THE FATHER FROM HELL

Cleopatra's fate has long overshadowed the story of her predecessor, Ptolemy XII. But, as Diana T Nikolova explains, it's impossible to understand the daughter's downfall without exploring the father's hapless reign

Cleopatra's father It's one of the most famous episodes in all of ancient history. Cleopatra VII, Egypt's formidable queen, ends her life and creates a legend. Following the suicide of her lover, Mark Antony – and with Octavian's armies closing in – she concludes she has nothing more to give and succumbs to the poison. For all the drama surrounding her final moments, Cleopatra's demise was, in reality, an ignominious one. When she killed herself in 30 BC, Egypt was in dire economic straits, its wealth pillaged, its people shocked and confused. The future of this once extraordinarily powerful kingdom lay in subjugation. So how had it come to this? How did Egypt, with all its material riches and even richer cultural heritage, arrive at a point where it was…

You're reading a preview of

Bbc History (Digital) - 1 Issue, Christmas 2024

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.