Cleopatra

Cleopatra VII Philopator was born in 69 BC into the Ptolemaic dynasty. The line, founded by one of Alexander's generals, had governed Egypt for three centuries while speaking only Greek. Cleopatra broke the pattern. Plutarch says she learned Egyptian — the first of her line — along with Aramaic, Hebrew, Parthian and Ethiopian. She staged herself as Isis incarnate, a fusion of Macedonian queen and Egyptian goddess that gave her popular legitimacy her ancestors lacked.

She came to the throne at eighteen in 51 BC, jointly with her brother Ptolemy XIII. Conflict drove her into exile in 48 BC. When Pompey was killed by Ptolemy's men, Caesar arrived in Alexandria. Cleopatra had herself smuggled into his quarters, by tradition rolled inside a carpet. The 52-year-old dictator and the 21-year-old queen began an alliance and an affair. She was restored to power and bore Caesar a son, Caesarion, in 47 BC.

After Caesar's murder in 44 BC she pivoted to Mark Antony. Sailing into Tarsus dressed as Aphrodite in 41 BC, she captivated him. They had three children. In 34 BC at the Donations of Alexandria, Antony parcelled out eastern provinces to her children — a gift to Octavian, who turned it into a campaign against an oriental queen corrupting a Roman general. Her diplomacy extended Ptolemaic independence by two decades, but the strategy gave her enemies the framing they needed.

At Actium on 2 September 31 BC the combined fleet broke against Octavian. Ancient sources accuse Cleopatra of fleeing first; modern historians argue the manoeuvre may have been a blockade breakout. The following August, with Octavian at Alexandria, a false report of her death drove Antony to suicide. On 29 August 30 BC Cleopatra killed herself, by tradition with the bite of an asp hidden in figs, at age 39. Caesarion was killed; Egypt became the imperial province of Aegyptus, sending Rome four months of grain a year. Three centuries of Hellenistic Egypt closed in a single August.