In world history, the "Big Three" in Roman history—Caesar, Antony, and Octavian—are closely related to a woman. And this woman is the famous Cleopatra.
She was Caesar's lover and Anthony's wife. Although she lived to be 39 years old, she was a queen for 22 years. Her ambition and charm had a huge impact on Roman and world history. Cleopatra is not only a woman who seduces all living beings, but also a queen who can be compared with Wu Zetian and Tsar Caterina.
Cleopatra was the last empress of the Ptolemaic dynasty of ancient Egypt, her real name is: Cleopatra VII, her name means "beautiful" in ancient Greek, which shows that she herself is quite beautiful. She was born on April 27, 69 BC, a descendant of the Macedonian kingdom that ruled Egypt at the time. He was the last pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, who ruled from 51 BC to 30 BC.
When Alexander the Great established an empire with an unprecedented territory, he gave Egypt to one of his generals, Ptolemy Sotel, who then established the Ptolemaic Sotel dynasty in Egyptian history. Cleopatra was the second daughter of King Clodius Ptolemy Oret. Brilliant in appearance, witty, adept at means, and ill-intentioned, she grew up in an extravagant court, received an excellent education from an early age and was fluent in many languages, excelled in literature, music and learning, and received a military training that could be called excellent.
Her father appointed his eldest son, Ptolemy XIII, to rule Egypt jointly with her (according to the law of the time, Cleopatra had to marry his younger brother, Ptolemy XIII). In 51 BC, she ascended the throne. In the accounts of later generations, this peerless Egyptian beauty not only temporarily preserved a dynasty, but also caused the kings of the powerful Roman Empire to fall under his pomegranate skirt and willingly serve it. Famous poets such as Dante and Shakespeare described this legendary woman as a "sexy witch of the world"; Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw called her "a willful and inattentive woman".
Although her father arranged for her to marry her half-brother, and they both took power together. But soon she was expelled from Alexandria due to political disagreements. However, the ambitious empress wanted to gain further power and was ready to fight for the Egyptian throne by force.
In order to use Caesar to help her win the throne, she ordered her subordinates to dress up as merchants and wrap themselves in a large blanket, and when the merchant went to Caesar's residence to ask Caesar, she came out of the blanket and met Caesar. Cleopatra was at a wonderful age, and she used her beauty and wisdom to captivate Caesar, who ordered her father's will to be carried out, and she and her brother would rule together. Caesar thus became her ally and lover, helping her rule within Egypt to remain relatively stable and successfully saving Egypt from Roman aggression.
Later, Empress Yan's younger brother died while fleeing due to rebellion. Caesar conquered Egypt, and from then on, Empress Jane lived with Caesar and had a son. At the same time, Caesar restored the queen's throne. Lingering with Cleopatra in the scenery of the Nile, Caesar refused to return to Rome, which caused dissatisfaction among the Romans. Later, Caesar tried to destroy the republic, became a dictator, and was assassinated by his political enemies. Later, Roman historians believed that Caesar lost his heart and gave birth to a dictatorial "evil heart" because he was seduced by the "Nile viper".
Originally, the Empress Yan thought that she could become the first lady of the Roman world, but now there was no drama, and the beautiful dream of the Empress Yan came to naught, so she had to return to Egypt. After returning to Egypt, she wanted to make her son born to Caesar Ptolemy XV, but her brother Ptolemy XIV was dissatisfied. In order to achieve her goal, she did anything to poison her brother.
In Rome at this time, Mark Antony quelled the turmoil in Rome and became the main force in Rome, in order to conquer Antony, the queen specially took a flower boat decorated with gold and silver, dressed herself as a gorgeous Eros, and invited Antony to the feast.
After Antony boarded the ship, he was immediately captivated by Cleopatra's peerless beauty and elegant speech, and soon returned to Alexandria with Cleopatra. In 34 BC, Antony signed the "Alexandria Donation" with Cleopatra, "gifting" a large part of the territory of the Roman Republic to the Empress and the children born to Antony and the Empress. Later, the two lived together for 12 years, and Empress Yan also gave birth to 3 children to Anthony. The queen succeeded in keeping her throne and the Kingdom of Egypt.
While this was a great diplomatic success for Egypt, it was a political disaster for Antony—the hearts of the people in Rome were completely turned to Octavian. Subsequently, Octavian won the support of the Senate to go to war with Antony, and defeated Antony and the Egyptian coalition at the Battle of Axing, and took Egypt.
When the army broke the country, it is said that Empress Yan died on August 12, 30 BC by biting herself with a poisonous snake "aspis". Her and Caesar's son, Ptolemy Caesarion of Pharaoh, had been killed by order of Octavian before his mother committed suicide.
People say she died for Anthony's martyrdom, but I'm afraid she wants to follow this dynasty that is dying, right? She had successfully ruled Egypt before her relationship with Caesar and Antony and led Egypt through a difficult period and was a powerful queen.
In fact, the Ptolemaic dynasty was in jeopardy long before Cleopatra came to power, but she defended the country, stabilized Egypt's political situation, punished bureaucracy and corruption, and used her beauty and wisdom to keep Egypt alive for an extra twenty-two years like Zhang Juzheng for the Ming Dynasty. Her death represents the end of the Ptolemaic kingdom, as well as the end of the Hellenistic period, the beginning of the Roman era in the Eastern Mediterranean.