Cleopatra: A Life

Cleopatra: A Life (2010) is a biography of the Egyptian queen by Stacy Schiff. It is Schiff’s fourth biography, and in 2011 it was awarded the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography. Schiff explores Cleopatra’s rise to power, relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and final defeat within the personal and political contexts of her time. Schiff, who had previously won the Pulitzer Prize for her biography of Vera Nabokov, once again found critical and commercial success with Cleopatra, and the book wound up on several Top 10 of 2010 lists, becoming a bestseller. Schiff was especially lauded for her contemporary presentation of such ancient subject matter.

This guide uses the 2010 Little, Brown and Company hardcover edition.

Summary

Schiff begins her narrative in 48 BC, when Cleopatra is 21 years of age. In the midst of a civil war against her brother, her successful petition of Julius Caesar leads to a Roman legitimization of her rule. Her relationship with Caesar deepens, and by the time Caesar achieves victory in the Alexandrian War, Cleopatra is pregnant with his child.

Despite his victory in the Alexandrian War and his larger victories in the Roman civil war, Caesar lingers in Egypt for four months after he should have returned to Rome. He luxuriates in the exotic atmosphere of Alexandria and delays his return for a slow cruise down the Nile. Caesar executes Cleopatra’s enemies, and installs Cleopatra as a co-regent of Egypt with her younger, inconsequential brother.

Cleopatra gives birth to Caesar’s child and administers to her country. Her erudition and linguistic skills enable her to become a successful leader who initiates economic reforms and building programs while also integrating herself into a vital position in Egyptian religious practices. Cleopatra later travels to Rome, staying in Caesar’s country home. Her presence proves divisive.

In 44 BC, while Cleopatra is visiting Rome a second time, Caesar is assassinated. Rome plunges into a civil war as Cleopatra attempts to support the correct factions in this extremely mercurial time. She eventually chooses to support a general who is defeated by the war’s victors, and Cleopatra is soon summoned to account for her decisions by the Roman ruler who was in charge of the East: Mark Antony.

A mutual attraction forms between Cleopatra and Antony, and by the time Cleopatra returns home, Antony has agreed to eliminate her rivals, bolstering her power. Soon, Antony abandons his administrative duties and revels in Alexandria with Cleopatra. Cleopatra gives birth to twins, Mark Antony’s children. He is forced to leave, however, when his wife, Fulvia, initiates an ill-fated armed conflict against Antony’s co-ruler, Octavian. Antony makes peace with Octavian, even marrying Octavian’s sister, Octavia, after Fulvia’s death. He turns back to military conquest, invading Parthia.

To Cleopatra’s great relief, Antony recognizes their children as his own and he gifts Cleopatra great swathes of land, allowing her to reconstitute the Ptolemaic empire at its height. Antony’s Parthian campaign proves disastrous, and though a second campaign—funded and supplied by Cleopatra—achieves moderate success, his stature in Rome is greatly diminished. Back in Alexandria, Antony confers honorifics on his children and establishes them as next in line to rule his territories, gifts that would later be known as the “Donations of Alexandria.” In Rome, made aware of Antony’s Donations, Octavian grows furious. Antony’s marriage to Octavia ends in divorce.

Octavian initiates a campaign to besmirch Antony and strip him of legitimacy, centering around the supposed corruptive influence of Cleopatra. When it becomes clear that Antony and Cleopatra intend to marry, Octavian convinces the Roman Senate that Cleopatra is attempting to take over Rome and leads them to declare war on Cleopatra. As Octavian’s forces harry Antony’s and Cleopatra’s armies, the two sides converge on a Grecian bay where Antony decides to engage with Octavian’s sea fleet. The resulting conflict, the Battle of Actium, is disastrous, and Cleopatra flees back to Egypt with Antony close behind.

As Octavian’s army closes in on Alexandria, Antony kills himself in an attempt to prevent Cleopatra from losing her throne. Octavian is not mollified, however, and after he takes over Alexandria, he makes clear his intention to take Cleopatra captive and parade her in Rome. Rather than suffer such ignominy, Cleopatra dies by suicide.