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Volume 13 issue 4 February 2013

ANCIENT EGYPT explores the WORLD WIDE WEB ...

CAESAR & CLEOPATRA

This month’s NETFISHING continues its look at the history of Egypt by seeing what the World Wide Web has to say about the liaison between Julius Caesar and the famous Cleopatra VII.

JULIUS CAESAR had followed Pompey to Egypt, to decide who would become ruler of Rome, but Pompey had been murdered and Caesar found himself instead arbiter in an entirely different dispute – over the rule of Egypt.

Julius Caesar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/caesar_julius.shtml

http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/caesar.html

http://www.livius.org/caa-can/caesar/caesar01.html

The two opposing sides for the throne of Egypt were the young PTOLEMY XIII and the teenage Queen CLEOPATRA VII. History records which side Caesar favoured, but the young Ptolemy XIII was not without courage, and on seeing he was about to lose his throne, he took the bold step of using the Egyptian army to defeat Caesar in battle. In the size of his forces he had the advantage, but he lacked experience and was no match for the military mind of Julius Caesar. Ptolemy laid siege to the royal palace, but Caesar withdrew to the defensible Pharos Island, setting fire to the ships in the harbour as a diversion. The young Ptolemy XIII was outmanoeuvred by the arrival of additional Roman troops and fled the battle, only to be drowned whilst crossing the Nile. The way was now clear for Cleopatra VII to become Queen of Egypt.

Ptolemy XIII: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_XIII_Theos_Philopator

http://www.youregypt.com/ehistory/history/greek/cleopatravii/

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Africa/Egypt/_Texts/BEVHOP/13*.html

http://virtualreligion.net/iho/ptolemy_13.html

http://www.phouka.com/pharaoh/pharaoh/dynasties/dyn33/14pto13.html

That a liaison developed between Cleopatra and Julius Caesar is clear, for it was to their mutual advantage. Caesar needed Egyptian wealth to fund his troops and military campaigns, whilst the young Queen of Egypt required Roman support to establish her position on the throne of Egypt; each had something to offer the other and could see advantages in forming a union. The Roman idea that ‘Cleopatra seduced Caesar’ seems unrealistic as Caesar was far older, and, more importantly, he was renowned for his womanising ways. His troops even sang songs about their military leader’s prowess with the ladies! A relationship was to their mutual advantage.

Cleopatra once again married her younger brother, PTOLEMY XIV (47-44 BC) to maintain the fiction of a dual monarchy (an ‘Isis’ and ‘Horus’ on the throne), but in reality she and Julius Caesar had become lovers and Caesar readily acknowledged their child, PTOLEMY XV Caesarion, as his own.

Ptolemy XIV: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_XIV_of_Egypt

http://www.livius.org/ps-pz/ptolemies/ptolemy_xiv.html

http://virtualreligion.net/iho/ptolemy_14.html

http://www.phouka.com/pharaoh/pharaoh/dynasties/dyn33/15pto14.html

Caesar needed to settle matters in Rome, however, and duly left Egypt within weeks of Caesarion’s birth. Cleopatra and Caesarion were later to follow Caesar to Rome, where she and Caesar became ‘the couple to be seen with’ and were the talk of Rome. Caesar even erected a beautiful golden statue of Cleopatra in the Temple of Venus Genetrix, just behind the Forum.

Whatever her physical charms – and Cleopatra may not have been a great beauty – she possessed both charisma and intellect, and these qualities appealed to all who met her. She had a presence, a ‘star quality’ as we would term it today, and whenever she entered a room the entire assembly would stop to admire her. Plutarch commented that “to know her was to be touched with an irresistible charm” whilst the Roman historian Dio Cassius said that “her delightful way of speaking was such that she captivated all who listened to her”. The couple dazzled Rome, and Roman women copied the Queen’s hairstyles, whilst men shaved their heads to appear bald, like Caesar. Unfortunately history intervened and Caesar, being perceived as having too much power, was murdered on the Ides of March (15th March 44 BC) and the dream was over. Cleopatra and Caesarion fled back to Egypt as Rome descended into civil war.

Cleopatra VII: http://www.touregypt.net/cleopatr.htm

Seeking to consolidate her own power Cleopatra had Ptolemy XIV poisoned, and now ruled alongside her son Ptolemy XV Caesarion (44-30 BC) instead. But the Roman world is now divided. OCTAVIAN (Caesar’s heir) hunts down the murderers of Caesar and takes charge in Rome, whilst a certain MARK ANTONY becomes the ruler of the Eastern Empire, after the battle of Phillippi in 42 BC. The arrangement is a fragile one, and the stage is set for an even greater struggle between the two rulers of Rome, a conflict in which Cleopatra, and the wealth of Egypt, will play a major part – as will be seen in the next issue.

Victor Blunden

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