2023-06-11 23:28:53
Cleopatra VII is the great personification of the sublime women of Ancient Egypt, despite the fact that her blood and culture were Greek with small Persian touches. She is the best-known woman of the former kingdom of Ella, despite being a figure wholly distorted by smears and Roman propaganda. She is the queen who always appears bejeweled and busy with frivolous matters, despite the fact that her life was that of a highly educated scholar busy managing an empire that spanned from Asia Minor to the borders with Nubia. Much is known and, at the same time, almost nothing about her.
In order to shorten the kilometric distance between the long-nosed pharaoh who floats in the popular imagination and the one who really was, the archaeologist Duane W. Roller publish the biography ‘Cleopatra: biography of a queen’ (Wake up Ferro Editions). This 257-page work takes the Egyptian woman out of the stereotyped myths that present her, like all women who have seized power in history, as a heartless nymphomaniac and places her in her Mediterranean context, where the danger to The Ptolemies not only lurked from their own borders, where they continued to represent a cultural minority, but from a sea that brought a power as aggressive as Rome to their doors.
Cleopatra worked with intelligence, elegance and seduction to ensure the survival of his dynasty in the face of all these deadly threats. As Roller relates in simple but illuminating words, the ruler did not drop her rings when it came to leading her own fleet in the battle of actium or to maintain relations with Julius Caesar or mark antony, origin of her reputation as a perfidious seductress, more for a matter of State than for love. «She Obviously she was a woman of great presence and ability, but her capabilities in bed were not what made her unique. In fact, her emphasis on her physical qualities is also a problem: the sources make it clear that it was her personality that impressed people, not her physique, “says this emeritus professor in The Ohio State University in an interview facilitated by the publisher.
The book offers a portrait of the society and culture of late Ptolemaic Egypt, with a focus on the intellectual life of Alexandria and the political instability of this dynasty born from the hand of Tolomeo I, Alexander the Great’s general who settled in Asia and created his own ruling house. Ptolemaic power extended beyond Egypt, to North Africa, to the Levant and Asia Minor, reaching the borders of Greece, but in the 2nd century BC. C. appeared on his horizon the roman republic to end everything built.
Cleopatra first used the Roman forces to prevail over the rest of the children of Ptolemy XII. On his expedition to the great granary of the Mediterranean, Julius Caesar favored Cleopatra and entered into a love relationship that would give rise not only to a strong political alliance, but also to a son, Caesarion, who led a terrible existence for daring to bear such an ambitious name. When Caesar was killed, Cleopatra had to hold on to one of her generals, mark antonyto keep his connection to Rome alive.
truth save the queen
From the year 40 a. C., the couple joined forces to extend their family empire to the confines of Rome itself. If serious defamations had been heard against Julius Caesar in the Eternal CityIn the case of Mark Antony, who was still married in the West, he was insulted in every possible way and the future Augustus, Caesar’s great-nephew and heir, used the wildest propaganda to justify a war against the last of the leaders who they stood between him and the power of all the Roman provinces.
An open conflict that ended with the defeat of the most exotic couple. Antonio committed suicide at the beginning of August of the year 30 a. C. and Cleopatra followed ten days later. Caesarion, as the only known son of Julius Caesar, was eliminated and the surviving sons were transferred to Rome. Egypt then became a Roman province and the memory of its last queen was vilified by interested myths and legends. “The politically correct opinion was that it was a threat to Rome that had to be eliminated, which led to its demonization. However, from time to time flashes of admiration slip by, ”explains this specialist at the time.
Possibly a posthumous portrait of Cleopatra with red hair and distinctive features,
From cinema to literature, comics, plays, operas, series… Cleopatra continues to monopolize the world’s spotlight without there having been great efforts to understand her disconcerting personality. The last of her dynasty is better known through the portrayal of her that has been made of her by fiction than by what the few ancient sources say. “They are rarer than you might think. We think we know a lot about her, but much of the popular image of her is a compilation drawn from later sources,” Roller warns.
«Augusto owed her and her system of government more than he probably would have admitted»
Far from the myth that she did not hold any relevant political role on her throne, these texts speak of an excellent administrator and consummate linguist (she spoke a dozen languages) who led her kingdom not as a sidekick to Julius Caesar or Mark Antony, but with great cunning. to create a prosperous state, the most powerful of his time with the permission of Rome, and to boost the local economy. A skilled diplomat, she became famous for dealing with political affairs in the language of her interlocutor and for creating a complex network of alliances that would slow down the Roman push. Cleopatra was the last great opponent of the Republic, but the world was changing and she represented, in a strange way, the future. Augusto owed her and her system of government more than he probably would have admitted », considers the author of a book with a prologue by Patricia Gonzalez Gutierrez about the birth of the Roman Empire.
On a cultural level, Cleopatra attracted numerous personalities from the intellectual life of the time to her court, such as nicholas of damascus, who tutored her children, and was the author of medical and business writings. Alexandria, converted into the cultural beacon of the Hellenistic world, continued to shine with its own light in the Mediterranean under his reign. There was the best library in the world, a magnet for scholars and artists from all over the known world.
The image of a sorceress obsessed with ruining the lives of men, Fatal woman that used sex to usurp power, the author disassembles it ‘Cleopatra: biography of a queen’ with a simple fact: only two relationships were known to him in eighteen years. Two relationships that, moreover, responded to very obvious political questions in Egypt’s desperate attempt to survive the rise of Rome. “She was obviously a woman of great presence and ability, but her abilities in bed weren’t what made her unique,” she concludes.
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