Notes on Cleopatra and her links with Rome

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Historical Context

Geography, topography and resources of Ptolemaic Egypt and its neighbours

Geography and topography

Alexander the Great died in 323 BC. The empire he left was too vast and unmanageable for any one person to govern. It was ultimately divided into three areas: Egypt of the Ptolemaic Dynasty; Greece, Macedonia and Asia Minor of the Antigonid Dynasty; and the Eastern lands including Persia, Syria and Mesopotamia of the Seleucid Dynasty. By 303 BC the Ptolemaic Dynasty emerged as the most prosperous and survived for 300 years, often despite its murderous and macabre rulers.

Egypt, although surrounded by desert and sea, was a wealthy and prosperous country. The Nile river was its artery and it was worshipped and honoured by its people for the life that it sustained. The Blue Nile and the White Nile joined to form the Nile, the longest river the world. On its course it is bordered by cliffs until it reaches the delta marshlands. It cuts the surrounding deserts into the Eastern Desert extending to the Red Sea, and the Western Desert, reaching to the Libyan frontier. The Eastern Desert, unlike the barren Libyan Desert, contains wadis and a mountain range. A third desert, the Sinai, it open land and is crossed with wadis and hills.

The Nile River travels through Upper or Southern Egypt to Lower or Northern Egypt, along the Nile valley, to the Delta and into the Mediterranean.

Egypt had natural defenses due to its unique geographical position. Only its northern border was exposed, and this could only be approached by a narrow road through Pelusium, along the Palestine coast. It was also opened at the Delta via the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile.

Resources

The Produce of the fertile lands of the Nile was numerous – cotton, corn, barley, flax and rice. The surrounding areas produced many minerals including limestone, gypsum, alabaster, copper, iron, granite and tin. These minerals were in large supply and used for building materials.

Gold was mined largely in Wadi Allaqi, in lower Nubia, south of the cataract. There were also gold mines within Egypt near the Red Sea. Egypt’s gold supply was legendary in the ancient world.

Egypt also was the largest grain producer in the Mediterranean and shipped wheat to the known world. Exports including ivory, ebony, precious stones such as emeralds, decorative glassware, wool and linen, spices and herbs, wines, fruits and papyrus have been found.

The Ptolemaic royal family held a monopoly over the production and export of paper, oil, salt, cloth, as well as banking.


Egypt’s relationships with Rome and with neighbouring eastern powers

Rome

Rome was a growing power and could not be ignored by Egypt. Neutrality was the wisest path of the early Ptolomies. In 270 BC diplomatic relations were established between Rome and Egypt. The fact was that Rome could not ignore the fantastic wealth of Egypt or its wheat supply. Whoever controlled that wealth, be it a nation or an individual, controlled decisive power.

Ptolemy VI Philometor fled to Rome when challenged by his younger brother, Euergetes. Rome awarded him Egypt and Cyprus, while the younger brother was given Cryneaica. Alexandria appealed successfully to Rome during the invasion by Antiochus of Syria. Now Rome had entered Egyptian affairs irrevocably.

Rome was not threatened by Egypt and felt secure in supporting Egypt as a non-competitor, as it possessed only one colony, Cyprus, after 96BC.

Rome arbitrated again when Sulla installed Alexander, predecessor of Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy Auletes as king for 18 days and again when Auletes himself fled to Rome to escape the rebellious Alexandrians in 58 BC.

In the lead up to this expulsion Rome had seized Cyprus. Cyprus had supplied ship timber and sailors for the essential maritime policy of Ptolemies and Auletes was blamed for the loss by the Alexandrians.

Pompey the Great, however, helped Auletes to regain the throne and became the senate appointed guardian of his children, Cleopatra Vim Bernice IV, Cleopatra VII, Ptolemy XII and Ptolemy XIV, when Auletes died.

The fine line between independence and dependency was the ultimate test of diplomacy, especially considering the mutual disrespect of the Romans and Hellenistic Greeks for each other’s culture. The Greeks hated Roman imperialism and the austere Roman culture was despised.

Rome dictated the relationship with Egypt at the time of Cleopatra in 51 BC, as Egypt was simply too militarily weak to stand up against Rome. Egypt was nominally impendent but was in reality dependent of Rome for political and military support, and its good will. Rome saw the Hellenised Orientals of Egypt as possible partners in a future Greco-Roman world. However the Romans were to become more terrified of Cleopatra than of any other ruler apart form Hannibal. They believed she wanted to rule the world, including Rome. Romans claimed that he also left them Cyprus and Egypt, but this was hotly disputed.

Romans invested heavily in Egypt. They wanted their investments protected and at one stage a Roman, C. Rabirius Postumis, ran the finances of Egypt, to his own advantage.

The general feeling of the Egyptian population was anti-Roman. Rome was considered arrogant and menacing to Egypt. It was a general hostility, especially hurled at Caesar on his arrival in Alexandria. However, affection for Mark Antony and Caesarion was generous and sincere, indicating Cleopatra’s own popularity within Egypt.

Ptolemy Apion left Cyrenaica to Rome in his will. The

Syria

In 219 BC Antiochus III of Syria boldly captured Tyre, the richest city on the Mediterranean, and Acre from the Ptolemies. He then threatened lower Syria and Palestine and was defeated by a predominantly Egyptian army at Raphia. The Egyptians thereafter asserted their fighting ability in uprisings against their Greek masters (there were at least 10 revolts between 245 BC and 50 BC).

After 203 BC, with the reign of Ptolemy V, the empire dissipated. The Ionian islands were lost as was Coele Syria, regained after marriage of Ptolemy to Cleopatra, daughter of Antiochus the Great, but subsequently disputed.

Cleopatra VII fled to Syria when she was expelled from Alexandria and raised an army of supporters.

Overview of Ptolemaic Egypt’s political and social structures

In 332, the Macedonian king, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and gave a new capital to the old Kingdom along the Nile, Alexandria. After his death in 323, his friend Ptolemy became satrap of Egypt and started to behave himself rather independently. When Peridccas, the regent of Alexander’s mentally unfit successor Philip Arridaeus arrived in 320, he was defeated. This marked the beginning of Egypt’s independence under a new dynasty, the Ptolemies.

Ptolemy accepted the royal title in 306. The fourteen kings of this dynasty were all called Ptolemy and are number by modern historians. A remarkable aspect of the Ptolemaic monarchy was the prominence of women who rose to power when their sons or brothers were too young. This was almost unique in Antiquity.

After the death of Ptolemy IV Philopator in 204, his son Ptolemy V Epiphanes was too young to rule and his wife Arsinoe was murdered. During this time the Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great and Philip V of Macedonia decided to attack the Ptolemaic empire and divide the booty. When a peace treaty was signed in 195, Egypt had lost Coele Syria and all oversea possessions, except for Cyprus. The next years saw several revolts inside Egypt.

In 169 and 168, Antiochus IV Epiphanes invaded Egypt; he conquered the Delta and laid siege to Alexandria. However, the Romans intervened and forced him to return home.

Egypt was left on its own until 47, when Julius Caesar arrived. He made Cleopatra VII queen along with her 12 years old brother Ptolemy XIV, and demanded money. Seventeen years later, Caesar’s adopted son Octavian drove Cleopatra into suicide, murder her son Ptolemy XV Caesarion and annexed the country for himself.

Political structure

The government of the Ptolemies was centralized and bureaucratic. They inherited a political system that was already strongly centralized, headed by the god-king (pharaoh). This system prevailed during the Hellenistic Age and was strengthened and made more efficient by the Ptolemies.

Egypt, in theory and in practice, was the king’s workshop – his personal source of wealth and income. Most of the land was owned by the king who also controlled all the people and resources. It was a most successful centralized economy, based on acceptance and worship and the profound belief that the king was semi-divine, the medium between earth and the gods as was the belief in ruler cults in the East.  

The Ptolemies gave respect to the Egyptian gods and religious beliefs. They also gave respect to the people’s customs, traditions, rituals and practices. At the same time they were Greek kings in this merging of conquered people and foreign conquerors. The royal court always and only spoke Greek – with the exception of Cleopatra who could also speak Egyptian. Cleopatra was especially observant of Egyptian cult practices and she also built temples and attended festivals, which endeared her to the Egyptian people.

Social structure

The bulk of Egypt’s people were laboring peasants. They continued in their old language and ways, producing the wealth of the Ptolemaic kings. There was a great gap between rich and poor. The wealthy f Egypt was the king’s wealth, to distribute as he saw fit. The value of the silver coinage could also be manipulated to the king’s advantage. The peasants, although producing all the wealth, had no political power. A few native Egyptians did ascend to limited power, once they have been Hellenised and could speak Greek. For the main, the population saw the Greek/Macedonian masters as unclean foreigners, but persisted with them. The populations co-existed as separate cultures.

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Background and rise to prominence

Family background and feuds

In June 323 BC, Alexander the Great died and his general Ptolemy desired to have the land of Egypt, the richest of all of Alexander’s conquests. In the span of a hundred years of so of successful rules, the first three Ptolemies had bound their family into a close-knit dynasty and had bound that dynasty into the fabric and being of Egypt.

The Ptolemies give the appearance of having adapted excellently to the traditions and practices of Egypt. From the loft view of the court at Alexandria, ...

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