Like (I assume) a lot of people, I didn’t know much about Cleopatra before reading Stacy Schiff’s biography. I’ve never really been into Egyptology – unless you count learning to walk like an Egyptian as a kid. Sarcophagi, mummies, pyramids, gold plated cats, that’s what comes to mind when I think of Egypt and since all those things tend to creep me out, I don’t think about Egypt very often.
Before reading Cleopatra: A Life if you said Cleopatra to me, I would picture Elizabeth Taylor with her cat eye makeup or maybe one of those horrible lamé costumes you see on Halloween. It’s shameful really, because in truth, Cleopatra was an astonishingly amazing woman and it’s sad that her life and legacy has been so distorted.
It’s not strange though, that Cleopatra has been relegated to the slutty-hussy bin of historical figures. The men who wrote her story would never let the true woman survive without spinning her intelligence into manipulation and her political dealings into the desperate flailing of a love-struck woman. Powerful women, especially those in Cleopatra’s day, are rarely given the credit they are due.
That seems to be the point Schiff is trying to make. She strikes a delicate, and really impressive, balance of citing sources, but also calling out those sources for their obvious biases. Cleopatra paid little respect to the self-important Cicero, so of course he writes about her with vitriol. Greek, Roman, Medieval historians were all on the same page according to Schiff, that “it’s always been preferable to attribute a powerful woman’s success to her beauty rather than to her brains, to reduce her to the sum of her sex life.” The actual facts of her life are often tainted by the opinion of the men who created the historical record. Schiff does an incredible job of sifting through the propaganda to find the real Cleopatra.
She was not a perfect woman. Hell she was far from it – she married both her brothers, and followed in her ancestor’s footsteps and murdering sisters, uncles and others that stood in her path to the throne. She concocted countless potions and poisons and tested them on prisoners and slaves. She used her intelligence, cunning, and sexuality – real talk – one of the few weapons available to women then (and now sometimes) – to influence king’s and change the course of history. And she ruled one of the largest empires alone for over 20 years.
I’m not really sure why Cleopatra doesn’t get higher billing in schools and history books. She was a successful leader and one of the most interesting political figures I have ever read about. I can only imagine what she would accomplish if she were alive today.
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