5 Brutal Truths of Cleopatra

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[00:00:00]Forget everything you think you know about Cleopatra. Forget the Hollywood movies, the gold milk baths, and the image of a woman who only used her beauty to get what she wanted.

[00:00:12]History is written by the [music] victors, and the men who defeated Cleopatra wanted you to remember her as a temptress.

[00:00:21]But the truth is far more dangerous.

[00:00:23]>> [music] >> She was a queen who spoke nine languages. She was a mathematician, a naval commander, >> [music] >> and a cold-blooded politician who executed her own siblings to keep [music] her throne. She lived in a world of poison, daggers, and civil war.

[00:00:41]She didn't just love Julius Caesar and [music] Mark Antony.

[00:00:44]She used them as shields to protect her ancient empire from the hungry jaws of Rome.

[00:00:50]Today on 5-Point [music] Historian, we are uncovering the five brutal truths of Cleopatra.

[00:00:57]We are looking at the woman behind the myth, the last and perhaps [music] greatest pharaoh of Egypt. Are you ready to meet the real queen of the Nile?

[00:01:06]Let's draw the curtain.

[00:01:09]One, the Greek stranger, the blood of Macedonia. The first brutal truth that shocks [music] most people is this.

[00:01:17]Cleopatra was not Egyptian. She didn't have a drop of Egyptian blood in her veins. She was Greek. Her family, the Ptolemies, >> [music] >> were descendants of Ptolemy the first Soter, one of Alexander the Great's [music] most powerful generals.

[00:01:34]For 300 years, this Greek family ruled Egypt as foreigners.

[00:01:39]They sat on the throne in Alexandria, a city of Greek culture, and they refused [music] to even learn the Egyptian language.

[00:01:47]A different kind of ruler.

[00:01:50]But Cleopatra [music] was different. She was a genius from a young age. While her ancestors ignored the [music] people they ruled, Cleopatra was the first and only Ptolemaic ruler to learn the Egyptian language. [music] She didn't stop there. She learned the languages of the Ethiopians, the Hebrews, the Arabs, and [music] many more.

[00:02:12]She understood that language is power.

[00:02:15]The stolen throne. [music] When her father died, he left the throne to Cleopatra [music] and her 10-year-old brother, Ptolemy the 13th.

[00:02:26]In the Ptolemaic world, you didn't share [music] power. You fought for it. Her brother's advisers kicked her out of the palace and sent her into the [music] desert. But Cleopatra wasn't a victim.

[00:02:38]She was a predator waiting for her moment. She knew that Rome was the only power [music] that could put her back on the throne. She didn't need a miracle.

[00:02:48]She needed a Roman general, and luckily for her, Julius Caesar was [music] just arriving in Alexandria.

[00:02:56]Two, the rug and the general, >> [music] >> a strategic alliance.

[00:03:01]We all know the famous story. Cleopatra [music] smuggles herself into the palace inside a rolled-up rug to meet Julius [music] Caesar.

[00:03:10]Hollywood tells us this was a romantic moment. But let's look at the brutal truth. This was a high-stakes [music] military gamble. If Caesar didn't like her, he would have handed her over to her brother to [music] be executed. The intellectual seduction. Caesar was 52 years old. Cleopatra was 21. Caesar [music] had seen the most beautiful women in the world, but he had never met a woman like Cleopatra. She didn't [music] impress him with just her face.

[00:03:41]She impressed him with her brain.

[00:03:44]She talked to him [music] about history, law, and the stars.

[00:03:49]She offered him the wealth of Egypt [music] to fund his wars in Rome, the price of power.

[00:03:55]The result? [music] Caesar fell for her strategy. He fought a war against her brother, >> [music] >> Ptolemy the 13th.

[00:04:04]During the battle, the great library of Alexandria was burned, and Cleopatra's brother drowned in the Nile while trying [music] to escape.

[00:04:12]Cleopatra was now the undisputed queen of Egypt, but she wasn't free. She was now [music] a client queen of Rome. She gave Caesar a son, Caesarion, not out of love, but to [music] ensure that her bloodline would one day rule both Rome and Egypt. She was playing a game of global chess, and for a while, she was winning. Three, the family ashes, poison and politics.

[00:04:40]To stay on top in the ancient world, you couldn't have a soft heart. The third brutal truth about Cleopatra is that she was a cold-blooded survivor. In the Ptolemaic family, family reunions usually ended in funerals.

[00:04:56]Removing the rivals.

[00:04:58]Cleopatra had two brothers and [music] two sisters. By the time she was firmly in power, all of them were dead.

[00:05:06]Her brother, Ptolemy the 13th, died in the war with Caesar. Her younger brother, [music] Ptolemy the 14th, mysteriously died shortly after Caesar's assassination.

[00:05:17]Many historians believe Cleopatra [music] poisoned him to make room for her son on the throne. The death of Arsinoe.

[00:05:25]But the most brutal act was the execution of her sister, Arsinoe.

[00:05:29][music] Arsinoe had tried to take the throne from Cleopatra and was living in exile in a [music] temple in Ephesus, Cleopatra convinced her new lover, Mark Antony, to send soldiers to the temple, a holy place where violence [music] was forbidden, and murder Arsinoe on the steps.

[00:05:50]Cleopatra didn't [music] care about holy ground or sisterly love. She cared about stability.

[00:05:57]She knew that as long as another Ptolemy lived, >> [music] >> her life was in danger.

[00:06:02]She chose to be a killer rather than a victim.

[00:06:06]This is the part of the story the movies often skip [music] because it's hard to make a romantic hero out of a woman who executes her siblings. But in the world of 30 BC, this was the only way to survive.

[00:06:21]Four, the Roman propaganda, creating the monster.

[00:06:25]>> [music] >> If Cleopatra was so smart and powerful, why do we remember her as just a >> [music] >> beautiful seductress?

[00:06:33]The answer lies in the fourth brutal truth.

[00:06:37]She was the victim of the greatest propaganda campaign in history. [music] The enemy of Octavian. After Julius Caesar was murdered, Rome was split between Mark Antony >> [music] >> and Caesar's heir, Octavian, later known as Augustus.

[00:06:53]Antony chose to live in Egypt with Cleopatra. Octavian knew [music] he couldn't easily defeat Antony in a fair fight, so he attacked the woman beside him.

[00:07:03]Octavian [music] told the Roman people that Cleopatra was a foreign witch who had used magic and [music] sex to brainwash Mark Antony.

[00:07:13]The oriental threat.

[00:07:15]The Roman propaganda [music] machine painted Cleopatra as a symbol of everything Rome hated. She was an Eastern [music] queen, she was wealthy, she was independent, and she was immoral.

[00:07:28]Octavian told the Roman Senate that Cleopatra wanted to move the capital of the world from Rome to Alexandria. He turned a political civil war into a war [music] for Roman values. This image of Cleopatra as a manipulative siren was written into the history books by [music] Octavian's historians.

[00:07:49]For 2,000 years, we have been looking at Cleopatra [music] through the eyes of the man who hated her most.

[00:07:56]She wasn't an exotic [music] dancer. She was a head of state. But the Romans couldn't handle a woman with that much power.

[00:08:05]Five, the strategic suicide, the final move.

[00:08:10]The year is 30 BC. The forces of Octavian have crushed Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium.

[00:08:18]Antony [music] is dead. Cleopatra is trapped in her palace in Alexandria.

[00:08:24]This is the moment where the story usually gets very emotional >> [music] >> with the famous snake, the asp, biting her chest. But even her death was [music] a calculated political move.

[00:08:36]Avoiding the triumph.

[00:08:38]Octavian wanted to capture [music] Cleopatra alive. Why?

[00:08:43]Because he wanted to lead her through the streets [music] of Rome in chains during his triumph parade. He wanted to humiliate her to show the world that the great Egyptian [music] queen was now a Roman slave.

[00:08:58]Cleopatra knew this. She also knew [music] that if she died as a queen, her dignity would remain intact.

[00:09:06]The choice of the cobra.

[00:09:08]The brutal truth is that [music] her suicide was her final victory over Octavian. By killing herself, she denied him his greatest trophy. [music] Whether she used a snake or a poison needle, as some historians [music] suggest, she chose the timing and the method of her departure. [music] She dressed in her royal robes, sat on her golden throne, >> [music] >> and died as a pharaoh, not a prisoner.

[00:09:35]With her death, the 3,000-year history of the pharaohs ended.

[00:09:40]Egypt became a mere province of Rome, a [music] breadbasket to feed the Roman masses.

[00:09:47]Cleopatra was the last person who stood in the way of the Roman Empire's total [music] control of the Mediterranean.

[00:09:55]Cleopatra was a woman trapped between two worlds and two eras. [music] She was a Greek ruling an Egyptian land, a woman ruling in a world of men, and a defender of an old empire against the rise of a [music] new superpower.

[00:10:10]She wasn't a goddess, and she wasn't a saint.

[00:10:14]She was a brilliant, dangerous, and [music] incredibly capable leader who did everything in her power to keep her country free.

[00:10:23]We remember her beauty because that is what the Roman [music] poets wrote about.

[00:10:29]But we should remember her mind. She was a queen who could discuss [music] mathematics in the morning and lead a fleet of warships in the afternoon.

[00:10:38]She was a survivor who fought until the very last second.

[00:10:43]Cleopatra's story is a reminder that power is a dangerous [music] game, and in that game, she was one of the greatest players to ever live.

[00:10:53]Do you think Cleopatra was a victim of history or a cold-blooded ruler who got what she deserved?

[00:11:00]And if she had defeated [music] Octavian, how different would our world look today?

[00:11:05]Let me know in the comments below.

[00:11:08]Don't forget [music] to like and subscribe to 5-Point Historian. Stay curious. Stay [music] historical. I'll see you in the next one.