Cleopatra: A Life

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2010

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapter 9

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Female Leadership in a Male-Dominated World

As Schiff notes, “Cleopatra was groomed for the throne” (27) from her earliest childhood. No expense was spared in preparing her to reign as monarch over the vast collected territories of Egypt, and by all accounts, her training was successful. The Ptolemaic dynasty fostered extremely capable women who were supported by social rights and a comprehensive education. Schiff asserts that Cleopatra is universally described as formidable (264), and exercised considerable influence at the height of her power. Nevertheless, Schiff also explores how Cleopatra faced many obstacles due to her status as a female ruler in a political world largely dominated by men.

Schiff depicts Cleopatra as a savvy politician who deploys various stratagems to secure her position and influence. Throughout her life, Cleopatra bolsters her power in Egypt through fostering a connection with her people: She learns their language (33), and inserts herself into their traditional religious rituals, eventually associating herself with Isis, the supremely powerful goddess. She also recognizes the value and even necessity of forging alliances with Roman men who can help her achieve her own goals. When locked in a civil war with her brother, she persuades Julius Caesar to take her side and reinstall her on the throne. After Caesar’s assassination, she eventually turns to Mark Antony, first through flattery and, later, through taking him as her lover. Her relations with other powerful men, such as Octavian, Herod, and even Cicero, present Cleopatra as sure of her power and unafraid to exercise it, as she refuses to play the more compliant female role that these men expect.

Schiff emphasizes that Cleopatra is wildly misrepresented by powerful men who seek to control the narrative around her. Cicero disapproves of her and Herod accuses her of being a scheming “hussy.” Above all, Octavian’s propaganda paints Cleopatra as a corrupt Eastern seductress both to discredit Mark Antony and to declare war against her as an enemy of Rome. Schiff argues that such contemporary portraits have continued to shape popular perceptions of Cleopatra, with writers from Plutarch to Shaw depicting her as a scheming seductress instead of recognizing her as a political figure in her own right. Throughout Cleopatra, Schiff suggests that the propaganda against Cleopatra is misleading and unfair, speaking more to Roman and patriarchal prejudices than to the historical truth. In response to the enduring myth of Cleopatra, Schiff instead presents her as a female leader whose competency, charm, and intellectual capabilities allowed her to attain the heights of great power.

The Construction and Deconstruction of Historical Myths

Cleopatra stands out as a preeminent historical myth, one so ubiquitous as to have remained in public awareness for the thousands of years since her death. Although she was a Macedonian Greek by descent, her position as an Egyptian queen enabled her enemies to transform her into a stereotypical “eastern” figure who represented luxury, excess, and effeminacy. In Cleopatra, Schiff attempts to explore the mythologization of Cleopatra and to interrogate it with a critical eye.

Schiff stresses that Cleopatra’s “story would be shaped by a Roman she met once [Octavian], in the last week of her life, who elevated her to a perilous adversary” (298). Even while Cleopatra was alive, Octavian steadily worked to create an image of Cleopatra as someone both dangerous and morally depraved. He seized upon Mark Antony’s somewhat inexplicable behavior with Cleopatra, recasting her as a scheming seductress who had overwhelmed a previously lauded Roman war hero. She became the great enemy that Rome needed to unite to crush, and as such was a vital part of Octavian’s propaganda in the build-up toward the final civil war with Antony.

Even after her death, Octavian's image of Cleopatra endured and even proliferated: As Schiff notes, Cleopatra’s life and death “coincided with the birth of Latin literature,” where she would “inspire its great poets, happy to expound upon her shame” (297). Since Octavian, Cleopatra’s “power has been made to derive from her sexuality” (298) and this has suffocated her myth with the overweening moralism of the intervening ages. Many prominent writers, from Dante to Chaucer to Dryden, depict her as “the whore queen” (299). This image became widespread in popular culture, leading to even so benevolent a personality as Florence Nightingale to refer to her as “that disgusting Cleopatra” (299).

In her final portrait of Cleopatra, Schiff presents her as a tragic figure with her “busy afterlife”—mispresented and caricatured, a woman who is not regarded as complex and nuanced but a stereotypical figure of how womanhood can corrupt and be corrupted. Schiff sets out to correct this, offering her speculations as an antidote to the way Cleopatra has been traditionally represented. Schiff offers a deconstruction of Cleopatra’s historical myths by questioning our acceptance of history, urging readers to re-evaluate their perceptions in the light of contemporary understandings, and to recognize the sources and the motivations that have shaped Cleopatra’s prior commentators. It is by acknowledging that histories are undergirded by political, cultural, and personal preconceptions, that one might come closer to uncovering the real people whose lives have been made into myths.

The Dynamics of Power

Throughout the last 20 years of her life, Cleopatra was one of the most powerful women in ancient history (302). As such, Cleopatra’s story is very much about power. Power is examined from many facets in Cleopatra: how power is achieved, how it is held, and how it is perceived.

Coming of age during the vicious dynastic struggles of the Ptolemaic family, Cleopatra’s continued existence speaks to her survival skills. Her ability to recognize and conflate her own power, from aligning herself with her father in her adopted appellatives to seizing the chance to have her bothersome sister executed, eventually help her gain the Egyptian throne as sole ruler. Within Egypt she also serves as the commander in chief of the military, leading armies into battle and making campaign decisions. She is the primary beneficiary of all of Egypt’s yields, making her the richest woman in the Mediterranean, if not the entire world. Her immense wealth essentially allows her to dictate the terms of her cooperation during her relationship with Antony: Egypt supplies Rome with most, if not all, of its grain, and Cleopatra’s vast treasure helps support Rome’s armies. In a sense, she holds power over the Romans, but, paradoxically, it is this power that makes her most vulnerable.

Rome proves a dangerous entity to associate with, as Cleopatra is economically strong but politically dependent upon the backing of powerful Roman men. Her own father, Auletes, needed Roman help to overthrow his daughter, and Cleopatra must persuade Julius Caesar to assist her in her own power struggle against her brother. Once Caesar dies, there is a power vacuum in which Cleopatra is exceedingly vulnerable. When she backs Cassius in the civil strife that follows, she is summoned by Mark Antony to answer for herself once Cassius is defeated. Cleopatra wins over Antony, but swiftly makes an enemy of Octavian as the relations between the two men become strained. Rome’s power overwhelms both Mark Antony and Cleopatra, as Octavian and Antony confront each other in a civil war that will see Cleopatra lose Egypt’s independence and, ultimately, her life.

Cleopatra further suffers from Roman power after her death. The Roman historians exercise power over Cleopatra’s image and her posthumous reputation, reflecting The Construction and Deconstruction of Historical Myths. Through their propaganda, they distort or eclipse who Cleopatra actually was. In a sense, Schiff suggests that the truest and most enduring power that one can have is the ability to control the narrative of someone else’s life.