Ciara AtkinsonBl. 7

February 26th 2009

A Life Worth Knowing

The Beginning of Cleopatra’s Life

Cleopatra was born 69 B.C. One of the most famous Egyptian

rulers for over three hundred years Was a threat to the throne, her

father made her marry her brother, and they both ruled the throne

She and her brother Ptolemy XII plotted against each other

Her brother died, and tradition made her marry her next brother, Ptolemy XIV

Antony and Cleopatra

The lover, Julius Caesar

Hid self inside of a rug and smuggled herself into Caesar’s living quarters

Caesar was fifty-four Cleopatra was twenty-one Had Caesar’s son named

Caesarion, or Ptolemy Caesar Took the throne with her infant

son Remained being married to her

brother In 44 B.C. Julius Caesar was

assassinated

Between the Time and Her Next Lover;

Marc Antony• After Caesar died, she returned back to Egypt• Had her brother poisoned• Made a joint ruling with her son• Roman’s started to believe that she was in a plot to have

Caesar killed• Marc Antony demanded to meet Cleopatra• She dressed as Venus, goddess of love, and Marc

dressed as Bacchus, god of wine, got down to business• Marc fell in love with her, and she had a influential ally in

Rome• Gave birth to twin sons• Antony married Octavia, Octavian’s sister, then left her

for Cleopatra

The Death of Cleopatra

• Cleopatra married Marc Antony in 36 B.C.

• Gained control previously owned by Romans

• Her love, Marc Antony, received a false note on a battlefield that his wife, Cleopatra, had been murdered. He walked off the battlefield, and purposely fell on his sword.

• Later on, Octavian captured Cleopatra

• While being captive in a cell, Cleopatra snuck an asp, a poisonous snake, into her cell and let it bite her

• Her hopes to save her children were lost when later on her 17 year old son, Caesarion, was murdered

An excerpt from “Cleopatra”By: Charles Algernon Swinburne

“…All this she dreams of, and her eyesAre wrought after the sense hereof.There is no heart in her for sighs;The face of her is more than love---A name above the Ptolemies.

Her great grave beauty covers herAs that sleek spoil beneath her feetClothed once the anointed soothsayer;The hallowing is gone forth from itNow, made unmeet for priests to wear.

She treads on gods and god-like things,On fate and fear and life and death,On hate that cleaves and love that clings,All that is brought forth of man's breathAnd perisheth with what it brings.

She holds her future close, her lipsHold fast the face of things to be;Actium, and sound of war that dipsDown the blown valleys of the sea,Far sails that flee, and storms of ships;

The laughing red sweet mouth of wineAt ending of life's festival;That spice of cerecloths, and the fineWhite bitter dust funerealSprinkled on all things for a sign;

His face, who was and was not he,In whom, alive, her life abode;The end, when she gained heart to seeThose ways of death wherein she trod,Goddess by god, with Antony.”