator (Koinē Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ; 69 – 10 or 12 August 30 BC) was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. In the end, Cleopatra made that possible. Roman Empire (TV Series 2016– ) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Cleopatra is one of the most well-known figures in history, but her connection to the Roman Empire is still a bit hazy to some. Her death allowed him to package the story as he wished, without the possibility that Cleopatra might manage to win over the Roman crowd’s sympathy. Whilst in Syria, Cleopatra raised an army of mercenaries and returned the following year to face her brother’s forces. On one level, Rome was fascinated by this exotic figure; on another, however, the people were repulsed, and this took some of the gloss from Caesar’s own glory. John Bach as Marcus Aurelius. With the love affairs, the scandals and the children which resulted along with her dramatic death, it is no wonder that Cleopatra remains a dominant figure in popular culture. Cleopatra was soon to become Queen of Egypt, the richest kingdom in the Mediterranean. Unlike other ancient rulers however, a certain fascination is what has carried Cleopatra through history. Menu. Only in the waning years of his reign as Emperor Augustus did the memories of Cleopatra begin to fade, and the official story increasingly emphasized the need to get rid of Antony for his own excesses. Egypt was a wealthy country, despite the mismanagement that depleted its treasury, and wealth was always handy to a militaristic state bent upon further expansion. Cleopatra was secure as the effective ruler of Egypt, although she technically still needed to share power with a younger sibling. It was an important point for Octavian. As it so transpired, however, Ptolemy’s advisors overstepped themselves in their effort to ingratiate themselves with Caesar, while Cleopatra made the most of her own considerable gifts. Cleopatra Thea Philopator, or Cleopatra VII, was a remarkable and talented ruler who inherited a weak position and never managed to improve it significantly. After the death of Cleopatra, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the second to last Hellenistic state and the age that had lasted since the reign of Alexander(336–323 BC). The Ides of March 43m. Whether this is true or not, we can’t be sure, but the two did begin a long-lasting love affair which ultimately resulted in their deaths. Recorded in ancient texts, written into exciting tales and her face decorated onto walls, paintings, vases and statues, Cleopatra’s legacy survives in ancient and modern works of art. - [Instructor] We finished the last video in the year 40 B.C.E., where the year began with the Parthian invasion of Syria in the eastern provinces of the Roman Republic, and it really is an empire, the Roman Republic or the Roman Empire. 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 as the wife of Mark Antony. Disastrous mismanagement had sparked riots in Alexandria, and Ptolemy XII fled to Rome for protection. Queen Cleopatra of Egypt and How She Affected the Roman Empire. Known For: Roman general who became a politician and leader of ancient Rome, eventual lover of Cleopatra and father of her three children. He and Cleopatra died together in a suicide pact after the Battle of Actium. Unlike her forebears, she took the trouble to learn the language and customs of her country, and under better circumstances, she might have been a great Pharaoh. She hastened Egypt’s dependence upon Roman power even as she alienated herself from such goodwill as she might have enjoyed in the beginning. Chronicles some of the most famous leaders of the Roman Civilization. If that were successful, the eastern state would necessarily be a Hellenistic one, and Egypt would be a major partner in this resurgent Greek world. Having won the war, he wished to push through his program for the reconstitution of the Roman state, and that meant convincing a number of very stubborn minds. Upon the death of her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes, she had to share power with her indolent and insolent younger brother, Ptolemy XIII. She was a queen of Egypt. 5. When Octavian’s fleet under Agrippa gained the upper hand, Cleopatra broke through with her 60 ships and returned to Alexandria. Caesar’s Palace In 168 BC, almost 100 years before Cleopatra’s birth, Rome became an overseer of Egypt and the Egyptian royal family. As a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great. In Roman eyes, he had abandoned his Roman wife, Octavian’s sister, to cavort in unseemly luxury with a woman they had already come to consider a whore. According to the story recorded by Plutarch, Cleopatra seduced Antony with her wit and beauty, completely winning him over. Even so, Octavian had to work hard in the arena of propaganda to garner enough support to make war on Antony. Her wealth guaranteed the attention of Rome, but it was her own choices and skills that shaped the course that attention took. She became queen on the death of her father, Ptolemy XII, in 51 bce and ruled successively with her two brothers … Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII drew to themselves advisors only too happy to capitalize upon their charges’ squabbling, and Egypt was on a course destined for civil war. She even took the matter of her death into her own hands. Ptolemy XIII turned to his general Achillas for support and warbroke out in Alexandria between Caesar’s legions and the Egyptian army. Cleopatra fled, with Antony soon following behind her; after a winter’s respite, Octavian arrived in Egypt with his forces. Cleopatra approached Caesar in secret, matching her strengths and talents with Caesar’s own, and forging a kind of partnership in which each used the other, and accepted it as a matter of course. The two sides spent the summer in search of an advantageous position and in avoidance of direct contact, but then, on a single day in September, the fleet that Antony and Cleopatra had so meticulously created was crushed decisively. Due to traditional customs, Cleopatra was to marry her brother, Ptolemy XIII, who was then only ten years old and become joint ruler with Cleopatra. It is believed that Cleopatra and Ceasar lived together for a while, having an affair. In the early years of Octavian’s rule as Emperor, the threat posed by Cleopatra was most important as a justification of the war, and by extension, of all that Octavian had done to reform Rome. For her part, Cleopatra gave Caesar his only son, Ptolemy Kaisarion, and waited patiently when Caesar went off to dispense with the last remnants of his foes in North Africa. If Caesar and Cleopatra were equals, Antony and Cleopatra were mismatched. Part of this force was a massive, and expensive, naval build-up that seemed like the match of anything that Octavian could send against him. Although Egypt remained a large and wealthy empire, a new, more powerful force was rising. She was the lover of Ceasar and Antony. Antony failed to show his loyalty to Octavian when he rejected Octavian’s half-sister, Octavia, declaring Ptolemy Caesar the rightful ruler of Rome. Both of the Egyptian rulers decided to back the same side: that of Julius Caesar. She is celebrated for her beauty and her love affairs with the Roman warlords Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. For his part, Octavian was probably relieved. Cleopatra sided with the latter and met with Mark Antony many times. As you can see Cleopatra had many ties to Rome, both helping them and causing them trouble during her reign in Egypt. In all of these things, they were mistaken. In short, Cleopatra represented perhaps the most charismatic woman of her time –arguably of all time – and she and Caesar must have presented quite the couple. To his peril, Antony had lost sight of Roman popular opinion. Calum Gittins as Saoterus. Born: January 14, 83 B.C., in Rome. Ceasar returned the throne to Cleopatra and her youngest brother Ptolemy XIV (then only 13 years old). Sean Bean as Narrator. There was an additional complication. She had ascended a shaky throne and only stabilized her own power at the expense of her country’s already wavering independence. the two sides were encamped in close quarters with each other. Movies. As a woman fighting in a man’s world, she has gained more respect in further years, before being mentioned only for her beauty and seduction of men. She was both well-educated and natively clever, and she had a dramatic flair that made her intoxicating to powerful men. In the past, this had sometimes led to strong rule, but in later generations, any such strength was sapped by a pattern of family intrigues. He deposed Ptolemy XIII, who soon thereafter turned up dead. Unfortunately, such Roman propaganda has had a profound influence on the image of Cleopatra that has been passed down into Western culture. And war was indeed declared by the Roman Senate – interestingly on Cleopatra as queen of Egypt rather than Antony. Her story is one of success, battle, love and tragedy. She became a convenient scapegoat, offering justifications to those who opposed her lovers. When that war was resolved, however, and Octavian and Antony set up spheres of influence within the Roman world, Cleopatra presented herself to Antony in a grand feat of showmanship, beginning a liaison that would dominate the rest of their lives. It is at this time, according to some historians, that the great library at Alexandria was accidentally burned, though this claim has been challenged. Octavian was far quicker in gathering his forces than Antony, and in 31 B.C. The legendary queen also suffered from history’s tendency to … As a descendent from the first ruling Macedonian general, Cleopatra was … Cleopatra Thea Philopator, or Cleopatra VII, was a remarkable and talented ruler who inherited a weak position and never managed to improve it significantly. As examples, we can take Ancient Egypt, Peru during the Inca Empire, and, in some periods, Thailand, Mexico, and Central Africa. Jared Turner as Cleander. This mess concluded in the Battle of Actium where Octavian’s forces soundly defeated those of Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BC. By the age of 14, Cleopatra became co-regent and deputy of her father, the king. Caesar did his part for Cleopatra. This was a consequence of the intrigues of the later years of the older king’s life. After attempting to take sole possession of the throne, Ptolemy XIII ran her out of Egypt, which ended in the famous civil war between them.