How do you start the story of one of the most
famous women in history? Maybe with her birth? Eh, a little bit conventional. Okay, what about with her death? [snake hiss] Nah, that seems gauche.
Come back later, aspen. Oh! I know! How about we start
with a drunken wager? Yeah! Now we're talking! [Extra History theme] 41 BCE Cleopatra, pharaoh of Egypt,
is at her palace in Alexandria entertaining her new beau the Roman general and politician
Mark Antony The official reason for Antony's visit
is to prepare for a new campaign against Rome's hated enemy in the East,
the Parthians In reality, however,
Antony has fallen head over sandals in love
with Cleopatra and the two are using this time before the campaign to enjoy life together Each night the lovers throw
a luxurious banquet in honor of their union and revel in an evening of excess And they're joined by a group of
court friends & hangers on playfully referred to by Cleopatra as the "Order of the Inimitable Life" The group dines off gold plates and afterward spends the night drinking
and playing games And one evening after being stuffed
with food & drink Antony idly mentions that the two
have reached the height of their revels There's nowhere to go from here But Cleopatra scoffs and tells Antony that she could spend 10 million sesterces on a single
banquet To which Antony tells her to prove it So the next night, Cleopatra holds
a new banquet And while it's sumptuous it's no greater than the couple's
usual excesses Midway through the meal Antony boasts that he'd won the wager But at that moment The Queen declares that she's now
ready to spend her 10 million sesterces and calls for a cup of vinegar As the revelers look on, Cleopatra
then takes off one of her priceless pearl earrings and drops it
into the cup And the fine pearl one of the largest in the world
at the time disintegrates in the glass Then she drinks... and wins the bet. Though this was a small event in
the queen's life this story does illustrate three
important things First: How to make an incredibly expensive albeit gnarly, cocktail Second: That Cleopatra was willing to
go to <i>any</i> lengths to win And third: That no one
in the ancient world not even the most powerful men in Rome were about to get one over
on the Queen of the Nile Julius Ceasar Mark Antony & Octavian may fill the history books but in her life,
Cleopatra dunked on them all and in many ways, she continues
to dunk on them 2 millennia after her death [snake hiss] Nope, not your cue yet. Go wait in the green room,
we'll call ya. So how is it that she ended up getting the better of Rome's greatest
figures in an era of high male chauvinism? While a lot of it has to do with characteristics unique to Cleopatra another important factor was
Cleopatra's family the Ptolemies A family with so many tales of intrigue incest and backstabbing... that dealing with the Romans must
have seemed like a walk in the park Because before she romanced Roman generals and captured our imaginations, Cleopatra had to first survive her family The story of the Ptolemies starts, like a lot of other stories
in the ancient world with Alexander the Great In the 4th century BCE, as Alexander ran roughshod
over the Mediterranean world, his entourage included his
close childhood friend Ptolemy Ptolemy was simultaneously Alexander's military commander, personal bodyguard, and official historian chronicling Alexander's deeds so everyone knew just how <i>great</i>
The Great was See, in the ancient world, you weren't
anyone unless you had someone recording your deeds and denigrating your enemies In fact, "historians" of this time were
more like a public relations officer rather than a scholar When Alexander died
without an heir in 323 BCE the members of his retinue stepped up
to fill the power vaccum and Ptolemy was one of those men And though they founded several successor states to Alexander's empire Ptolemy captured the jewel in the crown:
Egypt But he also captured an
even more valuable prize: Alexander's corpse Alexander and his commanders were
Macedonian Greeks And in ancient Macedonia, a dead king's
successors asserted their claim by conducting the burial rituals
of their fallen leader So by possessing Alexander's body, Ptolemy laid claim to his throne
and his legacy Though the corpse was originally destined
to be buried in Macedonia, Ptolemy intercepted Alexander's body and buried it in the Egyptian city of
Memphis Then when the Ptolemaic dynasty
took Alexandria as their seat of power, they moved the dead king to a
massive new tomb there That symbolic victory went a long way
toward legitimizing Ptolemy's rule for his fellow Macedonians and Greeks who were helping him run Egypt, but that was only part of the equation Because Ptolemy's Egypt was
a foreign-led kingdom and without Egyptian support,
it wasn't gonna last To that end, Ptolemy and his successors looked for ways
to combine their Greco-Macedonian rule with local customs and traditions Though they still considered themselves
part of the Greek world, the Ptolemies adopted the trappings & imagery
of the ancient pharaohs In addition to trappings and dress,
however, the Ptolemies also pursued with gusto, another practice of the ancient pharaohs Incestuous marriage By the 3rd century BCE, the Ptolemies
regularly married brother and sister making them co-rulers of Egypt, often with the older of the two siblings
- regardless of gender - playing the leading role in the kingdom These marriages not only helped
to keep the dynasty in the family, but also played a role in courting
the support of Egyptians, who expected their leaders
to replicate the model of rule set out by the ruling deities
Isis and Osiris And in their quest to maintain power the Ptolemies were willing to do
whatever it took And because of that willingness to
fit into Egyptian society, the Ptolemies thrived Alexanderia became the greatest city
in the Mediterranean world an epicenter for commerce and culture and the site of incredible landmarks like the Great Library and Pharos Lighthouse And although the Ptolemies
were not known for military prowess, they successfully maintained control via strategic alliances
with strong neighbors like Rome, offering money and
grain in exchange for protection Now one could posit that this lack of
military success may seem like a weakness but look at it this way: Rome had to do all the work while the Ptolemies sat back
and enjoyed the richest lifestyle the ancient world had to offer Rome got the glory, sure but Egypt got the gold Essentially playing it smarter, not harder But for all of their wealth and political
skill the Ptolemies couldn't get out
of their own way All that money and power led to infighting and a lot
(and I mean <i>a lot</i>) of murder Fratricide, sororicide,
matricide, patricide and, of course when
royal advisors got involved, plain old vanilla homicide And there's really too much history
to go through here but just know that the Ptolemy family were a real nest of vipers <i>snake hiss</i> Ahh, still not yet, but in fairness I kinda set you up for that one
so apologies By the time of Cleopatra's birth in
69 BCE all of this infighting & murder
has weakened the kingdom Case in point, consider how Cleopatra
herself came to the throne First, her cousin Ptolemy the 11th
had to be assassinated, then her sister Cleopatra the 6th
was assassinated, then her other sister, Berenice the 4th
was, also, assassinated... And finally her father, Ptolemy the 12th
managed to die of a disease Wow that's a pretty relatively easy exit all things considered Especially for a guy who bribed the Romans
to invade Alexandria and execute his own daughter Only after <i>all that</i> did the 11 year old
Ptolemy the 13th & his sister Cleopatra the 7th, the then 18 year old
Cleopatra from our tale, ascend to the throne as co-rulers And in this blood-soaked context,
Cleopatra stepped onto the world stage Unlike many of her siblings, she lived
long enough to receive an impressive education in math,
astronomy, literature, & rhetoric She could speak seven different languages and had become the first Ptolemaic ruler
to speak fluent Egyptian During the previous decade she'd been at
her father's side as he ruled both in Alexandria
and when he'd spent time exiled in Rome She posessed experience, intellect,
money, power and if not outright classical beauty,
a certain indescribable charm & magnetism that made her hard to resist And most importantly of all, she was a Ptolemy through and through capable of cutthroat, cold-blooded
action when necessary And she would rely on all of these skills and attributes over the next decade to deftly avoid treachery, build important alliances, and seduce the greatest men of the era - all while maintaining her independence And we'll get into all of that next week when Cleopatra really begins
tipping the scales <i>snake hiss</i> Wrong kinda scales Aspen! Seriously, you know you're at
the end of this story right? Legendary Patron Roll Call! Ahmed Ziad Turk, Alicia Bramble,
Casey Muscha, Dominic Valenciana, Gunnar Clovis, Kyle Murgatroyd, Orels1
Thank you so much!
