order order so who do we have here Your

Honor this is Cleopatra the Egyptian

queen whose lurid affairs destroyed two

of Rome's finest generals and brought

the end of the Republic Your Honor this

is Cleopatra one of the most powerful

women in history whose reign brought

Egypt nearly 22 years of stability and

prosperity oh why don't we even know

what she looked like most of the art and

descriptions came long after her

lifetime in the first century BCE just

like most of the things written about

her so what do we actually know

Cleopatra the seventh was the last of

the Ptolemaic dynasty a Macedonian Greek

family that governed Egypt after its

conquest by Alexander the Great she

ruled jointly in Alexandria with her

brother to whom she was also married at

him until he had her exiled but what

does all this have to do with Rome Egypt

had long been a Roman client state and

Cleopatra's father incurred large debts

to the Republic after being defeated by

Julius Caesar in Rome civil war the

general Pompey sought refuge in Egypt

but was executed by Cleopatra brother

instead Caesar must have liked that

actually he found the murder unseemly

and demanded repayment of Egypt death he

could have annexed Egypt but Cleopatra

convinced him to restore her to the

throne instead we hear she was quite

convincing and why not

Cleopatra was a fascinating woman she

commanded armies at 21 spoke several

languages and was educated in a city

with the world's finest library and some

of the greatest scholars of the time she

kept Caesar lounging in Egypt for months

when Rome needed him Caesar did more

than lounge he was fascinated by Egypt's

culture and knowledge and he learned

much during his time there when he

returned to Rome he reformed the

calendar commissioned a census made

plans for a public library and proposed

many new infrastructure projects yes all

very ambitious exactly what got him

assassinated don't blame the Queen for

Rome strange politics her job was ruling

Egypt and she did it well she stabilized

the economy managed the vast bureaucracy

and curbed corruption by priests and

officials when drought hit she opened

the granary to the public and passed a

tax amnesty all about preserving her

kingdom stability and independence with

no revolts during the rest of her reign

so what went wrong after Caesars death

this foreign Queen couldn't stop

meddling in Roman matters actually it

was the Roman factions who came

demanding her aid and of course she had

no choice but to support Octavian and

Mark Antony in avenging Caesar if only

for the sake of their son and again she

provided her particular kind of support

to Mark Antony why does that matter why

doesn't anyone seem to care about Caesar

or Antony's countless other affairs why

do we assume she instigated the

relationships and why are only powerful

women defined by their sexuality order

Cleopatra and Antony were a disaster

they offended the Republic with their

ridiculous celebrations sitting on

golden Thrones and dressing up as gods

until Octavian had all of Rome convinced

of their megalomania and yet Octavian

was the one who attacked Antony annexed

Egypt and declared himself Emperor it

was the Romans fear of a woman in power

that ended their republic not the woman

herself how ironic

Cleopatra's story survived mainly in the

accounts of her enemies in Rome and

later writers filled the gaps with

rumours and stereotypes we may never

know the full truth of her life and her

reign but we can separate fact from

rumor by putting history on trial