Antony and Cleopatra

I will tell you.

The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,

Burned on the water. The poop was beaten gold,

Purple the sails, and so perfumèd that

The winds were lovesick with them. The oars were silver,

Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made

The water which they beat to follow faster,

As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,

It beggared all description: she did lie

In her pavilion — cloth-of-gold, of tissue —

O’erpicturing that Venus where we see

The fancy outwork nature. On each side her

Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,

With divers-colored fans, whose wind did seem

To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,

And what they undid did. (Antony and Cleopatra II, ii)

Cleopatra Tea Philopator (69 BC 30 BC), was an Egyptian queen of the Ptolemaic period. She was the last of the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt and the last of the Hellenistic age which, with her death, will have a definitive end. She spoke Greek like all the Tolomei but she decided to also learn Egyptian and to identify herself with the goddess Isis.

She was the eldest of the children of Ptolemy XII, to avoid problems related to the fact that she was a woman, the father decided to name her co-heir together with the eldest son, Ptolemy XIII, the two children received the nickname of “new gods” and “brothers lovers “but the brother soon unleashed a war against his sister to take possession of the kingdom definitively and entirely.

During a stay in Rome with her father, Cleopatra, fourteen, apparently saw for the first time Marc Antony, who was then twenty-eight years old and was a young Roman noble, at that time in the service of Gabinius as a cavalry commander.

When the defeated Roman general Pompey arrived in Egypt, seeking refuge from his rival Julius Caesar, he was killed. However, Caesar was furious and summoned Ptolemy and Cleopatra to the palace. Cleopatra was afraid of falling victim to an ambush by her brother on her way back to her palace, so she resorted to a ruse. She let a faithful friend of hers wrap her in a large rug. The friend showed up at the palace with the long bundle on his shoulders and, saying he had to deliver a gift to Caesar, he went as far as the latter’s apartments. Here he unrolled the carpet and it was thus that Cleopatra appeared before him. Egyptian nose, big eyes, dark skin, sensual mouth, the queen was twenty-one years old, she wore the most sumptuous and skimpy clothes, the most precious jewels and she asked him for protection from her brother. Sources tell us that the two became lovers that same night but for Cleopatra it was a more political than sentimental bond. True love would come with Marc Antony. From the relationship between Caesar and Cleopatra, a son was born, Ptolemy Caesar called Cesarione.

With the death of Caesar, a civil war broke out between his friends and his enemies. In 42 BC Mark Antony, (83–30 BC), now one of the triumvirs who ruled Rome following the power vacuum, asked Cleopatra to meet him in Tarsus to verify her loyalty. They fell madly in love, Antonio followed her to Alexandria, where she remained until the following year. From their union the twins Cleopatra Selene and Alessandro Helios were born.

The civil war was won by Caesar’s friends and a nephew of his, who was called Octavian, became the head of Rome and of all its empire. He was called Augustus, that is, the most honored and respected of all. The relationship between Antony and Octavian, who were brothers-in-law, was immediately adverse, their enmity was immediate and continuous.

“What has changed you? The fact that I mate with a queen? She is my wife. Isn’t it nine years since it started? And you mate only with Drusilla? And so you will be fine if, by the time you read this letter, you haven’t mated with Tertullia, or Terentilla, or Rufilla, or Salvia Titisenia or all of them. Does it benefit where and with whom you mate? “(Suetonius, Augustus, 69.)

Antony married Cleopatra, although he was related to Octavia, Octavian’s sister. Shortly thereafter another son was born, Ptolemy Philadelphus. Octavia was sent back to Rome.

The policy of Cleopatra and Antony, aimed at dominating the whole East, favored the reaction of Octavian, who accused the queen of undermining the dominance of Rome and convinced the Romans to declare war on Egypt.

Antony and Cleopatra were defeated in Anzio, in 31 BC. In 30 BC, after Anthony’s suicide in order not to be tortured and taken prisoner by Octavian, Cleopatra locked herself in the Ptolemy mausoleum and killed herself by being bitten by an aspic.

Yare, yare, good Iras, quick. Methinks I hear

Antony call. I see him rouse himself

To praise my noble act. I hear him mock

The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men

To excuse their after wrath. — Husband, I come!

Now to that name my courage prove my title!

I am fire and air, my other elements

I give to baser life. — So, have you done?

Come then and take the last warmth of my lips.

Farewell, kind Charmian. Iras, long farewell.

Have I the aspic in my lips? Dost fall?

If thou and nature can so gently part,

The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch,

Which hurts, and is desired. Dost thou lie still?

If thus thou vanishest, thou tell’st the world

It is not worth leave-takin. (Antony and Cleopatra V,ii)