Cleopatra’s Brutal Rise to Power

Soldiers drag a dark head girl past the jarring faces of the Roman Forum. Disheviled and trembling, she bows her face in humiliation. The mob is used to crawl spectacles, but an Egyptian queen in shackles is a rare sight. Along the root of Caesar's triumph, people climb statues and rooftops to see the notorious prisoners paraded towards execution. A whisper spreads through the crowds. "Is this Cleopatra?" But she is not in chains. She's the one who ordered the execution of her sister, our Sinoway. Cleopatra sheds no tears for her rebellious little sister, one more enemy of her list. Traitors from birth. Five years earlier, 18-year-old Cleopatra ascends the throne alongside her 10-year-old brother to Ptolemy. The Ptolemy dynasty has ruled Alexandria for 300 years, and like the ancient pharaohs, they marry within their own family to keep power in the bloodline. Beyond their palace, the Nile feeds fertile lands that have produced grain surpluses for centuries. Their main buyer is Rome, but powerful generals like Julius Caesar begin to see Egypt as a province in waiting, rather than as a partner. The Ptolemy's before Cleopatra stayed in charge by appeasing Rome, supplying ships and borrowing heavily from Roman creditors up to half of Egypt's annual revenue to fund the bribes that keep them in control. On top of that, weak Nile floods have batted an already-tripu-drain economy, pushing tensions among the people to a breaking point, and the royal couple needs to handle their siblings as well. A teenage sister, our Sinoway and an eight-year-old brother, both looming threats in the game of succession. Co-ruler Ptolemy craves the spotlight, propped up by older men who try to pull Cleopatra's strings as well. She refuses to shrink. For almost two years, she holds ceremonies on her own, signs to craze without her brother's name and orders coins with her face alone. In council chambers, Ptolemy's advisers whisper that the girl has forgotten her place and foster a resentment in the boykin. When Rome demands grain and ships again, Cleopatra complies. She knows Egypt cannot afford to defy its creditors. But for Alexandrian's wary of Rome's influence, it's one concession to many. Ptolemy's advisers turn the outrage against the queen and seize the chance to get rid of her. In the summer of 49 BCE, guards force her out of the city-shoots and erase her name from the official records. She leaves in fury, already plotting her return. Cleopatra uses her remaining resources to recruit mercenaries. Within a year, she's ready to march on her brother with an army. Then news cuts through her camp. Julius Caesar has arrived in Alexandria to collect the outstanding debt. He needs money to pay his troops. Cleopatra understands that reaching Caesar quickly may turn her luck. Night falls. Following her troops behind, she sails towards the royal district. If Ptolemy's guards catch her, she's finished and if Caesar refuses her, she's relevant. So she smuggles herself into his room in a linen sack. Before sunrise, she has his ear. Caesar announces that Cleopatra and her brother will rule jointly. For him, a civil war between siblings means chaos in Egypt and hunger in Rome. By imposing an unpopular queen over their favored king, he ignites Alexandria. Now, Cleopatra finds herself trapped beside Caesar in the palace with militias and her brother's army at the gate. Her sister Arsinoe is watching. She has spent her life in Cleopatra's shadow. Now, she sees an opening. She slips out of the palace and finds her brother's general. She steps forward as a new alternative, a queen untouched by Rome. Orgers roar her name and with the army at her back, she drives the siege for four months. Cleopatra feels the walls closing in. If Caesar falls, she falls with him. At last, Roman reinforcements break through from the east and the city surrenders. Ptolemy tries to flee across the Nile, but drowns while Arsinoe is captured. Cleopatra rules again beside her youngest brother, another Ptolemy, a boy of 13. Without advises at his side, he's no threat to Cleopatra for now. When Caesar departs for Syria, he takes Arsinoe as a prisoner, leaving Cleopatra with three Roman legions to keep the peace and a newborn son. Little Césarion becomes her strongest card to legitimize her alliance with Rome. And with her rival siblings silenced, dead or in chains, she finally stands as the undisputed queen. Will let Cleopatra enjoy her triumph for a second and thank our partner Adoo for sponsoring this episode. Adoo is an all-in-one management software that helps you run your business every day. With more than 45 apps, like Accounting, Inventory, CRM and many more, you can build a system that fits your needs or centralised on one single platform. You can, for example, create an e-commerce website within a few minutes. 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Caesar's enemies say that she's pulling him towards monarchy and away from Roman values. And at his triumph, instead of executing her sister Asunawea's promise, he yields to the crowd's pleas and spares her, sending her into exile. Cleopatra starts resenting Rome, but neither of them see what's coming next. In March 15th 44 BCE, Caesar is assassinated, now everything rests on their son. If he is named heir, her alliance with Rome survives, if not, she's alone in hostile territory. When the will is read, Cesareon's name is nowhere to be found, yet another betrayal. With Clench teeth, she sails back to Alexandria and secures her rule first. He executes her remaining teenage brother, replacing him with the three-year-old Cesareon. But the threat from Rome doesn't go away. By 42 BCE, the Republic fractures between two men who are co-rulers on paper and rivals in everything else. Caesar's great nephew Octavian takes the west and Caesar's favourite general, Marc Antony, takes the east. Antony now controls Egypt's fate, which makes him clear-patrias enemy. And possibly, her solution. Marc Antony is a full-blown Roman hunk, broad, bearded and claims Hercules as his ancestor. Recently married, he still has a reputation as a womanizer. In 41 BCE, he summons Cleopatra to secure resources for his next military campaign. If Antony assumes he'll control the encounter, he's mistaken. Cleopatra arrives on a gilded ship with purple sails, a living vision of the goddess Isis. She keeps him waiting, declines his dinner invitation and instead welcomes him on her own ship. Caesar may have restored her throne, but with him dead, she must win Roman backing again. By morning, the outlines of their alliance are in place and a power couple emerges. Her first request is personal. Her cinema must finally die. She's risen as a rival queen before, and Cleopatra won't let it happen again. Antony's men storm the Temple of Artemis where our cinema lives under Roman protection, drag her from her sanctuary and execute her. Satisfied, Cleopatra opens Egypt's treasury and sends fleets to fund Antony's eastern campaigns. And when she asks for territory, he grants her vast stretches of the eastern Mediterranean. She gives birth to their twins, sealing their alliance with a bloodline. Cleopatra is already thinking beyond Egypt, towards a dynasty that could unite her world with Rome forever. Antony too is riding high. He launches an invasion of the Parthian Empire sprawling across what's now around. The one enemy Rome has never conquered. It's meant to be his defining triumph. Instead, it becomes a catastrophe. He loses a quarter of his army and limps back to Syria for the winter, with his remaining sick and unpaid soldiers he turns to Cleopatra for help. But she calculates if he's still worth the risk. His rival co-ruler Octavian is far more successful in the west, mounting his victories by the month. When she finally joins Antony a few months later, Cleopatra brings warm clothes and food, but not the silver to pay his troops, she's hedging her beds. Antony can still win his war, but if he doesn't, she can't go down with him. Next year, Antony strikes East again and takes Armenia. Flushed with victory, he decides to display his power and his devotion to Cleopatra with a grand ceremony in Alexandria. He crowns her queen of kings and grants their children rule over Roman territories and proclaims Césarion, the true son and heir of Julius Caesar, the king of kings. For Cleopatra, it's the strongest Roman endorsement she's ever secured, but it's only empty words unless Antony defeats Octavian, and now he's made an open war between them inevitable. The Cold Blooded Equal Octavian, like Cleopatra, understands that image is everything. He paints himself as the son of Apollo, the voice of youth and reason against the impulsive Antony who he absolutely loves. The wife Antony abandoned for Cleopatra was Octavian's own sister, whom he had married to secure an alliance, and Antony's public recognition of Césarion as Caesar's true son was an even deeper insult. A personal threat to his power and status as Caesar's great nephew and adopted son, officially his closest living kin. Octavian's smear campaign against Antony writes itself, weakened and bewitched by an eastern queen. It's the same old slander again, and Octavian knows how to exploit it. In 32 BCE, Octavian unleashes a propaganda assault. He ceases Antony's will and has its most scandalous part read before the Senate. Antony wishes to be buried in Alexandria, beside Cleopatra. One of Rome's greatest generals has given his afterlife to an eastern queen, but Rome can't afford another civil war, so Octavian plays this very smartly. He declares war on Cleopatra instead of Antony. This recasts their internal struggle as a campaign against a foreign queen. If Octavian wins, he can destroy two enemies at once. When war is declared, Cleopatra is ready. Across the Ionian Sea in the Gulf of Actium, she and Marc Antony survey in our matter of 230 warships, each designed to carry 300 osmen and 120 marines. Cleopatra has supplied a quarter of the ships, all provisions, and nearly 700 tons of silver to pay the troops. Antony's large army stands on a flat strip of land guarding the narrow entrance to the Gulf. But what looked like a strong defensive position is turning into a year-long trap. In the marshes, malaria starts killing soldiers before battle even begins. Cleopatra is brutally practical. Don't fight a battle you can't win. Load the treasury, break the blockade, retreat to Egypt, and regroup. The war isn't over while resources remain. On September 2, the fleet's finely clash. Behind Antony's formation, Cleopatra commands a separate squadron of 60 ships loaded with the royal treasury and ready to run. As the afternoon wind rises and the battle turns against them, she's ready to carry out the plan they had agreed on. Cleopatra ships surge forward and break through Antony's line towards the open sea. Antony's flagship follows close behind. The remaining fleet attempts to break out as well, but Octavian captures and sinks most of them. He wins the battle and now only needs two things to win the war. Egypt's treasury to pay his troops and Cleopatra in chains. The final face-off. For months, Cleopatra and Antony try to cut a deal with Octavian from Alexandria, but it all falls apart. Then, almost a year after the sea battle, Octavian's army reaches Alexandria. Cleopatra retreats into her mausoleum, locking herself in with her treasure and stacks of firewood. If Octavian tries to take Egypt's wealth, he will have to watch it burn. She hears shouting outside and braces herself. This is it. The end has arrived. But instead of Octavian, Antony's servants burst in, carrying him inside. He thought she was dead and stabbed himself. Cleopatra catches him as he collapses. Her last powerful ally and the father of her children dies in her arms. She barely has time for tears before Octavian's soldiers seize her and take her to the palace to face her nemesis. One lets her think she'll be spared, but Cleopatra sees through it. She knows she won't survive. 16 years ago, her sister was dragged through Rome. This time, the shackles will bite into her own skin. The jails are ringing in her ears. "I will not be paraded in triumph," she says. Refusing to become a pawn, she chooses her own death. On August 10, 30 BCE, Cleopatra dies alongside two loyal handmaidens. Rumors begin almost immediately, poison, snake bite, or even murder on Octavian's orders. Her tomb has never been found and none of Cleopatra's own words about her life remain. Everything we know of her story comes from Roman writers, the voices of those who defeated her. Rome's accounts focus on her beauty and seduction, but even in these, she emerges as a formidable strategist and stateswoman. She overcame many enemies, but the one who finally destroyed her was unafraid to fight cold and dirty. Octavian's propaganda turned Cleopatra into a foreign threat to overcome a crisis at home and consolidate his power, a strategy that feels strikingly modern. But every attempt to erase her only made her more persistent. Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt, is still its most famous ruler to this day. (dramatic music)