Cleopatra was a very popular name in ancient world history about 2000 years ago, and lingers on even today after twenty centuries. Alexander who invaded India had a sister by name Cleopatra. Another lady of the same same name was the daughter of Seleucid king Antiochus III. She was given in marriage to Ptolemy V in 193 BC. This name became fashionable and respectable in the Egyptian Kingdom as can be seen by many queens and princesses of that name.
Ptolemy XII was the king of Egypt and his daughter was Cleopatra. The historians refer to her as Cleopatra VII. She was born in 69 BC and lived up to 30 BC. She was the most distinguished woman who played an important role in the politics of Egypt and Rome of which we are concerned here.
The kings who were known by the name Ptolemy had become greedy and were interested in extracting as much money as possible from the people of Egypt who considered their kings as divine. Cleopatra also inherited this greediness from her father. However, she played an important role in the history of Macedonia, Greece and Iran.
Her father Ptolemy XII passed away and as per the tradition of that country, Cleopatra became the joint ruler with her two brothers Ptolemy XIII and XIV. Being an ambitious woman, she began behaving in an autocratic way and amassed a lot of money. The brothers warned her but she ignored their advice. Thus there was an uneasy relation between her and her brothers. She was sent to Alexandria, but was waiting for an opportunity to come back.
This was the opportune time for Julius Caesar of Rome to enter into Egyptian politics. Caesar had heard of the great wealth of Egypt and wanted to take it away to increase the pomp of Rome. He came to Egypt and Cleopatra made a secret pact with him and declared a war against Ptolemy XIII, in which the latter was killed. Cleopatra rejoiced in the death of her brother. Though Indians and many others would consider a girl marrying her own brother as a social crime and a sin, it was the tradition in Egypt of those days. The priests compelled her to marry the surviving brother Ptolemy XIV and they became queen and king of Egypt.
Though Cleopatra was not beautiful in the real sense of the term, she had the rare quality of attracting men and the generous mind of providing all the services required by them. Thus she favoured Julius Caesar with all the pleasures and won his heart. She bore him a son who was deliberately given the name Ptolemy Caesar. She went with Caesar to Rome and was received kindly by the Romans.
Caesar was so mad after her that he made a gold statue of Cleopatra and kept it in the temple of Venus. Romans did not like this and showed their displeasure openly. She lived in best of luxuries provided by Caesar and made a lot of money and behaved like the Queen of Rome which she was not. Many Roman nobles considered her just a mistress of the Roman emperor. In the meantime, Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC and Cleopatra was also suspected to be a part of this assassination. Unable to live in this hostile atmosphere, she returned to Alexandria. Soon she poisoned her another brother and placed her son as a joint ruler with herself.
However, luck favoured her again when Roman emperor Antony became close to her. She used all her charm and attracted Antony who became mad after her. Though Antony was a married man, he disregarded his lawfully wedded wife and began taking passionate interest in her. When people began to murmur against his affair with Cleopatra, he married her in 37 BC, disregarding the Roman law which did not permit polygamy. This marriage resulted in the birth of twins and Antony recognised both of them as his own children and made the way easy for them to rule over Rome. But this did not happen. Antony gave many territories to her and thus she was at the peak of her power and prestige. But Antony lost all his popularity and was stripped of his powers.
An anti - Cleopatra group fought against Antony and he was defeated and Cleopatra realised that there is no use in backing Antony who had lost power. Cleopatra managed in such a way as to compel Antony to commit suicide, promising that she would also be doing the same so that both of them can be together in the heaven for ever. Believing this, Antony committed suicide. The Romans cursed Cleopatra for the suicide of Antony. There was a rumour that Antony's first wife was hatching a conspiracy to kill Cleopatra. She had become unpopular in Egypt also because of the murders she had committed. So she decided not to return to Egypt.
She did not like to part with her wealth and hence she wanted to immolate herself in the midst of her wealth so that she could enjoy them in her future life, as per the Egyptian religion. She was prevented from executing this plan. Practically she was under house arrest. According to Egyptian religious belief, snake was considered as a Minister of Sun God Aman - Ra and any snake - bite would take the victim to the Sun god. Cleopatra, being a staunch follower of Egyptian religion, allowed a poisonous snake to bite her and thus ended her life.
Thus ended the life of a charming woman who could lure kings to achieve her objective of becoming a Roman Queen. As per their wish, she was buried by the side of the grave of Antony. Cleopatra is dead. But her memory is kept alive by many literary works dealing with her charm, conspiracy and ambition. Even Shakespeare could not ignore her and hence, wrote a drama about her. That is the attraction of Cleopatra who lived 2000 years ago.
