Cleopatra

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Cleopatra VII Philopator (January 69 B.C. - August 12, 30 B.C.) was queen of ancient Egypt. She was the last member of the Ptolemaic dynasty which was started around 323 B.C. by Ptolemy I Soter (one of Alexander the Great's generals). She was also the last Hellenistic ruler. Although many other Egyptian Queens shared her name, she is usually known by only her first name and all of her similarly named predecessors have been mostly forgotten.

Her name is Greek for "father's glory," and her full name means "the Goddess Cleopatra, the Beloved of Her Father." She was the third daughter of the king Ptolemy XII Auletes, with whom she was first made to rule. A Greek by language and culture, she is reputed to have been the first member of her family in their 300-year reign in Egypt to have learned the Egyptian language. She was co-ruler of Egypt with her father and then later with her brothers (whom she married but produced no children). With the help of Rome she eventually gained sole ruleship of Egypt as Pharaoh.

Few people are aware of the liaison she had with Roman dictator Julius Caesar. She gained access to him by being rolled up in a carpet and smuggled into his palace. After becoming Caesar's mistress she produced his only known son named Caesarion. Cleopatra later would elevate her son to co-ruler in name. After the assassination of Caesar in 44 B.C. she aligned herself with Mark Antony. This was in opposition to Caesar's legal heir as Emperor, Gaius Octavianus (known as Augustus). She later married Mark Antony and produced three children. Antony, after losing the Battle of Actium against the Roman forces of Augustus (who would become the first true Roman Emperor), committed suicide. It is believed Cleopatra then took her own life on August 12, 30 B.C. The Roman empire would provide the backdrop from which the savior of the world, Jesus Christ, would be born as a flesh and blood human in the fall of 5 B.C. It was a Roman appointed King named Herod the Great who ordered the death of all children two years old or younger in an attempt to kill baby Jesus.		Basalt statuette circa 50 B.C.
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