Unbiased account of Cleopatra’s life without hyperbole, dramatics

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This article was published 30/10/2010 (5547 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cleopatra

A Life

By Stacy Schiff

Little Brown & Co., 354 pages, $36

Despite the enduring image of Elizabeth Taylor as the Egyptian queen, we don’t even know what she really looked like, because no confirmed image of her exists.

But say her name, and people connect it with beauty, passion and intrigue, more than 2,000 years after her death by suicide in ancient Egypt.

Cleopatra.

But over the millennia, many things about Cleopatra VII have been brushed aside in favour of a more passionate take on her life. Her skills as a leader, her ruthlessness and the keen grasp of the power she held are too often forgotten.

In her latest book, American biographer and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) Stacy Schiff pushes past the hyperbole and dramatics to create an unbiased account of the life of Cleopatra.

A polarizing figure caught up in intrigue, civil wars and political manoeuvrings, Cleopatra has been the subject of formal histories, poetic fancies, theatrical tragedies, Hollywood films and much reinvention over the centuries.

As Schiff notes, “History existed to be retold, with more panache but not necessarily greater accuracy.”

Descended from Macedonian Greeks who had intermarried and warred with each other for generations, Cleopatra was thought to have been born in 69 BCE. She ascended to Egypt’s throne at age 18, as co-monarch with her 10-year-old brother (and husband, as per Egyptian custom).

The country was already aligned with Rome as an official friend and ally, allowing the appearance of independence even as they paid huge financial tributes to the Roman ruler of the day.

After her brother exiled her, she raised an army and connected with Julius Caesar, who had just defeated Pompey in yet another Roman civil war.

Her daring re-entry to the city under cover of darkness led to a meeting with Caesar and the beginning a romantic relationship. Caesar restored her to the throne, where she ruled with yet another younger brother and bore Caesar a son, named Caesarion.

After Caesar was assassinated, Cleopatra returned to Rome, had her brother/husband/co-ruler poisoned, and made Caesarion her co-regent.

“Even at a time when women rulers were no rarity she stood out,” Schiff writes, “the sole female of the ancient world to rule alone and to play a role in Western affairs.”

Schiff’s writing has an elegant lilt, with an uncommon yet pleasant rhythm and style. Succinct and clear, she blends in background on cultural and social norms of the time to fill in gaps, and manages to keep the information connected to Cleopatra’s story.

After civil war broke out in Rome, Cleopatra managed to navigate through the intrigue and ended up on the side of Octavian and Mark Antony.

Antony and Cleopatra started a relationship that produced three children, and forged some political stability in the eastern end of the Roman empire.

But ultimately, Cleopatra found herself in a dangerous political position. Octavian took advantage of their illicit affair to paint her as a schemer who ruled Antony, and wanted to rule Rome as part of Egypt. Then, Octavian declared war on Cleopatra.

Antony remained at Cleopatra’s side. After months behind a blockade, Cleopatra and Antony made a dash for the open sea, leaving the remainder of Antony’s army and navy to surrender to Octavian.

Octavian then invaded Alexandria, leading to the dramatic suicides of both Antony and Cleopatra and the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Cleopatra was 39 when she injested a mysterious poison that killed her almost instantly.

Schiff is clear that there is no evidence of death by snake bite, as myth has it. She waded through reams of information to try to determine what was true and what was exaggeration in the fragmented historical record.

Because so little contemporary information about Cleopatra survives, Schiff is forced to make assumptions and rely on less-than-accurate ancient sources, some written centuries after Cleopatra had lived and died.

Egyptian and Roman history alike are deftly woven into the main story of Cleopatra’s reign, creating an impressive depth to the biography.

Schiff’s impeccable research and balanced approach to one of history’s most notorious women makes Cleopatra: A Life an excellent read for lovers of ancient history and those who want a corrective to the glamorous oversimplifications of Hollywood.

Julie Kentner is a Winnipeg writer.