Roman historiography and Latin poetry produced a generally critical view of the queen that pervaded later Medieval and Renaissance literature. [186][187] Cicero, who was present at the festival, mockingly asked where the diadem came from, an obvious reference to the Ptolemaic queen whom he abhorred. [326][330][331] Cleopatra's physician Olympos did not explain her cause of death, although the popular belief is that she allowed an asp or Egyptian cobra to bite and poison her. [403][404], In regards to surviving Roman statuary, a life-sized Roman-style statue of Cleopatra was found near the Tomba di Nerone[it], Rome, along the Via Cassia and is now housed in the Museo Pio-Clementino, part of the Vatican Museums. 9. [97][96] Bibulus, siding with Pompey in Caesar's Civil War, failed to prevent Caesar from landing a naval fleet in Greece, which ultimately allowed Caesar to reach Egypt in pursuit of Pompey. [415] It is likely, due to political expediency, that Antony's visage was made to conform not only to hers but also to those of her Macedonian Greek ancestors who founded the Ptolemaic dynasty, to familiarize himself to her subjects as a legitimate member of the royal house. Theodotus was found years later in Asia, by Marcus Junius Brutus, and executed. [377][379] The Jewish Roman historian Josephus, writing in the 1st century AD, provides valuable information on the life of Cleopatra via her diplomatic relationship with Herod the Great. [300] An asp is absent from the painting, but many Romans held the view that she received poison in another manner than a venomous snakebite. [291][284] Antony and Cleopatra set up their winter headquarters at Patrai in Greece, and by the spring of 31 BC they had moved to Actium, on the southern side of the Ambracian Gulf. [297] Antony followed Cleopatra and boarded her ship, identified by its distinctive purple sails, as the two escaped the battle and headed for Tainaron. [244][236] Although still administered by Roman officials, these territories nevertheless enriched her kingdom and led her to declare the inauguration of a new era by double-dating her coinage in 36 BC. [283][284] Cleopatra's insistence that she be involved in the battle for Greece led to the defections of prominent Romans, such as Ahenobarbus and Lucius Munatius Plancus. [307] Although most likely later pro-Octavian propaganda, it was reported that at this time Cleopatra started testing the strengths of various poisons on prisoners and even her own servants. [165][159] He left three legions in Egypt, later increased to four, under the command of the freedman Rufio, to secure Cleopatra's tenuous position, but also perhaps to keep her activities in check. While Kalogridis reportedly began working on the script in 2020, it's not currently . [170][171][172], Cleopatra and her nominal joint ruler Ptolemy XIV visited Rome sometime in late 46 BC, presumably without Caesarion, and were given lodging in Caesar's villa within the Horti Caesaris. Ptolemy XIII tried to flee by boat, but it capsized, and he drowned. [275][276] The accusation that Antony had stolen books from the Library of Pergamum to restock the Library of Alexandria later turned out to be an admitted fabrication by Gaius Calvisius Sabinus. [283][269] Octavian highlighted parts of the will, such as Caesarion being named heir to Caesar, that the Donations of Alexandria were legal, that Antony should be buried alongside Cleopatra in Egypt instead of Rome, and that Alexandria would be made the new capital of the Roman Republic. [68][71] As a young cavalry officer, Mark Antony was under Gabinius's command. [245][246], Antony's enlargement of the Ptolemaic realm by relinquishing directly controlled Roman territory was exploited by his rival Octavian, who tapped into the public sentiment in Rome against the empowerment of a foreign queen at the expense of their Republic. [324][325] Octavian promised that he would keep her alive but offered no explanation about his future plans for her kingdom. [115][106][116], In Greece, Caesar and Pompey's forces engaged each other at the decisive Battle of Pharsalus on 9August 48 BC, leading to the destruction of most of Pompey's army and his forced flight to Tyre, Lebanon. [293] While some in Antony's camp suggested abandoning the naval conflict to retreat inland, Cleopatra urged for a naval confrontation, to keep Octavian's fleet away from Egypt. Publications on ancient Greek medicine attributed to her are,[376] however, likely to be the work of a physician by the same name writing in the late first century AD. [336][337][315] Caesarion, now Ptolemy XV, would reign for a mere 18 days until executed on the orders of Octavian on 29 August 30 BC, after returning to Alexandria under the false pretense that Octavian would allow him to be king. [154][155][156], Caesar's term as consul had expired at the end of 48 BC. [181][182][183] The Temple of Venus Genetrix, established in the Forum of Caesar on 25 September 46 BC, contained a golden statue of Cleopatra (which stood there at least until the 3rd century AD), associating the mother of Caesar's child directly with the goddess Venus, mother of the Romans. [250], As Antony prepared for another Parthian expedition in 35 BC, this time aimed at their ally Armenia, Octavia traveled to Athens with 2,000 troops in alleged support of Antony, but most likely in a scheme devised by Octavian to embarrass him for his military losses. After their meeting at Tarsos in 41 BC, the queen had an affair with Antony. Although the name Cleopatra has been used by many Egyptian Queens, Cleopatra VII, by far is the most remembered overshadowing her predecessors with her political savvy, beauty and romantic life. [38][39][40][note 15] Cleopatra Tryphaena disappears from official records a few months after the birth of Cleopatra in 69 BC. [309] In a show of solidarity, Antony also had Marcus Antonius Antyllus, his son with Fulvia, enter the ephebi at the same time. [3][422][424][note 69] Francisco Pina Polo writes that Cleopatra's coinage present her image with certainty and asserts that the sculpted portrait of the Berlin head is confirmed as having a similar profile with her hair pulled back into a bun, a diadem, and a hooked nose. [223] Fulvia and Antony's brother Lucius Antonius were eventually besieged by Octavian at Perusia (modern Perugia, Italy) and then exiled from Italy, after which Fulvia died at Sicyon in Greece while attempting to reach Antony. [195] She decided to write Cassius an excuse that her kingdom faced too many internal problems, while sending the four legions left by Caesar in Egypt to Dolabella. [271][269] The litany of accusations and gossip associated with this propaganda war have shaped the popular perceptions about Cleopatra from Augustan-period literature through to various media in modern times. [283][284] Publius Canidius Crassus made the counterargument that Cleopatra was funding the war effort and was a competent monarch. [289][284] Antony wanted to cross the Adriatic Sea and blockade Octavian at either Tarentum or Brundisium,[290] but Cleopatra, concerned primarily with defending Egypt, overrode the decision to attack Italy directly. [41] The high degree of inbreeding among the Ptolemies is also illustrated by Cleopatra's immediate ancestry, of which a reconstruction is shown below. [456] His depiction of Cleopatra and Antony, her shining knight engaged in courtly love, has been interpreted in modern times as being either playful or misogynistic satire. Childhood and Rise to Egypt's Throne The previous rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty spoke only Greek and refused to learn Egyptian. [391] In the visual arts, the sculpted depiction of Cleopatra as a free-standing nude figure committing suicide began with the 16th-century sculptors Bartolommeo Bandinelli and Alessandro Vittoria. [206][207] Cleopatra's former rebellious governor of Cyprus was also handed over to her for execution. [11][12][note 9], Ptolemaic pharaohs were crowned by the Egyptian high priest of Ptah at Memphis, but resided in the multicultural and largely Greek city of Alexandria, established by Alexander the Great of Macedon. )", "194 Marble head of a Ptolemaic queen with vulture headdress", "The Political History of Iran Under the Arsacids", "HRH Cleopatra: the Last of the Ptolemies and the Egyptian Paintings of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema", "197 Marble portrait, perhaps of Cleopatra VII's daughter, Cleopatra Selene, Queen of Mauretania", "262 Veiled head from a marble portrait statue", "Dying Like a Queen: the Story of Cleopatra and the Asp(s) in Antiquity", "Searching for Cleopatra's image: classical portraits in stone", "The Great Seducer: Cleopatra, Queen and Sex Symbol", "The Amazing Afterlife of Cleopatra's Love Potions", "324 Gilded silver dish, decorated with a bust perhaps representing Cleopatra Selene", "325 Painting with a portrait of a woman in profile", "Glamour Girls: Cleomania in Mass Culture", Ancient Roman depictions of Cleopatra VII of Egypt, How History and Hollywood Got 'Cleopatra' Wrong, Cleopatra's Daughter: While Antony and Cleopatra have been immortalised in history and in popular culture, their offspring have been all but forgotten. [464] Cleopatra was also featured in operas, such as George Frideric Handel's 1724 Giulio Cesare in Egitto, which portrayed the love affair of Caesar and Cleopatra;[465] Domenico Cimarosa wrote Cleopatra on a similar subject in 1789. [381], Cleopatra is barely mentioned in De Bello Alexandrino, the memoirs of an unknown staff officer who served under Caesar. [298] She was afraid that news about the outcome of the battle of Actium would lead to a rebellion. 12 August 30 BC in the later Julian calendar. the diadem) to make herself more appealing to the citizens of Republican Rome. [134][135][136] Caesar then brought Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII before the assembly of Alexandria, where Caesar revealed the written will of Ptolemy XIIpreviously possessed by Pompeynaming Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII as his joint heirs. [170][note 42] Cleopatra, on the other hand, made repeated official declarations about Caesarion's parentage, naming Caesar as the father. Many historians believe that she was poisoned by one of her siblings. [406][431] The commission of the painting most likely coincides with the erection of the Temple of Venus Genetrix in the Forum of Caesar in September 46 BC, where Caesar had a gilded statue erected depicting Cleopatra. While Cleopatra is a striking and singular figure in history, she was the latest in a long line. [2] Diana Kleiner argues that Cleopatra, in one of her coins minted with the dual image of her husband Antony, made herself more masculine-looking than other portraits and more like an acceptable Roman client queen than a Hellenistic ruler. By adulthood she was well-versed in many languages, incl [87][88][89][note 25] Rabirius was unable to collect the entirety of Ptolemy XII's debt by the time of the latter's death, and so it was passed on to his successors Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII. Cleopatra VII had stolen Marc Antony from the sister of Octavian which made the defeat of Marc Antony a personal matter for him and his family. Sometimes, a mistress of the upper crust. [note 8]. It was the name of various characters in Greek Mythology and was frequently used among Royal dynasties in the Hellenistic period. [360][427][232][note 47] A possible Parian-marble sculpture of Cleopatra wearing a vulture headdress in Egyptian style is located at the Capitoline Museums. [300] A male servant holds the mouth of an artificial Egyptian crocodile (possibly an elaborate tray handle), while another man standing by is dressed as a Roman. [283][281], During the spring of 32 BC Antony and Cleopatra traveled to Athens, where she persuaded Antony to send Octavia an official declaration of divorce. [439][336][312] The portrait painting of Cleopatra's death was perhaps among the great number of artworks and treasures taken from Rome by Emperor Hadrian to decorate his private villa, where it was found in an Egyptian temple. [258][261] News of this event was heavily criticized in Rome as a perversion of time-honored Roman rites and rituals to be enjoyed instead by an Egyptian queen. Philosophers say Cleopatra was going to be named Jillian but once the power of the name alone was considered they decided she could not fulfill such large shoes. Cleopatra, (Greek: "Famous in Her Father") in full Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator ("Cleopatra the Father-Loving Goddess"), (born 70/69 bce died August 30 bce, Alexandria), Egyptian queen, famous in history and drama as the lover of Julius Caesar and later as the wife of Mark Antony. [412] Coins dated to the period of her marriage to Antony, which also bear his image, portray the queen as having a very similar aquiline nose and prominent chin as that of her husband. [27][31][32] The Romans chose instead to divide the Ptolemaic realm among the illegitimate sons of Ptolemy IX, bestowing Cyprus on Ptolemy of Cyprus and Egypt on Ptolemy XII Auletes. [note 6] After the death of Cleopatra, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the last Hellenistic state in the Mediterranean and of the age that had lasted since the reign of Alexander (336323 BC). Cleopatra managed to clear her name as a supposed supporter of Cassius, arguing she had really attempted to help Dolabella in Syria, and convinced Antony to have her exiled sister, Arsinoe IV, executed at Ephesus. [127][129][128] Historian Cassius Dio records that she did so without informing her brother, dressed in an attractive manner, and charmed Caesar with her wit. [14][15][16][note 10] They spoke Greek and governed Egypt as Hellenistic Greek monarchs, refusing to learn the native Egyptian language. [326] When a spy informed her that Octavian planned to move her and her children to Rome in three days, she prepared for suicide as she had no intentions of being paraded in a Roman triumph like her sister Arsinoe IV. [385] The Augustan-period authors Virgil, Horace, Propertius, and Ovid perpetuated the negative views of Cleopatra approved by the ruling Roman regime,[385][388] although Virgil established the idea of Cleopatra as a figure of romance and epic melodrama. [437] After Cleopatra's suicide, Octavian commissioned a painting to be made depicting her being bitten by a snake, parading this image in her stead during his triumphal procession in Rome. [2], The inscriptions on the coins are written in Greek, but also in the nominative case of Roman coins rather than the genitive case of Greek coins, in addition to having the letters placed in a circular fashion along the edges of the coin instead of across it horizontally or vertically as was customary for Greek ones. [68][69][70] Although it put him at odds with Roman law, Gabinius invaded Egypt in the spring of 55 BC by way of Hasmonean Judea, where Hyrcanus II had Antipater the Idumaean, father of Herod the Great, furnish the Roman-led army with supplies. Otherwise, the girl who grew up a half orphan, wouldn't have had a chance to create such an incredible life. [405][399] In his Kleopatra und die Caesaren (2006), Bernard Andreae[de] contends that this basalt statue, like other idealized Egyptian portraits of the queen, does not contain realistic facial features and hence adds little to the knowledge of her appearance. [78][81][82][note 22] Within a year Rabirius was placed under protective custody and sent back to Rome after his life was endangered for draining Egypt of its resources. [165] It is possible that Caesar, married to the prominent Roman woman Calpurnia, also wanted to avoid being seen together with Cleopatra when she bore him their son. [242][229] At the expense of the Nabataean king Malichus I (a cousin of Herod), Cleopatra was also given a portion of the Nabataean Kingdom around the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea, including Ailana (modern Aqaba, Jordan). Caesarion was murdered in 30 BCE, at the . After losing the 48 BC Battle of Pharsalus in Greece against his rival Julius Caesar (a Roman dictator and consul) in Caesar's Civil War, the Roman statesman Pompey fled to Egypt. [278][263], In a speech to the Roman Senate on the first day of his consulship on 1January 33 BC, Octavian accused Antony of attempting to subvert Roman freedoms and territorial integrity as a slave to his Oriental queen. Fun fact: we deliver faster than Amazon. [75][76] Crassus replaced him as governor of Syria and extended his provincial command to Egypt, but he was killed by the Parthians at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. [307] Cleopatra planned to relinquish her throne to him, take her fleet from the Mediterranean into the Red Sea, and then set sail to a foreign port, perhaps in India, where she could spend time recuperating. [218] Cleopatra provided Antony with 200 ships for his campaign and as payment for her newly acquired territories. [247] Some 50 years before, Cornelia Africana, daughter of Scipio Africanus, had been the first living Roman woman to have a statue dedicated to her. The first and eldest was a son, believed to be the child of Julius Caesar, though she wasn't successful in getting him named as an heir. [321][323] When she met with Octavian, Cleopatra told him bluntly, "I will not be led in a triumph" (Ancient Greek: , romanized:ou thriambusomai), according to Livy, a rare recording of her exact words. [298][302] The couple then went their separate ways, Antony to Cyrene to raise more troops and Cleopatra to the harbor at Alexandria in an attempt to mislead the oppositional party and portray the activities in Greece as a victory. However, Cleopatra saw. [370][371] Ptolemy of Mauretania was the last known monarch of the Ptolemaic dynasty, although Queen Zenobia, of the short-lived Palmyrene Empire during the Crisis of the Third Century, would claim descent from Cleopatra. [483] Only fragments exist of these medical and cosmetic writings, such as those preserved by Galen, including remedies for hair disease, baldness, and dandruff, along with a list of weights and measures for pharmacological purposes. [304][305], Lucius Pinarius, Mark Antony's appointed governor of Cyrene, received word that Octavian had won the Battle of Actium before Antony's messengers could arrive at his court. [107][108] In perhaps their last joint decree, both Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII agreed to Gnaeus Pompeius's request and sent his father 60 ships and 500 troops, including the Gabiniani, a move that helped erase some of the debt owed to Rome. [314][319][320] It was Proculeius, however, who infiltrated her tomb using a ladder and detained the queen, denying her the ability to burn herself with her treasures. [405][401][399] The woman in the basalt statue also holds a divided, double cornucopia (dikeras), which can be seen on coins of both Arsinoe II and Cleopatra. When he died in 51 BC, the joint reign of Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIII began, but a falling-out between them led to open civil war. [5][90][91][note 26] Cleopatra faced several pressing issues and emergencies shortly after taking the throne. [2][414][415] Her masculine facial features on minted currency are similar to that of her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes,[416][114] and perhaps also to those of her Ptolemaic ancestor Arsinoe II (316260 BC)[2][417] and even depictions of earlier queens such as Hatshepsut and Nefertiti. [138][135][139][note 34], Judging that this agreement favored Cleopatra over Ptolemy XIII and that the latter's army of 20,000, including the Gabiniani, could most likely defeat Caesar's army of 4,000 unsupported troops, Potheinos decided to have Achillas lead their forces to Alexandria to attack both Caesar and Cleopatra. [307] Separate messages and envoys from Antony and Cleopatra were then sent to Octavian, still stationed at Rhodes, although Octavian seems to have replied only to Cleopatra. [200] In the summer of 41 BC, Antony established his headquarters at Tarsos in Anatolia and summoned Cleopatra there in several letters, which she rebuffed until Antony's envoy Quintus Dellius convinced her to come. Her official name is Cleopatra VII Philopater, which is definitely a bigger mouthful than just calling her Cleopatra, like most tend to do. Octavian wanted to publicize it for propaganda purposes, but the two consuls, both supporters of Antony, had it censored from public view. [227] Cleopatra attempted to provide him with a military assignment, but Herod declined and traveled to Rome, where the triumvirs Octavian and Antony named him king of Judea. [419] Duane W. Roller speculates that the British Museum head, along with those in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, the Capitoline Museums, and in the private collection of Maurice Nahmen, while having similar facial features and hairstyles as the Berlin portrait but lacking a royal diadem, most likely represent members of the royal court or even Roman women imitating Cleopatra's popular hairstyle. [27][29], Cleopatra VII was born in early 69 BC to the ruling Ptolemaic pharaoh Ptolemy XII and an unknown mother,[33][34][note 13] presumably Ptolemy XII's wife Cleopatra VI Tryphaena (also known as Cleopatra V Tryphaena),[35][36][37][note 14][note 4] the mother of Cleopatra's older sister, Berenice IV Epiphaneia. Cleopatra's legacy survives in ancient and modern works of art. [127][128] Cleopatra initially sent emissaries to Caesar, but upon allegedly hearing that Caesar was inclined to having affairs with royal women, she came to Alexandria to see him personally. [184][182][185] The statue also subtly linked the Egyptian goddess Isis with the Roman religion. The name translates as "Glory of the Father", with the famous female taking on the mantle of Cleopatra VII in early 52 BC. [454] This material largely surpasses the scope and size of existent historiographic literature about her from classical antiquity and has made a greater impact on the general public's view of Cleopatra than the latter. [58][59][57][note 18] Ptolemy XII remained publicly silent on the death of his brother, a decision which, along with ceding traditional Ptolemaic territory to the Romans, damaged his credibility among subjects already enraged by his economic policies. He distinguished himself by preventing Ptolemy XII from massacring the inhabitants of Pelousion, and for rescuing the body of Archelaos, the husband of Berenice IV, after he was killed in battle, ensuring him a proper royal burial. [119][120][121] In a scheme devised by Theodotus, Pompey arrived by ship near Pelousion after being invited by a written message, only to be ambushed and stabbed to death on 28 September 48 BC. [40][500][note 81] Michael Grant asserts that there is only one known Egyptian mistress of a Ptolemy and no known Egyptian wife of a Ptolemy, further arguing that Cleopatra probably did not have any Egyptian ancestry and "would have described herself as Greek. [27][29][30] Ptolemy XI, and perhaps his uncle Ptolemy IX or father Ptolemy X Alexander I, willed the Ptolemaic Kingdom to Rome as collateral for loans, so that the Romans had legal grounds to take over Egypt, their client state, after the assassination of Ptolemy XI. "[496][note 82] Stacy Schiff writes that Cleopatra was a Macedonian Greek with some Persian ancestry, arguing that it was rare for the Ptolemies to have an Egyptian mistress. [249] By the summer of 36 BC, she had given birth to Ptolemy Philadelphus, her second son with Antony. Cleopatra VII was born in 69 B.C. [83][76], Ptolemy XII died sometime before 22 March 51 BC, when Cleopatra, in her first act as queen, began her voyage to Hermonthis, near Thebes, to install a new sacred Buchis bull, worshiped as an intermediary for the god Montu in the Ancient Egyptian religion. [176][177][178] Cleopatra's visitors at Caesar's villa across the Tiber included the senator Cicero, who found her arrogant. When Cleopatra learned that Octavian planned to bring her to his Roman triumphal procession, she killed herself by poisoning, contrary to the popular belief that she was bitten by an asp. [161][162] Caesar could have had an interest in the Nile cruise owing to his fascination with geography; he was well-read in the works of Eratosthenes and Pytheas, and perhaps wanted to discover the source of the river, but turned back before reaching Ethiopia. Octavian engaged in a war of propaganda, forced Antony's allies in the Roman Senate to flee Rome in 32 BC, and declared war on Cleopatra. [400][406][407] Detractors of this theory argue that the face in this statue is thinner than the face on the Berlin portrait and assert that it was unlikely she would be depicted as the naked goddess Venus (or the Greek Aphrodite). [216], By the spring of 40 BC, Antony left Egypt due to troubles in Syria, where his governor Lucius Decidius Saxa was killed and his army taken by Quintus Labienus, a former officer under Cassius who now served the Parthian Empire. [227] The latter had imprisoned Herod's brother and fellow tetrarch Phasael, who was executed while Herod was fleeing toward Cleopatra's court. Cleopatra I Queen of Egypt. 14176. [265][266][267] Cleopatra Selene II was bestowed with Crete and Cyrene. [138][135][140][note 35] After Caesar managed to execute Potheinos, Arsinoe IV joined forces with Achillas and was declared queen, but soon afterward had her tutor Ganymedes kill Achillas and take his position as commander of her army. The former gave a fiery speech condemning Octavian, now a private citizen without public office, and introduced pieces of legislation against him. [414] Cleopatra had actually achieved this masculine look in coinage predating her affair with Antony, such as the coins struck at the Ashkelon mint during her brief period of exile to Syria and the Levant, which Joann Fletcher explains as her attempt to appear like her father and as a legitimate successor to a male Ptolemaic ruler. [471] Also based on Shakespeare's play was Samuel Barber's opera Antony and Cleopatra (1966), commissioned for the opening of the Metropolitan Opera House. Cleopatra was not done - throwing extravagant parties and dinners for the Romans, flaunting her riches by giving away all the furniture, jewels and hangings from the soirees. [404][359][360] This portrait features the royal diadem and similar facial features as the Berlin and Vatican heads, but has a more unique hairstyle and may actually depict Cleopatra Selene II, daughter of Cleopatra. Cleopatra I of Egypt was the first of seven Egyptian queens named Cleopatra ranging from 193 until 30 BC, with the death of Antony's wife, Cleopatra VII. By association with the renowned queen of Egypt, a woman of ravishing charms which are not unattainable. [17][18][19][note 8] In contrast, Cleopatra could speak multiple languages by adulthood and was the first Ptolemaic ruler to learn the Egyptian language. [506][35] The confused accounts in ancient primary sources have also led scholars to number Ptolemy XII's wife as either Cleopatra V or Cleopatra VI; the latter may have actually been a daughter of Ptolemy XII, and some use her as an indication that Cleopatra V had died in 69 BC rather than reappearing as a co-ruler with Berenice IV in 58 BC (during Ptolemy XII's exile in Rome). [97], By 29 August 51 BC, official documents started listing Cleopatra as the sole ruler, evidence that she had rejected her brother Ptolemy XIII as a co-ruler. [332][335][331], Cleopatra decided in her last moments to send Caesarion away to Upper Egypt, perhaps with plans to flee to Kushite Nubia, Ethiopia, or India. [307][305] However, these plans were ultimately abandoned when Malichus I, as advised by Octavian's governor of Syria, Quintus Didius, managed to burn Cleopatra's fleet in revenge for his losses in a war with Herod that Cleopatra had largely initiated. You have the option of the nickname "Jill" which is an awesome name too. [165][166][167], Caesarion, Cleopatra's alleged child with Caesar, was born 23 June 47 BC and was originally named "Pharaoh Caesar", as preserved on a stele at the Serapeum of Saqqara. [72][73] Cleopatra, then 14 years of age, would have traveled with the Roman expedition into Egypt; years later, Antony would profess that he had fallen in love with her at this time. [462], In the performing arts, the death of Elizabeth I of England in 1603, and the German publication in 1606 of alleged letters of Cleopatra, inspired Samuel Daniel to alter and republish his 1594 play Cleopatra in 1607. [58][62][note 20] Berenice IV sent an embassy to Rome to advocate for her rule and oppose the reinstatement of her father Ptolemy XII, but Ptolemy had assassins kill the leaders of the embassy, an incident that was covered up by his powerful Roman supporters. [102][104] Cleopatra seems to have attempted a short-lived alliance with her brother Ptolemy XIV, but by the autumn of 50 BC Ptolemy XIII had the upper hand in their conflict and began signing documents with his name before that of his sister, followed by the establishment of his first regnal date in 49 BC. [300], In 1818 a now lost encaustic painting was discovered in the Temple of Serapis at Hadrian's Villa, near Tivoli, Lazio, Italy, that depicted Cleopatra committing suicide with an asp biting her bare chest. Cleopatra now had two surviving sisters and two younger brothers. [502][note 85] Ernle Bradford writes that Cleopatra challenged Rome not as an Egyptian woman "but as a civilized Greek.