Cleopatra was a queen of Egypt but she was not Egyptian. She was the last of the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt from the time of Alexander the Great's death in 323 BCE to about 30 BCE. She was a talented and resourceful individual of great charm but ruthless when she felt she had to be.

Cleopatra was the only one of her family that learned to speak the Egyptian (Coptic) language. She knew a half dozen to a dozen other languages. She was an educated intellectual and a capable administrator. Despite her abilities and effort she failed and her life was one of sadness rather than glamour.

The Timeline

• 320 BCE: Alexander conquers Egypt effortlessly as a minor side-campaign in his conquest of the Persian Empire.
• 323 BCE: Alexander dies in Babylon upon his return from the conquest of what is now Afghanistan, the Indus River Valley and the areas in Central Asia north of Afghanistan. Upon his death his generals divide up Alexander's empire. Ptolemy gets Egypt. Cleopatra is a descendant of Ptolemy.
• 168 BCE: Rome establishes a protectorate of Egypt.
• 69 BCE: Cleopatra is born in Egypt. She is the seventh in the Ptolemy dynasty to bear the name Cleopatra, which means glory of the father. She is the second daughter of Ptolemy XII. She and the rest of the Ptolemys were of almost pure Macedonian Greek ancestry, possibly of some Iranian but no Egyptian ancestry.
• 58 BCE: Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra's father, is expelled from Egypt.
• 51 BCE: Ptolemy XII is returned to power by a Roman army. He dies later that year and the throne of Egypt goes, according to Ptolemy's wishes, to Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra. Ptolemy XIII is Cleopatra's ten-year old brother. Cleopatra is about 18 years old and had ruled for a short time as a co-regent with her father. In the Egyptian scheme of things Pharoahs marry a sister to ensure the rulership never leaves the royal family. Cleopatra and Ptolemy marry. There could not have been any affection between Cleopatra and her brother. Cleopatra was determined to rule.
• 49 BCE: The guardians of Ptolemy XIII instigate a revolt against Cleopatra's rule and expel her from Alexandria.
• 48 BCE: Julius Caesar was engaged in a civil war with another Roman leader, Pompey. Pompey had been defeated in a battle and fled to Egypt. Caesar was pursuing him but Pompey was assassinated upon his arrival in Egypt before Caesar arrived in Egypt. Caesar was left with idle time.

  Cleopatra arranges to meet Caesar under intimate terms by having herself rolled up in a carpet that is delivered to Caesar's home quarters. When the carpet was unrolled a vivacious 21 year old Egyptian queen emerges. Caesar was about 52 at the time.

  Cleopatra captivated him but it was probably not her youth and beauty. Caesar could have had bevies and bevies of beautiful young women. Probably the audacity of Cleopatra's ploy amused him and it was a brilliant strategy. Had Cleopatra met Caesar through official state channels protocol would have interfered with her working her charms upon him. She was said to have a thousand ways of flattering. A not unimportant factor in Cleopatra's attraction for Caesar was that she was rich, perhaps the richest woman in the world. Or, at least she would be once back in power in Egypt. Caesar was chronically and often disastrously in debt.

• 47 BCE: Cleopatra becomes Caesar's mistress and Caesar uses his army to defeat and destroy Cleopatra's rival for power in Egypt, her brother-husband Ptolemy XIII. Ptolemy XIII dies of drowning while trying to escape the field of battle. Caesar establishes Cleopatra and another younger brother, Ptolemy XIV, as the rulers of Egypt. Caesar returns to Rome.
• 46 BCE: Cleopatra gives birth to Caesar's child, a boy who is named Ptolemy Caesar and called Caesarion.

  In Rome, Caesar holds a triumphal celebration of his victories. These celebrations whenever ever possible included the parading of the defeated enemies. Cleopatra's younger sister, Arsenoe, was paraded in Caesar's triumphal celebration.

• 45 BCE: Cleopatra joins Caesar in Rome. Her brother/husband Ptolemy XIV accompanies her. Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIV are housed in a villa belonging to Caesar on the outskirts of Rome. Caesar orders that a gold-plated statue of Cleopatra be placed in the temple of Venus Genetrix. Caesar's clan, the Julians, were supposedly descended from Venus.

  Although Pompey had been defeated and was killed in Egypt the civil war did not end. Pompey's two sons had gained control of Cordoba in Spain and were preparing to continue the conflict. Caesar took an army to Spain to deal with this threat. After a series of retreats the Pompeys decided to do battle at Munda from some high ground. Caesar lured the Pompeys' forces down from the high ground. The battle was indecisive until a shift in troops by one of the Pompeys was misinterpreted as a retreat and their other troops began to retreat. This led to a decisive victory by Caesar's forces.

• 44 BCE: Caesar had achieved total victory over the armies of his rivals, he had been made dictator politically. His enemies in the Roman senate saw Caesar as acquiring all powers, even to the point of having himself declared a god. They arranged his assassination in which some of previous friends participated as well as his enemies.

  A month after Caesar's assassination Cleopatra left Rome and returned to Egypt. Her brother Ptolemy XIV dies of poisoning, undoubtedly upon Cleopatra's orders. She wanted to make her son, Caesarion, co-regent with her as Ptolemy XV.

• 42 BCE: Caesar's enemies are defeated at the Battle of Philippi. Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony) emerges as the leader of the forces which backed Caesar.

  Mark Antony decides for no obvious reason to attack the Parthian (Persian) Empire. He calls for Cleopatra to join him at Tarsus. Mark Antony needed Cleopatra's support financially and militarily for his invasion. He had met Cleopatra 13 years before when she was 14 years old. That had been an inconsequential meeting.

  Their meeting a Tarsus was anything but inconsequential. Cleopatra having lost the protection of the strongman Caesar needed another Roman leader to protect her. Mark Antony was so captivated by Cleopatra that he gave up his plans for the invasion of the Parthian Empire and went with Cleopatra back to her capital of Alexandria. From the likenesses of Cleopatra on the coins of her realm she was not a great beauty so her attraction came from the charm of her personality and from her intellect.

  At Cleopatra's request Antony sent orders for the execution of Cleopatra's younger sister, Arsinoe, in Rome. Arsinoe was possible rival for the throne of Egypt. Arsinoe herself was helpless but her enemies in Egypt could have used her in a bid to depose Cleopatra. A very distant threat but Cleopatra was not one to take chances.

• 40 BCE: Mark Antony leaves Alexandria to go to Italy to conclude a treaty with Octavian, Julius Caesar's adopted son. Octavian was Mark Antony's major rival for the command of the Romans. An agreement was reached and part of the arrangement was that Mark Antony marry the sister of Octavian, Octavia.

  Cleopatra bears Antony's children. They were twins, a boy named Alexander Helios and a girl named Cleopatra Selene.

  Meanwhile back in Egypt another drama was unfolding. Herod was the king of Judea. He had accepted Roman overlordship and the Romans in turn had allowed him to continue to rule his kingdom. Herod was a competent ruler. In 40 BCE he traveled through Egypt and Cleopatra tried to seduce him but Herod rejected her. Cleopatra was enraged and began to do whatever she could to harm Herod's interests.

• 37 BCE: Mark Antony decides that he and Octavian can never work together. He decides to resume the campaign against the Parthian Empire. Cleopatra joins him at Antioch and they get married. This was not only illegal under Roman Law it was a betrayal of Octavia, his legal wife and the sister of Octavian. This makes war between Octavian and Mark Antony inevitable. Mark Antony gives portions of the Roman territory in Syria and Lebanon to Cleopatra. He even gives Jericho, a portion of Herod's kingdom, to Cleopatra. This not only enrages Octavian, it infuriates most Romans and they back Octavian in the struggle between the two leaders.
• 36-35 BCE: The Parthian campaign results in only minor conquests, notably Armenia.

  Cleopatra bears Antony another son, Ptolemy Philadelphus.

• 34 BCE: Mark Antony celebrates a victory triumph in Alexandria for his gains from the Parthians. At the celebration he awards Armenia to his and Cleopatra's oldest son, Alexander Helios. The area west of Armenia is awarded to the second son, Ptolemy Philadelphus. The daughter Selene is given Cyprus. Furthermore, at the celebration Caesarion is publically declared to be the son of Julius Caesar and thus the king of kings. The celebration of a triumph in Alexandria was a serious offense to Romans. Such celebration were only supposed to take place in Rome, the capital of the empire.

  Back in Rome, Octavian obtains Mark Antony's will from the temple of the Vestal Virgins. He publicizes its contents. Mark Antony's will made provision for turning parts of the Roman Empire over to Cleopatra. Worse yet Mark Antony's will called for moving the Empire's capital from Rome to Alexandria. The Roman citizens are outraged.

• 32-31 BCE: Mark Antony and Cleopatra live together in Greece.
• 31 BCE: At Actium Octavians naval forces engage those of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. At the height of the battle Cleopatra fearing capture takes her ships out of the battle. Mark Antony's forces alone are not strong enough to match those of Octavian and Mark Antony's forces are defeated. His army surrenders to Octavian.

  Mark Antony escapes from the defeat and joins Cleopatra on her ship, but he is furious with her for having unnecessarily precipitated the defeat at Actium. After several days he relents and he and Cleopatra stay together in Alexandria.

  Mark Antony has revealed himself as a loser and Cleopatra needs someone else who can protect her. Octavian communicates to Cleopatra that if she kills Mark Antony that he might work out something with her. Cleopatra realizes that she is not powerful enough to expell Mark Antony from Egypt or to assassinate him. She conceives a fiendish plot. She has a message sent to Mark Antony saying that she had killed herself. Upon hearing that his loved one was dead he falls upon his sword. The injury does not kill him at once and he has himself taken to where Cleopatra's body is supposed to be. He finds her alive and tells her to make her peace with Octavian.

  After Mark Antony's death Cleopatra realizes that Octavian can never treat her as anything but an enemy and that he will take her and her children to Rome to be paraded in a victory triumph. She sends Caesarion with trusted protectors to hide in the east of Egypt near the Red Sea. Cleopatra first intends to commit suicide by setting fire to the mausoleum where she has collected her treasures. Roman soldiers find entry to the mausoleum and thwart her plans. She is taken captive. Cleopatra then arranges for a poisonous snake, an asp, to be smuggled to her in a basket of figs. She then commits suicide by allowing the asp to bite her on her chest. She arranged for her and Mark Antony to be buried together. Octavian sent agents to hunt down Caesarion and kill him. Thus ended the sad life of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt at 39 years of age. She was the last of the Ptolemy dynasty.

  
  Cleopatra
• Epilogue. Octavian was given the title of Caesar Augustus. The name of the sixth month in the Roman calendar is changed from Sextilis to August just as the fifth month's name had been changed to July. The fifth month had 31 days and the sixth 30 days. Octavian had the calendar changed so the month named after him had 31 days as well. He never took the title emperor although that was what he was in fact. Instead the was called First Citizen.