Rome and the Western Mediterranean · Part 7 · The fall of the Republic · B2–C1
Caesar and Cleopatra
Part 7 of Rome and the Western Mediterranean: the most famous Roman and the last queen of Egypt met in Philo’s own city, during a war in its streets. Their story is full of legends, and some of the truth is stranger than the legends. Participle clauses (Crossing the Rubicon, Caesar…; Defeated at Pharsalus, Pompey…; Having won the war…), with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
Tonight, a story our grandparents saw with their own eyes: Caesar and Cleopatra in Alexandria.
My grandfather says he saw the queen once, in a golden boat.
Both may be true. Let us sort out the memories from the legends.
Julius Caesar, a Roman noble and politician, conquered Gaul (modern France and Belgium) between 58 and 50 BCE. In 49 BCE, refusing to give up his army, he crossed the river Rubicon into Italy and began a civil war against Pompey and the Senate. He won, and in 44 BCE made himself dictator for life. A month later he was murdered by a group of senators.
Cleopatra VII (69–30 BCE) was the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty. She ruled Egypt with her brothers and then with her son, and allied herself first with Caesar and then with the Roman general Mark Antony. In 31 BCE, Antony and Cleopatra were defeated at Actium by Caesar’s heir, Octavian. The next year both died in Alexandria, and Egypt became a Roman province.
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