van Basten - Ancient Egypt: The Egypt of Cleopatra

Nowadays, in the 21 st Century everyone is busy with the future, and only very few take a moment to look back to the past and think about what really happened. Let me guide you and take your hand, together we will travel back in time. We will resurrect the dead and see how life really was hundreds and thousands of years ago.

Cleopatra VII (69 BC 30 BC), the last Pharaoh of Egypt, was a very educated, crafty, ambitious and clever woman. Her intellect and charisma far greater than her beauty and sexuality - allowed her to keep the power for nearly twenty years by fighting against and allying with - the greatest power at the time, Rome. Although her history was written by who defeated her and, therefore, modified according to conveniences of them, there have been found, in recent archeology researches, evidence of her intellect and achievements that portrayed her beyond her beauty and sexual power. She captivated the two greatest Romans of her time and destroyed herself. Cleopatra was representing everything that the Romans didnt like. Not only was she a woman, but she was a woman with power.

Cleopatra, one of the most famous of all of Egypt's illustrious Pharaohs, has become an indelible part of our understanding of ancient Egypt. What is less well known is the context of her reign - the cultural and political climate at the time of her birth, rule, and death. As a leader, Cleopatra was much more than just a seductive, beautiful temptress. She was a young woman brought to power during a tumultuous time in the history of her country, as well as during the rise of what would become one of the biggest and most powerful Empires in the history of the world: Rome.

As the last Queen of Egypt and the final ruler of the long-standing Ptolemaic dynasty, which itself was the vestige of the conquest of Alexander the Great, she found herself ruling in an Egypt in conflict. Due to inept rule, social discontent, and ill-fated military conquests, the legitimacy and power of the kingship in Egypt were in much decline. Egypt in the time of Cleopatra was not the unified Egypt most of us think of. It was a fractured country, mired by infighting, constant revolt, and power struggle.

Her own rule was certainly not without a struggle. Conflicts with her brother and co-regent reached a point that led the country to all-out civil war. Some factions sided with Ptolemy XIII, others with Cleopatra. Between a poorly-conceived assassination of an important Roman leader, as well as the charismatic wile of Cleopatra herself, she was able to forge an all-important alliance with the famous Julius Caesar, become both his lover, as well as a political ally.

Their alliance led to tensions in Rome, but relative stability for Egypt herself. With the assassination of Caesar, Rome found itself in inner turmoil until the rise of the Second Triumvirate, ruled by Lepidus, Octavian, and, of course, Marc Antony. A fated meeting between Cleopatra and Antony led to an alliance that led to his expulsion from Rome, war being declared on Egypt, and eventually, both of their deaths.

After Cleopatra and Antony famously took their own lives, Egypt fell under the full control of Rome, becoming just another province in the quickly-growing Republic.