Along the way, Cleopatra's supple personality and the drama of her circumstances have been lost. Michelangelo, Tiepolo, and Elizabeth Taylor put a face to her name. Shakespeare and Shaw put words in her mouth. Cleopatra has lodged herself in our imaginations ever since.įamous long before she was notorious, Cleopatra has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons. The two would together attempt to forge a new empire, in an alliance that spelled their ends. Already she was the wealthiest ruler in the Mediterranean the relationship with Antony confirmed her status as the most influential woman of the age. Cleopatra had a child with Caesar and-after his murder-three more with his protégé. They happen, however, to have been Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, among the most prominent Romans of the day. Cleopatra appears to have had sex with only two men. Ultimately she dispensed with an ambitious sister as well incest and assassination were family specialties. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She was married twice, each time to a brother. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator.

Her palace shimmered with onyx, garnets, and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer brings to life the most intriguing woman in the history of the world: Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt.

Cleopatra a life by stacy schiff