Cleopatra VII

b. 69 BC; d. 30 BC.

The (in)famous queen—the last of the Ptolomaic rulers—of Egypt from 47 BC onwards, mistress of Julius Caesar, and wife of Mark Anthony.

Born into the Greek family of Ptolemy, Cleopatra was engaged in a rigourous tassle for power over the throne with her brother, King Ptolemy XIII, when Julius Caesar arrived in Egypt in 48 BC. Caesar was soon laid under siege by Ptolemy. This provided Cleopatra the opportunity to show the Emperor her largesse. When Caesar was released from the siege with the help of Antipater, he gladly won her the throne, in gratitude of her hospitality and, according to rumours, a satisfied armor. She joined Caesar when he returned to Rome in 46 and did not return to Egypt until his murder in 44.

When it became clear that Mark Anthony was becoming Caesar's heir-apparent, she left for Tarsus in Asia Minor and engineered a meeting with him, and soon won him over as her lover. They returned to Egypt and married in 37. Mark Anthony's absence from Rome created a lively rumour mill, fed, no doubt, by much of Octavian's political manoeuvring. The power struggle ended when, in the late summer of 31, Mark Anthony assembled a huge force—with Cleopatra joining him—with the intention of invading Italy. With consummate skill, however, Octavian first cut off their supply line. Blockading the rest of their forces in the Bay of Actium (on the west coast of Greece), Octavian then routed them. Cleopatra fled, followed by Mark Anthony, back to Alexandria. Recognizing that their days were numbered, esp. with Octavian hard on their tail, they committed suicide. Egypt was absorbed into the Roman Empire as a province with their demise.

While she was alive, and because of her relationship with Mark Anthony, Cleopatra was a constant source of anxiety for Herod the Great. Her ancesters had once ruled Judea before the Seleucids took them away; the worry was that she might persuade Mark Anthony to return Judea to Ptolemaic rule. Herod's wife Mariamme and her mother were also good friends of the Queen, and they took every opportunity with their gossips and intrigue to make life uneasy for the king.