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CLEOPATRA

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 495 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CLEOPATRA , the See also:

regular name of the queens of See also:Egypt in the Ptolemaic See also:dynasty after Cleopatra, daughter of the Seleucid See also:Antiochus the See also:Great, wife of See also:Ptolemy V., Epiphanes. The best known was the daughter of Ptolemy XIII. Auletes, See also:born 69 (or 68) B.C. At the See also:age of seventeen she became See also:queen of Egypt jointly with her younger See also:brother Ptolemy See also:Dionysus, whose wife, in accordance with See also:Egyptian See also:custom, she was to become. A few years afterwards, deprived of all royal authority, she withdrew into See also:Syria, and made preparation to recover her rights by force of arms. At this juncture See also:Julius See also:Caesar followed See also:Pompey into Egypt. The See also:personal fascinations of Cleopatra induced him to undertake a See also:war on her behalf, in which Ptolemy lost his See also:life, and she was replaced on the See also:throne in See also:conjunction with a younger brother, of whom, however, she soon rid herself by See also:poison. In See also:Rome she lived openly with Caesar as his See also:mistress until his assassination, when, aware of her unpopularity, she returned at once to Egypt. Subsequently she became the ally and mistress of See also:Mark Antony (see See also:ANTONIUS). Their connexion was highly unpopular at Rome, and Octavian (see See also:AUGUSTUS) declared war upon them and defeated them at See also:Actium (31 B.C.). Cleopatra took to See also:flight, and escaped to See also:Alexandria, where Antony joined her. Having no prospect of ultimate success, she accepted the proposal of Octavian that she should assassinate Antony, and enticed him to join her in a See also:mausoleum which she had built in See also:order that " they might See also:die together." Antony committed See also:suicide, in the mistaken belief that she had already done so, but Octavian refused to yield to the charms of Cleopatra who put an end to her life, by applying an See also:asp to her bosom, according to the See also:common tradition, in the See also:thirty-ninth See also:year of her age (29th of See also:August, 30 B.c.).

With her ended the dynasty of the See also:

Ptolemies, and Egypt was made a See also:Roman See also:province. Cleopatra had three See also:children by Antony, and by Julius Caesar, as some say, a son, called Caesarion, who was put to See also:death by Octavian. In her the type of queen characteristic of the Macedonian dynasties stands in the most brilliant See also:light. Imperious will, masculine boldness, relentless ambition like hers had been exhibited by queens of her See also:race since the old Macedonian days before See also:Philip and See also:Alexander. But the last Cleopatra had perhaps some See also:special intellectual endowment. She surprised her See also:generation by being able to speak the many See also:tongues of her subjects. There may have been an individual quality in her luxurious profligacy, but then her predecessors had not had the Roman lords of the See also:world for wooers. For the See also:history of Cleopatra see ANTONIUS, See also:MARCUS; CAESAR, See also:GAIUS JULIUS; PTOLEMIES. The life of Antony by See also:Plutarch is out See also:main authority; it is upon this that See also:Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra is based. Her Iife is the subject of monographs by Stahr (1879, an apologia), and See also:Houssaye, Aspasie, Cleopdtre, &c. (1879).

End of Article: CLEOPATRA

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