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Description edit
The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer brings to life the most intriguing woman in the history of the world: Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt. Famous long before she was notorious, Cleopatra has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons. Shakespeare and Shaw put words in her mouth.... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
Her palace shimmered with onyx and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. She was married twice,... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
People edit
- Cleopatra VII: An Egyptian Pharoah who ruled from 51 B.C. to 30 B.C. She was a beautiful woman, ruling at a young age--her wit and charm swayed many. She is famous for her relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
- Gaius Julius Caesar: Leader of Rome and brilliant general. He is responsible for stretching the borders of Rome far beyond Italy and making it a major force in the ancient world. Cleopatra began a relationship with him as a young woman, and convinced him to restore her to the Egyptian throne while assuring her autonomy. She gave birth to his son, whom she called Caesarion.
- Mark Antony: Add a description of this character.
- Ptolemy XV Caesar: Son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, called Caesarion, or "little caesar".
- Ptolemy XII Auleles: Cleopatra's father.
- Cleopatra V of Egypt: Cleopatra's mother.
- Arsinoe: Cleopatra's younger sister who attempted to steal the throne
- Cleopatra Selene: Cleopatra's daughter by Marc Antony
- Alexander Helios: Cleopatra's son by Marc Antony
- Mithradates
- Aristeas
- Brutus
- Marcus Agrippa
- Calpurnia
- Juvenal
- Livia
- Charmion
- Berenice IV
- Marcus Aemilius Lepidus
- Publius Cornelius Dolabella
- Diodorus
- Sextus Pompey
- Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus
- Tiberius Gracchus
- Virgil
- Caligula
- Artavasdes
- Dellius
- Propertius
- Marcus Antonius Antyllus
- Ptolemy VIII
- Aristobulus
- Ptolemy Philadelphus
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Young Ptolemy
- Dionysus
- Ptolemy XIV
- Ptolemy XIII
- Plutarch
- Shakespeare
- Inge Nielsen
- Florus
- Achillas
- Herod
- Fulvia
- Isis
- Dio
- Hercules
- Nicolaus
- Lucan
- Juba
- Pothinus
- Philotas
- Ptolemy Auletes
- Alexandra
- Mariamme
- Gaius Proculeius
- Octavia
- Canidius
- Octavian
- Alexander the Great
- Herodotus
- Gaius Cornelius Gallus
- Josephus
- Hathor
- Cicero
- Napoleon
- Young Dolabella
- mantle Pompey
- Velleius Paterculus
- Caesarion
Quotes edit
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“Catastrophe reliably cements a reputation, and Cleopatra's end was sudden and sensational. She has lodged herself in our imaginations ever since.”
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“From a distance her reign amounts to a reprieve. Her story was essentially over before it began, although that is of course not the way she would have seen it.”
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“Clever women, Euripides had warned hundreds of years earlier, were dangerous.”
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“Very little about the first century BC was original; mostly it distinguished itself for its compulsive recycling of familiar themes. So it was that when a fiery wisp of a girl presented herself before an adroit, much older man of the world, credit for the seduction fell to her.”
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“Somehow despite the years of savagery and the vacuous Macedonian cultural record, the Ptolemies established in Alexandria the greatest intellectual center of its time, one that had picked up where the Athens had left off.”
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“As always, an educated woman was a dangerous woman.”
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“It was in Alexandria that the circumference of the earth was first measured, the sun fixed at the center of the solar sysstem, the workings of the brain and the pulse illuminated, the foundations of anatomy and physiology established, the definitive editions of Homer produced.”
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“If all the wisdoms of the ancient world could be said to have been collected in one place, that place was Alexandria. Cleopatra was its direct beneficiary.”
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“In one of the busiest afterlives in history she has gone on to become an asteroid, a video game, a cliche, a cigarette, a slot machine, a strip club, a synonym for Elizabeth Taylor.”
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“If the name is indeliable, the image is blurry. Cleopatra may be one of the most recognizable figures in history but we have little idea of what she actually looked like.”
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“Cleopatra descended from a long line of murderers and faithfully upheld the family tradition but was, for her time and place, remarkably well behaved.”
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“She grew up amid unsurpassed luxury, to inherit a kingdom in decline.”
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“At eighteen Cleopatra and her ten-year-old brother assumed control of a country with a weighty past and a wobbly future.”
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“If Cleopatra's parents were full siblings, as they likely were, she had only one set of grandparents.”
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“Though the Romans were said to have no taste for personal luxury, Caesar was, as in so many matters, the exception.”
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“Caesar was of illustrious birth, a gifted orator, and a dashing officer, but those distinctions were meaningless compared to a woman who, however inventively, descended from Alexander, who was in Egypt not only royal but divine. Caesar was very nearly deified in the last years of his life. Cleopatra was born a goddess.”
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“It is difficult to say which expanded to meet the other, the superhuman ego or the superhuman honors, under the weight of which Caesar would finally be buried.”
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“It would be difficult to say to whom Cleopatra was more vital in 32: the man to whom she was the partner, or the man to whom she was the pretext. Antony could not win a war without her. Octavian could not wage one.”
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“He had too cause to note "that no high position is ever free from envy or treachery, and least of all a monarchy." The enemies were bad but the friends were arguably worse. The office, he concluded, was utterly dreadful.”
Octavian
First Sentence edit
Among the most famous women to have lived, Cleopatra VII ruled Egypt for twenty-two years.
Table of Contents edit
Chapter 1 - That Egyptian Woman
Chapter 2 - Dead Men Don't Bite
Chapter 3 - Cleopatra Captures the Old Man by Magic
Chapter 4 - The Golden Age Never Was the Present Age
Chapter 5 - Man Is by Nature a Political Creature
Chapter 6 - We Must Often Shift the Sails When We Wish to Arrive in Port
Chapter 7 - An Object of Gossip for the Whole World
Chapter 8 - Illicit Affairs and Bastard Children
Chapter 9 - The Wickedest Woman in History
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Series & Lists edit
This book is in Rainy Day Books (Staff Picks for 2010). (community list)
This book is in New York Times 10 Best Books of 2010. (authoritative list)
This book is in Time Magazine's Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2010. (authoritative list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Stacy Schiff (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Country: USA
Publication Date: November 2010
ISBN: 9780316001922
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Country: USA
Publication Date: November 2010
ISBN: 9780316001922
Page Count: 368
Awards edit
- New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice (2010: Best Books of 2010)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: DT92.7.S35 2010
- Dewey: 932.021092
Subjects edit
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