![]() Naming the boy Caesar was a brilliant act of flattery. Bearing his son was a stroke of good fortune and Cleopatra knew how to make the most of it. Sleeping with Caesar was an obvious move on Cleopatra’s part. Caesar gave Cleopatra permission to add Caesar to the child’s name, so he was called Ptolemy XV Caesar – better known by his nickname, Caesarion. Shortly after meeting Caesar, she was pregnant. There was also a sister, a bitter rival who fought against Cleopatra in 47 BC and was sent into exile.īut Cleopatra would not rule alone for long. Cleopatra had to share the throne with another, much younger brother for a while, Ptolemy XIV, but he died within a few years, perhaps on her order. And Cleopatra was Queen of Egypt, her brother having drowned in the Nile after being defeated in battle. By spring 47 BC, after hard fighting in Alexandria and the Nile Delta, Caesar was master of Egypt. They cruised together on the Nile on her state barge.Ĭleopatra’s brother struck back, and it came down to war. When Caesar and Cleopatra were together, the parties often went on until first light. We don’t know who seduced whom, but it would be surprising if the two of them hadn’t fallen into each other’s arms. Caesar needed money and a friendly monarch on the Egyptian throne. He was also a Roman and the most powerful man in the Mediterranean world. He was brilliant, sharp, and an accomplished ladies’ man. At 52, Caesar was at the height of his powers. She combined the glory that was Greece with the glamour that was Egypt. No wonder there was an instant affinity between the two.Ĭleopatra was 21, charming if perhaps not beautiful, persuasive, and immensely intelligent. Perhaps only Caesar, a risk-lover himself, is her equal. As for her willingness to take risks, Cleopatra stands out in that category as well. As we’ll see, Cleopatra has few rivals when it comes to mastering entrances and exits. They were unrolled in front of Caesar and – voilà! – there was Cleopatra. Cleopatra was, covered, as one story has it, in bed linens. The solution was having herself smuggled into the palace in Alexandria. But first she had to see Caesar without getting captured. She wanted to return, and she saw her chance. She had inherited the throne with Ptolemy when their father died three years earlier, but then her brother drove out Cleopatra and forced her into exile. ![]() Ptolemy refused but his sister, Cleopatra, was another matter. ![]() Deprived of his opportunity, Caesar was angry and broke he needed money to pay his soldiers. That could have proven invaluable since Pompey’s allies were still at large and in control of more than enough resources to continue the war. Just before Caesar arrived, Egypt’s King Ptolemy XIII had Pompey assassinated, thereby cheating Caesar of the chance of effecting Pompey’s surrender. His leading rival, Gnaeus Pompey, escaped to Egypt, where he had friends. He crushed them on the field of battle in Greece in the summer of 48 BC. Caesar’s enemies more than matched his resources but not his skill in combat. His rivals then tried to drive him from power, but Caesar fought back: the result was civil war. By conquering Gaul, he became Rome’s greatest general. At the time, Gaius Julius Caesar was the man of the hour. We meet her first leading man – Caesar.Ĭleopatra met him in the royal palace in Alexandria. In today’s post, we’ll marvel at her boldness, her ambition, and her ability to leverage her assets to get ahead. ![]() Last time, in the first of four posts, we met Cleopatra and got an introduction to her art of power politics. I hope you enjoyed the third and final episode of my three-part series on “How to Win A War,” this one on Clausewitz, the most important military thinker of modern times. Thanks, everyone, for your continued enthusiasm about my podcast, Antiquitas.
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