CLEOPATRA

"CLEOPATRA": kohl and vipers, barges and thrones, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. We have long been schooled in the myth of the Egyptian ruler. In his new book Michel Chauveau brings us a picture of her firmly based in reality.

Cleopatra VII reigned in Egypt between 51 and 30 B.C.E. Her primary goal as a ruler was to restore over the eastern Mediterranean the supremacy of the Lagides, the dynasty of Macedonian origin of which she herself was a descendant. We know the queen best from Greek and Latin sources, though these must be used with caution because of their bias. Understandably, they reflect not only matters of interest to Romans but also the propaganda that Octavian used against the queen during his struggles with Mark Antony. Chauveau combines his knowledge of Egyptian sources with judicious use of classical materials to produce an authoritative biography of Cleopatra, the woman and queen, seen in the light of the turbulent era in which she lived.

In the history of our Western world, few figures have left as distinctive a mark on the collective imagination as the last queen of ancient Egypt. In fact, Cleopatra was one of the few women who have been a dominant factor in the political events of their times. Furthermore, since fortune had it that Rome's imperial regime was born from her defeat; Cleopatra played the role, as unique as it was involuntary, of link between the Hellenistic and the Roman worlds. But that alone does not explain the singular fascination she has continuously exerted from antiquity to our own day. This fascination renews itself with every change in lit­erary and artistic preoccupation, whether the subject is treated as an ethical commonplace or as a fantastical symbol.

Although the biographies of Cleopatra written since the nine­teenth century‑‑‑some aiming at objectivity and some to one de­gree or another fictional‑have been numerous, they have ap­parently not exhausted the public interest. But this profusion conceals a gap: We do not in fact have any ancient account of her reign, not even a simple biographical summary! To be sure, she appears frequently in Greek and`Latin accounts from the last four centuries of antiquity, but these are mere mentions that never constitute the principal focus of the works.

Such a situation is far from rare in classical historiography: only a tiny portion of the works of the ancient historians, biographers, and annalists has survived to our day, that portion which the epitomizers, the compilers, and the scribal workshops of late classical antiquity deigned to transmit to us. This is why entire areas of ancient history have fallen into oblivion. Such selectivity was not, however, a matter of chance. The center always had precedence over the periphery: for example, the internal affairs of Rome are treated at length, while the history of the states conquered by Rome are reported only from the perspective of their defeat. For its part, Christian apologetics contributed to the choice of the authors and texts that were preserved. The necessity of having a historical counterpoint to the books of the New Testament led to the preservation of the works of Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian allied with the Romans, a circumstance that renders us better informed about the affairs of Palestine at the time of Christ than about those of the rest of the Mediterranean world, with the exception of Rome.

From the purely historical point of view, Cleopatra is thus but an empty figure without an existence of her own, the privileged but ever subordinate partner in the lives of her contemporaries: Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Octavian, and even Herod, king of the Jews. Still, the evocative richness of the rare anecdotes concerning her have gone far to compensate for the lack of a continuous narrative, even shedding a particular light on her person that a fuller integration into the thread of history would inevitably have dimmed, a fact that partly explains the popularity she has enjoyed with posterity.

Recounting the life of Cleopatra always entails the risk of saying more about her contemporaries than about her, more about Rome or Asia Minor than about Egypt, more about her dreams than about the real person. These pitfalls are difficult to avoid: What would Cleopatra have been without Caesar and Antony at a time when Egypt was scarcely more than a satellite of Rome?

An account of the queen's personality would not suffice to explain her exceptional destiny, which cannot be separated from its historical and cultural context. Moreover, even before her life was over, she had already been swallowed up in her myth. The origin and development of this myth are incredibly complex, and history alone cannot furnish all the keys to it. We shall therefore attempt to exorcise the myth and to reduce the person of Cleopatra to the facts‑that is, to what the ancient writers reported and to what we learn from contemporary documents. Since the former abound in contradictions and improbabilities, and the latter have often been the object of risky or even contradictory interpretations, readers will understand that this apparently modest goal could easily constitute a foolhardy enterprise. They will therefore more easily pardon the limits of this modest work, which will have achieved its aim if it does nothing more than undermine the certitudes and clichés that have been spread by an abundant but too often complaisant literature.

 Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth by Michel Chauveau, translated by David Lorton (Cornell University Press) "CLEOPATRA": kohl and vipers, barges and thrones, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. We have long been schooled in the myth of the Egyptian ruler. In his new book Michel Chauveau brings us a picture of her firmly based in reality.

Cleopatra VII reigned in Egypt between 51 and 30 B.C.E. Her primary goal as a ruler was to restore over the eastern Mediterranean the supremacy of the Lagides, the dynasty of Macedonian origin of which she herself was a descendant. We know the queen best from Greek and Latin sources, though these must be used with caution because of their bias. Understandably, they reflect not only matters of interest to Romans but also the propaganda that Octavian used against the queen during his struggles with Mark Antony. Chauveau combines his knowledge of Egyptian sources with judicious use of classical materials to produce an authoritative biography of Cleopatra, the woman and queen, seen in the light of the turbulent era in which she lived.

 In the history of our Western world, few figures have left as distinctive a mark on the collective imagination as the last queen of ancient Egypt. In fact, Cleopatra was one of the few women who have been a dominant factor in the political events of their times. Furthermore, since fortune had it that Rome's imperial regime was born from her defeat; Cleopatra played the role, as unique as it was involuntary, of link between the Hellenistic and the Roman worlds. But that alone does not explain the singular fascination she has continuously exerted from antiquity to our own day. This fascination renews itself with every change in lit­erary and artistic preoccupation, whether the subject is treated as an ethical commonplace or as a fantastical symbol.

Although the biographies of Cleopatra written since the nine­teenth century‑‑‑some aiming at objectivity and some to one de­gree or another fictional‑have been numerous, they have ap­parently not exhausted the public interest. But this profusion conceals a gap: We do not in fact have any ancient account of her reign, not even a simple biographical summary! To be sure, she appears frequently in Greek and Latin accounts from the last four centuries of antiquity, but these are mere mentions that never constitute the principal focus of the works.

Such a situation is far from rare in classical historiography: only a tiny portion of the works of the ancient historians, biographers, and annalists has survived to our day, that portion which the epitomizers, the compilers, and the scribal workshops of late classical antiquity deigned to transmit to us. This is why entire areas of ancient history have fallen into oblivion. Such selectivity was not, however, a matter of chance. The center always had precedence over the periphery: for example, the internal affairs of Rome are treated at length, while the history of the states conquered by Rome are reported only from the perspective of their defeat. For its part, Christian apologetics contributed to the choice of the authors and texts that were preserved. The necessity of having a historical counterpoint to the books of the New Testament led to the preservation of the works of Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian allied with the Romans, a circumstance that renders us better informed about the affairs of Palestine at the time of Christ than about those of the rest of the Mediterranean world, with the exception of Rome.

From the purely historical point of view, Cleopatra is thus but an empty figure without an existence of her own, the privileged but ever subordinate partner in the lives of her contemporaries: Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Octavian, and even Herod, king of the Jews. Still, the evocative richness of the rare anecdotes concerning her have gone far to compensate for the lack of a continuous narrative, even shedding a particular light on her person that a fuller integration into the thread of history would inevitably have dimmed, a fact that partly explains the popularity she has enjoyed with posterity.

Recounting the life of Cleopatra always entails the risk of saying more about her contemporaries than about her, more about Rome or Asia Minor than about Egypt, more about her dreams than about the real person. These pitfalls are difficult to avoid: What would Cleopatra have been without Caesar and Antony at a time when Egypt was scarcely more than a satellite of Rome?

An account of the queen's personality would not suffice to explain her exceptional destiny, which cannot be separated from its historical and cultural context. Moreover, even before her life was over, she had already been swallowed up in her myth. The origin and development of this myth are incredibly complex, and history alone cannot furnish all the keys to it. We shall therefore attempt to exorcise the myth and to reduce the person of Cleopatra to the facts‑that is, to what the ancient writers reported and to what we learn from contemporary documents. Since the former abound in contradictions and improbabilities, and the latter have often been the object of risky or even contradictory interpretations, readers will understand that this apparently modest goal could easily constitute a foolhardy enterprise. They will therefore more easily pardon the limits of this modest work, which will have achieved its aim if it does nothing more than undermine the certitudes and clichés that have been spread by an abundant but too often complaisant literature.

 Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth edited by Susan Walker and Peter Higgs (Princeton University Press) This lavishly illustrated catalogue coincides with a major international exhibition celebrating images of Cleopatra. It explores how she was depicted during her own era, in works ranging from coins to life-size sculpture. Exciting new discoveries are featured--including seven Egyptian-style statues believed to represent Cleopatra, and two portraits probably commissioned while she was living in Rome with Julius Caesar. The book also examines interpretations of Cleopatra from the Renaissance to modern times, as seen in paintings, ceramics, jewelry, plays, operas, and film. In addition, recent archaeological finds from Alexandria (Cleopatra's capital) and from Rome illustrate aspects of life in Cleopatra's day

This large, able book tries to pin down the hard to pin down character and puzzling story of the intriguing woman who ruled Egypt from 51-30 B.C. . . . It is the book's color plates and illustrations, however, that delivers its verve, an liveliness as potent, as energetic, and as intriguing as Cleopatra herself has been for twenty-one centuries."--

Fabled for her sexual allure and cunning intelligence, Cleopatra VII of Egypt has fascinated generations of admirers and detractors since her tumultuous life ended in suicide in 30 B.C. The last of the Ptolemaic monarchs who had ruled Egypt for three centuries, Cleopatra created her own mythology. She became an icon in her own lifetime and a legend after her death.

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