Whatever else you may say about her, no one can deny that Olympias was a strong woman in a kill-or-be-killed age. That same strength characterized the last Macedonian queen of Egypt, the Cleopatra.
Carry on, Cleo
This Cleopatra was a direct descendant of Ptolemy, one of Alexander’s generals and, some historians believe, his half-brother by way of one of Philip’s many liaisons. It was Ptolemy who took Alexander’s corpse, encased in a gold sarcophagus, to Alexandria, the port city Alexander himself had founded in Egypt. There, some 250 years later, Cleopatra ruled, guarding his remains and presiding over a cosmopolitan place whose lighthouse was one of the wonders of the ancient world and whose library was its envy.
Alexander was part of Cleopatra’s allure for the Romans – first Julius Caesar and then Antony, his protégé. They wanted to be winners like him. They also liked Egypt’s strategic location as a bridge between the East and the West and its grain supplies.
But there was also plenty to like about the lady herself. Though not the siren of propaganda, she was something far more interesting – a woman of wit and charm who had been educated like a man and who could hold forth on any number of subjects.
Though proud of her Macedonian descent, she was a true daughter of Egypt, the first of the Ptolemaic dynasty to speak the Egyptian language – one of several she commanded – observe the Egyptian customs, worship the Egyptian gods. She never forgot that the first duty of a ruler is to her people. In this, she was very much like England’s Elizabeth I. But unlike Elizabeth – a head-over-heart-girl if there ever was one, who kept men at bay – Cleo backed the wrong horses, so to speak. To protect Egypt, she threw in her lot with Julius Caesar, whom she bore a son, Caesarion. Caesar then had the misfortune to be assassinated.
With Antony, whom she married, Cleopatra had three children – the twins Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene and Ptolemy Philadelphus. But Antony – also husband to Caesar’s grand-niece, Octavia – proved no luckier than Caesar, winding up on the losing side of the battle for empire and Caesar’s legacy with his brother-in-law, Caesar’s heir, Octavian (later Caesar Augustus).
With Antony a suicide and the impervious Octavian longing to parade her in chains through the streets of Rome, Cleopatra applied the poisonous asp to her body and stepped into immortality.
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Olympias Defamed
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