Why is Cleopatra so famous?
Cleopatra VII Philopator was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC and its last active ruler. A member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great. Cleopatra VII was born in early 69 BC…
Cleopatra VII Philopator was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC and its last active ruler. A member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great.
Cleopatra VII was born in early 69 BC to the ruling Ptolemaic pharaoh Ptolemy XII and an unknown mother, presumably Ptolemy XII’s wife Cleopatra VI Tryphaena, the mother of Cleopatra’s older sister, Berenice IV Epiphaneia.
Cleopatra Tryphaena disappears from official records a few months after the birth of Cleopatra in 69 BC.
Why is Cleopatra so famous?
Cleopatra actively influenced Roman politics at a crucial period and was especially known for her relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. She came to represent, as did no other woman of antiquity, the prototype of the romantic femme fatale.
When her father, Ptolemy XII, died in 51 BCE, Cleopatra and her brother, Ptolemy XIII, co-ruled until she was forced to flee, about 50 BCE.
Aided by Julius Caesar, her lover, she returned to power upon her brother’s death in 47. She ruled with her brother-husband, Ptolemy XIV, and then with her son Caesarion.
