How do you start the story
of one of the most famous women in history?
Maybe with her birth?
Eh, a little bit conventional.
Okay, what about with her death?
[snake hiss]
Nah, that seems gauche. Come back later, aspen.
Oh! I know! How about we start with a drunken wager?
Yeah! Now we're talking!
[Extra History theme]
41 BCE
Cleopatra, pharaoh of Egypt, is at her palace in Alexandria
entertaining her new beau
the Roman general and politician Mark Antony
The official reason for Antony's visit is to prepare for a new campaign
against Rome's hated enemy in the East, the Parthians
In reality, however, Antony has fallen head
over sandals in love with Cleopatra and the two
are using this time before the campaign
to enjoy life together
Each night the lovers throw a luxurious banquet
in honor of their union
and revel in an evening of excess
And they're joined by a group of court friends & hangers on
playfully referred to by Cleopatra
as the "Order of the Inimitable Life"
The group dines off gold plates
and afterward spends the night drinking and playing games
And one evening after being stuffed with food & drink
Antony idly mentions that the two have reached the height of their revels
There's nowhere to go from here
But Cleopatra scoffs
and tells Antony that she could spend
10 million sesterces on a single banquet
To which Antony tells her to prove it
So the next night, Cleopatra holds a new banquet
And while it's sumptuous
it's no greater than the couple's usual excesses
Midway through the meal
Antony boasts that he'd won the wager
But at that moment
The Queen declares that she's now ready to spend her 10 million sesterces
and calls for a cup of vinegar
As the revelers look on, Cleopatra then takes off one of her
priceless pearl earrings and drops it into the cup
And the fine pearl
one of the largest in the world at the time
disintegrates in the glass
Then she drinks...
and wins the bet.
Though this was a small event in the queen's life
this story does illustrate three important things
First: How to make an incredibly expensive
albeit gnarly, cocktail
Second: That Cleopatra was willing to go to
And third: That no one in the ancient world
not even the most powerful men in Rome
were about to get one over on the Queen of the Nile
Julius Ceasar
Mark Antony
& Octavian
may fill the history books
but in her life, Cleopatra dunked on them all
and in many ways, she continues to dunk on them
2 millennia after her death
[snake hiss]
Nope, not your cue yet.
Go wait in the green room, we'll call ya.
So how is it that she ended up
getting the better of Rome's greatest figures
in an era of high male chauvinism?
While a lot of it has to do
with characteristics unique to Cleopatra
another important factor was Cleopatra's family
the Ptolemies
A family with so many tales of
intrigue
incest
and backstabbing...
that dealing with the Romans must have seemed like a walk in the park
Because before she romanced Roman generals
and captured our imaginations,
Cleopatra had to first survive her family
The story of the Ptolemies starts,
like a lot of other stories in the ancient world
with Alexander the Great
In the 4th century BCE,
as Alexander ran roughshod over the Mediterranean world,
his entourage included his close childhood friend Ptolemy
Ptolemy was simultaneously
Alexander's military commander,
personal bodyguard,
and official historian
chronicling Alexander's deeds
so everyone knew just how
See, in the ancient world, you weren't anyone unless you had
someone recording your deeds
and denigrating your enemies
In fact, "historians" of this time were more like a public relations officer
rather than a scholar
When Alexander died without an heir in 323 BCE
the members of his retinue stepped up to fill the power vaccum
and Ptolemy was one of those men
And though they founded several
successor states to Alexander's empire
Ptolemy captured the jewel in the crown: Egypt
But he also captured an even more valuable prize:
Alexander's corpse
Alexander and his commanders were Macedonian Greeks
And in ancient Macedonia, a dead king's successors asserted their claim
by conducting the burial rituals of their fallen leader
So by possessing Alexander's body,
Ptolemy laid claim to his throne and his legacy
Though the corpse was originally destined to be buried in Macedonia,
Ptolemy intercepted Alexander's body
and buried it in the Egyptian city of Memphis
Then when the Ptolemaic dynasty took Alexandria as their seat of power,
they moved the dead king to a massive new tomb there
That symbolic victory went a long way toward legitimizing Ptolemy's rule
for his fellow Macedonians and Greeks
who were helping him run Egypt,
but that was only part of the equation
Because Ptolemy's Egypt was a foreign-led kingdom
and without Egyptian support, it wasn't gonna last
To that end,
Ptolemy and his successors looked for ways to combine their Greco-Macedonian rule
with local customs and traditions
Though they still considered themselves part of the Greek world,
the Ptolemies adopted the trappings & imagery of the ancient pharaohs
In addition to trappings and dress, however, the Ptolemies also pursued
with gusto,
another practice of the ancient pharaohs
Incestuous marriage
By the 3rd century BCE, the Ptolemies regularly married brother and sister
making them co-rulers of Egypt,
often with the older of the two siblings - regardless of gender -
playing the leading role in the kingdom
These marriages not only helped to keep the dynasty in the family,
but also played a role in courting the support of Egyptians,
who expected their leaders to replicate the model of rule
set out by the ruling deities Isis and Osiris
And in their quest to maintain power
the Ptolemies were willing to do whatever it took
And because of that willingness to fit into Egyptian society,
the Ptolemies thrived
Alexanderia became the greatest city in the Mediterranean world
an epicenter for commerce and culture
and the site of incredible landmarks
like the Great Library
and Pharos Lighthouse
And although the Ptolemies were not known for military prowess,
they successfully maintained control
via strategic alliances with strong neighbors
like Rome, offering money and grain in exchange for protection
Now one could posit that this lack of military success may seem like a weakness
but look at it this way:
Rome had to do all the work
while the Ptolemies sat back and enjoyed the richest lifestyle
the ancient world had to offer
Rome got the glory, sure
but Egypt got the gold
Essentially playing it smarter, not harder
But for all of their wealth and political skill
the Ptolemies couldn't get out of their own way
All that money and power
led to infighting and a lot (and I mean
of murder
Fratricide, sororicide, matricide, patricide
and, of course when royal advisors got involved,
plain old vanilla homicide
And there's really too much history to go through here
but just know that the Ptolemy family
were a real nest of vipers
snake hiss
Ahh, still not yet, but in fairness
I kinda set you up for that one so apologies
By the time of Cleopatra's birth in 69 BCE
all of this infighting & murder has weakened the kingdom
Case in point, consider how Cleopatra herself came to the throne
First, her cousin Ptolemy the 11th had to be assassinated,
then her sister Cleopatra the 6th was assassinated,
then her other sister, Berenice the 4th was, also, assassinated...
And finally her father, Ptolemy the 12th managed to die of a disease
Wow that's a pretty relatively easy exit
all things considered
Especially for a guy who bribed the Romans to invade Alexandria
and execute his own daughter
Only after
Cleopatra the 7th, the then 18 year old Cleopatra from our tale,
ascend to the throne as co-rulers
And in this blood-soaked context, Cleopatra stepped onto the world stage
Unlike many of her siblings, she lived long enough to receive
an impressive education in math, astronomy, literature, & rhetoric
She could speak seven different languages
and had become the first Ptolemaic ruler to speak fluent Egyptian
During the previous decade she'd been at her father's side as he ruled
both in Alexandria and when he'd spent time exiled in Rome
She posessed experience, intellect, money, power
and if not outright classical beauty, a certain indescribable charm & magnetism
that made her hard to resist
And most importantly of all,
she was a Ptolemy through and through
capable of cutthroat, cold-blooded action when necessary
And she would rely on all of these skills
and attributes over the next decade
to deftly avoid treachery,
build important alliances,
and seduce the greatest men of the era -
all while maintaining her independence
And we'll get into all of that next week
when Cleopatra really begins tipping the scales
snake hiss
Wrong kinda scales Aspen!
Seriously, you know you're at the end of this story right?
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