C l e o pat r a WOMEN IN ANTIQUITY Series Editors: Ronnie Ancona and Sarah B. Pomeroy Th is book series provides compact and accessible introductions to the life and historical times of women from the ancient world. Approaching ancient history and culture broadly, the series selects fi gures from the earliest of times to late antiquity. Cleopatra A Biography Duane W. Roller C L E O P A T R A A B I O G R A P H Y Duane W. Roller 2010 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Th ailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2010 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Roller, Duane W. Cleopatra : a biography / Duane W. Roller. p. cm. — (Women in antiquity) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-19-536553-5 1. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, d. 30 b.c. 2. Queens—Egypt—Biography. 3. Egypt—Kings and rulers—Biography. 4. Egypt—History—332–30 b.c. I. Title. dt92.7.r65 2010 932′.021092—dc22 [B] 2009024061 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Contents List of Illustrations vii Preface ix Introduction 1 1. Cleopatra’s Ancestry and Background 15 2. Th e Ptolemaic Heritage and the Involvement with Rome 29 3. Cleopatra’s Youth and Education 43 4. Becoming Queen (51–47 b.c.) 53 5. Consolidating the Empire (47–40 b.c.) 69 6. Th e Peak Years (40–34 b.c.) 89 7. Th e Operation of the Kingdom 103 8. Scholarship and Culture at the Court of Cleopatra 123 9. Downfall (34–30 b.c.) 129 Epilogue 151 Appendices 1. outline of cleopatra’s life and career 159 2. genealogy of the later ptolemies 163 3. cleopatra’s mother 165 4. was cleopatra a roman citizen? 167 5. some ancient literary descriptions of cleopatra 169 6. the iconography of cleopatra vii 173 Abbreviations 185 Notes 189 Bibliography 219 Index of Passages Cited 231 Index 239 This page intentionally left blank Illustrations Maps 1. Cleopatra’s kingdom at its greatest extent, 11 2. Egypt in the time of Cleopatra, 12 3. Alexandria in the time of Cleopatra, 13 Illustrations 1. Marble head of Ptolemy XII, reworked from an earlier portrait, in the Louvre (Ma 3449), 18 2. Head of Cleopatra VII in Parian marble, in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (1976.10), 54 3. Basalt statue of Cleopatra VII in the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, California (RC1586), 55 4. South wall of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, showing Cleopatra VII and Caesarion on the right making off erings to the gods, 71 5. View of Forum Julium in Rome, 73 6. View of modern Tarsos, 78 7. View of Antioch from Daphne, 90 8. Th e date orchards of Jericho, 93 9. Aerial view of Actium, looking south, 138 10. Wall painting in Room 71 of the House of M. Fabius Rufus, Pompeii, showing the statue of Cleopatra VII in the Forum Julium, 174 11. Coins of Cleopatra VII, 180–181 (a) Bronze, probably from Cyprus, showing the queen with the infant Caesarion. (b) Bronze, from Alexandria. (c) Bronze, from Berytos. (d) Silver, with the queen and M. Antonius, unknown provenience, 35–33 b.c. (e) Silver denarius with the queen and M. Antonius, probably from 32 b.c. This page intentionally left blank Preface History, sir, will tell lies as usual. —general burgoyne in george bernard shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple (1897) She was not a humiliated woman. —horace, Ode 1.37.32 (20s b.c.) in 34 b.c. a remarkable ceremony took place in the Gymnasium of Alexandria. Cleopatra VII, 35 years of age, ruler of Egypt for the past 17 years and a Roman citizen, legally confi rmed that her Ptolemaic kingdom—established 270 years previously by Ptolemy I, her ancestor and a companion of Alexander the Great—had been restored to its former territorial glory. It now extended from Cyrene in North Africa through Egypt proper, well up the Nile, and around the eastern perim- eter of the Mediterranean, including Cyprus and parts of Crete, to the edge of the Aegean. Cleopatra’s four children participated in the cere- mony, as they were to continue the kingdom and to create a network of allied monarchies that would extend as far as Armenia and Parthia (the modern Iranian plateau). Because Cleopatra was allied with the Roman Republic, these arrangements were by necessity approved by the senior Roman offi cial in the region, the triumvir Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony), also present at the ceremony. If all had gone to plan, most of the eastern Mediterranean would have been under Ptolemaic rule, with Rome and a few small kingdoms reduced to scattered territories. Yet in four years Cleopatra was dead and her possessions annexed by Rome and other monarchs. Th ings had gone badly wrong. Simply put, her vision of the future was actually one of the past. She was the