The Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt

The seven Cleopatras who ruled Egypt in the final two centuries before its first-century BCE conquest by Rome wielded “supreme power,” according to this illuminating study. Historian Llewellyn-Jones (Persians) argues that, when taken out of the shadow of their last and most famous member and interpreted as a dynasty, the Cleopatras “set a new model for female power in antiquity,” redefining current understandings of women’s exercise of authority in the past. Most of them easily outmatched their many husbands (each Cleopatra was married multiple times, usually to different brothers or nephews), amassing power via intrigue and assassination, military command, and the canny development of religious rituals. Generally, the Cleopatras posed as dutiful wives and mothers—even when they plotted against their own kin—deploying femininity as yet another weapon in their arsenal. Cleopatra I Syra, a Syrian princess and wife to Ptolemy V, initiated the Cleopatra line. Over the following generations, many of the Cleopatras ruled alone or with precedence over male relatives. The royal line ended with Cleopatra VII, whose risky entanglement with Rome led to her defeat and suicide. Throughout, Llewellyn-Jones highlights the queens’ ruthless determination, framing them as women with a developed sense of gender dynamics and of patriarchy’s inequities, whose political project was often—and quite explicitly—to seize power from men. It’s an innovative take on an ancient dynasty. Illus. (May)