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Authors: Elizabeth Mahon

Tags: #General, #History, #Women, #Social Science, #Biography & Autobiography, #Biography, #Women's Studies

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BOOK: Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women
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These thirty-five women represent just a taste, an amuse bouche as it were, of the many women who have rocked history. Every year more and more women’s lives are being reclaimed from the mists of time, the dusty bookshelves, or the footnotes of history. But all the women in this book have one thing in common: they caused a scandal, a commotion, and they bumped up against the status quo. Some maneuvered their way around, and some used a battering ram. Each ran counter to conventional behavior, and each caused gossip, furor, and anger among her contemporaries. They were free, unafraid to take a stand, to make a mess if necessary to achieve their goals, whether it was against oppression or liquor or for religious freedom. Some were movers and shakers in terms of changing events; others left behind a legacy of brilliance and great art. Some of the women were perhaps a little self-serving in their behavior, exasperating in their wrongheadedness. Yet all of them are fascinating.
ONE
 
Warrior Queens
 
 
Cleopatra
 
69-30 BCE
 
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety: other women cloy / The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry / Where most she satisfies.
—SHAKESPEARE,
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
 
 
The life of Cleopatra is one of the best soap operas ever in world history, filled with drama, romance, murder, sex, handsome men, and overwhelming ambition. More than two thousand years after her death, she still holds our fascination as one of history’s most famous and mysterious women. Contemporary chroniclers claimed that she was a brazen temptress who corrupted both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. And her legend has inspired filmmakers, poets, and playwrights over the centuries as they try to capture her elusive spirit. The last Pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty was blessed with brains, charisma, and edge. A brilliant political strategist, Cleopatra used all the weapons at her disposal to keep Egypt free.
By the time Cleopatra was born in 69 BCE, the Ptolemaic dynasty had descended into depravity and an unfortunate tendency to bump each other off. As the Egyptian Empire declined, the Roman Empire was rising, spreading throughout Europe and the Middle East, until it came knock-knock-knocking on Egypt’s door. Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy XII Auletes, was already in debt to Rome for help retrieving his throne from his daughter Berenice. He walked a tightrope between keeping Rome at bay and Egypt independent.
Cleopatra was never meant to be queen. Although second in line for the throne after her older sister Berenice, she was still educated to be the future Pharaoh according to an advanced Greek curriculum, which included rhetoric, philosophy, medicine, drawing, music, math, art, and the glorious history of her ancestor Ptolemy I. A passionate scholar, she learned nine languages and became the first Ptolemy to learn Egyptian. When Berenice was executed for stealing the throne from Dad, Cleopatra moved up a notch in the line of succession.
At eighteen, Cleopatra inherited the throne after her father’s death, along with her ten-year-old brother/husband Ptolemy XIII, who became her coruler. She quickly moved to show who was really in charge. Inheriting a bankrupt kingdom, she managed to turn it into the richest state in the Mediterranean. Grain was distributed to the poor, the budget was balanced, and new building projects were initiated. She eventually amassed a fortune that was so great that Rome’s interest rates dropped by two-thirds when her treasure was brought there after her death. She pilfered foreign libraries for scrolls to bring back to the library in Alexandria. During her reign, Cleopatra promoted herself endlessly, making constant displays of her power and her image as Pharaoh and as a goddess. She also personally led rituals that were associated with Isis, the most important Egyptian goddess at that time. By doing so, Cleopatra ensured that her people would be loyal to her.
Her brother’s advisers, believing that they could control the boy king, soon forced Cleopatra off the throne. But years of familial scheming had turned her into a survivor. Fleeing into the Syrian Desert, she raised a small army of Arabs and tried to invade Egypt, but she was defeated by her brother’s forces. There was only one man who could help Cleopatra regain her throne: Julius Caesar. At fifty-two, he was a seasoned military commander and embroiled in a civil war with his former coconsul Pompey. Cleopatra had seen how the power of Rome had restored her father to the throne. Luckily for her, Caesar was in Egypt in pursuit of Pompey. Unluckily for her brother, his advisers viewed Pompey as a threat to Egypt’s relationship with Caesar and had him killed, pissing off Caesar, who had wanted him alive.
Seizing the advantage, and knowing that Caesar had a reputation as a womanizer, in an ingenious move Cleopatra had herself delivered to his ship rolled up in a Persian carpet. When it was unrolled, she tumbled out looking like a rumpled kitten. Charmed by this gesture, Caesar agreed to help her. He also took her as his mistress. Cleopatra impressed Caesar with her intelligence, her wit, and her abundant female charms. It was a meeting of the minds as well as the bodies. Now backed by Caesar’s forces, she defeated her brother, who later drowned in the Nile while fleeing Caesar’s henchmen. Caesar married her off to her youngest brother, Ptolemy XIV, who was only twelve and easily ignored.
When Caesar went back to Rome, he left Cleopatra a little present, a son she named Ptolemy Caesar but who the people of Alexandria named Caesarion after his father. After the birth of their son, Caesar gave up his plans to annex Egypt, instead backing Cleopatra as sole ruler. Cleopatra packed up Caesarion and left Egypt in 46 BCE to be with Caesar at his invitation. While in Rome, Caesar showered his mistress with many titles and gifts, including erecting a golden statue of her, the first human image ever, in the temple of Venus, considered the mother of the republic, making her a living incarnation of the goddess. The Romans feared Cleopatra because she was unwomanly by their standards. She was independent and powerful. While Cleopatra hoped that Caesar would make Caesarion his heir, he refused to publicly claim him as his son, choosing his grandnephew Octavian instead.
Cleopatra and Egypt lost their protector in Rome when Caesar was assassinated on the ides of March in 44 BCE by a host of conspirators, including his close friend Brutus, who were afraid that Caesar would declare himself emperor. Cleopatra, fearing for her safety, fled back to Egypt. She now made her son Caesarion her coregent as Ptolemy XV after the death of her second brother/husband. Cleopatra eyed the situation as to who was going to end up on top when it came to ruling Rome. When the forces of Mark Antony defeated Caesar’s murderers, Cleopatra turned her attention to him.
As she had done with Caesar, Cleopatra sized up her quarry, how best to appeal to him. Antony, although a brilliant general and popular with his troops, was also a complete party animal with a weakness for powerful women. It was showtime on the Nile. Pulling out all the stops, Cleopatra arrived at Tarsus to meet Antony on her great barge with its gold stern and billowing purple sails, inclining under a golden canopy, dressed like the goddess Aphrodite. Boys dressed like Cupids cooled her with their fans, and the most beautiful of her waiting women lined the barge. At dinner that night, she served him a banquet with the finest wines and foods, on bejeweled plates, while reclining on embroidered couches. The feast went on for four days and nights; Cleopatra spared no expense, with extravagant menus, banquets with fireworks, carpets of rose petals, and expensive presents. The spectacle was designed to show off the wealth of Egypt that would be put at Antony’s disposal should he partner with her.
It worked like gangbusters; Antony was just as captivated by Cleopatra as Caesar had been. Soon they were living
la vida loca
. According to Plutarch, Cleopatra catered to Antony’s every little whim, whether he wanted to go hunting or carousing and gambling. She drank with him and played practical jokes with him; basically she never let him out of her sight. She wanted to bind Antony by making herself indispensable on every level, as a way of protecting herself and her country. Antony and Cleopatra were well matched; they both enjoyed a hunger for life. But even more than lust, ambition brought them together. Cleopatra had been looking for a strong man to help her keep her kingdom. Antony likewise needed Cleopatra’s support, money, supplies, and troops to invade Parthia (now a part of present-day Iran). In return, he offered protection and help getting rid of her last remaining sibling, her sister Arsinoë, who had been a thorn in her side ever since she inherited the throne.
Together they shared a glorious dream of an empire that stretched from East to West. But power struggles at home led Antony away from Cleopatra’s side and back to Rome. After the death of his wife, Antony agreed to marry Octavian’s sister, Octavia, to cement their alliance. Back in Egypt, Cleopatra gave birth to twins, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene. It would be three years before she saw Antony again.
Remembering his plan to invade Parthia, Antony arranged to meet Cleopatra in Antioch. To pay him back for leaving her alone for three years, she kept him cooling his heels impatiently for weeks before agreeing to meet with him. It wasn’t long before the fire was rekindled but now their sexual passion soon turned into a strong emotional bond. It was a true partnership of equals; nobody would ever be as close to either of them as each other. After a few days between her golden thighs, he had agreed to give her land that included modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and southern Turkey in exchange for her help. Unfortunately too pooped from partying, Antony managed to lose to the Parthians. The remaining survivors were left cold and starving, until Cleopatra arrived with supplies soon after giving birth to another son, Ptolemy Philadelphus.
Antony abandoned his marriage to Octavia and married Cleopatra; for the ceremony they dressed as the gods Aphrodite and Dionysus. He also made their son Alexander King of Armenia; their daughter Cleopatra Queen of Crete; and little Ptolemy ruler of Syria. In Rome, Octavian went to the Senate to declare war on Egypt and Cleopatra. He launched a bitter propaganda war against Cleopatra, declaring that she was the real enemy of Rome and was using Antony as her besotted plaything.
1
This image lasted throughout the centuries, until 1820, when hieroglyphics were deciphered that told the other side of the story.
Instead of playing to Antony’s strength as a soldier, Cleopatra decided that a naval battle would be a better idea. It was a colossal mistake. While they were sailing away Octavian crushed their scattered troops in Greece, trapping them at Actium for four months. Antony’s larger, unwieldy ships were no match for Octavian’s smaller, lighter fleet. In the midst of battle, Cleopatra took her ships, which were filled with Egypt’s entire treasury, and fled the scene as was prearranged. Antony followed her, deserting his troops, who surrendered to the enemy. Defeated and feeling sorry for himself, Antony returned to the city, deciding to take his own life by stabbing himself with his sword. Unfortunately, he botched it. Cleopatra’s servant discovered him and Antony was carried to the mausoleum, where Cleopatra was holed up with her two maids. He died in her arms.
When Octavian finally marched into town, Cleopatra tried to win him over, as she had Caesar and Antony. Plutarch wrote that even at the age of thirty-nine, “her old charm and the boldness of her youthful beauty had not wholly left her and in spite of her present condition, still sparkled from within.” She even offered to abdicate if her children could rule in her place. But Cleopatra had finally met a man who was immune to her charms. When she heard that Octavian planned to parade her as a captive in the procession in Rome to celebrate his triumph, she refused to be humiliated. Instead, bedecked in the robes of Isis, she died poisoned by an asp that had been smuggled to her in a basket of figs, simultaneously outwitting Rome and affirming her immortality. Or at least that was the story put out by Octavian. Even Plutarch thought that story smelled fishy. There were no marks found on the body and, more important, no asp. Cleopatra, knowing her way around a chemistry kit, no doubt came up with a suitable royal cocktail of poison to make her exit from this world. However she died, it was as she had lived, a proud, independent queen.
After her suicide, Octavian ordered her son Caesarion put to death, one less challenge to his authority as emperor. What Cleopatra had fought against had happened: Egypt was now just another piece of the Roman Empire. Her daughter by Antony later married King Juba II of Numidia, but the fate of her other two children by Antony, Alexander Helios and Ptolemy Philadelphus, remains unknown.
BOOK: Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women
11.44Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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