Cleopatra was a queen of ancient Egypt and one of the most fascinating women in history. According to legend she was not a particularly beautiful women, but rather a charming, seductive one. Cleopatra developed relationships with Julius Caesar as well as Mark Antony, two of the greatest Roman leaders of the day. Cleopatra was destined to be the last ruler in a dynasty founded by Ptolemy I, (one of Alexander the Great's generals) in 323 B.C., The year Alexander the Great died. But Cleopatra was not Egyptian, but of Macedonian decent. She did learn how to speak Egyptian and for political reasons regarded herself as the daughter of Re, the sun god, because that was who she was supposed to embody, just like all the other rulers of Egypt.
Cleopatra was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 69 B.C. When her father, Ptolemy XII died in 51 B.C., Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIII succeeded jointly to the throne. They married as was the custom in Egyptian royal families. In 48 B.C., encouraged by his minister Pothinus, Ptolemy assumed control of the government and drove Cleopatra from the throne. Shortly before this event there had been civil war in Rome between Julius Caesar and Pompey, for the leadership of Rome. Pompey was losing to Caesar, so he fled to Egypt to seek sanctuary. But Caesar followed him there.
When Caesar arrived in Egypt, he was amazed to discover that Pompey had been beheaded by the Egyptians four days before. During this visit was the first time that Caesar met Cleopatra. They instantly fell in love. Because of this, Caesar helped Cleopatra defeat her political enemies, but during one of these battles the library at Alexandria was burnt down. This library had been founded by Alexander the Great and contained a vast amount of Greek literature. It was an enormous loss. A few years later, Cleopatra gave birth to a son, Caesarion, whom she claimed was Caesar's.
In 46 B.C., Cleopatra visited Rome with her newborn son to visit Caesar. She stayed in the city until the year Caesar was assassinated, 44 B.C. After she returned back to Egypt, she ordered the death of her brother so that her own son could eventually become the sole heir to the Egyptian throne.
After Caesar was assassinated, a second Triumvirate was created with Octavian, Marc Antony, and Lepidus. Antony was in charge of the eastern provinces, including Egypt; Octavian, Caesar's great nephew, was in charge of the west, including Rome; and Lepidus was in charge of Africa. One of the first things that the Triumvirate did when it took power was to hunt down and kill Caesar's assassins, Brutus and Cassius. The assassins were defeated in 42 B.C. at the battle of Philippi.
Mark Antony invited Cleopatra to Tarsus, in Asia Minor, in the year 41 B.C. They had already met in 46 B.C. when Caesar brought Cleopatra to Rome. During that visit, Antony had also fallen in love with her. Because Antony had eventually wanted to become the sole ruler of Rome, he hoped to get some form of aid from Cleopatra and her people. A year later, in 41 B.C., Cleopatra gave birth to his twins. But even through all this, Antony had to returned to Rome in order to marry the sister of Octavius, Octavia. He did this in order to gain some degree of power in Rome.
Even though this was a good political move by Antony, he couldn't bear the thought of leaving Cleopatra alone in Egypt. So in 37 B.C. he returned to Egypt and married Cleopatra. He then appointed Cleopatra ruler of Egypt, Cyprus, Crete and Cyria. This really got Octavian angry. He got so angered by this that he managed to persuade the Senate to declare war on Antony, and to brand him as a traitor.
In the year 32 B.C., Antony and Octavian went to war. In 31 B.C., Antony lost the major battle of Actium. In this sea battle, Antony had 500 ships and 70,000 infantry while Octavian had 400 ships and 80,000 infantry. The reason Antony lost was because his soldiers were more experienced at land battle rather than a sea one. His plan was to destroy the ship carrying Octavian, and dishearten the Roman navy. But when he stormed the ship thought to be carrying Octavius, he discovered that Ocatvian was not on board. This trick created a noose around Antony's fleet and crushed it. So Antony and Cleopatra fled back to Egypt.
Octavian followed the couple back to Egypt. In a desperate move, Cleopatra spread rumors that she had committed suicide. Since Antony did not know her plan, he too killed himself. Cleopatra realized that the death of Antony meant that she could never become ruler of Egypt. So she took her own life by making a poisonous snake bit her in the chest.
After her death, the Romans executed her son, Caesarion, because they feared that he might eventually rise up and claim himself to be Caesar's rightful heir and therefore ruler of the Empire. This was the end of Antony and Cleopatra.
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