Who Is Cleopatra?

Isis, scholar, goddess, writer, and seductress are just a few of the titles and names given to Cleopatra VII by her peers and historians. She would have given herself only two titles. These two titles would be that of mother and queen. She was a woman that a lot of modern day politicians and presidents could learn from deeply. Unlike lawmen today who seem to put themselves ahead of their governing countries Cleopatra's number one goal was to better Egypt and not herself. She could care less how you thought of her as a person, but only how you perceived the nation she governed. Cleopatra was a woman born way before her time. She was a pioneer in expanding the rights and roles of women. She had to live up to a higher standard than the ones her ancestor set in order to prove her self as a leader of a major world power during the ancient world, while we still try to understand, characterize , and reveal her.

First, historians have a hard time understanding who Cleopatra was because they don't really care to understand her. They only see her as who they would like her to be in order to down play the major role she played in ancient society. Roller states that, "Children, especially female ones, are not a prominent in the historical record, and thus it no surprise that Cleopatra VII does not appear until the end of her father's reign, in the late 50s B.C., when she was nearly 20"(43). This is another attributing factor to why historians do not know a lot about Cleopatra VII because the writers or historians of the ancient world believed men were more important than women. Some of these historians are not willing to give credit where credit is due. Cleopatra was a woman who single handedly saved a dynasty that had been on the decline for years.

Second, scholars like to characterize Cleopatra as manipulative and conniving. These characterizations couldn't be far from wrong. If Cleopatra were a man she would be called enterprising, charismatic, and meticulous. These are exactly what she was. She was the first person in the Ptolemaic kingdom to fully embrace the people and culture she governed. Roller tells us that none of the Ptolemies before Cleopatra VII even learned the Egyptian language (31). This shows you how enterprising she was to learn her people in order to communicate with them better. Another example of this is found in the text were Roller also says Cleopatra VII was well-educated even for a royal woman of the period (45). The charisma she possessed drew her people to her as well as men. The "seductress" as scholars call her was a beautiful and very regal woman even without the jewels, her conversation was inescapably gripping, and her appearance along with the persuasiveness of her discussion and her character were, which affected those around her was particularly incisive (Roller 169). Although this charisma drew any and everyone in Cleopatra was very meticulous with whom she mated