But yes, I think Jillian is a pretty okay name. "The joy of her father," from the Greek kleo (to make known) and pater (father). [235], Antony summoned Cleopatra to Antioch to discuss pressing issues, such as Herod's kingdom and financial support for his Parthian campaign. [324][325] Octavian promised that he would keep her alive but offered no explanation about his future plans for her kingdom. [473][474] Cleopatra also became appreciated outside the Western world and Middle East, as the Qing-dynasty Chinese scholar Yan Fu wrote an extensive biography of her. [381][382] The Roman History published by the official and historian Cassius Dio in the early 3rd century AD, while failing to fully comprehend the complexities of the late Hellenistic world, nevertheless provides a continuous history of the era of Cleopatra's reign. [445] The sculpture also has pronounced eyes that share similarities with Roman copies of Ptolemaic sculpted works of art. [68][71] As a young cavalry officer, Mark Antony was under Gabinius's command. [279] In 32 BC, the Antonian loyalists Gaius Sosius and Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus became consuls. However, Cleopatra saw. [40][500][note 81] Michael Grant asserts that there is only one known Egyptian mistress of a Ptolemy and no known Egyptian wife of a Ptolemy, further arguing that Cleopatra probably did not have any Egyptian ancestry and "would have described herself as Greek. [note 5] A member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great. [314][296][305] According to Plutarch, he was still dying when brought to Cleopatra at her tomb, telling her he had died honorably and that she could trust Octavian's companion Gaius Proculeius over anyone else in his entourage. [475], Georges Mlis's Robbing Cleopatra's Tomb (French: Cloptre), an 1899 French silent horror film, was the first film to depict the character of Cleopatra. [381], Cleopatra is barely mentioned in De Bello Alexandrino, the memoirs of an unknown staff officer who served under Caesar. [437] After Cleopatra's suicide, Octavian commissioned a painting to be made depicting her being bitten by a snake, parading this image in her stead during his triumphal procession in Rome. was cleopatra going to be named jillian. [203][202] Cleopatra sailed up the Kydnos River to Tarsos in Thalamegos, hosting Antony and his officers for two nights of lavish banquets on board the ship. mememan28 12/1/2017 1 This name is OK. [228], Relations between Antony and Cleopatra perhaps soured when he not only married Octavia, but also sired her two children, Antonia the Elder in 39 BC and Antonia Minor in 36 BC, and moved his headquarters to Athens. [250], As Antony prepared for another Parthian expedition in 35 BC, this time aimed at their ally Armenia, Octavia traveled to Athens with 2,000 troops in alleged support of Antony, but most likely in a scheme devised by Octavian to embarrass him for his military losses. [300] An asp is absent from the painting, but many Romans held the view that she received poison in another manner than a venomous snakebite. She was born in 69 BC and died in 30 BC. [205] The Esquiline Venus is generally thought to be a mid-1st-century AD Roman copy of a 1st-century BC Greek original from the school of Pasiteles. [105] After returning to Italy from the wars in Gaul and crossing the Rubicon in January of 49 BC, Caesar had forced Pompey and his supporters to flee to Greece. [304] In Alexandria he built a reclusive cottage on the island of Pharos that he nicknamed the Timoneion, after the philosopher Timon of Athens, who was famous for his cynicism and misanthropy. [404][359][360] This portrait features the royal diadem and similar facial features as the Berlin and Vatican heads, but has a more unique hairstyle and may actually depict Cleopatra Selene II, daughter of Cleopatra. [442][444] In this interpretation, Cleopatra can be seen grasping Antony and drawing him toward her while a serpent (i.e. In fact, Cleopatra as we know her was the seventh woman to have the name. 1 So although she walked like an Egyptian* she was not technically, ethnically Egyptian. [326][330][331] Cleopatra's physician Olympos did not explain her cause of death, although the popular belief is that she allowed an asp or Egyptian cobra to bite and poison her. [377][378][379] Plutarch lived a century after Cleopatra but relied on primary sources, such as Philotas of Amphissa, who had access to the Ptolemaic royal palace, Cleopatra's personal physician named Olympos, and Quintus Dellius, a close confidant of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. [255][256] When Octavia returned to Rome Octavian portrayed his sister as a victim wronged by Antony, although she refused to leave Antony's household. [245], In 36 BC, Cleopatra accompanied Antony to the Euphrates in his journey toward invading the Parthian Empire. [141][142][143][note 36] Ganymedes then tricked Caesar into requesting the presence of the erstwhile captive Ptolemy XIII as a negotiator, only to have him join the army of Arsinoe IV. She was actually the seventh to hold it within her own family dynasty. [405][401][399] The woman in the basalt statue also holds a divided, double cornucopia (dikeras), which can be seen on coins of both Arsinoe II and Cleopatra. 0. [496][497][499][note 80] It is generally believed that the Ptolemies did not intermarry with native Egyptians. [99][100][101][note 27] By the reign of Cleopatra, however, it was considered a normal arrangement for Ptolemaic rulers. [307][305] However, these plans were ultimately abandoned when Malichus I, as advised by Octavian's governor of Syria, Quintus Didius, managed to burn Cleopatra's fleet in revenge for his losses in a war with Herod that Cleopatra had largely initiated. [310] Thyrsos advised her to kill Antony so that her life would be spared, but when Antony suspected foul intent, he had this diplomat flogged and sent back to Octavian without a deal. [391] In the visual arts, the sculpted depiction of Cleopatra as a free-standing nude figure committing suicide began with the 16th-century sculptors Bartolommeo Bandinelli and Alessandro Vittoria. [27][28] However, with opposition building at the royal court against the idea of a sole reigning female monarch, Berenice III accepted joint rule and marriage with her cousin and stepson Ptolemy XI Alexander II, an arrangement made by the Roman dictator Sulla. [115][106][116], In Greece, Caesar and Pompey's forces engaged each other at the decisive Battle of Pharsalus on 9August 48 BC, leading to the destruction of most of Pompey's army and his forced flight to Tyre, Lebanon. [365][364][323] The emperor Augustus installed Juba II and Cleopatra Selene II, after their wedding in 25 BC, as the new rulers of Mauretania, where they transformed the old Carthaginian city of Iol into their new capital, renamed Caesarea Mauretaniae (modern Cherchell, Algeria). [442][443] The other side of the vase perhaps contains a scene of Octavia, abandoned by her husband Antony but watched over by her brother, the emperor Augustus. [433][note 71] Her ivory-white skin, round face, long aquiline nose, and large round eyes were features common in both Roman and Ptolemaic depictions of deities. [300] A male servant holds the mouth of an artificial Egyptian crocodile (possibly an elaborate tray handle), while another man standing by is dressed as a Roman. Seventh Woman to Bear the Name. [249] By the summer of 36 BC, she had given birth to Ptolemy Philadelphus, her second son with Antony. Octavian engaged in a war of propaganda, forced Antony's allies in the Roman Senate to flee Rome in 32 BC, and declared war on Cleopatra. [355][356][357] Apparent financial troubles led Cleopatra to debase her coinage, which included silver and bronze currencies but no gold coins like those of some of her distant Ptolemaic predecessors. [27][28] Ptolemy XI had his wife killed shortly after their marriage in 80 BC, but was lynched soon thereafter in the resulting riot over the assassination. The former gave a fiery speech condemning Octavian, now a private citizen without public office, and introduced pieces of legislation against him. Cloptre (1899) Starring: Jehanne d'Alcy (Cleopatra), Georges Mlis (Digger) We start of our list of best Cleoptra movies of all time with Cloptre released in 1899 During a desecration of the tomb of Cleopatra, the queen's mummy is burned, but the ghost of the Egyptian woman arises from the smoke. [68][69][70] Although it put him at odds with Roman law, Gabinius invaded Egypt in the spring of 55 BC by way of Hasmonean Judea, where Hyrcanus II had Antipater the Idumaean, father of Herod the Great, furnish the Roman-led army with supplies. [300], In 1818 a now lost encaustic painting was discovered in the Temple of Serapis at Hadrian's Villa, near Tivoli, Lazio, Italy, that depicted Cleopatra committing suicide with an asp biting her bare chest. [496][497] Her mother Laodice III was a daughter born to King Mithridates II of Pontus, a Persian of the Mithridatic dynasty, and his wife Laodice who had a mixed Greek-Persian heritage. [250][217][251] After losing some 30,000 men, more than Crassus at Carrhae (an indignity he had hoped to avenge), Antony finally arrived at Leukokome near Berytus (modern Beirut, Lebanon) in December, engaged in heavy drinking before Cleopatra arrived to provide funds and clothing for his battered troops. [206][208], Cleopatra invited Antony to come to Egypt before departing from Tarsos, which led Antony to visit Alexandria by November 41 BC. [235][236] Cleopatra brought her now three-year-old twins to Antioch, where Antony saw them for the first time and where they probably first received their surnames Helios and Selene as part of Antony and Cleopatra's ambitious plans for the future. Sometimes, a mistress of the upper crust. [114][418], Various coins, such as a silver tetradrachm minted sometime after Cleopatra's marriage with Antony in 37 BC, depict her wearing a royal diadem and a 'melon' hairstyle. [195][197] While Serapion, Cleopatra's governor of Cyprus, defected to Cassius and provided him with ships, Cleopatra took her own fleet to Greece to personally assist Octavian and Antony, but her ships were heavily damaged in a Mediterranean storm and she arrived too late to aid in the fighting. [57][507], Left: A Roman head of either Cleopatra or her daughter, Cleopatra's kingdom and role as a monarch. [406][434] Behind her golden diadem, crowned with a red jewel, is a translucent veil with crinkles that suggest the "melon" hairstyle favored by the queen. It should therefore come as no surprise that ancient Roman writers chose to portray Cleopatra as a sexually alluring and licentious. I do prefer this spelling over Gillian though. [438] A set of double doors on the rear wall of the painting, positioned very high above the people in it, suggests the described layout of Cleopatra's tomb in Alexandria. [163][164], Caesar departed from Egypt around April 47 BC, allegedly to confront Pharnaces II of Pontus, the son of Mithridates VI of Pontus, who was stirring up trouble for Rome in Anatolia. [442][443] The vase would thus have been created no earlier than 35 BC, when Antony sent his wife Octavia back to Italy and stayed with Cleopatra in Alexandria. Cleopatra traveled to Rome as a client queen in 46 and 44 BC, where she stayed at Caesar's villa. [58][59][57][note 18] Ptolemy XII remained publicly silent on the death of his brother, a decision which, along with ceding traditional Ptolemaic territory to the Romans, damaged his credibility among subjects already enraged by his economic policies. [72][73] Cleopatra, then 14 years of age, would have traveled with the Roman expedition into Egypt; years later, Antony would profess that he had fallen in love with her at this time. [300][301][note 72] The painting was originally thought to depict the Carthaginian noblewoman Sophonisba, who toward the end of the Second Punic War (218201 BC) drank poison and committed suicide at the behest of her lover Masinissa, King of Numidia. [400][406][407] Detractors of this theory argue that the face in this statue is thinner than the face on the Berlin portrait and assert that it was unlikely she would be depicted as the naked goddess Venus (or the Greek Aphrodite). [195][197] However, these troops were captured by Cassius in Palestine. [435] The thickness of the painting over Cleopatra's bare flesh and her drapery were reportedly similar to the paintings of the Fayum mummy portraits. [492][493][494][note 78] She was presumably the daughter of Cleopatra VI Tryphaena (also known as Cleopatra V Tryphaena),[note 4] the sister-wife of Ptolemy XII who had previously given birth to their daughter Berenice IV. [184][182][185] The statue also subtly linked the Egyptian goddess Isis with the Roman religion. [476] Hollywood films of the 20th century were influenced by earlier Victorian media, which helped to shape the character of Cleopatra played by Theda Bara in Cleopatra (1917), Claudette Colbert in Cleopatra (1934), and Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra (1963). [283][284] Publius Canidius Crassus made the counterargument that Cleopatra was funding the war effort and was a competent monarch. [367][369] However, Ptolemy was eventually executed by the Roman emperor Caligula in 40 AD, perhaps under the pretense that Ptolemy had unlawfully minted his own royal coinage and utilized regalia reserved for the Roman emperor. [327][328][note 3] It is said she was accompanied by her servants Eiras and Charmion, who also took their own lives. In 55 B.C., with the support of the Romans, Ptolemy XII was put back on the throne and took his 17-year-old daughter Cleopatra (VII) as his co-ruler. [165][159] He left three legions in Egypt, later increased to four, under the command of the freedman Rufio, to secure Cleopatra's tenuous position, but also perhaps to keep her activities in check. Octaviannow first Roman Emperor Augustus Caesarhad crafted his image around being Julius Caesar's heir. [179][180] Sosigenes of Alexandria, one of the members of Cleopatra's court, aided Caesar in the calculations for the new Julian calendar, put into effect 1January 45 BC. [278][280] During the next senatorial session, Octavian entered the Senate house with armed guards and levied his own accusations against the consuls. Cleopatra wasn't just some incredibly beautiful woman hellbent on having affairs with Roman rulers. [244][236] Although still administered by Roman officials, these territories nevertheless enriched her kingdom and led her to declare the inauguration of a new era by double-dating her coinage in 36 BC. 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