Important+People+-+Cleopatra

Cleopatra
__**Who is Cleopatra**__ Cleopatra was a very intelligent and caring young lady. She was married to her brother, Ptolemy XIII, but she also had an affair with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, she then married another one of her brothers, Ptolemy XIV.

__**Cleopatra’s life**__ Cleopatra was of Greek ancestry, but she was of the Ptolemy family that was put on the throne in Egypt after Alexander the Great’s conquest. Because they wanted only royal blood, Cleopatra had to marry her younger brother, Ptolemy XIII.

Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria in 48 B.C. to find his rival Pompey. When Cleopatra heard that Caesar was there she asked her attendants to bring her to him in a rug for a present. Caesar, 52 years old, was mesmerized by her charm, so he helped her get the throne back from her brother. Ptolemy XIII was drowned and Cleopatra was made a joint ruler with another of her little borthers, Ptolemy XIV by Caesar.

Cleopatra had Caesars son, she named him Caesarion, which in Latin meant ‘Little Caesar’. When Caesar traveled back to rome, Cleopatra followed and lived in his villa. After Caesars assassination though, she went back to Alexandria, in that space of time Ptolemy XIV died and it was said that Cleopatra poisoned him.

__**The war between Mark Antony and Octavian**__ After the death of Caesar a civil war broke out and the Roman Empire was divided into two. Mark Antony, ruler of the Eastern Empire, called Cleopatra to answer the charge of helping his enemy. To make an impression, Cleopatra went to meet Mark Antony dressed as Venus, traveling on a river barge. Mark Antony, fascinated by her, like Caesar had been, followed Cleopatra back to Alexandria. After spending a winter with Cleopatra, Mark Antony went back to Rome and married Octavia, the sister of Octavian, but he still loved Cleopatra.

When Mark Antony went east again he married Cleopatra, but that action angered Octavian, so Octavian declared war on the both of them. Mark Antony and Cleopatra managed to get 500 ships but Octavian blocked all of them. She and Mark Antony managed to get through while all the rest of their fleet surrendered, all of this happened in 31B.C.

__**The death of Cleopatra**__ The next year, Octavian went to Alexandria and defeated Mark Antony once again. After his defeat he got news that Cleopatra was dead, so he committed suicide. The information that he got was wrong, though, and Cleopatra was still alive so he went to her and died in her arms. After that Cleopatra was so traumatized that she committed suicide as well, it was said that she killed herself in the traditional way, with a poisonous Asp snake. That was the end of the mighty Cleopatra, queen of Egypt.

Works Cited

"Cleopatra." Compton's by Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 7 Nov. 2007 .

Britannica School. 5 Nov. 2007 .

Eypt Giftshop. 6 Nov. 2007 .

Holland, Barbara. "Cleopatra: What Kind of Woman Was She, Anyway?" SIRS Knowledge Source. Feb. 1997. SIR. 1 Nov. 2007 .

Book Nardo, Don. The Age of Augustus. N.p.: Lucent Books, 1997.