Cleopatra

Clĕŏpātră (on the ā cf. Juv. 2, 109; Luc. 9, 1071; 10, 56; Stat. S. 3, 2, 120), ae, f., = Κλεοπάτρα.

• Queen of Egypt, and daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, notorious for her amorous intercourse with Caesar, and afterwards with Antony; conquered at Actium by Augustus, Caes. B. C. 3, 103; 3, 107; Suet. Caes. 35; Luc. 10, 354 sqq.; Val. Fl. 4, 464; Mart. 4, 22, 2; 4, 59, 5.—Hence,
• • B Clĕŏpātrānus, a, um, adj., of or pertaining to Cleopatra: stirps, Treb. Poll. Claud. 1: uniones, id. Trig. Syr. 32.—
• II A sister of Alexander the Great, and wife of Alexander, king of Epirus, Liv. 8, 24, 17; Just. 9, 6, 1; 13, 6, 4 al.—
• III A daughter of Mithridates, and wife of Tigranes, Just. 38, 3, 3.—
• IV A daughter of I., Just. 39, 3, 1; 39, 4, 7.

Cleopatra, ae, f. (Κλεοπάτρα), I) Tochter Philipps von Mazedonien u. der Olympias, Gemahlin Alexanders I. von Epirus, Liv. 8, 24 extr. Iustin. 9, 6 u.a. – II) Tochter des Mithridates, Gemahlin des Tigranes, Iustin. 37, 3. – III) die durch ihren buhlerischen Umgang mit Cäsar u. später mit Antonius berüchtigte letzte Königin von Ägypten, älteste Tochter des Ptolemäus Auletes, Caes. b. c. 3, 103. Vell. 2, 82, 85 u. 87: über ihre Verschwendung s. Plin. 9, 119 sqq. – Plur., Cleopatrarum Ptolemaeorumque gens (Geschlecht), Treb. Poll. trig. tyr. 30, 2. – Dav. Cleopatrānus, a, um, von der Kleopatra herrührend, der Kleopatra, stirps, Treb. Poll. Claud. 1, 1: vasa, uniones, Treb. Poll. trig. tyr. 30, 19 u. 32, 6. – ➳ Cleopatra bei Dichtern mit langer penultima (pā), s. Iuven. 2, 109. Lucan. 9, 1071; 10, 56.

Clĕŏpătra, (12) æ, f. (Κλεοπάτρα), Cléopâtre, ¶ 1 reine dʼÉgypte : Suet. Cæs. 35, 1 ¶ 2 lʼune des Danaïdes : Hyg. Fab. 170.

Cleopatra

(Κλεοπάτρα).

1. A daughter of Idas and Marpessa, and wife of Meleager (Hom. Il. 9.556). is said to have hanged herself after her husband's death, or to have died of grief. Her real name was Alcyone. (Apollod. 1.8.3; Hyg. Fab. 174.)

Cleopatra

2. A Danaid, who was betrothed to Etelces or Agenor. (Apollod. 2.1.5; Hyg. Fab. 170.) There are two other mythical personages of this name in Apollodorus. (3.12.2, 15.2.) [L.S]

Cleopatra

(Κλεοπάτρα).

1. Niece of Attalus, one of the generals of Philip of Macedonia. Philip married her when he divorced Olympias in B. C. 337; and, after his murder, in the next year she was put to death by Olympias, being either compelled to hang herself (Justin, 9.7) or boiled to death in a brazen cauldron. (Paus. 8.7.5.) Her infant son or daughter, according to Justin, perished with her, being apparently looked upon as a rival to Alexander. (Just. l.c., and 9.5; Diod. 16.93, 17.2; Plut. Alex. 10.)

Cleopatra

2. A daughter of Philip and Olympias, and sister of Alexander the Great, married Alexander, king of Epeirus, her uncle by the mother's side, B. C. 336. It was at the celebration of her nuptials, which took place on a magnificent scale at Aegae in Macedonia, that Philip was murdered. (Diod. 16.92.) Her husband died in B. C. 326 ; and after the death of her brother, she was sought in marriage by several of his generals, who thought to strengthen their influence with the Macedonians by a connexion with the sister of Alexander. Leonatus is first mentioned as putting forward a claim to her hand, and he represented to Eumenes that he received a promise of marriage from her. (Plut. Eum. 3.) Perdiccas next attempted to gain her in marriage, and after his death in B. C. 321, her hand was sought by Cassander, Lysimachus, and Antigonus. She refused, however, all these offers; and, anxious to escape from Sardis, where she had been kept for years in a sort of honourable captivity, she readily acceded to proposals from Ptolemy; but, before she could accomplish her design, she was assassinated by order of Antigonus. (Diod. 18.23, 20.37; Just. 9.6, 13.6, 14.1; Arrian, apud Phot. p. 70, ed. Bekker.)

Cleopatra

3. A daughter of Antiochus III. the Great, who married Ptolemy V. Epiphanes (B. C. 193), Coele-Syria being given her as her dowry (Appian, App. Syr. ch. 5; Liv. 37.3), though Antiochus afterwards repudiated any such arrangement. (Plb. 28.17.)

Cleopatra

4. A daughter of the preceding and of Ptolemy V. Epiphanes, married her brother Ptolemy VI. Philometor. She had a son by him, whom on his death, B. C. 146, she seems to have wished to place on the throne, but was prevented by the accession of her brother, Physcon or Evergetes II. (Ptolemy VII.), to whom the crown and her hand were given. Her son was murdered by Physcon on the day of the marriage, and she was soon divorced to make way for her own daughter by her former marriage. On Physcon's retiring to Cyprus to avoid the hatred which his tyranny had caused, she solicited the aid of her son-in-law, Demetrius Nicator, king of Syria, against his expected attack, offering the crown of Egypt as an inducement. During the period of Physcon's voluntary exile, she lost another son (by her marriage with him), whom Physcon barbarously murdered for the express purpose of distressing her, and sent her his mangled limbs, in Thyestean fashion, on her birth-day. Soon after this, she was obliged to take refuge with Demetrius, fearing the return of Physcon, who, however, suspended his hostilities against her, on Alexander, whom he had employed against his disaffected subjects, setting up a claim to the throne of Egypt. (Just. 38.8, 9, 39.1, 2; Liv. Ep. 59; Diod. ECL. vol. ii. p. 602, ed. Wess.)

Cleopatra

5. A daughter of Ptolemy VI. Philometor by the last-mentioned Cleopatra, married first Alexander Balas (B. C. 150), the Syrian usurper (1 Macc. 10.57; comp. J. AJ 13.4. §§ 1, 5), and on his death Demetrius Nicator. (1 Macc. 11.12; J. AJ 13.4.7.) During the captivity of the latter in Parthia, jealous of the connexion which he there formed with Rhodogune, the Parthian princess, she married Antiochus VII. Sidetes, his brother, and also murdered Demetrius on his return (Appian, App. Syr. 68; Liv. Ep. 60), though Justin and Josephus (J. AJ 13.9.3) represent her as only refusing to receive him. She also murdered Seleucus, her son by Nicator, who on his father's death assumed the government without her consent. (Appian, App. Syr. 69; Just. 39.1.) Her other son by Nicator, Antiochus VIII. Grypus, succeeded to the throne (B. C. 125) through her influence; but when she found him unwilling to concede her sufficient power, she attempted to make away with him by offering him a cup of poison on his return from exercise. Having learnt her intention, he begged her to drink first, and on her refusal produced his witness, and then repeated his request as the only way to clear herself. On this she drank and died. (Justin, 39.2.) She had another son, by Sidetes, Antiochus IX., surnamed Cyzicenus from the place of his education. The following coin represents on the obverse the heads of Cleopatra and her son Antiochus VIII. Grypus.

Cleopatra

6. Another daughter of Ptolemy VI. Philometor and Cleopatra [No. 4], married, as we have seen, her uncle Physcon, and on his death was left heir of the kingdom in conjunction with whichever of her sons she chose. She was compelled by her people to choose the elder, Ptolemy VIII. Lathyrus, but she soon prevailed on them to expel him, and make room for her younger son Alexander, her favourite (Paus. 8.7), and even sent an army against Lathyrus to Cyprus, whither he had fled, and put to death the general who commanded it for allowing him to escape alive. Terrified at her cruelty, Alexander also retired, but was recalled by his mother, who attempted to assassinate him, but was herself put to death by him ere she could effect her object, B. C. 89. (Just. 39.4.)

Cleopatra

7. A daughter of Ptolemy Physcon and Cleopatra [No. 6], married first her brother Ptolemy VIII. Lathyrus, but was divorced from him by his mother, and fled into Syria, where she married Antiochus IX. Cyzicenus, who was then in arms against his brother Grypus, about B. C. 117, and successfully tampered with the latter's army. A battle took place, in which Cyzicenus was defeated; and she then fled to Antioch, which was besieged and taken by Grypus, and Cleopatra was surrendered by him to the vengeance of his wife Tryphaena, her own sister, who had her murdered in a temple in which she had taken refuge. (Just. 39.3.)

Cleopatra

8. Another daughter of Ptolemy Physcon, married her brother Lathyrus (on her sister [No. 7] being divorced), and on his exile remained in Egypt, and then married Antiochus XI. Epiphanes, and on his death Antiochus X. Eusebes. She was besieged by Tigranes in Syria or Mesopotamia, and either taken and killed by him (Strab. xvi. p.749), or, according to Josephus (J. AJ 13.16.4), relieved by Lucullus' invasion of Armenia. She was the mother of Antiochus XIII. Asiaticus. She is more generally called Selene.

Cleopatra

9. Daughter of Ptolemy IX. Lathyrus, usually called Berenice. [Berenice, No. 4.]

Cleopatra

10. Third and eldest surviving daughter of Pto lemy Auletes, was born towards the end of B. C. 69, and was consequently seventeen at the death of her father, who in his will appointed her heir of his kingdom in conjunction with her younger brother, Ptolemy, whom she was to marry. The personal charms, for which she was so famed, shewed themselves in early youth, as we are told by Appian (App. BC 5.8), that she made an impression on the heart of Antony in her fifteenth year, when he was at Alexandria with Gabinius. Her joint reign did not last long, as Ptolemy, or rather Pothinus and Achillas, his chief advisers, expelled her from the throne, about B. C. 49. She retreated into Syria, and there collected an army with which she designed to force her brother to reinstate her. But an easier way soon presented itself; for in the following year Caesar arrived in Egypt in pursuit of Pompey, and took upon himself to arrange matters between Cleopatra and her brother. (Caes. Civ. 3.103, 107.) Being informed of Caesar's amatory disposition, she resolved to avail herself of it, and, either at his request, according to Plutarch, or of her own accord, clandestinely effected an entrance into the palace where he was residing, and by the charms of her person and voice and the fascination of her manner, obtained such an ascendancy over him, that, in the words of Dio Cassius (42.35), from being the judge between her and her brother, he became her advocate. According to Plutarch, she made her entry into Caesar's apartment in a bale of cloth, which was brought by Apollodorus, her attendant, as a present to Caesar. However this may be, her plan fully succeeded, and we find her replaced on the throne, much to the indignation of her brother and the Egyptians, who involved Caesar in a war in which he ran great personal risk, but which ended in his favour. In the course of it, young Ptolemy was killed, probably drowned in the Nile (Liv. Ep. 112; Hirt. B. Alex. 31; D. C. 42.43), and Cleopatra obtained the undivided rule. She was however associated by Caesar with another brother of the same name, and still quite a child, with a view to conciliate the Egyptians, with whom she appears to have been very unpopular (D. C. 42.34), and she was also nominally married to him.

While Caesar was in Egypt, Cleopatra lived in undisguised connexion with him, and would have detained him there longer, or have accompanied him at once to Rome, but for the war with Pharnaces, which tore him from her arms. She however joined him in Rome, in company with her nominal husband, and there continued the same open intercourse with him, living in apartments in his house, much to the offence of the Romans. (Doubts have been thrown on her visit to Rome, but the evidence of Cicero (Cic. Att. 14.8), of Dio Cassius (43.27), and Suetonius (Suet. Jul. 35), seems to be conclusive.) She was loaded with honours and presents by Caesar, and seems to have stayed at Rome till his death, B. C. 44. She had a son by him, named Caesarion, who was afterwards put to death by Augustus. Caesar at least owned him as his son, though the paternity was questioned by some contemporaries [Caesarion]; and the character of Cleopatra perhaps favours the doubt. After the death of Caesar, she fled to Egypt, and in the troubles which ensued she took the side of the triumvirate, and assisted Dolabella both by sea and land, resisting the threats of Cassius, who was preparing to attack her when he was called away by the entreaties of Brutus. She also sailed in person with a considerable fleet to assist Antony after the defeat of Dolabella, but was prevented from joining him by a storm and the bad state of her health. She had however done sufficient to prove her attachment to Caesar's memory (which seems to have been sincere), and also to furnish her with arguments to use to Antony, who in the end of the year 41 came into Asia Minor, and there summoned Cleopatra to attend, on the charge of having failed to co-operate with the triumvirate against Caesar's murderers. She was now in her twenty-eighth year, and in the perfection of matured beauty, which in conjunction with her talents and eloquence, and perhaps the early impression which we have mentioned, completely won the heart of Antony, who henceforth appears as her devoted lover and slave. We read in Plutarch elaborate descriptions of her well-known voyage up the Cydnus in Cilicia to meet Antony, and the magnificent entertainments which she gave, which were remarkable not less for good taste and variety than splendour and profuse expense. One of these is also celebrated in Athenaeus (4.29). The first use Cleopatra made of her influence was to procure the death of her younger sister, Arsinoe, who had once set up a claim to the kingdom. (Appian, App. BC 5.8, 9; D. C. 48.24.) Her brother, Ptolemy, she seems to have made away with before by poison. She also revenged herself on one of her generals, Serapion, who had assisted Cassius contrary to her orders, and got into her hands a person whom the people of Aradus had set up to counterfeit the elder of her two brothers, who perished in Egypt. All these were torn from the sanctuaries of temples; but Antony, we learn from both Dion and Appian, was so entirely enslaved by Cleopatra's charms, that he set at nought all ties of religion and humanity. (Appian, App. BC 5.9; D. C. 48.24.)

Cleopatra now returned to Egypt, where Antony spent some time in her company; and we read of the luxury of their mode of living, and the unbounded empire which she possessed over him. The ambition of her character, however, peeps out even in these scenes, particularly in the fishing anecdote recorded by Plutarch. (Ant. 29.) Her connexion with Antony was interrupted for a short time by his marriage with Octavia, but was renewed on his return from Italy, and again on his return from his Parthian expedition, when she went to meet him in Syria with money and provisions for his army. He then returned to Egypt, and gratified her ambition by assigning to her children by him many of the conquered provinces. (D. C. 49.32.) According to Josephus (J. AJ 15.4.2), during Antony's expedition Cleopatra went into Judaea, part of which Antony had assigned to her and Herod necessarily ceded, and there attempted to win Herod by her charms, probably with a view to his ruin, but failed, and was in danger of being put to death by him. The report, however, of Octavia's having left Rome to join Antony, made Cleopatra tremble for her influence, and she therefore exerted all her powers of pleasing to endeavour to retain it, and bewailed her sad lot in being only regarded as his mistress, and therefore being liable to be deserted at pleasure. She feigned that her health was suffering,--in short, put forth all her powers, and succeeded. (Plut. Ant. 53.) From this time Antony appears quite infatuated by his attachment, a nd willing to humour every caprice of Cleopatra. We find her assuming the title of Isis, and giving audience in that dress to ambassadors, that of Osiris being adopted by Antony, and their children called by the title of the sun and the moon, and declared heirs of unbounded territories. (D. C. 49.32, 33, 1. 4, 5.) She was saluted by him with the title of Queen of Queens, attended by a Roman guard, and Artavasdes, the captive king of Armenia, was ordered to do her homage. (D. C. 49.39.) One can hardly wonder that Augustus should represent Antony to the Romans as "bewitched by that accursed Egyptian" (D. C. 1. 26); and he was not slow in availing himself of the disgust which Antony's conduct occasioned to make a determined effort to crush him. War, however, was declared against Cleopatra, and not against Antony, as a less invidious way. (D. C. 1. 6.) Cleopatra insisted on accompanying Antony in the fleet; and we find them, after visiting Samos and Athens, where they repeated what Plutarch calls the farce of their public entertainments, opposed to Augustus at Actium. Cleopatra indeed persuaded Antony to retreat to Egypt, but the attack of Augustus frustrated this intention, and the famous battle took place (B. C. 31) in the midst of which, when fortune was wavering between the two parties, Cleopatra, weary of suspense, and alarmed at the intensity of the battle (D. C. 1. 33), gave a signal of retreat to her fleet, and herself led the way. Augustus in vain pursued her, and she made her way to Alexandria, the harbour of which she entered with her prows crowned and music sounding, as if victorious, fearing an outbreak in the city. With the same view of retaining the Alexandrians in their allegiance, she and Antony (who soon joined her) proclaimed their children, Antyllus and Cleopatra, of age. She then prepared to defend herself in Alexandria, and also sent embassies to the neighbouring tribes for aid. (D. C. 51.6.) She had also a plan of retiring to Spain, or to the Persian gulf; and either was building ships in the Red Sea, as Dion asserts, or, according to Plutarch, intended to draw her ships across the isthmus of Suez. Which-ever was the case, the ships were burnt by the Arabs of Petra, and this hope failed. She scrupled not to behead Artavasdes, and send his head as a bribe for aid to the king of Media, who was his enemy. Finding, however, no aid nigh, she prepared to negotiate with Augustus, and sent him on his approach her sceptre and throne (unknown to Antony), as thereby resigning her kingdom. His public answer required her to resign and submit to a trial; but he privately urged her to make away with Antony, and promised that she should retain her kingdom. On a subsequent occasion, Thyrsus, Caesar's freedman, brought similar terms, and represented Augustus as captivated by her, which she seems to have believed, and, seeing Antony's fortunes desperate, betrayed Pelusium to Augustus, prevented the Alexandrians from going out against him, and frustrated Antony's plan of escaping to Rome by persuading the fleet to desert him. She then fled to a mausoleum she had built, where she had collected her most valuable treasures, and proclaimed her intention of putting an end to her life, with a view to entice Antony thither, and thus ensure his capture. (This is the account of Dio Cassius, 51.6, 8-11; the same facts for the most part are recorded by Plutarch, who however represents Cleopatra's perfidy as less glaring.) She then had Antony informed of her death, as though to persuade him to die with her; and this stratagem, if indeed she had this object, fully succeeded, and he was drawn up into the unfinished mausoleum, and died in her arms. She did not however venture to meet Augustus, though his rival was dead, but remained in the mausoleum, ready if need was to put herself to death, for which purpose she had asps and other venomous animals in readiness. Augustus contrived to apprehend her, and had all instruments of death removed, and then requested an interview (for an account of which see D. C. 51.12, 13, and Plut. Ant. 83). The charms of Cleopatra, however, failed in softening the colder heart of Augustus. He only "bade her be of good cheer, and fear no violence." Seeing that her case was desperate, and determined at all events not to be carried captive to Rome, she resolved on death; but in order to compass this, it was necessary to disarm the vigilance of her goalers, and she did this by feigning a readiness to go to Rome, and preparing presents for Livia, the wife of Augustus. This artifice succeeded, and she was thereby enabled to put an end to her life, either by the poison of an asp, or by a poisoned comb (D. C. 51.14; Plut. Ant. 85, 86), the former supposition being adopted by most writers. (Suet. Aug. 17; Galen. Tyheriac. ad Pis. p. 460, ed. Basil; Vell. 2.87.)

Cleopatra died in B. C. 30, in the thirty-ninth year of her age, and with her ended the dynasty of the Ptolemies in Egypt. She had three children by Antony: Alexander and Cleopatra, who were twins, and Ptolemy surnamed Philadelphus. The leading points of her character were, ambition and voluptuousness. History presents to us the former as the prevailing motive, the latter being frequently employed only as the means of gratifying it. In all the stories of her luxury and lavish expense, there is a splendour and a grandeur that somewhat refines them. (See Plin. Nat. 9.58.) In the days of her prosperity, her arrogance was unbounded, and she loved to swear by the Capitol, in which she hoped to reign with Antony. She was avaricious, to supply her extravagance, and cruel, or at least had no regard for human life when her own objects were concerned,--a Caesar with a woman's caprice. Her talents were great and varied; her knowledge of languages was peculiarly remarkable (Plut. Ant. 27), of which she had seven at command, and was the more remarkable from the fact, that her predecessors had not been able to master even the Egyptian, and some had forgotten their native Macedonian; and in the midst of the most luxurious scenes we see traces of a love of literature and critical research. She added the library of Pergamus, presented to her by Antony, to that of Alexandria. Her ready and versatile wit, her knowledge of human nature and powerof using it, her attractive manners, and her exquisitely musical and flexible voice, compared by Plutarch (Plut. Ant. 27) to a many-stringed instrument, are also the subjects of well-attested praise. The higher points in her character are admirably touched by Horace in the ode (1.37) on her defeat.

The following coin represents the head of Antony on the obverse, and Cleopatra's on the reverse.

Cleopatra

11. Daughter of Antony, the triumvir, and Cleopatra, was born with her twin brother Alexander in B. C. 40. Her early history till the time she was carried to Rome is given under Alexander, p. 112a. She continued to reside at Rome till her marriage with Juba, king of Numidia, who was brought to Rome in B. C. 46, when quite a boy, along with his father, after the defeat of the latter by Caesar. (D. C. 51.15; Plut. Ant. 87.) By Juba, Cleopatra had two children, Ptolemy, who succeeded him in the kingdom, and Drusilla, who married Antonius Felix, the governor of Judaea. The following coin contains the head of Juba on the obverse, and Cleopatra's on the reverse.

Cleopatra

12. A daughter of Mithridates, who married Tigranes, king of Armenia She seems to have been a woman of great courage and spirit. (Plut. Luc. 22; Appian, App. Mith. 108; Just. 38.3.)

Cleopatra

13. A courtezan of the emperor Claudius. (Tac. Ann. 11.30.)

Cleopatra

14. A wife of the poet Martial, who has written an epigram relating to her. (Epig. 4.21.) [J.E.B]

Cleopatra

(Κλεοπάτρα), the authoress of a work on Cosmetics (Κοσμητικόν, or Κοσμητικά), who must have lived some time in or before the first century after Christ, as her work was abridged by Criton. (Galen, De Compos. Medical. sec. Locos, 1.3. vol. xii. p. 446.) The work is several times quoted by Galen (ibid. 1.1, 2, 8, pp. 403, 432, 492, De Pond. et Mens. 100.10. vol. xix. p. 767), Aetius (Lib. Medic. 2.2. 56, p. 278), and Paulus Aegineta. (De Re Med. 3.2. p. 413.) Though at first sight one might suspect that Cleopatra was a fictitious name attached to a treatise on such a subject, it does not really appear to have been so, as, wherever the work is mentioned, the authoress is spoken of as if she were a real person, though no particulars of her personal history are preserved. A work on the Diseases of Women is attributed either to this Cleopatra, or to the Egyptian queen; an epitome of which is to be found in Caspar Wolf's Volumen Gynaeciorum, &c., Basil. 1566, 1586, 1597, 4to. [W.A.G]

Cleopātra

(Κλεοπάτρα and Κλειοπάτρα; the penult is scanned long in Juv.ii. 109; Luc.ix. 1071.) (1) A daughter of Idas and Marpessa, and the wife of Meleager (Hom. Il. ix. 557).

(2) The wife of Philip of Macedon, whom that monarch married after he had repudiated Olympias. After the death of Philip, Olympias compelled her to destroy herself (Just.ix. 7).

(3) A daughter of Philip and Olympias, and sister to Alexander the Great. She married Alexander of Epirus, who fell in Italy (Just. ix. 6, 1). After the death of Alexander of Macedon, her hand was sought by Perdiccas and others of his generals, but she was put to death by Antigonus.

(4) A daughter of Mithridates, and the wife of Tigranes (Just. xxxviii. 3).

(5) A daughter of Antiochus III. of Syria. She married Ptolemy V., king of Egypt, and was left guardian of her infant son Ptolemy VI., but she died soon after her husband, to the great regret of her subjects.

(6) A daughter of Ptolemy Philometor, was the wife of three kings of Syria, and the mother of four—namely, of Antiochus Dionysius, by her first husband, Alexander Balas; of Seleucus V. and Antiochus VIII., by Demetrius Nicator; and, lastly, of Antiochus IX. , surnamed Cyzicenus, by Antiochus Euergetes or Sidetes. She was compelled by her son, Antiochus VIII., to drink the poison which she had prepared for him, B.C. 120.

(7) The most famous of the name was the daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, and remarkable for her beauty and personal accomplishments. According to the usage of the Alexandrian court, she married her young brother, Ptolemy XII., and began to reign with him in her seventeenth year. Both she and her husband, being minors, were placed by the will of their father under the guardianship of Rome, an office which the Senate assigned to Pompey. An insurrection breaking out in the Egyptian capital soon after the commencement of this reign, Cleopatra was compelled to yield to the tide of popular fury, and to flee into Syria, where she sought protection in temporary exile. The flight of this princess, though mainly arising from the tumult just mentioned, was unquestionably accelerated by the designs of the young king and his ambitious ministers. Their object became manifest when Cleopatra , after a few months' residence in Syria, returned towards her native country to resume her seat on the throne. Ptolemy prepared to oppose her by force of arms, and a civil war would inevitably have ensued, had not Caesar at that very juncture sailed to the coast of Egypt in pursuit of Pompey. A curious interview soon took place between Cleopatra and the Roman general. She placed herself on board a small skiff, under the protection of Apollodorus, a Sicilian Greek, set sail from the coast of Syria, reached the harbour of Alexandria in safety, and had herself conveyed naked into the chamber of the Roman commander in the form of a large package of goods. The stratagem proved completely successful. Cleopatra was now in her twentieth year, distinguished by extraordinary personal charms, and surrounded with all the graces which give to those charms their greatest power. Her voice was extremely sweet, and she spoke a variety of languages with propriety and ease. She could, it is said, assume all characters at will, which all alike became her, and the impression that was made by her beauty was confirmed by the fascinating brilliancy of her conversation. The day after this singular meeting, Caesar summoned before him the king, as well as the citizens of Alexandria, and made arrangements for the restoration of peace, procuring Cleopatra , at the same time, her share of the throne. Pothinus, however, one of Ptolemy's ministers, in whose intriguing spirit all the dissensions of the court had originated, soon stirred up a second revolt, upon which the Alexandrian War commenced, in which Ptolemy was defeated and lost his life by drowning. Caesar now proclaimed Cleopatra queen of Egypt; but she was compelled to take her brother, the younger Ptolemy, who was only eleven years old, as her husband and colleague on the throne. The Roman general continued for some time at her court, and she bore him a son, called, from the name of his putative father, Caesarion. During the six years which immediately followed these events, the reign of Cleopatra seems not to have been disturbed by insurrection, nor to have been assailed by foreign war. When her brother, at the age of fourteen, demanded his share in the government, Cleopatra poisoned him, and remained sole possessor of the regal authority. The dissensions among the rival leaders who divided the power of Caesar had no doubt nearly involved her in a contest with both parties; but the decisive issue of the battle of Philippi relieved her from the hesitation under which some of her measures appear to have been adopted, and determined her inclinations, as well as her interests, in favour of the conquerors. To afford her an opportunity of explaining her conduct, Antony summoned her to attend him in Cilicia, and the meeting which she gave him on the river Cydnus has employed the pen, not only of the historian, but of the prince of English dramatists.

The artifices of this fascinating princess, now in her twenty-seventh year, so far gained upon Antony as not only to divert his thoughts from his original purpose of subjecting her kingdom to the payment of tribute, but entirely to lull his ambition to sleep, and make him sacrifice his great stake as a candidate for the empire of the world. After a fruitless attack upon the territory of Palmyra, he hastened to forget his disgrace in the society of the Egyptian queen, passing several months at Alexandria in the wildest and most delirious dissipation. The death of his wife, and his subsequent marriage with Octavia, delayed for a time the crisis which his ungoverned passions were preparing for him. But, though he had thus extricated himself from the snares of Alexandria, his inclinations too soon returned to that unlucky city; for we find that when he left Rome to proceed against the Parthians, he despatched in advance his friend Fonteius Capito to conduct Cleopatra into Syria. On his return from this disgraceful campaign, he incurred still deeper dishonour by once more willingly submitting to that bondage which had rendered him contemptible in the eyes of most of his followers.

Passing over events which have been alluded to in the article Augustus Caesar, we come to the period that followed the battle of Actium, at which the desertion of Cleopatra with her galleys and the pursuit of her by the infatuated Antony changed the destiny of the Roman Empire (B.C. 30). When Octavianus advanced against Egypt, and Antony had been a second time defeated under the walls of Alexandria, Cleopatra shut herself up with a few attendants and the most valuable part of her treasures in a strong building which appears to have been intended for a royal sepulchre. To prevent intrusion by friend or enemy she caused a report to be circulated that she had retired into the monument to put herself to death. Antony resolved to follow her example, and threw himself upon his sword; but being informed, before he expired, that Cleopatra was still living, he caused himself to be carried into her presence, and breathed his last in her arms. Octavianus, after this, succeeded in getting Cleopatra into his power, and the queen at first hoped to subdue him by her attractions; but finding at last that her efforts were unavailing, and suspecting that her life was spared only that she might grace the conqueror's triumph, she ended her days, if the common account is to be credited, by the bite of an asp; though some ascribed her death to poison administered internally. A small puncture in the arm was the only mark of violence which could be detected on the body of Cleopatra , and it was therefore believed that she had procured death either by the bite of a venomous reptile or by the use of a poisoned bodkin. She died in her thirty-ninth year, having reigned twenty-two years from the death of her father. Octavianus, it is said, though deprived by this act of suicide of the greatest ornament of his approaching triumph, gave orders that she should have a magnificent funeral, and that her body, as she desired, should be laid by that of Antony. Her two children by Antony were reared by the neglected wife Octavia.

The name of Cleopatra has been linked by romance and poetry with those of the most fascinating women the world has seen—Helen of Troy, Mary Stuart, and Ninon de Lenclos—and has always exercised a powerful influence upon the imagination of men. In English literature the genius of Shakespeare and of Dryden has made her story the theme of dramas; while the resources of art have been exhausted to produce types that should satisfy the eye and the mind of the critic.

Cleopatra Cleopatra, daughter of Boreas and Orithyia

• Apollod. 3.15.1
• wife of Phineus: Apollod. 3.15.2

Cleopatra(2), daughter of Danaus

• wife of Agenor: Apollod. 2.1.5

Cleopatra(3), daughter of Idas and Marpessa

• wife of Meleager: Paus. 4.2.7, Apollod. 1.8.2
• hangs herself: Apollod. 1.8.3

Cleopatra(4), daughter of Philip

• Paus. 1.44.6

Cleopatra(5), daughter of Tros

• Apollod. 3.12.2

Cleopatra(6), maiden sent by the Locrians to propitiate Athena at Ilium

• Apollod. E.6.19

Cleopatra(7), mother of PtolemyPhilometor

• Paus. 1.9.1
• put to death by her son Alexander: Paus. 1.9.3

Cleopatra(8), niece of Attalus

• murdered by Olympias: Paus. 8.7.7