Cleopatra

Cleopatra was intimately involved in the critical years that saw the Roman Republic transformed into the Roman Empire. How this transition appeared to the Queen of Egypt - and the part she played in it - is the subject of Pat Southern's engrossing new biography. Descended from the first Ptolemy, one of the companions of Alexander the Great, Cleopatra was the last in a long line of Macedonian rulers of Egypt. It was Julius Caesar's involvement in an Alexandrian civil war that led to her being set up as Queen of Egypt. She also had an affair with Caesar, by whom she produced a son Ptolemy Caesar, better known as Caesarion. A good linguist, intelligent and shrewd, she soon proved herself an able administrator - and ruthless when necessary. For two years she was a guest of Caesar's in Rome, but on his assassination she returned to Alexandria - where in turn Mark Antony was to become her geust and lover. Over the years of their acquaintance they produced three children. However, Roman sensibilities were greatly disturbed by the Donations of Alexandria whereby Antony distributed vast areas of the east to Cleopatra and their children, and their behavior allowed Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) to brand the Egyptian Queen as the arch enemy, worse than Hannibal, nearer than the Parthians and powerful because she had access to Antony's legions.