There is arguably no woman in ancient history who is as popular and well known in modern times as
Cleopatra. Known for her wits and beauty, Cleopatra is remembered sadly for having
an unfortunate and untimely end. But was she as amazing as she sounds, or was there a dark side
of her that many don’t know? Could Cleopatra have been one of the first master manipulators
to exist? Welcome to Nutty History and today let’s find out the creepy things Cleopatra did!
The myth of Cleopatra’s beauty is still as prevalent as it was when she was alive.
The myth only became stronger in modern times after astonishingly beautiful and graceful
Elizabeth Taylor played the titular role in the movie Cleopatra. Obviously, she turned
strong leaders like Caesar and Antony head over heels for her, but contemporary historians like
Plutarch were not very impressed by her looks. In his book ‘Life of Antony’ published in 75 A.D.
he wrote, "Her actual beauty ... was not so remarkable that none could be compared with her,
or that no one could see her without being struck by it, but the contact of her presence ... was
irresistible. ... The character that attended all she said or did was something bewitching."
Clearly, the woman was more about charms than looks. Her charisma came more from her brain
than beauty. She was a student of mathematics, medicine, alchemy, economics, history, geography,
and pretty much every general education subject you probably detested in college. She could
speak nine languages and knew how to control the conversations between people. Her wits and jest
would go hand in hand with her somewhat attractive features and make her irresistible to ignore. Her
image of an irresistible temptress was a great boon to her political career so she had to make
sure at least she lives up to the expectations of the beholders. Of course, to keep her looks,
she was willing to go to any limits as her handle on power wasn’t just dependent on her
political suitors but also her image of being the reincarnation of the Egyptian goddess Isis.
Cleopatra was also a good administrator unlike her brothers and that also helped to make her popular
and establish her divinity. But unfortunately, in the real-world PR Cleopatra was very well aware
of the importance of upkeeping her image as the goddess, and maintaining a heavenly appearance
was a major part of it. An expert in alchemy, a pseudoscience that preceded chemistry, Cleopatra
had her own perfume factory by the Dead Sea near Ein Gedi. Cleopatra believed her fragrances had
mind-controlling powers and used them actively as her tool for persuasions to get what she wanted.
But when it came to skincare, she was taking no chances. Looking at her list of lovers,
her taste may have been older, powerful men but she was quite afraid of getting old herself.
Daddy issues, much? Botox and plastic surgery were never an option in the first century B.C. Egypt
but being a queen does have its privileges. Like most queens in the annals of history,
Cleopatra too had ridiculously elaborate beauty regimes which normal people couldn’t even dream
of. In fact, Cleopatra's favorite spa treatment was something most modern American billionaires
would have a hard time pulling off even one time, never mind every morning. According to a legend,
Cleopatra’s bath was filled with the milk of 700 lactating donkeys. The number of donkeys
may seem far fetched, but bathing in donkey milk isn’t as creepy as it may sound. In fact,
donkey milk was considered a great de-aging agent all over the world during ancient times.
Initially an obscure goddess, Isis became one of the most important deities of ancient Egypt as
the dynastic age progressed. As the Roman Empire and the Egyptian Kingdom’s alliance strengthened,
Isis’s influence spread wide from England to Afghanistan. So, Cleopatra being considered
the reincarnation of Isis was a very big deal to set her authority in stone. Even though Pharaoh
considered themselves divine was nothing new in the history of ancient Egypt. Cleopatra declared
herself “the new Isis” and told her subjects to recognize her as the embodiment of the goddess
on Earth. She expected to be worshiped and to have the ground where she walked to be kissed by
her subject. And it worked, which is quite ironic because not only Cleopatra wasn’t related to any
of the old kingdoms of Egypt, she wasn’t Egyptian at all! Cleopatra was a member of the Ptolemaic
Dynasty, which was descended from Alexander the Great's generals, a man named Ptolemy I.
That means they not only had Greek ancestry, but they also spoke Greek and followed Greek customs,
too. The Ptolemys ruled Egypt for 300 years after the nation was handed over to Ptolemy I
following Alexander's death in 323 B.C. The road to power was not easy for Cleopatra because she
was a woman and she was perhaps the first Ptolemy ruler to learn and speak the Egyptian language,
Coptic along with languages of most neighboring regions. Her attempt of portraying herself as Isis
was definitely an act of hubris but it was also a stroke of sheer genius to be accepted among her
subjects. Until her reign, the Ptolemys weren’t interested at all in Egyptian culture or religion
and they kept themselves confined in the city of Alexandria. During the time of Ptolemys’ rule,
Alexandria was sort of like the Chinatown of Ancient Egypt, except with more Greek influence.
However, considering oneself a goddess was quite creepy even for somebody like Cleopatra.
It’s no secret that Egyptian pharaohs liked to keep their genes in the family,
and even though the Ptolemy dynasty was not fond of local religion and customs,
for some reason having two great-grandparents instead of sixteen sounded like a grand idea
to them. Cleopatra was only 14 when her mother passed away under mysterious circumstances. With
her brothers still quite young, her father Ptolemy XII made Cleopatra the regent and deputy to his
throne. Cleopatra ruled along with her father for four years learning the skills of the regency by
experience. However, with Ptolemy XII’s death, his will put Cleopatra in a pickle. She was asked
to marry her ten-year-old brother and share the rule with him. But from the very beginning of this
marriage, she made it very clear that she had no intention of splitting power with her new husband.
This was unprecedented as female rulers were expected to submit to their male counterparts
in ancient Egypt but Cleopatra was having none of that. She made sure to erase her brother
Ptolemy XIII’s name from official documents and that only her face would appear on coins minted
during their reign. However, when Cleopatra sided with Syrians in a dispute with the Roman army,
she gained the ire of the Roman empire and Rome sided with the discontented teen king
and helped him to dethrone his sister-wife, Cleopatra. Cleopatra’s attempt to defend her
power was thwarted and she had to flee with her sister, Arsinoe IV. Though the two sisters
had to cooperate to escape their brother, the relationship between the two was far from good,
chilling in fact. They never got past their differences and the rocky relationship got
worse to the point that Cleopatra was convinced that Arsinoe was plotting against her. Meanwhile,
Ptolemy XIII did as well as the pharaoh as one could expect from an eleven-year-old.
His advisors couldn’t keep him in check and being as tactless as he could be,
he ordered the execution of Pompey and had him executed in front of his wife and children. Even
Julius Caesar, a rival of Pompey, took offense of that and considered it a blemish on Roman pride
seized the Egyptian capital. Ptolemy XIII drowned in the Nile trying to flee the combined forces of
Caesar and Cleopatra. Again, bound by tradition, Cleopatra was forced to marry her youngest
brother Ptolemy XIV but this was a marriage in name only. Ptolemy XIV was too young for her
and she was already having an affair with Caesar. Later, Cleopatra bore Caesar a son and made no
delay in having Ptolemy XIV murdered so that she can have her son be the co-regent as Caesar had no
intention of owning him and chose his grand-nephew Octavius as his heir instead. Clearly, Cleopatra’s
craving for power was thicker than her blood, as she took out all of her siblings one by one.
Now earlier in this video, we talked about how Plutarch described her ‘bewitching’ and
he wasn’t entirely wrong. Cleopatra knew how to make men dance at her fingertips
and do things that they would never normally participate in. It was eerily similar to her
having a hypnotic command over these men, but it was mostly her knowing what they wanted. Smart
and witty, Cleopatra gained the support of Caesar and Antony by offering herself to them not only
seductively but also creatively. She presented herself to Caesar hidden inside a carpet while
Antony saw her for the first time dressed as the Goddess of love, Aphrodite. This shrewdness helped
her to gain control over these powerful men in heartbeats. Her web of alluring was thick enough
to wrap itself like wool around their eyes. Caesar was so enamored that he erected a statue of her in
the Roman temple of Venus Genetrix, right next to the Goddess’s statue. Romans never considered
their administrators divine like Egyptians and it was scandalous and impious of Caesar to do so,
but it didn’t make any difference for Caesar or Cleopatra. On the other hand, when Antony
saw Cleopatra dressed as Aphrodite, he forgot about the invasion he had planned altogether
and he decided to spend winter with Cleopatra in Alexandria instead. The two used to party
together harder than any American frat house. They enjoyed their own secret drinking club while
Rome was burning in the Civil War. It is believed that once Cleopatra ordered her servants to bring
Vinegar for her and she dumped all her jewelry in it. Once the jewelry dissolved in vinegar,
Cleopatra drank it just to win a bet against Antony. That jewelry would be worth over ten
million dollars today. Meanwhile, men were killing themselves in Rome and Alexandria for her and
Antony as Augustus Octavius was eliminating any threat of his claim to Rome’s throne.
So, what do you think? Is Cleopatra still the most beautiful woman in history according to you
despite her ugly side? Tell us in the comments and as always thanks for watching Nutty History.