Oscar Von Wertheimer Boeken

In this readable biography, Grant tells the story of the real queen of Egypt behind the legend--a woman thrust at an early age into the violent & bitter politics of a declining kingdom at the mercy of a growing empire. In both public & private life, Cleopatra became involved with two powerful Roman men: Julius Caesar & Mark Antony. They held the fate of much of the known world in their hands. The Romans controlled the Mediterranean. The inhabitants in the eastern half of its domain were Greeks or people of races that spoke the Greek language. Tho queen of Egypt, Cleopatra herself was of Greek heritage--she possessed no Egyptian blood. The last Ptolemaic dynast, she was consumed by the ambition to revive the former glories of her Greek kingdom & house. Her aim was a world in which the Greek & Hellenized orientals that inhabited the regions east of the Adriatic would be associates of the Romans rather than subjects. Her strategy involved the seduction of Rome's most powerful & brilliant leader, Julius Caesar. The extent to which she influenced him is more than is usually believed. Her ill-fated relationship with Mark Antony after Caesar's assassination was both subtle & intensely human. Her downfall & demise were bound to his. In addition to his vivid description of the Greco-Roman world of the time, Grant gives a rounded portrait of Cleoptra, never losing sight of his subject's intelligence & political savvy.