The love story of Cleopatra and Mark Antony not only occupies entire chapters of the chronicle of humanity, but has inspired great novels or spectacular films.
It was a relationship characterized by passion, intrigue, power struggles and tragedy, it was even capable of destabilizing the strength of the incipient Roman Empire.
Cleopatra Filopator Nea Thea, known as Cleopatra VII, was the last queen of Egypt and with her also ended the Ptolemaic dynasty and the Hellenistic era of Egypt, which began with Ptolemy I Soter, general of Alexander the Great, almost two centuries earlier.
She experienced cruelty and mistrust since she was little, something that marked her forever. Not in vain did she have to flee with her father to Rome, when she was only 11 years old, to escape from her half-sister, who had killed her mother and her husband, to later take the throne from him. father of both. The beautiful Egyptian, who was completely determined to occupy power and return Egypt to its former splendor, did not hesitate for a single moment to use her intelligence and her womanly weapons to seek the best allies for the cause.
The first to fall into her trap was Julius Caesar, the most powerful man of the time, and upon his death he was succeeded by Marco Antony, who could not avoid his bewitchment either.
After returning to Egypt with her father and a large army with which they regained the throne, Cleopatra could not again risk being separated from her great dream and therefore, upon the death of her father, the last Queen of Egypt acceded to the throne after marrying her brother, Ptolemy XIII. But nothing went as Cleopatra expected and after learning that her husband wanted to get rid of her to reign alone, he fled to Syria to save her life.
Upon learning that Julius Caesar was in Egypt pursuing her enemy Pompey, she secretly traveled from Syria to implement a Machiavellian plan that she believed would restore her power. At this moment is when one of the most memorable encounters in history takes place, as she appeared before him rolled up in a carpet to enter the palace without being recognized, with the sole purpose of winning his sympathies and saving his life by recovering the woman. once the throne of Egypt. Julius Caesar fell before the charms of Cleopatra, who was not only a beautiful and sensual woman but was also a very cultured woman, knowledgeable in nine languages, interested in astronomy and a lover of the books that filled the Library of Alexandria. .
The story goes that Cleopatra achieved her goals and that, after spending the night together, Caesar risked everything to embark on a Civil War in Egypt and elevate Cleopatra to the throne as an independent queen. Of course, he could not share with her the splendor of her kingdom, since her action was disapproved in Rome and her life was ended there by the very Senate that swore to protect him from her.
It was really Marco Antonio who conquered the heart of the most powerful woman of the time. This handsome Roman soldier and politician from the final era of the Republic lived a dissolute youth, due to the lack of paternal authority, until he entered the service of his uncle Julius Caesar. It helped him prevail over the Roman oligarchy during the Gallic War and the Civil War. After the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. C., Cleopatra, who had had his son during her stay with him in Rome, saw her life in danger and had no choice but to return to Egypt to plot a new maneuver that would help her maintain her power. .
The opportunity to use her woman's weapons again came sooner than expected. Mark Antony, who at that time was fighting with Octavian Augustus for power in the region, had won the battle of Philippi, but was not very satisfied with the behavior of the Queen of Egypt. With the idea of reproaching her for not having acted as a faithful ally of hers, Mark Antony had Cleopatra come to see him and humiliate herself before him, apologizing for her wrongdoing. Cleopatra, astute and intelligent as anyone, decides to go to the meeting but with a different intention: to repeat her seduction maneuver with Marco Antonio. She considered him the natural successor of Julius Caesar and, not caring that he was married in Rome to her first wife, Fluvia, she appeared in Tarsus, although not humiliated and weak as the Roman expected, but determined to conquer him.
As Plutarch narrates, Cleopatra "went up the river Cydnos in a ship with a stern of gold, purple sails and silver oars. The movement of the ship follows the cadence of the sound of the flutes, marrying that of the lyres and of "The pipes. She herself, touched as Aphrodite is usually painted, is lying under a tent embroidered with gold and the children, similar to the loves in the paintings, surround her fanning her."
