Biography of cleopatra octavian
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 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
- BCE: Alexander conquers Egypt effortlessly as a minor side-campaign in his conquest of the Persian Empire.
- 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.
- 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. Cleopat
Cleopatra
Queen of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC
For other uses, see Cleopatra (disambiguation).
Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (Koinē Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Θεά Φιλοπάτωρ, lit.'Cleopatra father-loving goddess'; 70/69BC 10 August 30BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30BC, and the last active Hellenistic pharaoh. 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. Her first language was Koine Greek, and she is the only Ptolemaic ruler known to have learned the Egyptian language, among several others. After her death, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the Hellenistic period in the Mediterranean, which had begun during the reign of Alexander (– BC).
Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes, who named her his heir before his death in 51 BC. Cleopatra began her reign alongside her brother Ptolemy XIII, but falling-out between them led to a civil war. Roman statesman Pompey fled to Egypt after losing the 48 BC Battle of Pharsalus against his rival Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, in Caesar's civil war. Pompey had been a political ally of Ptolemy XII, but Ptolemy XIII had him ambushed and killed before Caesar arrived and occupied Alexandria. Caesar then attempted to reconcile the rival Ptolemaic siblings, but Ptolemy XIII's forces besieged Cleopatra and Caesar at the palace. Shortly after the siege was lifted by reinforcements, Ptolemy XIII died in the Battle of the Nile. Caesar declared Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIV joint rulers, and maintained a private affair with Cleopatra which produced a son, Caesarion. Cleopatra traveled to Rome as a client queen in 46 and 44BC, where she stayed at Caesar's villa. After Caesar's assassination, followed shortly afterwards by the sudden death o
Death of Cleopatra
Death of the Greek Ptolemaic ruler in 30 BC
This article is about the death of Cleopatra VII in August 30 BC. For the painting by Juan Luna, see The Death of Cleopatra.
Cleopatra VII, the last ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, died on either 10or 12August, 30 BC, in Alexandria, when she was 39 years old. According to popular belief, Cleopatra killed herself by allowing an asp (Egyptian cobra) to bite her, but according to the Roman-era writers Strabo, Plutarch, and Cassius Dio, Cleopatra poisoned herself using either a toxic ointment or by introducing the poison with a sharp implement such as a hairpin. Modern scholars debate the validity of ancient reports involving snakebites as the cause of death and whether she was murdered. Some academics hypothesize that her Roman political rival Octavian forced her to kill herself in a manner of her choosing. The location of Cleopatra's tomb is unknown. It was recorded that Octavian allowed for her and her husband, the Roman politician and general Mark Antony, who stabbed himself with a sword, to be buried together properly.
Cleopatra's death effectively ended the final war of the Roman Republic between the remaining triumvirs Octavian and Antony, in which Cleopatra aligned herself with Antony, father to three of her children. Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt following their loss at the 31 BC Battle of Actium in Roman Greece, after which Octavian invaded Egypt and defeated their forces. Committing suicide allowed her to avoid the humiliation of being paraded as a prisoner in a Roman triumph celebrating the military victories of Octavian, who would become Rome's first emperor in 27 BC and be known as Augustus. Octavian had Cleopatra's son Caesarion (also known as Ptolemy XV), rival heir of Julius Caesar, killed in Egypt but spared her children with Antony and brought them to Rome. Cleopatra's death marked the end of the Hellenistic period and Ptolemaic rule of Egypt, as well as the beginning of
- When was cleopatra born and died
- Cleopatra husband
Cleopatra (c BC - 30 BC)
Cleopatra of Egypt ©Cleopatra VII was the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, ruling Egypt from 51 BC - 30 BC. She is celebrated for her beauty and her love affairs with the Roman warlords Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
Cleopatra was born in 69 BC - 68 BC. When her father Ptolemy XII died in 51 BC, Cleopatra became co-regent with her year-old brother Ptolemy XIII. They were married, in keeping with Egyptian tradition. Whether she was as beautiful as was claimed, she was a highly intelligent woman and an astute politician, who brought prosperity and peace to a country that was bankrupt and split by civil war.
In 48 BC, Egypt became embroiled in the conflict in Rome between Julius Caesar and Pompey. Pompey fled to the Egyptian capital Alexandria, where he was murdered on the orders of Ptolemy. Caesar followed and he and Cleopatra became lovers. Cleopatra, who had been exiled by her brother, was reinstalled as queen with Roman military support. Ptolemy was killed in the fighting and another brother was created Ptolemy XIII. In 47 BC, Cleopatra bore Caesar a child - Caesarion - though Caesar never publicly acknowledged him as his son. Cleopatra followed Caesar back to Rome, but after his assassination in 44 BC, she returned to Egypt. Ptolemy XIV died mysteriously at around this time, and Cleopatra made her son Caesarion co-regent.
In 41 BC, Mark Antony, at that time in dispute with Caesar's adopted son Octavian over the succession to the Roman leadership, began both a political and romantic alliance with Cleopatra. They subsequently had three children - two sons and a daughter. In 31 BC, Mark Antony and Cleopatra combined armies to take on Octavian's forces in a great sea battle at Actium, on the west coast of Greece. Octavian was victorious and Cleopatra and Mark Antony fled to Egypt. Octavian pursued them and captured Alexandria in 30 BC. With his soldiers deserting him, Mark Antony took his own life and Cleopatra chose the sam
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