Cleopatra VII Philopator

Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator was born in early 69 BCE in Alexandria, daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes and heir to the Macedonian-Greek dynasty founded by Ptolemy I Soter, a general of Alexander the Great, more than two and a half centuries earlier. Raised in the most learned city of the ancient world, she grew into a ruler of formidable intellect, remembered as the only Ptolemaic monarch known to have learned the Egyptian language, and reputed to be fluent in many tongues beyond her native Greek.

On her father's death in 51 BCE she took the throne, ruling in turn beside her brothers Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV and later beside her son. Ousted in a palace struggle, she reclaimed her crown through alliance with Julius Caesar, with whom she had a son, Caesarion. Her command of statecraft, not mere legend, restored and strengthened a kingdom pressed on every side by the rising power of Rome.

After Caesar's assassination she bound her fortunes to Mark Antony, with whom she had three children — Cleopatra Selene II, Alexander Helios, and Ptolemy Philadelphus. Their partnership, both political and personal, set them against Octavian. Defeat at the naval Battle of Actium in 31 BCE broke their cause and opened Egypt to Roman conquest.

In August of 30 BCE, unwilling to be paraded in a Roman triumph, Cleopatra took her own life, and with her the age of the pharaohs closed as Egypt became a Roman province. Across two thousand years her name has never dimmed. We honor her as the last sovereign of an ancient land — a queen who met the greatest empire of her age eye to eye, and yielded her crown to no one but death.