Cleopatra Essay Research Paper CleopatraCleopatra was queen free essay sample

Cleopatra Essay, Research Paper Cleopatra Cleopatra was queen of Egypt, last swayer of the dynasty founded by Ptolemy, a Macedonian general of Alexander the Great, who took Egypt as his portion in spliting Alexander? s imperium. Her capital, Alexander, founded by Alexander the Great, was the centre of Hellenistic Greek civilization of the universe at that clip, every bit good as a great commercial centre. Although she imagined as a? beautiful and glamourous adult female today, she was non really beautifully depicted on antediluvian coins, holding a long hook nose, and masculine characteristics? ( Flamarion 181 ) . She deemed to be a strong-minded Macedonian queen who was superb and dreamed of a greater universe imperium. Highly intelligent, this shrewd politician about achieved this end. Her parts as the last of the Ptolemaic Greek swayers of independent Egypt, were the eternal enlargement of the Roman Empire throughout the Mediterranean, and at her decease left behind? a rich, imperial state which continued to boom as the centre of commercialism, scientific discipline, and larning under Roman regulation? ( Newman 554 ) . This natural born leader was the oldest life girl of Ptolemy XII Auletes and of his sister and married woman Cleopatra Tryphaena. Such brother-sister matrimonies were common among members of the Egyptian opinion house. Her male parent, who died in 51 BC, requested the Cleopatra and his oldest boy, Ptolemy XIII, go joint swayers, and made Rome the defender of the Egyptian province. The intent of this paper is to exemplify the life of a outstanding Egyptian figure, who through her finding and strong will, established herself as a Pharaoh and queen of Egypt. Problems arose when the immature Ptolemy began to function as a marionette for power-hungry advisors, who much have found him far more easy to command and dictate than Cleopatra who was older and more intelligent. Cleopatra and her brother started a civil war between themselves, which resulted in her being forced into expatriate to Syria. In Syria, she raised an ground forces and started back to Egypt to recover her throne. In 48 BC, this ambitious sovereign was in Pelusium, on the eastern frontier of Egypt, with her freshly acquired ground forces fixing to assail her brother and his associates. This conflict was neer fought, nevertheless, because Julius Caesar, who had arrived at Alexandria in chase of Pompey, ? claimed the right to intercede the wrangle? as the representative of Rome ( Hoobler 28 ) . Both Ptolemy and Cleopatra were to disregard their ground forcess and meet with Caesar, who would settle their difference. Meanwhile, there was besides a civil war traveling on between Caesar and Pompey. Pothinus, cognizing that Caesar would win, convinced Ptolemy XIII that it would be best to hold Pompey beheaded and hold his caput presented to Caesar, as a manner to convince him to fall in their side in the their civil difference. Caesar had non been ? enchanted, and being friends with Pompey, did non want to hold him treated so disrespectfully? ( Foreman 61 ) . Determined to show her instance, Cleopatra sailed to Alexandria in a little boat with merely a few helpers. There she had herself rolled up in to a rug and carried to Caesar? s castle by one of her attenders who told the guards it was a present for Caesar. She did this because it would hold been impossible to derive entree to the castle without Ptolemy XIII discovering and killing her. Cleopatra realized that in order to derive power she would hold to stay on good footings with Rome and its leaders so she successfully set out to capture him. Both Caesar and Cleopatra used each other to derive something, because he wanted to obtain money, and her chief concern was deriving power. What had begun as a war between Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII evolved into a war between Ptolemy XIII allied with Arsine, his sister, against Caesar, and became known as the Alexandrian War. Caesar read Aulete? s will to Ptolemy and coerce him to reconstruct her to the throne. When Ptolemy XIII drowned in the Nile, Caesar declared that? Cleopatra should get married her younger brother, so eleven old ages old, and regulation as queen? ( Newman 556 ) in order to delight the Alexanderians and the Egyptian priests. He remained in Egypt, disregarding his personal businesss in Rome and in the East, ? out of haughtiness and his desire to acquire his custodies on Egypt? s huge resources? ( Foreman 99 ) . On his return to Rome, Caesar asks the tribune of the people, Helvius Cinna, to present into the Roman Senate a jurisprudence allowing Caesar to get married Cleopatra and do their boy, Caesarion, his inheritor. Many were disquieted that he was be aftering to get married Cleopatra regardless of the Torahs against bigamy and matrimony to aliens. It took Caesar two old ages to get the better of Pompeian resistance, and every bit shortly as he returned to Rome, they celebrated a four-day victory, or a ceremonial parade held to honour winning generals. This quick-witted adult female arrived in Rome with Ptolemy XIII and Caesarion, and they lived in Caesar? s Villa, where he visited her invariably. Cleopatra had started naming herself the New Isis and was the topic of much chitchat. A aureate statue of her had been put in the Temple of Venus Genetrix, the anchantress of the Julian household to which Caesar belonged. On the Ides of March in 44B.C. , Caesar was assassinated outside the Senate edifice in Rome, ? due to the menace that he posed to the wellbeing of the democracy, because they believed that he was traveling to declare himself king? ( Foreman 83 ) . Shortly after Caesar was stabbed, Cleopatra left Rome, and one twelvemonth subsequently Ptolemy XIII died, merely before he would hold reached the legal age at which he could be expected to take part in the authorities, and some say she may hold poisoned him. On Ptolemy? s decease, Cleopatra had her boy, Caesarion, or? Small Caesar, ? mad e co-ruler at the age of four. Caesar? s blackwash caused anarchy and civil war in Rome. Finally the imperium was divided among three work forces: Caesar? s grandnephew, Octavian, Marcus Lepidus, and Marc Antony. Antony, as one of the new swayers of the Eastern imperium, summoned Cleopatra to Tarsus to reply charges that she had helped republican forces. Antony was in demand of money to establish a run against the Parthians, and hoped Cleopatra would give him the financess he urgently needed. She set out for Tarsus in Asia Minor with tonss of gifts, and entered the metropolis on a excellently decorated boat. She sailed with Ag oars, purple canvass, and dressed as Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love. She already new plenty about his? limited strategic and tactical abilities, his bluish blood, the imbibing, his womanizing, his coarseness and his aspiration, ? ( MacUrdy 79 ) to cognize how to acquire to him. After much banqueting and entertaining for yearss, Egypt remained an independent state alternatively of going a Roman state, as Antony intended. This really seductive adult female agreed to supply him with money on the status that her sister, Arsinoe IV, be executed. Forgeting his duties and responsibility to the Roman imperium, he accompanied this magnetic single to Alexandria and spent the winter with her there. In the spring of 40 BC, Mark Antony left Cleopatra and returned place, after giving her much land, including Cyprus, the Cilcian seashore, Phoenicia, Coele-Syria, Judea, and Arabia, which was really indispensable to Egypt. After the formation of the Second Triumvirate between Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus, Antony married Octavia, Octavian? s sister, in 40 BC to seal a trade with Octavian. It stated that? after the Triumvirate ended the two would both govern the Roman universe, though they allowed Lepidus to stay in northern Africa and regulate the country? ( Foreman 95 ) . Octavian held all of western Europe and Antony held the eastern terminal of the Roman universe. Upon organizing this treaty, he so went Es to run into with Cleopatra once more, because he needed money for his run, and subsequently made a immense error by impairing her, ? which was non morally incorrect, but by Roman jurisprudence was invalid? ( Hoobler 32 ) . In 37 BC, nevertheless, Antony? s March due east led to regenerate friendly relationship and an apprehension between both Antony and Cleopatra. From so on, Cleopatra? s influence over Marc Antony grew, and she wore Egyptian vesture that represented the goddess Isis and is reported to hold adopted the undermentioned curse: ? Equally certainly as I shall one twenty-four hours distribute judgement in the Roman Capital? ( Newman 556 ) . When Antony arranged for Caesarion, and his ain three kids by Cleopatra, to portion governing both Egypt and Roman states in Asia Minor and officially divorced Octavia, the Romans were ferocious. Octavian declared war non against Antony, but against Cleopatra, and announced Antony into the Senate. Romans felt it was much better to declare war on the foreign queen that they believed was act uponing him, than on Antony himself. Cleopatra prevented Antony from go forthing her to contend Octavian, who was winning much of his eastern district from him. At the conflict of Actium in 31 BC, Cleopatra? s Egyptian forces, together with Antony? s Roman forces, faced Octavian? s fleet, commanded by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. During this naval conflict, when Cleopatra retreated and Antony, infatuated as he was with her, rapidly followed, and Octavian won a great triumph. Anthony joined his hosts in Cyrene, and Cleopatra turned to Alexandria to enroll more military personnels and to raise new fleet. Octavian offered Cleopatra favourable intervention if she would kill Antony, but she refused. She believed, nevertheless, that if he thought she were dead that he would perpetrate self-destruction, and she was right, his last words being, ? Now, Antony, why hold longer? Fate has snatched off your lone ground for life? ( Flamarion 219 ) . With that, he plunged a sticker into his tummy, nevertheless did non decease immediately. She was a cryptic and intriging adult female who seemed that she would make anything to maintain Alexandria under Egyptian regulation no affair what the effects. Rather than hold to confront the humbleness of go toing her enemy? s victory, she committed self-destruction by being knowing bitten by an asp, which was an Egyptian cobra, and was buried at Antony? s side as she had requested. She died on August 12, 30 BC, at the age of 39. The Egyptian faith declared that? decease by snakebite secured immortality, leting her to accomplish her deceasing wish, non to be forgotten? ( MacUrdy 129 ) . Her decease was the grade of the terminal of Egyptian Monarchs, every bit good as the last Egyptian Pharaoh, because after her decease, Egypt became a Roman state, nevertheless her bequest still lives on. nces. Plants Cited Foreman, Laura. Cleopatra? s Palace: The Search for the Real Queen of the Nile. New York: Cambridge UP, 1973. Flamarion, Edith. Cleopatra: The Life and Death of a Pharaoh. New Jersey: Macmillan, 1981. Hoobler, Thomas. Cleopatra. London: Random, 1989. MacUrdy, Grace Harriet. Hellenic Queens: A Study of Woman Power in Macedonia, Seleucid, Syria, and Ptolemaic Egypt. New York: Small, 1984. Newman, Robert. The Warrior Queens. Toronto: McGraw, 1977. Foreman, Laura. Cleopatra? s Palace: The Search for the Real Queen of the Nile. New York: Cambridge UP, 1973. Flamarion, Edith. Cleopatra: The Life and Death of a Pharaoh. New Jersey: Macmillan, 1981. Hoobler, Thomas. Cleopatra. London: Random, 1989. MacUrdy, Grace Harriet. Hellenic Queens: A Study of Woman Power in Macedonia, Seleucid, Syria, and Ptolemaic Egypt. New York: Small, 1984. Newman, Robert. The Warrior Queens. Toronto: McGraw, 1977.