Crowning Jewel Wall Art She Believed Her Voice Matters So She Spoke

1. Cleopatra was not Egyptian.

While Cleopatra was born in Egypt, she traced her family unit origins to Macedonian Greece and Ptolemy I Soter, 1 of Alexander the Great's generals. Ptolemy reigned Egypt afterward Alexander's death in 323 B.C., and he launched a dynasty of Greek-speaking rulers that lasted for nearly three centuries. Despite not being ethnically Egyptian, Cleopatra embraced many of her country's ancient customs and was the first member of the Ptolemaic line to learn the Egyptian language.

ii. She was the product of incest.

Like many royal houses, members of the Ptolemaic dynasty oftentimes married within the family to preserve the purity of their bloodline. More than a dozen of Cleopatra'southward ancestors tied the knot with cousins or siblings, and it'due south likely that her own parents were brother and sister. In keeping with this custom, Cleopatra eventually married both of her adolescent brothers, each of whom served as her ceremonial spouse and co-regent at dissimilar times during her reign.

Lookout: Cleopatra: The Terminal Pharaoh on HISTORY Vault

iii. Cleopatra'southward beauty wasn't her biggest asset.

Roman propaganda painted Cleopatra equally a debauched temptress who used her sex appeal as a political weapon, but she may have been more renowned for her intellect than her appearance. She spoke as many as a dozen languages and was educated in mathematics, philosophy, oratory and astronomy, and Egyptian sources later described her every bit a ruler "who elevated the ranks of scholars and enjoyed their visitor." At that place's also bear witness that Cleopatra wasn't equally physically hitting as once believed. Coins with her portrait show her with manly features and a large, hooked olfactory organ, though some historians fence that she intentionally portrayed herself as masculine as a brandish of strength. For his office, the ancient writer Plutarch claimed that Cleopatra's beauty was "not altogether incomparable," and that it was instead her mellifluous speaking vocalisation and "irresistible charm" that made her then desirable.

4. She had a hand in the deaths of 3 of her siblings.

Power grabs and murder plots were as much a Ptolemaic tradition equally family marriage, and Cleopatra and her brothers and sisters were no different. Her get-go sibling-husband, Ptolemy XIII, ran her out of Egypt after she tried to take sole possession of the throne, and the pair afterward faced off in a civil war. Cleopatra regained the upper hand past teaming with Julius Caesar, and Ptolemy drowned in the Nile River after being defeated in boxing. Following the war, Cleopatra remarried to her younger blood brother Ptolemy Fourteen, but she is believed to have had him murdered in a bid to make her son her co-ruler. In 41 B.C., she also engineered the execution of her sister, Arsinoe, who she considered a rival to throne.

5. Cleopatra knew how to brand an entrance.

Cleopatra believed herself to be a living goddess, and she often used clever stagecraft to woo potential allies and reinforce her divine status. A famous example of her flair for the dramatic came in 48 B.C., when Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria during her feud with her brother Ptolemy Thirteen. Knowing Ptolemy'due south forces would thwart her attempts to run into with the Roman general, Cleopatra had herself wrapped in a carpeting—some sources say it was a linen sack—and smuggled into his personal quarters. Caesar was dazzled past the sight of the young queen in her majestic garb, and the two shortly became allies and lovers.

Cleopatra later employed a similar bit of theater in her 41 B.C. meet with Mark Antony. When summoned to meet the Roman Triumvir in Tarsus, she is said to take arrived on a gilt barge adorned with majestic sails and rowed by oars made of silver. Cleopatra had been made up to await like the goddess Aphrodite, and she sat below a gold canopy while attendants dressed as cupids fanned her and burned sweet-smelling incense. Antony—who considered himself the embodiment of the Greek god Dionysus—was instantly enchanted.

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6. She was living in Rome at the time of Caesar'southward bump-off.

Cleopatra joined Julius Caesar in Rome kickoff in 46 B.C., and her presence seems to have caused quite a stir. Caesar didn't hide that she was his mistress—she even came to the metropolis with their lovechild, Caesarion, in tow—and many Romans were scandalized when he erected a gilded statue of her in the temple of Venus Genetrix. Cleopatra was forced to flee Rome after Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman senate in 44 B.C., but by and so she had fabricated her mark on the city. Her exotic hairstyle and pearl jewelry became a fashion trend, and according to the historian Joann Fletcher, "so many Roman women adopted the 'Cleopatra look' that their bronze has often been mistaken for Cleopatra herself."

7. Cleopatra and Mark Antony formed their ain drinking lodge.

Cleopatra first began her legendary love matter with the Roman general Mark Antony in 41 B.C. Their relationship had a political component—Cleopatra needed Antony to protect her crown and maintain Egypt'south independence, while Antony needed access to Egypt'southward riches and resource—but they were also famously fond of each other's visitor. According to ancient sources, they spent the winter of 41-40 B.C. living a life of leisure and excess in Egypt, and even formed their own drinking society known as the "Inimitable Livers." The grouping engaged in nightly feasts and wine-binges, and its members occasionally took role in elaborate games and contests. Ane of Antony and Cleopatra'due south favorite activities supposedly involved wandering the streets of Alexandria in disguise and playing pranks on its residents.

8. She led a fleet in a naval battle.

Cleopatra eventually married Marking Antony and had three children with him, but their relationship also spawned a massive scandal in Rome. Antony's rival Octavian used propaganda to portray him every bit a traitor under the sway of a scheming seductress, and in 32 B.C., the Roman Senate alleged war on Cleopatra. The conflict reached its climax the following year in a famous naval battle at Actium. Cleopatra personally led several dozen Egyptian warships into the fray alongside Antony's fleet, but they were no match for Octavian's navy. The battle soon devolved into a rout, and Cleopatra and Antony were forced to interruption through the Roman line and flee to Arab republic of egypt.

9. Cleopatra may not have died from an asp bite.

Cleopatra and Antony famously took their own lives in 30 B.C., after Octavian's forces pursued them to Alexandria. While Antony is said to have fatally stabbed himself in the tum, Cleopatra's method of suicide is less certain. Fable has information technology that she died by enticing an "asp"—most likely a viper or Egyptian cobra—to seize with teeth her arm, only the aboriginal chronicler Plutarch admits that "what really took place is known to no i." He says Cleopatra was also known to conceal a mortiferous poison in one of her pilus combs, and the historian Strabo notes that she may have applied a fatal "ointment." With this in mind, many scholars now suspect she used a pivot dipped in some form of potent toxin—ophidian venom or otherwise.

READ More: Did Cleopatra Really Die by Snake Bite?

10. A 1963 pic about her was 1 of the near expensive movies of all time.

The Queen of the Nile has been portrayed on the silvery screen by the likes of Claudette Colbert and Sophia Loren, but she was most famously played by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 sword-and-sandal ballsy "Cleopatra." The film was plagued by production problems and script issues, and its budget eventually soared from $two million to $44 million—including some $200,000 just to encompass the cost of Taylor's costumes. It was the most expensive motion picture ever made at the time of its release, and nearly bankrupted its studio despite raking in a fortune at the box part. If inflation is taken into account, "Cleopatra" remains one of the priciest movies in history even today.

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Source: https://www.history.com/news/10-little-known-facts-about-cleopatra

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