Cleopatra the Great Read Free Page A

Rome and world domination was a teenage girl and her young brother.
    Against such ridiculous odds, this was the moment when the seventeen-year-old first revealed her right to the epithet ‘Great’. Determined at all costs to keep her country independent, she began by taking power directly into her own hands with the support of her closest advisers. Although the Alexandrians wanted the expulsion of all Roman troops stationed in their city, such a blatant move would simply have led to all-out military conflict which an impoverished Egypt was in no position to win. With no choice but to maintain the status quo, Cleopatra became a collaborator in the eyes of the anti-Roman Alexandrians, and as unpopular as her father had been. Yet she also realised that true power lay beyond this volatile Greek city on the Mediterranean, and was to be found at the heart of her antique kingdom. And so began the enduring relationship between Cleopatra the Great and the people of Egypt.
    The new monarch’s ability to win hearts and minds had been greatly enhanced by her ability to speak to them directly in their own language, and as the first of her dynasty to learn Egyptian she had a deep understanding of their ancient culture. Brought up in a palace where education had been raised to an art form, she was well versed in a heritage which would help unlock the vast resources necessary to rebuild Egypt’s capabilities and restore its fortunes. Guided by her close circle of Greek and Egyptian advisers, Cleopatra’s opportunity to demonstrate her devotion to native tradition arose only days into her reign with the auspicious birth of the divine Buchis bull, the sun god’s earthly incarnation, far to the south at Thebes. The installation of the god in his temple was an event that had been celebrated for over a thousand years. And although it was something of a formality for many of her predecessors, who understood little of the esoteric proceedings and were present in name only, Cleopatra decided she would not only attend the ceremony but would lead the rites in person.
    She was the first monarch in several centuries to take such an active part in the rituals which gave Egypt its strength, and her decision had been inspired by Alexander’s own attitude. He too had celebrated traditional rites during his six months’ stay in Egypt, honouring the ancient deities and paying homage to the sacred creatures that contained the souls of the very gods themselves. Yet Alexander had also brought his own Greek culture with him, establishing his city on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast and filling it with all the elements of traditional Greek culture, which gradually filtered south to transform the entire country for ever.
    Although Greek culture took permanent root in Egypt under Alexander, cross-cultural contact had first begun over two thousand years earlier between Egypt and Crete. Foreign influences gradually penetrated south along the Nile valley, as long-haired Minoans in bright-coloured kilts had appeared as far south as Thebes by 1500 BC, bearing Greek-style gifts in tribute and taking home Egyptian concepts of architecture, technology and animal-based religion.
    Egypt’s royal family even claimed dominion over parts of the Greek world, from the warrior queen Ahhotep (c. 1550 BC ), named ‘Mistress of the Shores of the Northern Islands’ of the Aegean, to the fourteenth-century BC Amenhotep III, ‘Amenophis’ in Greek, who laid claim to Knossos, Rhodes and Mycenae. Imported Mycenean pottery found at his family’s royal city, Amarna, enabled early archaeologists to date the site to c. 1350 BC , while the presence of such pottery on Egypt’s western Mediterranean coast revealed a thriving trading colony around the end of the second millennium BC .
    Following the end of the Bronze Age around 1200 BC , widespread unrest around the Mediterranean led to displaced populations migrating through Asia Minor,