THE CLEOPATRAS

A new look at the legendary queen and her equally legendary family.

The iconic female figure of the ancient world, Queen Cleopatra has caught the attention of luminaries from Plutarch to Shakespeare to Elizabeth Taylor, as well as a steady stream of biographers, but even history buffs may be surprised to learn that there were seven Egyptian queens with that name. Llewellyn-Jones, the chair in ancient history at Cardiff University and author of Persians, reminds readers that upon the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C., his massive conquests broke up into three parts: Macedonia, the Seleucid Empire, and Egypt, each ruled by a former Alexandrine general. Ptolemy I Soter and his successors ruled Egypt. The author passes quickly over the first century of what is now known as the Hellenistic era until 192 B.C. when the Seleucid emperor sent his daughter to marry Ptolemy V of Egypt to seal a diplomatic agreement. She became Cleopatra I and gave birth to Cleopatra II, ancestor of the remaining Cleopatras, all of whom married Ptolemies. Llewellyn-Jones agrees that the last Cleopatra deserves her prominence, but her predecessors were no slouches. He adds that the 150 years after 192 was a golden age for royal women in Egypt, when queens transcended traditional gender roles. Readers seeking to learn about Hellenistic people and culture will have chosen the wrong book. This is traditional great-men-and-politics history, although one in which the great men’s wives were as powerful as—and often more competent than—their husbands. Generous with family trees, Llewellyn-Jones works hard and often successfully to distinguish between a plethora of Cleopatras and Ptolemies and a dizzying series of wars, intrigues, and deadly family quarrels that ended only when Rome, always a looming power, took over in 30 B.C.

An authoritative portrait of the tempestuous but impressive Cleopatra dynasty.