In Egyptian history, the most famous female ruler was Cleopatra, also known as cleopatra. Empress Cleopatra was to Egypt what Empress Dowager Cixi was to the Qing Dynasty, and both became the true rulers of the dynasty, but the difference was that Cleopatra was full of unsolved mysteries. Why is Cleopatra put on the hat of "queen"? Is it true or false? Below, Xiaobian will reveal the secrets to you one by one.
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In 58 BC, the Ptolemaic king of ancient Egypt, Ollet, died, so he passed the throne to his eldest daughter and son, and let the two brothers rule together, and this eldest daughter was Cleopatra. In 51 BC, the 18-year-old Cleopatra officially ascended the throne, so the focus of attention of other countries such as ancient Rome was all focused on the new king, as for the reason, it is as simple as two words - beautiful. From the literature that has been handed down to the present day, it can be seen that Cleopatra looks naturally beautiful, like a heavenly immortal, just like the red face and evil water in the history of our country - Daji.
As a result, various rumors about Cleopatra also began to be very popular and enduring, but the main summary is that the style of life is improper, and she is also known as the "flower snake on the Banks of the Nile", so she also has the title of "Cleopatra". Among cleopatra's many men, the most famous are two, namely The Emperor of the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar, and the famous Roman political and military figure Antony. According to historical records, during the Roman attack on Egypt, Cleopatra seduced Julius Caesar, resulting in the defeat of Rome one after another, and at the same time secretly had close contact with Antony...
In the end, Cleopatra committed suicide because of Antony, at the age of 38. After Cleopatra's death, there are more and more legends and stories about her "charm", and even many famous poets, writers and painters in the West have created with Cleopatra as the theme, such as Dante's "Hell" and Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", all of which have created Cleopatra as the image of the queen. In addition, in the "Comparative Biography of Greco-Roman Celebrities", there is also such a record, "Antony also fell into the gentle trap of Cleopatra from this time." Then the question arises, is the historical record accurate? For in the Egyptian historical records, cleopatra is the exact opposite of it, but a generation of wise rulers.
To resolve this contradiction, we must also look at a cultural relic, the Cleopatra sculpture. In the 1830s, several archaeologists at the Berlin Museum in Germany accidentally discovered a female sculpture while investigating the nile river in Egypt, and later after in-depth research, it was determined that the prototype of this sculpture was Queen Cleopatra. However, to the surprise of archaeologists, from the overall shape of the sculpture alone, Cleopatra is obviously not a beautiful woman. First of all, Cleopatra's face was wide, not at all a beautiful melon face or goose egg face; second, her nose was also too large, seriously out of proportion to the facial features; and finally, there was no ornate decoration, only a simple bun, just like a commoner woman. Later, archaeologists at the British Museum studied that Cleopatra was only 1.5 meters tall.
By the late 20th century, with the rapid development of science and technology, Western archaeologists restored cleopatra's portrait according to a large number of historical records, and found that it was almost the same as the previous sculptures showed, and they could not bear the title of "beautiful woman" at all. In this way, it also caused experts and scholars to rethink history, since Cleopatra is not a beautiful woman, there is no such thing as a "beautiful queen", and all the descriptions of its charm are also debatable. After entering the 21st century, with the continuous deepening of archaeologists' research on documentary materials, this unsolved mystery has finally been solved.
The reason why Julius Caesar and Antony fell under Cleopatra's pomegranate skirt was not attracted by her appearance, but by her wisdom and talent. In the historical records of the Egyptians, Cleopatra was born into the nobility, received a good education from an early age, and mastered 5 Chinese, including her mother tongue, so she could read a large number of written works left by the sages, thus cultivating literary accomplishment, philosophical speculation, and understanding scientific principles. It is worth mentioning that in the society at that time, the mastery of knowledge was basically male, so when Cleopatra and men exchanged ideas together, it was very different, so the Romans who were hostile to it described Cleopatra as a charming flower snake that seduced men.
It is clear that when Egyptian culture and Roman culture collided, Cleopatra cared about his own people. Therefore, Cleopatra negotiated and debated with the Roman ruler julius Caesar the Great, so in the end Julius Caesar was impressed by Cleopatra's wisdom, after all, it was difficult for women who could master knowledge at that time to find a second, and it was still a good woman like Cleopatra. As for Antony, he was also overwhelmed by Cleopatra's wisdom, and the close contact between the two was mostly communication and speculation, but the Romans looked at it as an indiscipline.
In any case, history has finally washed away the legend of Cleopatra's "charm", but due to the deep-rooted impression of the general public, it is difficult to completely remove the title of "Cleopatra" for a while. Xiaobian firmly believes that with people's continuous research and study of history, eventually the mysteries of history will be unveiled one by one.
Wenlan Hairun Studio Editor-in-Chief Wen Xiucai, this article is written by: Special History Writer: Liu Lijiang's