Queen Cleopatra VII, known as Cleopatra, is the last king of the Macedonian dynasty, which ruled Egypt from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, until the occupation of Egypt by Rome in 30 BC.

Written by | Abeer Almadawy
history
May 11, 2023

   Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy XII. She succeeded him as queen in 51 BC, sharing the throne with her brother Ptolemy XIII. She was described as beautiful and charming. In contrast to what is shown by the pictures that have reached us. As for the men who fell in love with her, she captivated them with her strong, cute personality, intelligence, and cunning.

And she was constantly in conflict with her brother, which ended in her expulsion from Egypt. The country at that time was a kingdom under Roman protection and the main source of wheat for the Roman people. And Caesar came to Egypt after the defeat of Pompey in Pharsalus in the year 48 BC, and he found that the civil war was still going on. Cleopatra was trying to return to Egypt, so she suddenly appeared before Caesar wrapped in a carpet - as they claim - so that she could beg him to help her achieve her goal of returning to power. And he captured his family, either with her charms or with the clear logic that she would be a better ruler than her brother. Caesar helped her defeat Ptolemy, who was drowned at the end of the battle.

Cleopatra ruled for a few years. And in the year 40 BC. AD Her kingdom was part of the imperial share that afflicted Marcus Antonius when he divided the Roman world with both Octavius \u200b\u200band Marcus Lepidus after the death of Julius Caesar. He loved Marcus Antonius Cleopatra, and this love affair cost him the loss of his favor in Rome.

Antonius ended up committing suicide after the defeat inflicted on him by Octavius in the Battle of Actium in the year 31 BC. When Cleopatra heard the news, she also committed suicide.

The life and rule of Cleopatra:
Cleopatra VII was born in January 69 BC - 30 BC), the Queen of Egypt, famous in history and drama for her relationship with Julius Caesar, then Marcus Antonius, and the mother of Ptolemy XV (Caesarion).

She became queen upon the death of her father, Ptolemy XII, in the year 51 BC, and she ruled successively with her two brothers, Ptolemy XIII, and Ptolemy XIV, and her son, Ptolemy XV, Caesarion. Egypt fell under the control of the Romans.

What history tells us about Cleopatra being one of the great queens of Egypt, whatever the differences were about her relationship with the policies of the Roman Empire. She even called herself "the new Isis", which reflects the extent of her political intelligence and her seriousness in ruling Egypt successfully.

Cleopatra was a talented queen. She spoke several languages, led armies at the age of twenty-one, and was educated in the beacon of the science of her time, Alexandria. She worked to restore the glories of her ruling family and was able to establish stability and peace in the country during her rule, and combat corruption. At that time, Egypt was a prosperous country, under the rule of a queen whose gender the people did not see as a defect, so their only concern was her good management of the country.
Cleopatra is described as actively influencing Roman politics at a critical period, and as having come to represent, as no other woman of antiquity did, the first paradigm of the romantic femme fatale.

She is the daughter of King Ptolemy XII "Aulitis", and it was destined for Cleopatra to become the last queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and its annexation to Rome in 30 BC.

The dynasty was founded by the officer Alexander Ptolemy, who became King Ptolemy I, ruler of Egypt. Cleopatra was from the Ptolemaic dynasty. For political reasons, she called herself the "new Isis", a title that distinguished her from Queen Cleopatra III, who also claimed to be a living embodiment of the goddess Isis.

When Ptolemy XII died in 51 BC, the throne passed to his young son, Ptolemy XIII, and his daughter, Cleopatra VII.

It is known that the 18-year-old Cleopatra was about eight years older than her brother, and she became the dominant ruler. Evidence indicates that the first decree in which the name of Ptolemy precedes Cleopatra was in October of the year 50 BC.

Cleopatra realized that she needed the support of the Romans, or more specifically the support of Caesar if she was to regain the throne.
Historians say that both Cleopatra and Caesar sought to use the other, so Caesar sought money to pay off the debts incurred by Cleopatra's father Auletes, in order to retain the throne. While Cleopatra was determined to keep her throne, and if possible to restore the glories of the early Ptolemies and recover as much as possible of their power, which included Syria, Palestine, and Cyprus. And the bonds of the relationship between them became stronger and a child was born to him after his departure, which she called Ptolemy Caesar or Ptolemy XV (and the Alexandrians called him the diminutive of Caesarion).