WEBVTT - What Do We Get Wrong About Cleopatra?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff. Lauren Bogelbaum here for being one of the

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<v Speaker 1>most famous women in history. The real Cleopatra is shrouded

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<v Speaker 1>in mystery. She lived from sixty nine to thirty b c.

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<v Speaker 1>Ruled Egypt for twenty two years, commanded riches unrivaled in

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<v Speaker 1>the ancient world, four children to two of the most

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<v Speaker 1>powerful men in Rome, and yet the stories of her

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<v Speaker 1>past down over the centuries Cleopatra's the Wanton Seductress were

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<v Speaker 1>mostly propaganda written by her enemies. We spoke with Prudence Jones,

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<v Speaker 1>history professor at Montclair State University and author of Cleopatra,

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<v Speaker 1>a source Book to get the real scoop on Cleopatra

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<v Speaker 1>the Seventh and bust a few myths. First off, Cleopatra

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<v Speaker 1>was not Egyptian. She was the last in a long

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<v Speaker 1>line of Macedonian Greek kings and queens who ruled Egypt

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<v Speaker 1>starting with the conquest of Alexander the Great. After Alexander's death,

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<v Speaker 1>his general tal of Me the First was installed as

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<v Speaker 1>king of Egypt, which he ruled as a Greek from

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<v Speaker 1>the Hellenistic capital of Alexandria. Although Cleopatra was not Egyptian.

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<v Speaker 1>She did make explicit overtures to Egyptian religion and culture,

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<v Speaker 1>such as identifying herself with the goddess Isis. She was

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<v Speaker 1>also the first ruler in the centuries long Ptolemaic dynasty

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<v Speaker 1>who bothered to learn how to speak Egyptian. In addition

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<v Speaker 1>to speaking Greek and Egyptian, Cleopatra was fluent in at

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<v Speaker 1>least six other languages. A highly educated woman, she published

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<v Speaker 1>two known texts, one on the care of the body

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<v Speaker 1>and the other on weights and measures for medicine and trade.

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<v Speaker 1>The Roman enemies of Egypt sought to denigrate Cleopatra by

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<v Speaker 1>painting her as a harlot queen who bewitched great men

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<v Speaker 1>like Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony with her physical beauty alone.

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<v Speaker 1>But even the Roman historian plutarch A, writing a century

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<v Speaker 1>after Cleopatra's death, said there was much more to the

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<v Speaker 1>queen than her looks. Here's how he described her. Her beauty,

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<v Speaker 1>as we are told, was in itself not altogether incomparable,

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<v Speaker 1>nor such as to strike those who saw her, But

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<v Speaker 1>to converse with her had an irresistible charm, and her presence,

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<v Speaker 1>combined with the persuasiveness of her discourse and the character,

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<v Speaker 1>which was somehow diffused about her behavior towards others, had

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<v Speaker 1>something stimulating about it. There was a sweetness also in

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<v Speaker 1>the tones of her voice and her tongue, Like an

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<v Speaker 1>instrument of many strings. She could readily turn to whatever

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<v Speaker 1>language she pleased, so that in her interviews she very

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<v Speaker 1>seldom had need of an interpreter. Jones said that compared

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<v Speaker 1>with the military minded Anthony, who was quote not known

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<v Speaker 1>for being the sharpest attack in the box, Cleopatra was

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<v Speaker 1>famous for her intellect. Nonetheless, the Roman poet Lucan described

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<v Speaker 1>Cleopatra as a list sivious fury, ruled only by her passions,

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<v Speaker 1>but she had only two romantic partners in her short

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<v Speaker 1>thirty nine year life, and Jones says that both relationships

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<v Speaker 1>were political as well as personal. When Cleopatra took the

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<v Speaker 1>Egyptian throne at eighteen, she inherited a kingdom in decline.

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<v Speaker 1>Rome was the ascendant power in the Mediterranean, and Egypt's

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<v Speaker 1>independence was under threat. To make matters worse, her younger

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<v Speaker 1>brother and co ruler and husband It's complicated, was trying

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<v Speaker 1>to push her out. When Julius Caesar came to Egypt,

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<v Speaker 1>in pursuit of his rival Pompey, Cleopatra saw an opportunity

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<v Speaker 1>to win a powerful Roman ally. According to Plutarch's famous account,

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<v Speaker 1>a middle aged Caesar first laid eyes on Cleopatra when

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<v Speaker 1>she smuggled herself into his quarters and tumbled out of

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<v Speaker 1>a carpet or more likely a basket of laundry. The

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<v Speaker 1>young Cleopatra, one Caesar's affections, took back the throne and

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<v Speaker 1>sealed the alliance with the birth of a son, whom

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<v Speaker 1>she not so subtly named Cesarean, which means Little Caesar.

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<v Speaker 1>She now had family ties to Rome. Cleopatra's later relationship

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<v Speaker 1>with Mark Antony, who was second in command to Caesar,

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<v Speaker 1>was immortalized by William Shakespeare in the play Anthony and

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<v Speaker 1>Cleopatra as one of the most legendary and tragic love

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<v Speaker 1>affairs in history, but it too, primarily served a political purpose.

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<v Speaker 1>Egypt may have enjoyed great wealth and resources, but after

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<v Speaker 1>Caesar's assassination, Cleopatra knew that her kingdom was still at

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<v Speaker 1>the whim of Rome, the reigning superpower. Jones explained, Cleopatra

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<v Speaker 1>was well aware that in order for Egypt to remain

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<v Speaker 1>independent at all it needed a powerful protector. Caesar's death

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<v Speaker 1>had left a power vacuum in Rome, and two prominent

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<v Speaker 1>men Caesar's chosen hair, Octavian and Anthony, the ambitious politician

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<v Speaker 1>in general, were fighting a civil war to fill it.

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<v Speaker 1>Octavian had the financial backing of the Senate, but Antony

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<v Speaker 1>desperately needed money to pay his troops. Once again, Cleopatra

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<v Speaker 1>saw an inn. Writing of the first meeting between Anthony

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<v Speaker 1>and Cleopatra, Plutarch paints a picture of an older, wiser

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<v Speaker 1>woman intent on preserving her kingdom with her charm and

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<v Speaker 1>her resources. Anthony needed money, and Cleopatra was the richest

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<v Speaker 1>woman in the world. In exchange for her financial support,

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<v Speaker 1>Anthony became Egypt's ally and defender again to Roman encroachment,

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<v Speaker 1>and gave Cleopatra, whom he eventually married, three more airs. However,

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<v Speaker 1>and spoiler alert for Shakespeare's play, their marriage ended in

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<v Speaker 1>a tragic double suicide, though it probably didn't go down

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<v Speaker 1>exactly as Shakespeare wrote it in the play. Anthony, falsely

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<v Speaker 1>believing Cleopatra to be dead after a failed sea battle

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<v Speaker 1>against Octavian, falls on his own sword and eventually dies

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<v Speaker 1>in her arms from the wound. Cleopatra, not willing to

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<v Speaker 1>be paraded in the streets of Rome as a prisoner

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<v Speaker 1>of war, has a poisonous snake smuggled into her quarters.

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<v Speaker 1>In the final scene of the play, she hugs the

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<v Speaker 1>snake to her bosom and says, with thy sharp teeth,

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<v Speaker 1>this not intrinsicate of life at once, Untie, poor, venomous, fool,

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<v Speaker 1>be angry, and dispatch. Include Ark's version of the story,

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<v Speaker 1>the snake and Asps specifically is hidden in a basket

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<v Speaker 1>of large figs. He wrote, it is said that the

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<v Speaker 1>asp was brought with those figs and leaves, and lay

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<v Speaker 1>hidden beneath them. For thus Cleopatra had given orders that

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<v Speaker 1>the reptile might fasten itself upon her body without her

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<v Speaker 1>being aware of it. But when she took away some

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<v Speaker 1>of the figs and saw it, she said, there it is,

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<v Speaker 1>you see, and bearing her arm, she held it out

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<v Speaker 1>for the bite. But even Plutarch atmits that there were

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<v Speaker 1>various accounts of Cleopatra's death, and that quote the truth

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<v Speaker 1>of the matter no one knows. For it was also

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<v Speaker 1>said that she carried about poison in a hollow comb,

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<v Speaker 1>and kept the comb hidden in her hair. Modern scholars

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<v Speaker 1>say that poison would have been a much simpler and

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<v Speaker 1>faster way to go, but that Cleopatra likely included the

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<v Speaker 1>more dramatic snake story in her suicide note to Octavian,

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<v Speaker 1>which also requested that she'd be buried next to her antony.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Dave Ruse and produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tyler clayg. For more on this and lots of other

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<v Speaker 1>historical topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>is production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from

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