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Cleopatra
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Antony and Cleopatra are in love in Egypt raising their own twins, Helios and Selene; she urges him to declare war on Rome to free himself once and for all from Octavian's tyranny. Antony is hesitant, knowing that an attack on Rome would strip him of the people's devotion, the one thing that Octavian does not have. When Antony refuses Octavian's request for increased grain supplies for a starving Rome, Octavian sends his sister Octavia and mother Atia to intervene. Antony insists to a jealous Cleopatra that he no longer loves Atia, but Cleopatra intends to publicly flaunt their love in front of the Roman women or kill them; trying to prevent Atia's humiliation or murder, Antony has his wife and former lover sent away without seeing them. He soon descends into a drunken and opium-induced self-indulgent stupor.
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It would seem, then, that Cleopatra VII was the only effective ruler in year 1 = 52/1. Either she was sole ruler or Ptolemy XIII was nominally coregent but ignored as a minor. The latter seems the more likely possibility.
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According to Egyptian law, Cleopatra was forced to have a consort, who was either a brother or a son, no matter what age, throughout her reign. She was married to her younger brother Ptolemy XIII when he was twelve... she soon dropped his name from any official documents regardless of the Ptolemaic insistence that the male presence be first among co-rulers. She also had her own portrait and name on coins of that time, ignoring her brother's. When Cleopatra became co-regent, her world was crumbling down around her. Cyprus, Coele-Syria and Cyrenaica were gone. There was anarchy abroad and famine at home.
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Cleopatra's story has fascinated scores of writers and artists through the centuries. While she was a powerful political figure in her own right, it is likely that much of her appeal lay in her legend as a great seductress who was able to ally herself with two of the most powerful men (Julius Caesar and Mark Antony) of her time.
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The first of the best known film Cleopatras appeared in 1917 when Twentieth Century Fox released "Cleopatra," with Theda Bara in the starring role. Wagenknecht (1962) quotes publicity which "in appearance, so far as can definitely be ascertained, Miss Bara and the 'Siren of the Nile' were similar." (p. 179) No print of the film has survived, but numerous stills from the production show a wide variety of styles and gowns. No costumer is credited, and Maeder (1987) assumes that the actress herself might have created the costumes she wore. (p.
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Cleopatra, a tragedy by Samuel Daniel, based on the narrative by Plutarch, and printed first in 1594, and, again, with alterations, in 1623. "It seems not to have been acted, and it is very unfit for representation, many of the speeches being of an enormous length.... The merit of it consists chiefly in the language. It is deficient in action. Even the death of Cleopatra is related by a messenger" (Genest). The story begins after the death of Antony, "and the imagination," says A.W.
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Cleopatra