- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Original Sources of Chapters
- Illustrations
- Glossary
- [UNTITLED]
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Ptolemy I and the Quest for Legitimacy
- Chapter 2 Ptolemy III and Philae: Snapshot of a Reign, a Temple and a Cult
- Chapter 3 Cleopatra, the Diadem and the Image
- Chapter 4 Cleopatra Vii Philopatris
- Chapter 5 The Dynastic Politics of Cleopatra Vii
- Chapter 6 The Thracians in Ptolemaic Egypt
- Chapter 7 Ptolemaic Papyri and the Achaean Diaspora In Hellenistic Egypt
- Chapter 8 Greek Presence and the Ptolemaic Rural Setting
- Chapter 9 The Urban Milieu in the Egyptian Countryside During the Ptolemaic Period
- Chapter 10 Kerkeosiris and its Greeks in the Second Century<sup>1</sup>
- Chapter 11 The Cavalry Settlers of the Herakleopolite in the First Century
- Chapter 12 Two Royal Ordinances of the First Century and the Alexandrians
- Chapter 13 The Revenue Laws Papyrus: Greek Tradition and Hellenistic Adaptation
- Chapter 14 The Structural Tensions of Ptolemaic Society
- Chapter 15 The Third-century Land-leases From Tholthis
- Chapter 16 Greek Economy and Egyptian Society in the Third Century
- Chapter 17 Greeks and Egyptians According to <i>PSI</i> V 502
- Chapter 18 Graeco-Roman Egypt and the Question of Cultural Interactions
- Chapter 19 Normality and Distinctiveness in the Epigraphy of Greek and Roman Egypt
- Conclusion
- Bibligraphy
- General Index
- Index of Passages Discussed
- Hellenistic Culture and Society
Cleopatra, the Diadem and the Image
Cleopatra, the Diadem and the Image
- Chapter:
- (p.44) Chapter 3 Cleopatra, the Diadem and the Image
- Source:
- Hellenistic Egypt
- Author(s):
Jean Bingen
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
This chapter on Cleopatra begins with her image in Roman literature, which is very negative and sees her as a threat to Rome. But that image dates from the aftermath of the final struggle between Octavian (later Augustus) and Mark Antony and does not reflect the real situation in which Cleopatra found herself. She needed to exercise power in Alexandria without flouting the Macedonian tradition which required a male king; her reign therefore saw a delicate balancing of eliminating or keeping control of the few surviving males with keeping the facade of a king's presence. Her involvements with Caesar and Antony never brought them into the framework of the Ptolemaic monarchy, but she used them to strengthen the position of the Ptolemaic state-until the final defeat of Antony at Actium.
Keywords: Mark Antony, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Black Athena, monarchy
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Original Sources of Chapters
- Illustrations
- Glossary
- [UNTITLED]
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Ptolemy I and the Quest for Legitimacy
- Chapter 2 Ptolemy III and Philae: Snapshot of a Reign, a Temple and a Cult
- Chapter 3 Cleopatra, the Diadem and the Image
- Chapter 4 Cleopatra Vii Philopatris
- Chapter 5 The Dynastic Politics of Cleopatra Vii
- Chapter 6 The Thracians in Ptolemaic Egypt
- Chapter 7 Ptolemaic Papyri and the Achaean Diaspora In Hellenistic Egypt
- Chapter 8 Greek Presence and the Ptolemaic Rural Setting
- Chapter 9 The Urban Milieu in the Egyptian Countryside During the Ptolemaic Period
- Chapter 10 Kerkeosiris and its Greeks in the Second Century<sup>1</sup>
- Chapter 11 The Cavalry Settlers of the Herakleopolite in the First Century
- Chapter 12 Two Royal Ordinances of the First Century and the Alexandrians
- Chapter 13 The Revenue Laws Papyrus: Greek Tradition and Hellenistic Adaptation
- Chapter 14 The Structural Tensions of Ptolemaic Society
- Chapter 15 The Third-century Land-leases From Tholthis
- Chapter 16 Greek Economy and Egyptian Society in the Third Century
- Chapter 17 Greeks and Egyptians According to <i>PSI</i> V 502
- Chapter 18 Graeco-Roman Egypt and the Question of Cultural Interactions
- Chapter 19 Normality and Distinctiveness in the Epigraphy of Greek and Roman Egypt
- Conclusion
- Bibligraphy
- General Index
- Index of Passages Discussed
- Hellenistic Culture and Society
