QUEEN EGYPTNo one in the modern world controls the wealth or territory that Cleopatra did.
—STACY SCHIFF, AUTHOR OF CLEOPATRA: A LIFE
Julius Caesar paced the palace floor. What should he do? He didn’t trust Egypt’s King Ptolemy XIII. The young king had just brought him Pompey’s severed head as some kind of peace offering. Pompey was his rival, yes, but that is not how Romans treated their enemies—by stabbing them in the back when they weren’t looking. It was a cowardly, treacherous deed.
No, Caesar didn’t trust the king at all. And the queen, Cleopatra, was in exile, banished by her young husband and his scheming advisors. Caesar needed the Egyptians and their great wealth to bankroll the military plans of Rome, but whom in Egypt could he trust to be his ally?
His worries were interrupted by a knock on the door. A servant entered carrying a large sack over his shoulder, and before Caesar could protest, the leather strap was loosened and the sack unrolled at his feet.
Out stepped a young woman. Caesar could not believe his eyes!
“I am Cleopatra. I have come to speak with you about Egypt.”
Caesar was amazed. Somehow this girl had sneaked past all the king’s troops stationed at Egypt’s border, into the heavily guarded city of Alexandria, and past all the palace sentries. If she had been caught, she would have been executed on the spot for her treachery. Cleopatra had risked her life on this daring plan to meet with him.
Caesar was pleased. This was the kind of courageous and clever leader he could work with!
Cleopatra’s roller-coaster life began in 69 BC, when she was born to King Ptolemy XII. Her ancestors came from Greece, descended from Alexander the Great, and had ruled Egypt for more than 250 years. The Egyptian empire had been the greatest in the world, but by the time of Cleopatra’s birth, it was fading. Rome loomed large, and the Ptolemies were only in power because Rome allowed it. Cleopatra wanted to change that—she wanted her family’s former lands back to bring Egypt back to its former glory. And she wanted to be in charge.
“Cleopatra” was a Greek name meaning “her father’s glory.” And before her father’s death, Cleopatra did rule jointly with him for a time.1
When Cleopatra was eighteen, her father died. Following Egyptian custom, she became queen, but to do it, she had to marry her ten-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII, and share power with him! Cleopatra had little interest in co-ruling and took immediate control. From the start, her power was under threat, and two years after Cleopatra became queen, the king’s advisors staged a coup, banishing her from Alexandria. She had to flee for her life across the desert into Syria, roughing it in a tent in the harsh desert while she recruited an army of mercenaries to help her fight her way back to the throne.
During Cleopatra’s power struggle, similar struggles were happening in Rome. Two great generals, Julius Caesar and Pompey, fought for control of the Roman Republic. Eventually, their civil war brought them to the shores of Egypt. Pompey arrived first and asked for help from King Ptolemy in exchange for all the help he’d given his father. But Ptolemy’s advisors decided it was wiser to kill him than to try to pick the winning side. They sent a boat to bring Pompey to the king, but as soon as it set sail, they stabbed the unsuspecting general to death. Then they put Pompey’s severed head in a basket and sent it to Caesar to show their allegiance.
Caesar was not impressed. On the contrary, the murder made him suspicious of King Ptolemy. At nearly the same moment, Cleopatra hatched her brilliant plan to sneak in to Alexandria to meet Caesar. She knew her only hope was to get the power of Rome behind her. But it was 150 miles back to the city, and King Ptolemy’s soldiers were at Egypt’s eastern border looking for her. She would be killed on sight.
The trip took eight days. Cleopatra and her trusted friend Apollodorus paddled a small boat along the coast. At sundown on the last day, they slipped unseen into Alexandria’s harbor and pulled ashore. Apollodorus then rolled up Cleopatra in a large bag (probably the kind used to transport rolls of papyrus) and slung her over his shoulder. Thus disguised, he walked through the city, past the palace guards, and right into Caesar’s private rooms.2
Was it Cleopatra’s beauty that charmed Caesar at that surprise meeting? Probably not. Writings about the queen describe her as ordinary looking; it was her brains and personality that made her irresistible. The ancient historian Plutarch wrote, “Interaction with [Cleopatra] was captivating, and her appearance, along with her persuasiveness in discussion and her character that accompanied all interaction, was stimulating.”3
Cleopatra and Caesar were immediately smitten with each other. The queen was the answer to Caesar’s prayers—a brilliant coleader with a fortune to finance his military dreams. And to Cleopatra, Caesar was more experienced with women than her preteen brother, and it didn’t hurt that the military could protect her position in Egypt.4 Together, they would be a power couple the likes of which the world had never seen.
The two became lovers, and Caesar used his army to defeat her brother, who drowned while trying to escape the battlefield. Caesar made Cleopatra queen of Egypt once again. And once again, due to Egyptian custom, she had to marry her other little brother, twelve-year-old Ptolemy XIV. No matter—Cleopatra and Caesar enjoyed several years together until, finally, a reluctant Caesar was pulled back to business in Rome. Soon after Caesar left, Cleopatra gave birth to his one and only son, whom she called Caesarion (“Little Caesar”).
While in Egypt, Cleopatra and Caesar took a famous cruise up the Nile. They traveled in the luxe royal barge, along with a fleet of 400 boats! They visited the pyramids, the Sphinx, and other treasures. Servants and the Egyptians on shore treated both as living gods. For Cleopatra, it was a brilliant way to advertise her newly restored power. And pregnant with Caesar’s child, she was the embodiment of Isis, the Egyptian fertility goddess, with her conquering warrior by her side.6
Cleopatra and Caesar couldn’t stay apart for long, and a few months later he sent for her. But from the start, Romans hated Cleopatra. For one, Caesar already had a wife! And it was illegal to marry a foreigner or to have multiple wives. Also, Romans didn’t believe women should have power, and Cleopatra had as much power as Caesar. Finally, life in Rome was simple and modest. Cleopatra was used to living like a god, and in Rome, Caesar set her up in style.
Romans were horrified.
Public opinion of Caesar plummeted and rumors swirled: he planned to make himself king; Cleopatra would be queen; they would move the capital to Alexandria. When Caesar began sitting on a golden throne and commissioned a golden statue of Cleopatra as a goddess, Romans had had enough. On March 15, 44 BC—the Ides (middle) of March—Caesar’s former friends and colleagues attacked him on the senate steps. More than sixty noblemen stabbed Caesar to death (twenty-three times!).5
Caesar’s murder shocked Rome, but Cleopatra was surely terrified. Her protector was dead and she was next. She packed up her family and fled to Egypt, her position in the world once again shaky. Back in Alexandria, someone poisoned Cleopatra’s brother-husband (most likely Cleopatra herself, because he was old enough to threaten her leadership) and she named baby Caesarion her co-ruler.7
In Rome, Caesar’s second-in-command, Mark Antony (who wasn’t involved in the murder), became head of state. But his position was also shaky. Caesar’s great-nephew Octavian and another powerful general, Marcus Lepidus, both wanted the job. The three Roman powers came to a compromise: they caught and killed Caesar’s assassins, then divided up the Roman Empire between them. Lepidus would rule Africa, Octavian the west, and Antony the east. Of course, ruling the east meant dealing with Cleopatra.
Antony headed east to secure his territories. In what is now Turkey, he sent a message asking Cleopatra to meet him there. He wanted to secure her support for his war against the Parthians. Cleopatra ignored the summons. Antony called her again, and again she ignored him; the queen would not be commanded. Then one afternoon, Antony noticed a crowd gathering along the river. Everyone in town was watching Cleopatra’s remarkable arrival. She sailed in on the royal barge—the golden ship with purple sails and oars made of silver—paddling in time to music. Cleopatra reclined beneath a golden canopy, dressed as Venus, and being fanned by boys dressed as Cupid. She certainly knew how to make a first impression.
Just as she had with Caesar, Cleopatra charmed Antony. And as with Caesar, her relationship was as much about politics as it might have been about love. Antony needed Egypt’s wealth to secure his position in Rome, and Cleopatra needed land and protection. It was a match made in heaven.
Antony was a handsome, fun-loving man and Cleopatra was ready for some fun (and to finish what she had started with Caesar). Instead of continuing his tour of the eastern territories, Antony followed Cleopatra back to Alexandria, where the two fell in love. They spent the winter of 41–40 BC together, enjoying all the city had to offer. By day, they toured the sights and went to parties; by night, they feasted and drank. Egyptians nicknamed Antony “the new Dionysus,” for the Greek god of wine.8
Over the next ten years, they had three children together. Antony held on to his power—he made a political union with Octavian by marrying his sister—while Cleopatra ruled Egypt. But in 37 BC, things shifted. Antony and Cleopatra married, which was illegal in Rome. In what was called the Donations of Alexandria, Antony held a lavish ceremony where he named Cleopatra and Caesarion as co-rulers of much of Rome’s eastern provinces. He also gave Roman territories to their three younger children. He dubbed Cleopatra the “Queen of Kings.” With Egypt’s former lands and glory restored and her own power secured, Cleopatra had realized her childhood dream.
Cleopatra and Antony enjoyed practical jokes. One of their favorite pranks was disguising themselves as beggars and running through the streets of Alexandria, knocking on doors and racing away.9
But the good times didn’t last. Romans were shocked by Antony’s actions and by how much power he’d given Cleopatra. Octavian, whose sister had been humiliated, finally had an excuse to turn against his rival. He whipped up old anti-Cleopatra hatred—she was a temptress who had bewitched Antony—and declared war on her.
In 31 BC, at the battle of Actium, Octavian defeated Egypt’s fleet of ships. Antony and Cleopatra fled back to Alexandria to defend Egypt, and the events that followed are right out of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. When Octavian attacked Alexandria, Antony received a message that Cleopatra had died in battle. He was so distraught at the news that he threw himself on his sword. As he lay dying, Antony got word that Cleopatra was not actually dead but hiding in the tomb she’d built for herself. Slaves carried Antony to her and he died in her arms.
Cleopatra knew that if Octavian took the city and captured her, she would be taken back to Rome as his prisoner. There, she would be led through the streets as the people heckled and taunted her. It was a humiliation she could never allow. Instead, she killed herself using the bite of a snake, the poisonous asp.10 She and Antony died together.
Why do we remember Cleopatra’s name thousands of years after her death? Not just because she was queen of Egypt—there have been countless queens we don’t remember. Her name lives on because she was one of the most powerful leaders in the world during a time when women had no power. She refused to accept what the men in her life would allow her and instead took what she wanted. She ruled the wealthiest kingdom in the world for twenty-two years and managed to make allies and lovers of not one but two of the most powerful men in history. While she’s remembered in pop culture as a beautiful temptress, historians agree that her power lay in her personality. She was brilliant, charming, courageous, and ambitious. She was the Queen of Kings.
HOW WILL YOU ROCK THE WORLD?
I will follow my path of destiny to learn what I need to do.
GRACE ELLERS 
AGE 13