CLEOPATRA

Sub-titled 'The Queen Who Challenged Rome and Conquered Eternity', more than a muse and greater than a myth, Cleopatra was ruler, lover, diplomat and icon. The last Queen of Egypt lived less than 40 years and yet her legacy has spanned centuries. Shakespeare gave Cleopatra speech. Michelangelo gave Cleopatra a face. Elizabeth Taylor gave Cleopatra a voice, but who was she really? Alberto Angela travels back in time to uncover the woman who shaped the ancient world. At just 20 years of age she was already one of the most notorious women in Rome - a wife, mother and more importantly Queen of an ever-expanding empire. We follow young Cleopatra from sitting in her makeup chair, basking in the glamour of her gilded residence to commanding her own fleet alongside her lover Mark Antony on the story Mediterranean, risking shipwreck for strategic victory. The book celebrates her beauty, charisma and ground-breaking leadership and ably reconstructs the epic Ancient Egypt that made her who she is, teeming with political intrigue, forbidden romance and unforgettable battles. Here is the Battle of Philippi, and the Battle of Actium and the dawn of an empire and how she developed an extraordinary talent for strategy in the field of geopolitics and at the same time managed to seduce and conquer some of Rome's greatest men like Caesar and Mark Antony. Cleopatra was present at the exact stage when the long history of the kingdoms of Egypt including the pharaohs ended, and that of the Roman Empire began through the principate of Augustus. The book focusses specifically on the 14 year period between March 44BC and August 30BC and beings with six important names connected to power - Caesar, Cassius, Brutus, Mark Antony, Octavian and Cleopatra against the backdrop of three continents - Europe, Asia and Africa, from the River Nile to the mountainous expanses of Armenia, from Cleopatra's palaces to Caesar's home, from the Lighthouse of Alexandria to the Roman Senate, from the Greek coast to the arid areas of the Middle East. The narrative style helps breathe life into actual, experienced history preserved by precious ancient texts and plausible reconstructions, archaeological data and in parts fictionalised but based on faithful historical location and customs of the time. Enjoy the book. 426pp.