She stayed out of Rome’s way as Octavian and Marc Antony drove Cassius and Brutus to ruin. 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.Ĭaesar 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.
![asterix and cleopatra roman empire asterix and cleopatra roman empire](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/asterix/images/d/d5/Kleopatra.jpg)
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. 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. 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.Ĭleopatra joined Caesar when he returned to Rome for his Triumph. Cleopatra was secure as the effective ruler of Egypt, although she technically still needed to share power with a younger sibling. He deposed Ptolemy XIII, who soon thereafter turned up dead. 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.Ĭaesar did his part for Cleopatra. Ptolemy had Pompey executed, and presented Caesar with his opponent’s head, but earned only Caesar’s indignation. 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. 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.īoth of the Egyptian rulers decided to back the same side: that of Julius Caesar. 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. 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. Rome was not merely a disinterested observer when these quarrelsome siblings took the throne. 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. Disastrous mismanagement had sparked riots in Alexandria, and Ptolemy XII fled to Rome for protection. This was a consequence of the intrigues of the later years of the older king’s life. 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. 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. 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. 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.
![asterix and cleopatra roman empire asterix and cleopatra roman empire](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/asterix/images/d/d8/Asterix21.jpg)
![asterix and cleopatra roman empire asterix and cleopatra roman empire](https://i0.wp.com/multiversitystatic.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/07/Asterix-and-Obelix-featured-image.jpeg)
Upon the death of her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes, she had to share power with her indolent and insolent younger brother, Ptolemy XIII. 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 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. In the end, she proved far more useful to Rome than she did to Egypt.Īlthough she was to be Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra was a Greek, both by ancestry and culture.
![asterix and cleopatra roman empire asterix and cleopatra roman empire](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/dubbing9585/images/2/29/Asterix_Cleopatre_french.jpg)
Her wealth guaranteed the attention of Rome, but it was her own choices and skills that shaped the course that attention took. She was both well-educated and natively clever, and she had a dramatic flair that made her intoxicating to powerful men. Cleopatra Thea Philopator, or Cleopatra VII, was a remarkable and talented ruler who inherited a weak position and never managed to improve it significantly.