Will the real Cleopatra please stand up?

Cleopatra VII Philopator was born in 69 BC in Alexandria, the capital of Egypt under Macedonian rule since the arrival of Alexander the Great.

She belonged to the Ptolemaic dynasty, a family of Greek origin that governed Egypt following the division of Alexander’s empire after his death in 323 BC.

Her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes, depended heavily on Roman military and financial backing to maintain control of his kingdom, and this tie between Rome and Egypt influenced Cleopatra’s future strategies. 

She inherited the throne in 51 BC, ruling jointly with her younger brother Ptolemy XIII, who also became her husband according to Egyptian royal custom.

The co-regency quickly fell into civil war, and after being forced into exile, Cleopatra later returned with the assistance of Julius Caesar.

With Caesar’s military support, she defeated her brother’s forces at the Battle of the Nile in 47 BC, reclaimed her throne, and secured her position as Egypt’s sole ruler.

Ptolemy XIII drowned while fleeing the battle, which removed a key rival. She gave birth to Caesar’s son, Caesarion, formally named Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar, who would become her co-ruler in name while she held real authority.

While Egypt officially recognised Caesarion as the son of Julius Caesar, Rome never accepted this claim. 

During the years that followed, Cleopatra increased her diplomatic efforts to preserve Egypt’s independence while Roman power grew.

After Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC, she allied herself with Mark Antony, forming both a political agreement and a personal relationship that eventually led to conflict with Octavian, the future Augustus.

She and Antony lost the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and both died in 30 BC, after Octavian’s forces entered Egypt.

Cleopatra’s death finally ended the Ptolemaic dynasty after which Egypt was fully annexed into the Roman Empire. 

When trying to discover who the 'real' Cleopatra was, there are several problems that arise with the surviving primary sources.

These issues make it challenging to paint an accurate and unbiased picture of her life and character.

There are very few surviving primary sources from Cleopatra's own time that provide direct information about her life and reign.

Many of the contemporary accounts have been lost, leaving only fragments, quotations, and references in later works.

This scarcity of sources limits our understanding of Cleopatra's perspective and experiences.

Those writers that have survived were written by her enemies or by Roman historians who lived several decades after her death.

These accounts, such as those by Plutarch, Cassius Dio, and Suetonius, often portray Cleopatra in a negative light, emphasizing her seductive and manipulative qualities to serve their own political agendas.

As a result, these sources tend to present a one-sided and biased view of her character.

What we would really love is to have any writings from Cleopatra herself. Sadly, however, there are no surviving personal writings or documents authored directly by her.

Sources such as letters or diaries could provide direct insight into her thoughts, feelings, and motivations.

This absence of first-hand accounts leaves us with a limited and mediated view of her character, filtered through the perspectives of others.

These problems with the surviving primary sources make it difficult to construct a definitive, unbiased portrait of the 'real' Cleopatra.

Roman accounts often described Cleopatra as a seductress who manipulated powerful Roman men with her looks and charm.

The story of her first meeting with Julius Caesar, in which she allegedly smuggled herself into the palace wrapped in a carpet, became one of the best-known legends about her.

Though probably invented or exaggerated, the tale appealed to Roman readers because it painted Cleopatra as clever and theatrical. 

Writers such as Plutarch and Dio Cassius focused more on her personal relationships than on her political abilities, implying that she used attraction to secure power.

Roman unease about eastern wealth and luxury supported this image, and Cleopatra became a symbol of moral weakness that threatened Roman traditions.

Octavian’s propaganda during his civil war with Antony only strengthened this view, portraying her as the true enemy and accusing Antony of betraying Rome under her influence. 

Later portrayals simply repeated this image. During the Renaissance and later centuries, painters, poets, and dramatists presented Cleopatra as the ultimate femme fatale.

Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra turned her into a dramatic figure whose attraction led to disaster, while in modern film, this same version of Cleopatra reappeared with added glamour, linking her power to her sexuality.

Famous portrayals by Theda Bara (1917), Claudette Colbert (1934), Elizabeth Taylor (1963), and Adele James (2023) show how her image has been repeatedly updated to match changing ideas of women and power. 

Cleopatra’s death became a symbol of resistance and self-choice in the face of defeat, since she died after her kingdom had been overrun and her political allies lost.

Roman accounts described her suicide as both dramatic and political, and many included the detail that she died from an asp bite, although the true method is still unknown. 

Writers in later centuries turned her into a tragic heroine whose fall came from events beyond her control, even though she became the last ruler of a fading dynasty who refused submission.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, European writers and artists turned her story into a narrative of lost greatness and heroic sacrifice.

In this version, Cleopatra’s emotion, loyalty to Antony, and will to die rather than face captivity made her appear noble. 

In the 20th century, popular culture continued to romanticise her death. Films, novels, and stage works often presented her final moments as the climax of a doomed love story.

These portrayals stressed her personal tragedy while largely ignoring the political impact of her choices or the real difficulties of her rule.

In fact, theories about her tomb have focused on sites such as the Temple of Taposiris Magna near Alexandria, where excavations continue in search of her burial place. 

Historical evidence shows that Cleopatra ruled effectively in a time of serious unrest and outside threats.

She governed a wealthy and culturally varied kingdom, carried out measures to stabilise Egypt’s economy, and kept control for more than twenty years.

Her ability to hold power in a male-dominated world required both intelligence and adaptability.

She received a strong education in the Greek tradition, studying philosophy, astronomy, and medicine, and she reportedly spoke as many as nine languages, including Egyptian. 

What is more, she took part actively in religious life, visited temples, and used titles connecting her to Egyptian gods.

These acts helped her reach out to her Egyptian subjects, even though she came from a Greek-speaking family.

She used coins, buildings, and ceremonies to show authority and secure loyalty from both Greek and Egyptian groups. 

Her ties with Caesar and Antony, though often told as romances, can be seen as calculated political decisions.

She needed military protection and Roman backing to preserve Egypt’s independence, and she offered wealth, food supplies, and strategic territory in exchange.

Her plans went much further than simple survival, as she and Antony aimed at expansion and gave their children claims over lands in the eastern Mediterranean.

During the Donations of Alexandria in 34 BC, Antony publicly handed eastern lands to their children, an action that pushed Octavian into war.

These plans ultimately led to Octavian’s anger, but they also show that Cleopatra sought to influence events rather than simply respond to them. 

Some historians question whether Cleopatra truly had full control over her ties with Rome.

According to this interpretation, she may have misread the political struggles inside Rome and relied too much on Antony’s ability to defeat Octavian.

Her belief that an eastern alliance could restore Egypt underestimated the unity of Octavian’s support at home. 

This view stresses Cleopatra’s limited knowledge of Roman domestic politics. She had dealt successfully with Caesar and other Roman leaders, but her final conflict with Octavian was a very different kind of struggle.

Unlike her earlier alliance with Caesar, which gave her protection and stability, her tie to Antony attached her fate to a man who was already losing power in Rome.

Their shared defeat removed all chances of recovery. After Octavian’s victory, Caesarion was captured and killed, likely on his orders, ending any remaining challenge to Augustus. 

This perspective does not lessen Cleopatra’s intelligence or determination, but it presents her as a ruler who made a fatal mistake in a harsh and changing political world.

Her death, in this view, was not a heroic gesture or a statement of identity. Instead, it was an act of despair in response to the loss of everything she had tried to keep. 

Over the centuries, Cleopatra’s image has been reworked by every age that reconsidered her story.

Roman writers turned her into a symbol of foreign danger and moral weakness, while medieval writers used her as an example in lessons about sin and virtue.

During the Renaissance, she became an icon of beauty and tragedy, and in modern times, she has appeared in feminist studies, postcolonial debates, and global popular culture. 

Each portrayal reflected the values and fears of its time. During ages of empire-building, she was used as a warning about the danger of eastern power.

In periods focused on freedom and women’s roles, she became a figure of independence and strength.

As a result, filmmakers, artists, and historians continue to picture her through modern debates about race, power, and gender.

Interestingly, recent underwater digs in Alexandria have uncovered ruins that may have been part of her royal palace, long submerged after ancient earthquakes and waves, adding more evidence to the study of her reign. 

This constant reinvention has kept Cleopatra in the public imagination, and her ability to act as a canvas for new cultural ideas ensures that she is one of the most well-known figures in ancient history, even though the evidence about her is still uncertain. 

Cleopatra left no writings, personal statements, or records of her thoughts and goals.

As such, coins, inscriptions, and ruins only give us clues to her rule, but they do not tell us about her character.

Roman accounts survive in large numbers, yet they were guided by politics and cultural prejudice.

Without new discoveries, such as her tomb or a text from her time in Egyptian sources, the search for a complete Cleopatra may never be solved. 

Regardless, historians continue to build her story by comparing Roman records with archaeology and other sources of evidence.

Each interpretation suggests new possibilities, but none can claim certainty. The Cleopatra of history is still unclear, hidden behind centuries of retelling. 

Each attempt to describe the “real” Cleopatra says as much about our own world as it does about hers.

Her identity has been rewritten so many times that she now belongs to several traditions, none of which can fully define her.