queen love story

The last pharaoh of Egypt and the dashing Roman general

One of romance's most famous William Shakespeare, the love story of Antony and Cleopatra is a true test of love. Read on to know the famous love story of Anthony & Cleopatra.


Some love stories are immortal. And the true love story of Antony and Cleopatra is one of the most memorable, intriguing and moving of all time. The real story of these two historical characters had later been dramatized by the maestro William Shakespeare and is still staged all over the world. The relationship of Antony and Cleopatra is a true test of love.

One of the most famous women in history, Cleopatra VII was the brilliant and beautiful last Pharaoh of Egypt. The woman was legendary not only for its breathtaking beauty, but also for his great intelligence. She was responsible in nine languages ​​and was also a skilled mathematician. She is often seen as a beautiful seductress though she was studying to become a nun. She became the mistress of the famous emperor Julius Caesar. After he was killed, she was accused of being party to Ceaser's assassination, for there was a rumor in Rome that Cleopatra had given help to Cassius, one of the murderers of Caesar .

The situation has reached such a head that Caesar's successor and best friend Mark Anthony, the current emperor of Rome, Cleopatra summoned to explain to his headquarters in Anatolia. In the spring of the year 41 BC. she crossed the Mediterranean to see him.

But as she saw Marc Antony, she fell in love with him, and he with her, almost instantly.Sometime later the emperor accepted her invitation to visit his arrival in Egypt and Alexandria in time to spend a winter fun.

The relationship between these two powerful people to the land of Egypt in a strong position. But their love affair outraged the Romans who were wary of the growing powers of the Egyptians. Despite all threats, Antony and Cleopatra got married at Antioch (in Syria) in 36 BC.

Together, Antony and Cleopatra, formed a formidable ruling power. They were now openly together and openly a team against Octavian, Antony's rival for power in Rome.As a Roman general with a powerful army in the eastern provinces, Antony gave his new wife a spectacular wedding present - much of the Middle East. In 34 BC, he declared Cleopatra the Queen of Kings and Caesarion King of Kings, jointly ruling over Egypt and Cyprus and joint lords of the realms of other children.

In the tradition of many eastern monarchies, Cleopatra and Antony began presenting themselves as divine. For the Greeks appeared as Dionysus and Aphrodite, to Egyptians as Osiris and Isis.


But Octavian, Antony's rival in power, had had enough of him. It was a blood relative of Ceaser. how could he bear to see Antony place of his uncle? In 31 BC, he declared war against Antony. The battle between the forces of Octavian and Antony and Cleopatra took place at Actium, Greece, Sept. 2 31.


The exact line of the battle is not known, but it says that if a battle at Actium, Antony got false news of the death of Cleopatra. Shattered, he fell on his sword. He also said that Antony escaped to Egypt with Cleopatra when their fortunes in the war turned against them. But the royal couple could not escape misfortune. The following year, when Octavian arrived in Egypt with his army, Antony had to commit suicide to escape imprisonment. When Cleopatra learned of the death of Anthony, she was shocked. It was taken a prisoner of Octavian, restricted by his bodyguards at a party of his own palace. Shattered by the death of her husband and his captivity with the help of some loyal subjects, she arranged for a small poisonous snake, a viper, smuggling in his quarters in a basket of figs.

Then, Cleopatra ordered her chambermaids to leave her. She put on her royal robes, lied on a bed of gold, and applied to the ASP from his chest. A little later she was found dead.

Great love demands great sacrifices. The love of Antony and Cleopatra epitomize that love is another name for sacrifice.

queen death

Female heads of state are few and far between throughout history, but when a woman rises to power, she leaves her mark. Cleopatra, arguably the most famous woman of the ancient world, was Queen of Egypt and lived from 70 or 69 B.C.E. to 30 B.C.E. Her legacy extends through history and legend, and she remains firmly entrenched as an icon of brilliance, seduction, and tragedy.

It is her tragic death that has mesmerized historians and inspired artists through the ages. Supposedly by inflicting the bite of an asp or cobra, Cleopatra committed suicide after the death of her last lover Mark Antony of Rome and the defeat of their armies. The dramatic image of the beautiful queen withering beneath the fangs of a snake has long symbolized the anguish of total defeat after losing a bid for power.

The stakes had always been high for Cleopatra. She was a daughter of the long established Ptolemy Dynasty that had ruled Egypt since the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.E. The Ptolemies were Macedonian Greeks, and Cleopatra would have described herself as Greek. Despite being an Egyptian Queen, she was not of Egyptian blood.

Cleopatra ruled during a time when Rome was the ultimate force of power in the Mediterranean world, but the three-thousand-year-old Egyptian civilization, although waning, remained wealthy and significant. Through diplomacy and her long affair with Julius Caesar, Cleopatra worked to maintain a measure of independence for Egypt and power for herself and her dynasty. After the death of Caesar, her romantic alliance switched to his supporter Mark Antony. Together, Cleopatra and Antony challenged Rome, now under the leadership of Octavian, for control of the eastern Mediterranean. Their disastrous defeat at the Battle of Actium sent them retreating to Egypt to await the final wrath of Octavian as he pursued his rivals.

Ironically, the victories of mighty Rome had left its treasuries spent, and Octavian had disgruntled armies on his hands. A ruler of Rome needs his armies on his side if he wishes to remain in power, and Octavian quite desperately needed to finish off Cleopatra and Antony and seize the treasure of the Egyptian monarchy. Cleopatra possessed the last great treasure outside of Roman control. The wealth of the Dynasty of the Ptolemies was described by the historian Plutarch as consisting of gold, silver, emeralds, pearls, ebony, ivory, and cinnamon. With Octavian's armies restless, Cleopatra hoped to eventually prevail if she could hold out long enough for Octavian to be undermined by his unpaid military. Trying to play time to her advantage, Cleopatra attempted to avoid Octavian with various diplomatic overtures and plots of escaping to the east, but everything failed. Octavian's determined forces eventually arrived at Alexandria and Mark Antony's forces surrendered or deserted in despair on the first of August 30 B.C.E. Antony's death soon followed, and Cleopatra barricaded herself in her mausoleum with her treasure that was surrounded by firewood and kindling. Octavian, terribly worried that she would destroy most of the badly needed treasure with fire, managed to get people in the mausoleum through an upper window. Cleopatra was taken captive and her treasure seized by Rome.

With her lover and ally Antony defeated and dead, Cleopatra was bereft of authority and Egypt's wealth was plundered. She died on August 12th of poison. Cleopatra was described as being in her royal robes upon a golden couch with a diadem on her brow. Two loyal servants shared in her death. The exact nature of how she poisoned herself is not known. The story of how she put a poisonous snake to her breast won out over other versions. Such a death allowed for a stunning and romantic conclusion to a remarkable life, and it corresponded with the Goddess Isis with whom Cleopatra associated herself. Isis is often depicted with a snake coiled around her divine arm.

The politically savvy Cleopatra outmaneuvered the full grasp of Rome as long as she could, but her struggle has charmed historians ever since. Cleopatra will always be known as an ancient queen who played upon a chessboard with mighty men. She did not win, but millions of people even thousands of years later still speak her name - an honor many Pharaohs would envy

queen cleopatra

Cleopatra! What a life! What a woman! What a nose! Like all the greats, she is known to one and all simply by the one name. Her's was a life that was set to dominate world events in the most dramatic of fashions. I blame the parents, from the day she graced the world with her presence, she was informed that she was a goddess, she believed herself to be divine. There were going to be stormy waters ahead. She was the first of the great Divas, her modern sisters Beyonce, Britney and Mariah pale in comparison. Perhaps she influenced them, but she took her influence from the gods themselves, using Isis and Aphrodite as her blueprints. Reinventing herself more than Madonna, Cleopatra was her own best publicist/historian, she had a mood and a costume for every occasion, enchanting the masses with mighty pageantry.

She is one of the most enduring figures in history, yet she is also one of the most elusive. Bizarrely and maddeningly, we still do not know what she actually looked like. Her beauty is feted but other accounts assert her to be beautiful as opposed to a beauty, we have no idea, we are not even certain whether she looked Greek or Egyptian. Much of the blame for the lack of sources can be apportioned to Octavian who ordered that all images of her be destroyed, he also spread tales about her which blurs the line between fact and fiction regarding her.

We know it began hairy, her beauty was a product of the union of a brother and sister, dodgy beginnings to say the least. At the tender age of eighteen, Cleopatra became joint monarch of Egypt along with her twelve year old brother, Ptolemy XIII who she bizarrely later married. Cleopatra didn't like to share anything, she attempted to depose of her younger brother/husband, but in the end it was her who was left fleeing the country with her younger sister. Gone but not for good, she spent her exile in the desert rallying Arab tribes to her cause. Meanwhile, however things were going a tad pear shaped back in Alexandria for Ptolemy XIII. Four thousand Roman legionnaires arrived in the port, led by none other than Julius Caesar himself. Ptolemy fled lively, Julius moved into the palace and began doling out orders. Cleopatra however, was not going to be so easily jilted; famously she smuggled her way into the palace in a rolled carpet. As it was unfurled, the beautiful Cleopatra gracefully emerged, capturing an audience with Caesar and his heart. Ptolemy was understandably rather furious; he had lost his sister, co-ruler, wife and kingdom. He waged war on Alexandria, it proved to be a rash decision, he lost the war and found himself at the bottom of the Nile.

Cleopatra was now the sole ruler of Egypt, albeit with serious Roman backing. Caesar believed that he would be able to use her as a puppet, he had obviously not really got to know her that well. She willingly married her eleven year old brother, Ptolemy XIV to appease the Alexandrian lobby whilst at the same time becoming pregnant in a hurry by Caesar. Their son, Ptolemy Caesar was born in 47 BCE, he became better known as Caesarion meaning Little Caesar. The little guy was something of a pawn between the two, Cleopatra realised that she required the support of Rome to keep her in control of Egypt, while Caesar had seen at first hand how the Egyptian people worshipped Cleopatra, that together they could unite Rome and Egypt and that Little Caesar would rule the whole shebang. However, it definitely was not solely a marriage of convenience, for Caesar brought his mistress back to Rome, although it shocked society, for Caesar was already married. He established her in his home, where she lived in rather a rock and roll fashion. She fashioned herself as the new Isis, refused to worship Roman gods, lived in opulence and basically scandalized Rome. The celebrity couple's exuberance was cut short however, with the assassination of Julius in 44 BCE by a conspiracy of Roman senators. Cleopatra fled Rome with the four year old Caesarion. She was in a perilous position, Caesar had not made any provisions for her, she returned to an Egypt that was ravaged by plague and famine. But Cleopatra was nothing if not capable, she quickly set about murdering her brother Ptolemy XIV and establishing herself and her cherished Little Caesar as co-regents.

In the wake of Julius Caesar's assassination, Rome was flung into a bloody battle of succession with Mark Antony's Second Triumvirate (consisting of he, Octavian and Lepidua) emerging victorious. He summoned Cleopatra to Tarsus in modern day Turkey under the dubious pretext of quizzing her about her loyalty. Cleopatra seized upon the opportunity, she arrived in the port of Tarsus with a magnificent fleet, sporting silver oars and purple sails. Cleopatra ensured that she made maximum impact, dressed as Aphrodite, being fanned by Erotes clad boys and Neried handmaidens. It worked, Mark Antony was bowled over, falling deeply in love with the Egyptian Queen. Cleopatra had marked him well, he was fond of wine and women, was vain, setting himself up as Dionysus and claiming to be ancestor of Hercules. The meeting became more than the cementing of a political alliance, it burgeoned into a marriage of two gods, their union would indeed change the order of the universe. Once again, Cleopatra brought the most powerful man in Rome back to Alexandria, once again he did favours for her (including killing her sister Aristone) and once again she fell pregnant quickly, giving birth to twins in 40 BCE, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene.

Mark Antony though had learnt well from the mistakes of Julius Caesar, he returned to his wife, Fulvia in Rome, leaving Cleopatra in Egypt, the two would not meet again for four years. Fulvia brought her own problems however, she had fallen foul of Octavian, but somewhat fortunately she died, giving Mark Anthony the opportunity to patch things ups with Octavian by marrying his sister, Octavia Minor. However, it was obvious that Mark Anthony was still quite smitten by Cleopatra, for when he went to war with the Parthians, he sent for her to meet him at Antioch. They exchanged gifts, Mark Anthony giving Cleopatra huge tracts of land while she opened up her bounteous coffers to him. In the subsequent war however, Mark Antony was fairly battered, he fell into the open and protective arms of Cleopatra, returning to Egypt with her in 35BCE, spurning Octavia who remained loyal to him and making Octavian furious. The die was cast, Mark Antony decided there was no going back, he married Cleopatra and at the Donations of Alexandria he began doling out parts of the Eastern Roman Empire between her and her children. Cleopatra never one to be behind the door, began to set her sights on becoming Empress of the world.

However, Octavian beat the lard out of Mark Antony at Actium in Greece and then pursued his retreating forces into Egypt. Mark Antony, believing Cleopatra to be dead, killed himself; Cleopatra followed suit a few days later preferring death than to see the Romans march victoriously through the streets of Alexandria. To the end she remained enchanting, calling for an asp to be brought to her, the Egyptian religion proclaimed that death by a snakebite would secure immortality. Her death marked the end of the Egyptian Monarchs, and so a culture that had spanned thousands of years ended, Egypt was conquered and inaugurated as a province into the Eastern Roman Empire. Cleopatra was the last Pharaoh of Egypt.

Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland.