Cleopatra VII (69 BC – 30 BC) was a political ruler and religious figure of ancient Egypt who, allied with Julius Caesar, solidified her rule. After Caesar's assassination, she aligned with Mark Antony of the Second Triumvirate with whom she produced twins, and whom she married by Egyptian rites. She committed suicide after the successful invasion of Egypt by the forces of Octavian, who afterwards, with the execution of her son Caesarion, ended the Ptolemaic dynasty.
Misattributed
- Kings are not elected. Gods are not elected.
- Cleopatra as portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor, in Cleopatra (1963)
Quotes about Cleopatra
- Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed.
- Blaise Pascal, in Pensées (1658) No. 32
- Her beauty, as we are told, was in itself not altogether incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her; but converse with her had an irresistible charm, and her presence, combined with the persuasiveness of her discourse and the character which was somehow diffused about her behaviour towards others, had something stimulating about it. There was sweetness also in the tones of her voice; and her tongue, like an instrument of many strings, she could readily turn to whatever language she pleased...
- Plutarch, in Life of Antony
- It was a pleasure merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an instrument of many strings, she could pass from one language to another; so that there were few of the barbarian nations that she answered by an interpreter.
- Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety...- William Shakespeare, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, sc. 2, Enobarbus
- All strange and terrible events are welcome,
But comforts we despise; our size of sorrow,
Proportion'd to our cause, must be as great.- William Shakespeare, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV, sc. 13, Cleopatra responding to Charmains request to "be comforted."
- Nought under heaven so strongly doth allure
The sense of man, and all his mind possess,
As Beauty's lovely bait, that doth procure
Great warriors oft their rigour to repress,
And mighty hands forget their manliness;
.....
And so did warlike Antony neglect
The world's whole rule for Cleopatra's sight;
Such wondrous power hath women's fair aspect
To captive men, and make them all the world reject.- Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book V, Canto VIII, stanzas 1–2
External links
- Cleopatra by James Grout (part of the Encyclopædia Romana)
- Cleopatra on the Web
- Cleopatra VII Philopator
- Cleopatra VII (VI), Chapter XIII of E. R. Bevan's House of Ptolemy, 1923)
- ↑ Cleopatra VII on Ancient History Encyclopedia
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