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Cleopatra: The Last Pharaoh's High-Stakes Gamble

Cleopatra: The Last Pharaoh's High-Stakes Gamble

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 Discover the real Cleopatra, from her linguistic genius to her strategic romances that almost reshaped the Roman Empire.[INTRO]ALEX: Most people think Cleopatra was an Egyptian beauty who used her looks to seduce powerful men, but she was actually a Macedonian Greek polyglot who spoke nine languages and was the first in her family line to even bother learning the Egyptian tongue. JORDAN: Wait, the most famous Queen of Egypt wasn't even technically Egyptian? Why does every movie portray her as this exotic desert mysterious figure if she was basically a Greek intellectual?ALEX: Because history is written by the winners, and the Romans who defeated her needed to turn her into a dangerous temptress rather than a brilliant strategist. Today, we’re peeling back the Roman propaganda to see how one woman nearly turned Rome into an Egyptian-governed empire.[CHAPTER 1 - Origin]ALEX: To understand Cleopatra, we have to go back to Alexander the Great. When he died, his general Ptolemy I took over Egypt, starting a 300-year Greek dynasty that treated Egypt like an ATM.JORDAN: So she’s born into this line of Greek 'Ptolemies' who lived in Alexandria, which was basically a Greek city on Egyptian soil. What was the vibe when she took the throne?ALEX: Chaotic and bloody. Her father, Ptolemy XII, was a weak king who owed massive debts to Rome; he died in 51 BC, leaving the throne to eighteen-year-old Cleopatra and her ten-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII.JORDAN: Let me guess—sibling rivalry that didn’t end with just sharing the bathroom?ALEX: Exactly. In their family, you didn't just disagree with your siblings; you tried to erase them. Her brother’s advisors kicked her out of the palace and sent her into exile, but they didn't realize Cleopatra was already planning her comeback with the most powerful man in the world.[CHAPTER 2 - Core Story]ALEX: While Cleopatra is in exile, the Roman Civil War literally lands on her doorstep. The Roman general Pompey flees to Egypt after losing to Julius Caesar, but Cleopatra’s brother has Pompey decapitated to impress Caesar.JORDAN: That’s a bold first impression. Did it work? Did Caesar appreciate the 'gift'? ALEX: Caesar actually hated it; he was horrified by the brutal murder of a Roman consul. This gave Cleopatra her opening. She famously had herself smuggled past her brother’s guards—rolled inside a laundry bag—and delivered directly to Caesar’s private quarters.JORDAN: That is some high-stakes theater. I assume Caesar was impressed by the guts it took to pull that off?ALEX: He was captivated. He backed her claim, defeated her brother’s army in the Battle of the Nile, and stayed in Egypt to help her consolidate power. They had a son together, Caesarion, and Cleopatra eventually moved to Rome, living in Caesar’s private villa right under the noses of the Roman elite.JORDAN: I bet the Romans loved having a foreign queen living with their dictator. ALEX: They loathed it. When Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March, Cleopatra had to flee back to Egypt immediately. She was suddenly alone, protecting her son and her throne, while the Roman world tore itself apart again.JORDAN: And this is where Mark Antony enters the picture, right? The second chance for an alliance?ALEX: Precisely. Antony was one of the new leaders of Rome, and he needed Cleopatra’s money and grain to fund his wars. She met him at Tarsos on a golden barge, dressed as the goddess Aphrodite, and basically told him she’d give him the world if he helped her secure her children’s inheritance.JORDAN: It sounds like a power couple goals situation, but clearly something went wrong.ALEX: It did. Antony’s rival in Rome, Octavian—the future Emperor Augustus—used their relationship as political ammunition. He told the Roman public that Antony was under the spell of a foreign witch who wanted to move the capital of the empire to Egypt.JORDAN: So Octavian declares war not on Antony, the Roman hero, but on Cleopatra, the foreign 'threat.' Smart PR move.ALEX: It was ultimate political spin. In 31 BC, Octavian’s fleet crushed Antony and Cleopatra’s forces at the Battle of Actium. When Octavian invaded Egypt the following year, Antony fell on his sword, and Cleopatra realized she was going to be paraded through Rome in chains as a trophy.JORDAN: And she chose to go out on her own terms instead.ALEX: She did. Whether it was the famous bite of an asp or a hidden vial of poison, she committed suicide in August of 30 BC. With her death, the three-thousand-year-old line of Pharaohs ended, and Egypt became a mere province of Rome.[CHAPTER 3 - Why It Matters]JORDAN: So if she lost everything, why is she still the most famous woman from antiquity? Is it just the romance stories?ALEX: It’s the fact that she was the last person who could have stopped the Roman Empire from becoming a total global monopoly. If she and Antony had won, the center of gravity for Western civilization might have stayed ...
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