Cleopatra Reimagined

If you follow my blog, you probably know that I tend to have a soft spot for those remembered less than kindly by history. Helen Davis is my kindred spirit in this, and she is my guest today with a post on Cleopatra. Helen wanted Cleopatra to have her 'happily ever after ending' to such an extent that she wrote one for her. Welcome, Helen!

~ Samantha

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Guest Post by Helen Davis

Cleopatra is, like Queen Mary Tudor and Anne Boleyn, one of history's most maligned women. She is seen as a woman who ruined two great Roman men, Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, and whose suicide was the only redeeming act in an otherwise worthless life spent daring to oppose Rome and keep Egypt independent.

Queen Mary I has suffered from Elizabethan propaganda, but Elizabeth was almost angelic in her treatment of her sister as opposed to Augustus Caesar's maligning of Egypt's last ruler. This was a queen who spoke nine languages, wrote tomes on science and perfumery that have sadly been lost, and took the throne of Egypt at 18 and held it for 2 decades.

Cleopatra has come down to us as the most famous member of her dynasty, the Ptolemies. But the Ptolemies were not a native dynasty, but rather, began ruling Egypt in the late 4th century B.C. Alexander the Great, when he died, had to have his empire split up among four generals. Ptolemy, a Macedonian Greek, took Egypt and they would become the last dynasty of Egypt before its annexation in 30 B.C. by Augustus Caesar. Our Cleopatra was actually Cleopatra VII of a long dynasty of Cleopatras. Many of her predecessors who likely served as examples to her, were all illustrious, ambitious women, each with stories as interesting as hers, but have been eclipsed by their more illustrious descendant.

Cleopatra was born in 69 B.C. For all her fame, we don't know the identity of her mother. There is speculation this woman was Queen Cleopatra V, a sister of Cleopatra's father, or an unnamed concubine. For my novel, I chose Cleopatra V, but this is still not known. We do know Cleopatra VII grew up in Alexandria, a great city founded in 324 B.C. by Ptolemy I, the progenitor of her dynasty. She grew up in a world that was simultaneously luxurious and hostile. As a princess, she had all she could dream of- servants, fine clothes, and jewelry. But she also grew up in an atmosphere of palace politics in which her siblings and her—she had three sisters and two brothers--tried to outshine each other in a race to win the throne. Although Cleopatra's father, Ptolemy XII, was the ruler of Egypt, he was despised by his people and many in his family. Cleopatra is alleged to have been his favorite child. In a patriarchal era, Auletes declared Cleopatra his successor even though he had two sons, later her co-rulers. Quite a contrast to the infamous Henry VIII.

If you are a fan of the Tudors and enjoy reading about the intrigue growing up between Edward VI, Elizabeth I and Mary I, then the story of Cleopatra's childhood and siblings will intrigue you too. Cleopatra's three sisters were Cleopatra VI (yes, there were two Cleopatras in her family), who briefly ruled Egypt from 58 to 57 B.C. after her father, Auletes went into exile, Berenice IV, who likely killed Cleopatra VI and ruled from 57 to 55 B.C. upon her father's return, and Arsinoë IV, who later rivaled Cleopatra as queen of Egypt during the first decade of her reign. Cleopatra's brothers were Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV, with whom she would share brief co-reigns.

Ptolemy XII died in 51 B.C., leaving behind an enormous debt to his successor and daughter, Cleopatra VII. Per Egyptian custom, Cleopatra married her brother, Ptolemy XIII, and the two ruled Egypt until 48 B.C., when Cleopatra was expelled from Alexandria by her brother, who was jealous of her popularity. She fled to modern day Jordan, where she snuck back into Alexandria and met Julius Caesar, who had come to Egypt fleeing his rival and former friend, Pompey the Great, who sought shelter among the Ptolemies, who owed him great debt. Legend maintains Cleopatra had been smuggled into a rug and delivered personally to Caesar, and she and Caesar became lovers that very night.

Caesar restored Cleopatra to her throne after a long battle with her sister and brother and took quite some time with her, even following her on a voyage down the Nile, where the two were married . When he returned to Rome, Cleopatra was pregnant with their son. Cleopatra was summoned to Rome the following year, where she and Caesar hoped to hatch a joint Egypto-Roman empire. Cleopatra had an enormous positive influence on Caesar, and the Julian calendar, which is still somewhat in use today, is alleged to have been Cleopatra's idea.

Sadly, this dream was not to be fulfilled. Caesar was killed on the Ides of March in 44 B.C., and Cleopatra returned to Egypt. If you have seen any movies about Cleopatra, you may know of the Battle of Actium, which spelled the end of her life and Egypt, and in many movies, it seems to go from Caesar's death to Actium. However, this is not the case. There was a 13 year period in between these two events in which Cleopatra continued to rule Egypt and expand her ambitions and empire. It must be remembered that she almost won during this time, and I have taken advantage of many of the situations in which Cleopatra and her second husband, Marc Antony, could have won in this 13 year gap.

Cleopatra's second husband was Marc Antony, a Roman general. He has suffered from a propaganda campaign almost as bad as his beloved wife. The truth is, Antony, though flawed, was a close friend of Julius Caesar, an intelligent and capable general, and a man who loved Rome just as much as his opponent. Antony and Cleopatra met in 40 B.C. in Tarsus, near Turkey, and fell in love.Cleopatra became pregnant with his twins, but the two were not to meet again until 37 B.C. This is an example where I decided to make some changes to make Antony and Cleopatra's victory possible. In the true history, Antony abandoned Cleopatra and returned to Rome and married Augustus's sister, Octavia. However, in my alternate timeline, I have had Antony and Cleopatra remain together after meeting in Tarsus and return to Rome together, and have also eliminated the marriage to Octavia.

In any case, Cleopatra's twins were born sometime between 40 and 39 B.C. She bore a girl and a boy. The girl would become Cleopatra Selene, the only child of Cleopatra's to go on to have descendants and continue the Ptolemy line, and the son, Alexander Helios, who was likely killed in Rome by Augustus sometime between 25 and 24 B.C.

In 37 B.C., Antony reunited with Cleopatra. By now, her son by Julius Caesar was ten years old and considered to be Cleopatra's co-ruler. Cleopatra and Antony met and did marry by Egyptian rites, under the understanding that it was Caesarion, not Antony, who would be Cleopatra's Egyptian co-ruler. For the next five years, until Octavian declared war on the couple, it appeared as if Antony and Cleopatra would and could win. Antony's campaign against Parthia (modern day Iran and Iraq), however, hurt his reputation. In 34 B.C., Cleopatra and Antony acquired vast amounts of lands for their three children as well as Caesarion (Cleopatra had borne a son, Ptolemy Philadelphos, in 36. B.C). This was known as the Donations of Alexandria, and all of their children were given kingdoms outside of Egypt and Rome to rule. The civil war known as Actium began in 32. B.C and ended in 31 B.C. with the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra. The lovers are alleged to have committed suicide the following year.

Fans of Queen Mary I will understand that she was blackened by Elizabeth I and later Protestant rulers of England. Cleopatra suffered a similar fate. Since Augustus won, he controlled the narrative. The brave, intellectual queen became a succubus and sorceress who had brought Antony and Caesar to ruin. Antony, the brave general, became known as a weak and emasculated man. Caesar’s reputation remained intact, as Augustus was his nephew, but he did downplay much of the significance of the queen’s role in Caesar’s life.

However, it must be remembered Cleopatra's supporters, and those of Antony, did not see them this way. Cleopatra was seen by many Egyptians as their greatest queen, and the priests of Egypt begged Augustus not to destroy her statues. Antony was seen as the 'new Dionysus' by his followers. Ironically, in spite of Augustus, many of Antony and Cleopatra's ideas triumphed in the end- such as that of divine monarchy, and Antony, not Augustus, was the ancestor of many prominent Roman emperors. Cleopatra's children were all brought up in Augustus's household, except for Caesarion, who was killed. But only her daughter survived, as her sons disappear from the record, likely having been killed.

But what if Cleopatra had won? This is my question, and my question to you is to be careful what you read, and hear, and see. Propaganda is no stranger to our world. My Cleopatra Re-Imagined Series the world if Cleopatra and Antony had won. Many things Roman still exist, but so do many things Egyptian. In some ways, the world I have imagined is better. In other ways, it could have been worse. But what can we learn about who we are now by imagining what we might have become?

Another intriguing question is what Christianity may have looked like had it been born in an Egypto-Roman, rather than purely Roman, culture. Later novels in my series will move the center of Christianity from Rome to Alexandria.


Available now are CLEOPATRA UNCONQUERED and CLEOPATRA VICTORIOUS, the first two novels. I am currently writing the third novel, CLEOPATRA'S GRANDDAUGHTER, which will explore the fictional life of Cleopatra IX and her cooperation with Rome and interactions with Jesus. The fourth and fifth novels, CLEOPATRA MAGNIFICA and CLEOPATRA TRIUMPHANT will explore the life of a fictional great-granddaughter, Cleopatra X, and the rise of a tyrant in Rome and this Cleopatra's defiance of him along with the rise of the early church in an alternate timeline.

CLEOPATRA UNCONQUERED is available through Amazon, and CLEOPATRA VICTORIOUS is available through Savant Books.