WEBVTT - How Did Cleopatra Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, Brainstuff. Lauren

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<v Speaker 1>Vogelbaum here for being one of the most famous women

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<v Speaker 1>in history. The real Cleopatra, who lived from the years

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<v Speaker 1>sixty nine to thirty BCE, is shrouded in mystery. She

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<v Speaker 1>ruled Egypt for twenty two of those years, commanded riches

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<v Speaker 1>unrivaled in the ancient world, and bore children to two

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<v Speaker 1>of the most powerful men in Rome. Yet the stories

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<v Speaker 1>of her passed down over the centuries. Cleopatra as the cunning,

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<v Speaker 1>wanton s doctress were mostly propaganda written by her enemies before.

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<v Speaker 1>The article of this episode is based on How Stuff Works.

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<v Speaker 1>Spoke with Prudence Jones, a history professor at Montclair State

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<v Speaker 1>University and author of Cleopatra a source Book. So today

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<v Speaker 1>let's do some mythbusting. First off, Cleopatra was not Egyptian.

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<v Speaker 1>She was the last in a long line of Macedonian

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<v Speaker 1>Greek kings and queens who ruled Egypt starting with the

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<v Speaker 1>conquest of Alexander the Great in three thirty two BCE.

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<v Speaker 1>After Alexander's death, his general Ptolemy the First was installed

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<v Speaker 1>as the King of Egypt, which he ruled as a

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<v Speaker 1>Greek from the Hellenistic capital of Alexandria. Cleopatra, born over

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<v Speaker 1>two hundred fifty years later, was a daughter of Ptolemy

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<v Speaker 1>the seventh. The identity of Cleopatra's mother is unknown, though

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<v Speaker 1>it's thought to have been Cleopatra the Fifth, who was

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<v Speaker 1>Ptolemy the seventh wife and also his sister or half sister,

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<v Speaker 1>as was common among Egyptian royalty at the time. Although

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<v Speaker 1>Cleopatra was not ethnically Egyptian, she made explicit overtures to

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<v Speaker 1>Egyptian religion and culture, such as identifying herself with the

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<v Speaker 1>goddess Isith. She was also the first queen in the

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<v Speaker 1>centuries long dynasty to bother to learn how to speak Egyptian.

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<v Speaker 1>Jones said, the rest weren't very motivated. Indeed, Cleopatra wowed

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<v Speaker 1>with brains and charm, not just beauty. The Roman enemies

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<v Speaker 1>of Egypt sought to denigrate Cleopatra by painting her as

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<v Speaker 1>a harleck queen who bewitched great men like Julius Caesar

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<v Speaker 1>and Mark Antony with her physical beauty alone. But even

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<v Speaker 1>the Roman historian Plutarch, writing a century after Cleopatra's death,

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<v Speaker 1>reported that there was much more to Cleopatra than her looks,

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<v Speaker 1>he said, to converse with her, had an irresistible charm,

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

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<v Speaker 1>and the character which was somehow diffused about her behavior

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<v Speaker 1>towards others, had something stimulating about it. There was a

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<v Speaker 1>sweetness also in the tones of her voice and her tongue.

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<v Speaker 1>Like an instrument of many strings. She could readily turn

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<v Speaker 1>to whatever language she pleased, so that she very seldom

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<v Speaker 1>had need an interpreter. In addition to speaking Greek and Egyptian,

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<v Speaker 1>Cleopatra was fluent in at least six other languages. A

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<v Speaker 1>highly educated woman, she published two known texts, one on

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<v Speaker 1>the care of the body and the other on weights

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<v Speaker 1>and measures for medicine and trade. Compared with the military

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<v Speaker 1>mind of Antony, who was Jones said, not known for

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<v Speaker 1>being the sharpest tack in the box, Cleopatra was famous

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<v Speaker 1>for her intellect. Along those lines, her love affair with

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<v Speaker 1>Caesar was a strategic alliance. Cleopatra was not the lascivious

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<v Speaker 1>fury described by some Roman poets, ruled only by her

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<v Speaker 1>promiscuous passions. She had only two romantic partners in her

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<v Speaker 1>short thirty nine year life, and both relationships were political

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<v Speaker 1>as well as personal. According to Jones, when Cleopatra took

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

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<v Speaker 1>the line. Rome was the ascendant power in the Mediterranean,

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<v Speaker 1>and Egypt's independence was under threat, and to make matters worse,

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<v Speaker 1>her younger brother and co ruler and husband It's complicated,

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<v Speaker 1>was trying to push her out. When Julius Caesar came

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<v Speaker 1>to Egypt in pursuit of his rival Pompey, Cleopatra saw

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<v Speaker 1>opportunity to win a powerful Roman ally. Accuding to Plutarch's

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<v Speaker 1>famous account, a middle aged Caesar first laid eyes on

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<v Speaker 1>Cleopatra when she smuggled himself into his quarters and tumbled

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

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

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

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<v Speaker 1>whom she not so subtly named Cesarean, meaning 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 Shakespeare in the play Antony and Cleopatra

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

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<v Speaker 1>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 then 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 men,

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<v Speaker 1>Octavian being Caesar's chosen heir and nephew, and Antony, the

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<v Speaker 1>ambitious politician in general, were fighting a civil war to

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<v Speaker 1>fill it. Octavian had the financial backing of the Senate,

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

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<v Speaker 1>Cleopatra saw an inn she was the richest woman in

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

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<v Speaker 1>became Egypt's ally and defender against Roman encroachment, and he

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<v Speaker 1>and Cleopatra, who eventually married, had three more heirs. This

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<v Speaker 1>brings us to one last myth, though, the double suicide

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<v Speaker 1>of Antony and Cleopatra, as recorded by Plutarch, provided a

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<v Speaker 1>suitably tragic ending to Shakespeare's play, but although it was

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<v Speaker 1>based on true events, it probably didn't go down exactly

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<v Speaker 1>as Shakespeare wrote it. In the play, Anthony, A, 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 A, falls on his own sword and eventually

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

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

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

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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 breast. Plutarch's version is a bit different,

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<v Speaker 1>but even he admitted that there were various accounts of

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<v Speaker 1>Cleopatra's death and that quote the truth of the matter

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<v Speaker 1>no one knows, for it was also said that she

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<v Speaker 1>carried about poison in a hollow comb and kept the

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<v Speaker 1>comb hidden in her hair. Modern scholars say that poison

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<v Speaker 1>would have been a much simpler and faster way to go,

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<v Speaker 1>but that Cleopatra likely included the more dramatic snake story

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<v Speaker 1>in her suicide note. After Cleopatra's death, Egypt became a

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<v Speaker 1>province of the Roman Empire, and the rest, as they say,

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<v Speaker 1>is history. Today's episode is based on the article five

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<v Speaker 1>things Everyone gets wrong about Cleopatra on how Stuffworks dot Com,

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<v Speaker 1>written by Dave Ruse. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio

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<v Speaker 1>in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced

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<v Speaker 1>by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio,

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<v Speaker 1>visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

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