VOYA Honor List for Nonfiction
Introduction
Cleopatra’s Killer Rep
Was
the last queen of Egypt an evil, gorgeous woman, dripping with jewels? A
power-hungry tempress trying to rule the world? A pharaoh with a small snake
problem?
How
about none of the above.
Everything
you’ve read about Queen Cleopatra VII should have come with a warning: details may have been “Photoshopped” and
manipulated beyond recognition. The Queen of the Nile had more mud flung at
her than you can dig up on the banks of that great river. From Shakespeare to
Hollywood, what you’ve seen and read about her wasn’t always completely true.
Hollywood
made her into a hot starlet because nobody wanted to see an ugly queen.
Historians turned her into a power-hungry witch because that made her story
more interesting. And her Roman conqueror, Octavian, made her into a weapon of
mass destruction in heels so he could
stomp all over Mark Antony.
Will
we ever know the “real” Cleopatra? Without her personal letters and journals,
probably not. But for the first time, modern scholars and historians are
looking at events from the queen’s point of view. What they are finding is that
Queen Cleopatra VII , the last pharaoh of Egypt, was in fact a brilliant,
complex, powerful ruler. For twenty years, she kept the world’s greatest superpower
from taking over her country—a good trick when you realize it was during the
time when Rome swallowed up countries faster than most teens use up text
minutes.
How
did she do it?
The
answer may shock and surprise you—and may even make you laugh. Either way,
you’ll get a more balanced look at Cleopatra the queen, the ruler, and mother
of four. So, on your knees, commoner. The last great queen of Egypt is about to
take the stage!
***
1
A Bookish Nerd?
She
ruled all of Egypt, had Romans trembling in their togas, and made kings weak at
the knees. Yet the glamour queen of the ancient world started out as … a
bookish nerd.
Yup, the girl whom Shakespeare likened to Venus—the
goddess of love—cared more about books than boys. At first, anyway. As a kid, Cleopatra
spent most of her time hitting the scrolls at the famous Great Library of
Alexandria.
Young Cleopatra had a good reason for being so
serious—several reasons, actually: her ambitious brothers and sisters. Life
with them was like living with a nest of squirming, hissing reality-show
stars—you never knew when one might strike. Would her older sister push
Cleopatra down the palace steps to get her out of the way? Would her younger
brothers and sister poison her afternoon snack? Or maybe, “accidentally on
purpose,” hold her head under the water a little too long while they played in
the palace pool?
See, Cleopatra’s family was not what you would exactly
call … um, loving. Yet while most of her family members cared only for their
own personal power, Cleopatra longed to bring back the glory days of her
beloved country, which was easier said than done.
Corrupt rulers and a long history of border disputes had
weakened the once powerful kingdom. By the time Cleopatra came along, Egypt was
sliding down the tubes faster than a greased-up preschooler on a Slip ’n Slide.
Turning to the Big Bad Wolf
As
Egypt declined, Pharaoh Ptolemy XII took his eleven-year-old daughter,
Cleopatra VII, on a trip to Rome—not to sightsee but to save his skin. Raging
mobs had run him off his throne and out of Alexandria. See, over the years,
Daddy Pharaoh had paid Roman generals big bucks in return for soldiers to scare
off his enemies. Only he had so many enemies, he had to “buy” more Roman
protection than he could afford. And guess who footed the bill—Egyptian
citizens, who had to pay extra taxes. When Cleopatra’s dad taxed his people to
the breaking point to pay for more Roman henchmen, they chased him out of
Alexandria faster than a band of crazed shoppers at a half-off sale.
But
although the pharaoh may have been out, he wasn’t down. Not without a fight, anyway. So he put his
kingdom into even deeper debt—this time to a private Roman loan shark—to pay
Roman armies for help in invading his own country. Yes, that’s right, he invaded his own country. It worked.
The Roman military put him back in charge. But as a result, his people hated
him more than ever.
Sidebar
“Who You Calling ‘Fatty’?”
Most
rulers want nicknames that reflect their power or glory, like Alexander the
Great or William the Conqueror.
Cleopatra’s
dad? He ended up with a nickname that probably made her cringe. The people
called him Auletes—“the Piper”—because Ptolemy (tall-oh-mee) XII liked to play the flute. They didn’t call him the
Piper in a nice way, either. Guys who played wind instruments in the ancient
world weren’t exactly considered macho.
Still,
it was better than her grandfather’s nickname. They called him Chick-pea.
Before that, the Egyptians called Cleopatra’s great-grandfather—Ptolemy
VIII—Fatty, or Physcon, because of his huge size. He needed several servants to
hold him up to waddle around the palace!
Whatever
she thought about these nicknames, Cleopatra likely had a bigger issue with the
way her father groveled at the feet of rich Romans.
Like
her dad, she knew the Egyptians needed Rome to survive. But unlike him, she was
determined to find a way to become Rome’s partner, instead of its slave.
Sidebar end
Daddy’s Girl … NOT!
While “the Piper” and Cleopatra trolled for money in
Rome, his oldest daughter, Berenice, snatched the throne and named herself
queen. Okay, we know Cleopatra was smart, but could her sister have been any
dumber?
Think
about it: most usurpers (people who steal thrones) usually have the king killed before they name themselves top dog.
Yet for some reason, Berenice didn’t. That’s why some scholars wonder if maybe
somebody else shoved her on the throne while Daddy was on the road. Or whether
she thought Daddy would be assassinated in Rome. Or even thought that angry
mobs in Egypt would tear him apart once they heard how much they would owe in
taxes to pay the Roman loan shark.
[Tax Photo? Need new one plus caption…]
Either
way, it was a dumb move, because as soon as Daddy regained control of the
throne, Berenice parted with more than her crown. She parted with her life,
too. The Piper had her pipes cut—she was executed for treason. Turns out that
Daddy the Flute Player could turn into Daddy the Destroyer without pausing for
breath.
Cleopatra
took careful note of that move, too.
Sidebar:
How We Know What We Know
[Photo 5/Plutarch. Caption:
Most of what we know about Cleopatra comes from the Romanized Greek
historian, Plutarch, who wrote about Mark Antony nearly hundred years after
Cleopatra’s death.]
Plutarch
needed to make Mark Antony—and therefore Cleopatra—look bad because he did not
want to anger the often touchy Roman Emperor(s) of his time.
Imagine
if Lex Luthor wrote Superman’s bio or Darth Vader dished on Princess Leia. You
might find yourself a little skeptical about their claims, right? You might
even find yourself doubting—if not laughing outright at—all of the insults and
snide remarks.
Yet
that’s exactly what happened to Cleopatra. Rome won, so Romans told their
version of her story. The Romans dissed and dismissed her worse than a fashion
critic at the Oscars.
Today’s scholars are not so quick to
accept everything the Romans wrote about Cleopatra. They look for proof—or at
least some evidence—that might either back up or dispute the Romans’ version of
events. More importantly, they do what the Romans found unthinkable: they give
her the respect of seeing things from her point of view.
It’s about time the great queen received the equal—if not
royal—treatment she always deserved.
End sidebar
A Gift for Gab
After the Piper snuffed his eldest daughter, he
retook the throne and went back to playing the flute. Egyptians seethed over
having to fork over even more of their hard-earned money in taxes to repay
Romans. But what could they do? The streets of Alexandria teemed with Roman
soldiers paid to keep the Piper piping and the people quiet.
[Photo 7/Homer. Caption:
Cleopatra, like all educated Greeks, would have learned to read using
Homer’s epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey.]
Meanwhile,
young Cleopatra chilled at the Great Library of Alexandria, studying science,
mathematics, philosophy, and languages. In fact, according to one ancient
source, she was the first ruler in nearly 250 years to learn and speak the
native Egyptian language!
Wait. What? How could Egyptian rulers not speak the native tongue?
Easy.
Cleopatra’s family—the Ptolemy line of Pharaohs—wasn’t Egyptian. Cleopatra
actually descended from the Greeks. Nearly 250 years earlier, Alexander the
Great invaded Egypt and put it under his rule. When he died, his general and
self-claimed half brother Ptolemy took over as pharaoh. From then on, his Greek
descendants ruled Egypt and spoke only Greek. Even Cleopatra’s name was Greek.
It just happened to be the name of Alexander the Great’s little sister.
Our Cleo had a talent for languages. In addition to Greek
and Egyptian, she spoke numerous African dialects as well as Arabic,
Aramaic, Hebrew, Latin, and Persian. But her political smarts were
even more impressive. And she couldn’t wait to put them to good use.
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2 comments:
Ooooo - I love the new paperback cover - fun! :) e
:-)
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