0:00:05 > 0:00:07In the history of the ancient world,
0:00:07 > 0:00:10there's one woman who eclipses all others.
0:00:11 > 0:00:16Her name has become a byword for beauty, luxury and excess
0:00:16 > 0:00:20but, more than that, her story is entwined with some of the most
0:00:20 > 0:00:23powerful men in Western history.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27She is, of course, the last pharaoh of Egypt -
0:00:27 > 0:00:28Cleopatra.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31Since her death some 2,000 years ago,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34Cleopatra has been portrayed as everything
0:00:34 > 0:00:37from romantic heroine and victim,
0:00:37 > 0:00:41to sexual predator and cold-blooded killer.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45Over the years, she's been subject to myth, propaganda,
0:00:45 > 0:00:48and more than a little fantasy.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51Through two millennia of history, art and fiction,
0:00:51 > 0:00:56she has been moulded to the fashions and prejudices of the day.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00And, over the centuries, Cleopatra has become a blank canvas
0:01:00 > 0:01:03on which successive generations have projected
0:01:03 > 0:01:06whatever image suited their own time.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10During three decades on British screens,
0:01:10 > 0:01:12the BBC History series Timewatch
0:01:12 > 0:01:15attempted to interrogate Cleopatra's story.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Along the way, Timewatch took up some of the fiercest debates
0:01:21 > 0:01:23that surround Cleopatra -
0:01:23 > 0:01:26how she looked, her relationship with men,
0:01:26 > 0:01:29and even the thorny issue of her race.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34The dominant culture does not see Cleopatra as black
0:01:34 > 0:01:37and does not accept Cleopatra as black.
0:01:37 > 0:01:38I'll guide you through
0:01:38 > 0:01:42the ever-shifting sands of Cleopatra's changing image and,
0:01:42 > 0:01:44by looking through the BBC archives,
0:01:44 > 0:01:48I'll try to piece together how the myths came about,
0:01:48 > 0:01:51and uncover who she really was.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03Despite living some 2,000 years ago,
0:02:03 > 0:02:06Cleopatra still looms large in our public consciousness.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10It's easy to see why.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13A young girl who inherited one of the most powerful kingdoms
0:02:13 > 0:02:15in the ancient world.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20A pharaoh queen who took on the might of the Roman Empire,
0:02:20 > 0:02:24along the way seducing two of Rome's greatest generals -
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31And a woman who took her own life,
0:02:31 > 0:02:33with the help of a poisonous snake.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38Over the centuries, Cleopatra's been the subject of works
0:02:38 > 0:02:42by everyone from the great Roman poets, Renaissance authors,
0:02:42 > 0:02:47through Chaucer, Shakespeare, Victorian music hall and TV drama.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51Each, in turn, has left us with a different image of who she was.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55Most of us know Cleopatra, and her story,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58through the prism of popular culture.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02It's easy to forget that Cleopatra was a real woman
0:03:02 > 0:03:06who lived through some of the most important events in our history.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11Events that would help to shape the Western and Middle Eastern worlds.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13I think Cleopatra's legacy is as
0:03:13 > 0:03:16one of the very few great women
0:03:16 > 0:03:18in ancient history.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21One of the very few times we can point to someone and say,
0:03:21 > 0:03:23"That woman changed the world."
0:03:23 > 0:03:25And the fact that
0:03:25 > 0:03:29even a few of those characters exist, um...
0:03:29 > 0:03:32makes them extremely important to us.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35I think we see Cleopatra differently
0:03:35 > 0:03:36every time we look at her,
0:03:36 > 0:03:38and when we're looking at her.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40So I think we will see her very differently
0:03:40 > 0:03:42from people, say, 50 years ago.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45It's not necessarily the right Cleopatra, though.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48We're always tempted, I think, to put our own interpretation
0:03:48 > 0:03:51and see her through the lens of our own history.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53We use Cleopatra as we want,
0:03:53 > 0:03:56and it reflects our own assumptions,
0:03:56 > 0:03:57our own desires about the world,
0:03:57 > 0:03:59but it tends to be those desires,
0:03:59 > 0:04:01how we would have liked the past to be
0:04:01 > 0:04:03and how we'd like the present to be,
0:04:03 > 0:04:07rather than, necessarily, how either of them actually are, or were.
0:04:07 > 0:04:12Understanding how and why her myth came about is so important
0:04:12 > 0:04:16because the reality of her world has been literally buried.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20Surprisingly, there's little archaeological evidence
0:04:20 > 0:04:22for Cleopatra's life remaining in Egypt.
0:04:23 > 0:04:28Cleopatra has fascinated people the world over for centuries
0:04:28 > 0:04:32and anything relating to her is deemed newsworthy.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35Archaeologists working in the waters off the Egyptian port
0:04:35 > 0:04:39of Alexandria have found the remains of a royal city that was home
0:04:39 > 0:04:42to Cleopatra and her lover Mark Antony.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44They say the city has lain hidden for 2,000 years
0:04:44 > 0:04:47on the eastern edge of the ancient harbour.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51They believe Cleopatra's palace, located on a peninsula nearby,
0:04:51 > 0:04:54looked directly across the bay to Antony's home.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58The royal city itself was a network of lavish palaces and temples.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01This report from our correspondent in Egypt, Jim Muir.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03It's an underwater museum.
0:05:03 > 0:05:05For the first time, the whole area
0:05:05 > 0:05:07has finally been explored and mapped,
0:05:07 > 0:05:10using the most sophisticated modern equipment.
0:05:10 > 0:05:16Cleopatra lived on this place, she had palaces on this place
0:05:16 > 0:05:19and she plays this unbelievable drama between her,
0:05:19 > 0:05:24Julius Caesar, Antony and Octavius exactly on this place.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26It's certainly true that between
0:05:26 > 0:05:28the Mediterranean Sea
0:05:28 > 0:05:30and the modern city of Alexandria,
0:05:30 > 0:05:34there's very little left of Cleopatra's city.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37We have some descriptions in the ancient sources,
0:05:37 > 0:05:39but there's not much that we can actually use
0:05:39 > 0:05:44to tell what her life, what her daily life was like,
0:05:44 > 0:05:46what life with Antony, in Alexandria, was like.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49And I think that does mean that we have to rely a lot more
0:05:49 > 0:05:52on the written sources and a lot more on
0:05:52 > 0:05:55our kind of ideas of what it should have been like.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58Even without much tangible evidence to go on,
0:05:58 > 0:06:02Cleopatra is one of the most recognisable names
0:06:02 > 0:06:03from the ancient world.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06But despite the vast power and influence
0:06:06 > 0:06:08she wielded in her own lifetime,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11the one thing that's stayed with us down the centuries
0:06:11 > 0:06:14is the legend of her incredible beauty.
0:06:14 > 0:06:16The idea that Cleopatra was beautiful
0:06:16 > 0:06:19is now a central part of her myth.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23The overriding impression many of us share is of Cleopatra
0:06:23 > 0:06:28as a striking beauty, who used her good looks to seduce powerful men.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32This image of Cleopatra has been handed down through the generations,
0:06:32 > 0:06:36perhaps reaching its climax in the golden age of Hollywood.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41In 1934, the legendary film-maker Cecil B DeMille
0:06:41 > 0:06:45joined centuries of other artists, poets and authors
0:06:45 > 0:06:48in depicting Cleopatra for his own age.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51Cleopatra is a magic name.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54A symbol of romance and love...
0:06:56 > 0:06:58..of power and passion and intrigue.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03Cleopatra has been glorified in all the arts.
0:07:05 > 0:07:10And by writers from Plutarch, here, to Shakespeare, to Shaw.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13Yet...
0:07:13 > 0:07:14she still remains a mystery.
0:07:16 > 0:07:17Eternal as the sphinx.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38On the silver screen, Cleopatra has been portrayed
0:07:38 > 0:07:41by some of the most beautiful actresses in history,
0:07:41 > 0:07:44perhaps most memorably by Elizabeth Taylor
0:07:44 > 0:07:47in the epic 1960s' re-telling of her story.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53- VOICEOVER:- 'Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra,
0:07:53 > 0:07:55'siren of the Nile.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58'Her stunning beauty and notorious intrigue
0:07:58 > 0:08:01'turned the tide of civilisation.'
0:08:01 > 0:08:05But where does the Hollywood image of Cleopatra come from?
0:08:05 > 0:08:09The beauty myth started with the Romans who, to their dismay,
0:08:09 > 0:08:11found that two of their greatest leading men
0:08:11 > 0:08:14had fallen under her spell.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17In the literature that followed, she's almost, without fail,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20been cast as hauntingly alluring.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24One of the most influential authors who wrote about Cleopatra's life
0:08:24 > 0:08:27was the biographer and historian Plutarch,
0:08:27 > 0:08:30who lived in the 1st century AD.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34Plutarch is, perhaps, the least flattering of all ancient writers,
0:08:34 > 0:08:37but even he paints her as a beguiling figure,
0:08:37 > 0:08:41as dramatised in this 1983 Timewatch.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43Her own beauty, so we are told,
0:08:43 > 0:08:45was not of that incomparable kind,
0:08:45 > 0:08:47which instantly captivates the beholder.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50But the charm of her presence was irresistible
0:08:50 > 0:08:54and there was an attraction, in her person and her talk,
0:08:54 > 0:08:56together with a peculiar force of character,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59which pervaded her every word and action
0:08:59 > 0:09:03and which laid all who associated with her under its spell.
0:09:04 > 0:09:09But Plutarch wasn't the only ancient author who wrote about Cleopatra,
0:09:09 > 0:09:13and it's often the other Roman writers who've held sway.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16Plutarch is unusual in stressing that she wasn't that beautiful,
0:09:16 > 0:09:20Dio describes her as the most beautiful of all women,
0:09:20 > 0:09:24and that's the tradition that gains the ground, really,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27by the time of Chaucer, "She was as fair as is the rose in May,"
0:09:27 > 0:09:28and all the rest of it.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31I think the interest in Cleopatra's beauty
0:09:31 > 0:09:34is, really, a by-product of the way
0:09:34 > 0:09:35that she's come to be
0:09:35 > 0:09:37a figure of the forbidden.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40Especially a figure of the forbidden to men
0:09:40 > 0:09:44and, so, she represents all that is forbidden,
0:09:44 > 0:09:48but is longed for, because it's repressed.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50And, so, of course, she becomes more and more beautiful
0:09:50 > 0:09:51the more she's forbidden.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56The myth of Cleopatra's beauty is now centre stage
0:09:56 > 0:10:01in all retellings of her story, both in fiction and academic study.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05To penetrate beneath the veneer of the myth,
0:10:05 > 0:10:07some have tried to discover her true face,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10using what archaeological evidence there is.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13But when new evidence does emerge,
0:10:13 > 0:10:17the truth doesn't always seem to match up to the legend.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22Now, we know her as the icon of beauty from classical times,
0:10:22 > 0:10:24a woman whose charms bewitched Caesar
0:10:24 > 0:10:26and brought down the Roman Empire,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29but a new discovery suggests Cleopatra was no beauty at all.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33She, apparently, had bulging eyes, thin lips and a bad haircut.
0:10:33 > 0:10:34Robert Hall reports.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36Well, for confirmation of Cleopatra's beauty,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39one needs look no further than the Bard.
0:10:39 > 0:10:40In his play Antony and Cleopatra,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43one of Mark Antony's servants says that his master has been,
0:10:43 > 0:10:45"Turned from a triple pillar of the world
0:10:45 > 0:10:49"into a strumpet's fool, by his love for Cleopatra."
0:10:49 > 0:10:50Well, on this new evidence,
0:10:50 > 0:10:52Mark Antony may have been a trifle short-sighted.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57This 2,000-year-old coin does rather shatter the image.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59Depicting both Mark Antony and Cleopatra,
0:10:59 > 0:11:02it does the Egyptian queen no favours at all.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05It's very difficult to find out when this idea that Cleopatra
0:11:05 > 0:11:07was a great beauty came into vogue,
0:11:07 > 0:11:10but Cleopatra has a very low brow, a very hook nose
0:11:10 > 0:11:13and she looks as if she's forgotten to put her teeth in.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18The image of Cleopatra we can glean from coins, like this,
0:11:18 > 0:11:20is a distorted one.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22Firstly, because the coins themselves
0:11:22 > 0:11:25are of limited artistic value.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29Frankly, they were minted rather crudely to our modern eyes.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32But more importantly, ancient coins, like this,
0:11:32 > 0:11:36were more about disseminating a potent iconography,
0:11:36 > 0:11:38rather than showing what their subjects actually looked like.
0:11:40 > 0:11:41As coins aren't really that useful
0:11:41 > 0:11:44in getting to the true image of Cleopatra,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47academics have spent decades searching
0:11:47 > 0:11:49for other depictions of her on reliefs,
0:11:49 > 0:11:51and, more importantly, statues.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55There are a number of likely candidates,
0:11:55 > 0:11:58but they need to be matched to known characteristics,
0:11:58 > 0:12:01as Oxford University's Professor Smith explained for Timewatch.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05If I just turn this into profile.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10What one's looking at is the arrangement of the hair,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13the centre parting, the hair pulled back
0:12:13 > 0:12:16in these broad, melon-like bands here
0:12:16 > 0:12:19into a large bun at the back.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23This corresponds, precisely, to the formation
0:12:23 > 0:12:26of the hair on the coins.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30One can tell that the head is of a queen,
0:12:30 > 0:12:33because she wears a flat diadem,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36that's to say a piece of plain, white cloth -
0:12:36 > 0:12:39the symbol of Macedonian kingship.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42This combination of hairstyle, diadem
0:12:42 > 0:12:46and facial composition means this definitely represents Cleopatra.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49But is this what she actually looked like?
0:12:49 > 0:12:52As to the features of the face, I think one can say very little.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55One doesn't really know if they really looked like this.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59We, all of us, want to be able to
0:12:59 > 0:13:01get hold of Cleopatra and look at her.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05I think that's an effect produced by her mystery
0:13:05 > 0:13:07and the story of her power.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11But, in fact, there's almost no way of legitimating
0:13:11 > 0:13:13any particular object and saying
0:13:13 > 0:13:15this is really what Cleopatra looked like,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18much as we'd like to feel it.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20Each era has tended to look at Cleopatra's beauty
0:13:20 > 0:13:21and they've always talked about it.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24They rarely ignore the fact of her looks,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27whereas nobody cares what Antony looked like, or Julius Caesar.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29They never ask what colour skin they had, or hair.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32Whether or not they were particularly handsome,
0:13:32 > 0:13:33but Cleopatra needs to be beautiful.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37And she needs to be beautiful in a way that each era understands
0:13:37 > 0:13:40so, as concepts of a woman's figure,
0:13:40 > 0:13:42the shape of her face,
0:13:42 > 0:13:44her colouring, her hair...as those change,
0:13:44 > 0:13:47Cleopatra tends to be adapted so she can be blonde,
0:13:47 > 0:13:50she can be dark, she can be anything that imagination conjures up,
0:13:50 > 0:13:54because her beauty is largely something of our imagination.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58Whether she was beautiful or not,
0:13:58 > 0:14:00it was the Romans who set the agenda.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04And Roman spin about Cleopatra has endured
0:14:04 > 0:14:06right up to the modern day.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11Above all, it suited them to cast her as so beautiful
0:14:11 > 0:14:14she was irresistible, because, that way,
0:14:14 > 0:14:16it didn't suggest their great men were weak.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22In fact, the Romans went so far as to paint her
0:14:22 > 0:14:24as a dangerous sexual predator,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27who preyed on the men who fell into her clutches.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32Her carefully-planned seduction of Julius Caesar,
0:14:32 > 0:14:34the most powerful man in Rome,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38has become a key part of her story in all subsequent eras.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42From Queen Cleopatra.
0:14:42 > 0:14:43May I?
0:14:59 > 0:15:05If Cleopatra did set out to seduce Caesar, then she had good reason to.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07She had just been deposed from her throne.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12If she couldn't win Caesar's support, she was as good as dead.
0:15:12 > 0:15:13Observe, Caesar!
0:15:13 > 0:15:15A most unusual design.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17Well...!
0:15:18 > 0:15:20Greetings to Caesar from Egypt.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24'She strikes me as a young woman who knew
0:15:24 > 0:15:28'exactly how to get what she wanted.'
0:15:28 > 0:15:31And just captivates him,
0:15:31 > 0:15:34and captivates him in a paternal way.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38I really don't think it had anything to do with sex.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40I think that came later.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43It's a great story - Cleopatra tricking her way
0:15:43 > 0:15:47into Caesar's chamber and then using all her feminine charms
0:15:47 > 0:15:49to get him into bed.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51But when you dig a little deeper,
0:15:51 > 0:15:55you start to draw some rather different conclusions.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00Cleopatra was just 22 and in a desperate situation,
0:16:00 > 0:16:03fearing for her life and extremely vulnerable.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07Caesar was 52, and at the height of his power,
0:16:07 > 0:16:12a well-known womaniser with previous form in bedding queens.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16I know who I think probably did the seducing.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20We learn a lot about Cleopatra's sexual activity from the Romans
0:16:20 > 0:16:21and they have some explaining to do,
0:16:21 > 0:16:24because Caesar should be a hero to them
0:16:24 > 0:16:27and, yet, he, quite clearly, has this slightly seedy episode
0:16:27 > 0:16:30in his life, when he's consorting with an enemy of Rome.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32Although, at the time, she wasn't an enemy of Rome.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36The best way for them to explain this is that she seduces him away
0:16:36 > 0:16:38from everything that's proper.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42He's seduced away from Roman life, from Roman wives,
0:16:42 > 0:16:44from Roman motherhood
0:16:44 > 0:16:48and into a very Eastern louche way of behaving.
0:16:48 > 0:16:49You can put all the blame on Cleopatra -
0:16:49 > 0:16:51it makes him the innocent man,
0:16:51 > 0:16:53who is tempted away by the woman.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58Even if Cleopatra did use her sexuality,
0:16:58 > 0:17:00it was a successful strategy.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03She regained her throne and saved her own life.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07But she was cast as a villain by the Roman people,
0:17:07 > 0:17:10who were scandalised by her relationship with Caesar,
0:17:10 > 0:17:14which, as Timewatch examined, soon went beyond a mere affair.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20In early 47BC, she took Caesar on a cruise up the Nile
0:17:20 > 0:17:22to see and be seen.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34The Ptolomies had a state barge.
0:17:34 > 0:17:36It was rather like a floating Parthenon,
0:17:36 > 0:17:41it even had five restaurants in it, three Greek and two Egyptian.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45There was a tradition of impressing visiting Romans, senators,
0:17:45 > 0:17:46high-up people in the army.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54So Cleopatra's invitation to Caesar to go up the Nile with her,
0:17:54 > 0:17:58and see the delights of her country, was not entirely unusual.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04What was different about it was that, at the end of the trip,
0:18:04 > 0:18:06Cleopatra becomes pregnant.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11Cleopatra bore Julius Caesar a son, Caesarion,
0:18:11 > 0:18:13and, over the next few years,
0:18:13 > 0:18:15she made at least one visit to Rome,
0:18:15 > 0:18:17where the presence of the Egyptian queen
0:18:17 > 0:18:20outraged the republican Roman people.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25But what's often been overlooked by historians, down the ages,
0:18:25 > 0:18:27is Cleopatra's role as a mother,
0:18:27 > 0:18:32which Caesar himself seems to have believed was central to who she was.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36One thing that is very remarkable,
0:18:36 > 0:18:38and it's difficult to know exactly how much to make of it,
0:18:38 > 0:18:42but there is some evidence of Caesar, in Rome,
0:18:42 > 0:18:47putting up a statue of Cleopatra in the temple of Venus Genetrix.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50Venus is a remarkable person to choose.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53That is the Venus who brings forth life,
0:18:53 > 0:18:55Venus who is also the mother.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58And he had that statue covered in gold.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02Now that image holds together the notions
0:19:02 > 0:19:05of a fully sexual woman,
0:19:05 > 0:19:08who is also a maternal woman,
0:19:08 > 0:19:13in a way that the culture we have inherited does not permit.
0:19:13 > 0:19:18If we look sideways to the figure of the Virgin Mary, in Christianity,
0:19:18 > 0:19:20you can see it very clearly,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23because the Virgin Mary is a mother,
0:19:23 > 0:19:25she is maternal,
0:19:25 > 0:19:31but she is, specifically, not a fully sexual woman.
0:19:33 > 0:19:38She keeps apart two notions which are held together
0:19:38 > 0:19:40in the name and the body of Cleopatra.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44Cleopatra the mother is one of the bits of the story
0:19:44 > 0:19:47that tends to get lost soonest.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49It's been a little bit more fashionable, lately,
0:19:49 > 0:19:52in that people have talked about this sort of sense of her...
0:19:52 > 0:19:53Makes her human, you know?
0:19:53 > 0:19:56She's a mother, she has these children, she cares for them,
0:19:56 > 0:19:58she wants them to succeed her,
0:19:58 > 0:20:02even if she can't remain in power in Egypt, so all of these attempts.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04But it, on the whole, it tends to get left out,
0:20:04 > 0:20:06it doesn't really feature.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08And the children, particularly, if they appear at all,
0:20:08 > 0:20:11will tend to be just as babies, as infants.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13That's fine, that can still be glamorous,
0:20:13 > 0:20:15that can still show a human side of her.
0:20:15 > 0:20:16The children, as they get a bit older,
0:20:16 > 0:20:19present more of a problem, because they're a complication
0:20:19 > 0:20:21to the story and, throughout the ages,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24people tend to like their stories simple.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27The idea of Cleopatra as a mother
0:20:27 > 0:20:30has been almost airbrushed from history.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33But it would have been of crucial importance at the time,
0:20:33 > 0:20:35because this appears to be the image
0:20:35 > 0:20:38Julius Caesar himself wanted to cultivate.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41But Caesar's branding exercise failed
0:20:41 > 0:20:46and, in time, the Roman public would turn against both Cleopatra
0:20:46 > 0:20:50and the fusion of motherhood and sexuality she represented.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54Roman spin was only too keen to dismiss her
0:20:54 > 0:20:57for using her sexuality to get her own way.
0:20:57 > 0:21:03By Late Antiquity, she was cast as little more than a prostitute.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05These ideas are still with us today,
0:21:05 > 0:21:07having travelled via the Roman authors
0:21:07 > 0:21:10into Renaissance art and culture,
0:21:10 > 0:21:13through prudish, disapproving Victorians,
0:21:13 > 0:21:16all the way to our Hollywood image of Cleopatra
0:21:16 > 0:21:19as highly sexualised and immoral.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23While she may have used her feminine charm to get what she wanted,
0:21:23 > 0:21:27there's also evidence that she would use more sinister means
0:21:27 > 0:21:29to hold on to power.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31The image of Cleopatra the killer queen
0:21:31 > 0:21:34has often emerged in the retelling of her story.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38In this BBC documentary,
0:21:38 > 0:21:42German archaeologists made a link between a tomb in Turkey
0:21:42 > 0:21:45and Cleopatra's murdered sister, Arsinoe.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49What did you see?
0:21:49 > 0:21:51Just describe what the scene was like.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53Erm, I was very excited
0:21:53 > 0:21:57and I crawled through this small entrance there
0:21:57 > 0:22:00- and came in and I saw the bones. - Right.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03The long bones from the legs
0:22:03 > 0:22:08and they clearly were partly in the one niche
0:22:08 > 0:22:10and partly in the other niche.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13I immediately saw it. We now have, at least,
0:22:13 > 0:22:18the skeleton of the owner of this grave chamber.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20How fantastic, you know, that there was someone in here,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23- obviously, of some kind of significance.- Mm-hm.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26- And to, then, immediately wonder... - Mm-hm.- ..you know, who, why?
0:22:26 > 0:22:28- Why was somebody worth this? - Mm-hm.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30What was their story? It's great.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37Determined to discover the identity of this mysterious skeleton,
0:22:37 > 0:22:39Hilke had little to go on.
0:22:39 > 0:22:40It was incomplete.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44She decided to search ancient records
0:22:44 > 0:22:49for a woman important enough to buried in such an unusual tomb.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55In the Roman accounts, she found a reference
0:22:55 > 0:23:01to the horrific murder of Princess Arsinoe, Cleopatra's sister.
0:23:01 > 0:23:06In the city of Ephesus, at the behest of Cleopatra,
0:23:06 > 0:23:10Mark Antony had her sister dragged from the Temple of Artemis
0:23:10 > 0:23:13and there, in this holy place...
0:23:14 > 0:23:16..the young Arsinoe
0:23:16 > 0:23:17was put to death.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30If Cassius Dio was right,
0:23:30 > 0:23:34and if Hilke had, indeed, stumbled on the bones of Arsinoe,
0:23:34 > 0:23:36then this was a huge find.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43The first ever remains of anyone from Cleopatra's family.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45Proof not only of a shocking murder,
0:23:45 > 0:23:47but also the first forensic evidence
0:23:47 > 0:23:50that Cleopatra was a ruthless killer.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57This recent documentary all too readily casts Cleopatra
0:23:57 > 0:24:00as a stereotypical power-crazed murderess,
0:24:00 > 0:24:02portraying her motivations and actions
0:24:02 > 0:24:06as simple elements in an ancient murder mystery.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11But 20 years previously, Timewatch also explored
0:24:11 > 0:24:17this image of Cleopatra as ruthless, but in a very different way.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19It delved into the context of her world,
0:24:19 > 0:24:22where murder was a birthright, not a choice,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25and it was very much kill or be killed.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30Cleopatra's family was descended from a Macedonian general
0:24:30 > 0:24:32who once saved the life of Alexander the Great.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36The Ptolemies had ruled Egypt for 250 years,
0:24:36 > 0:24:38squandering wealth and empire,
0:24:38 > 0:24:41becoming more ruthless, more outrageous.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44Mothers murdered sons, uncles raped nieces,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47grandfathers married granddaughters.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49Cleopatra comes from a long line
0:24:49 > 0:24:51of incestuous marriages,
0:24:51 > 0:24:54which, I think, are partly to do with tradition,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57partly to do with keeping it in the family,
0:24:57 > 0:25:00and, above all, I think the fact that the women
0:25:00 > 0:25:03are more and more demanding of their share in power.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06And one automatic way to gain that is not only to be
0:25:06 > 0:25:10the sister of the ruling king, but to be his wife, as well.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12If you can get both functions,
0:25:12 > 0:25:14then you're really doing very well indeed.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17And that may well be a factor in the way the Ptolemaic women
0:25:17 > 0:25:19get more and more powerful.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21To be a Ptolemy was to live in fear
0:25:21 > 0:25:22and the people you feared most
0:25:22 > 0:25:23were your own family.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25You couldn't trust your brothers,
0:25:25 > 0:25:27your sisters, your parents.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29You couldn't trust your own children,
0:25:29 > 0:25:31once they were old enough to be independent.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33And Cleopatra lived in that environment.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36The only way to survive was to make sure
0:25:36 > 0:25:39that no-one else ever had the capacity to kill you.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43And, in the main, the only way to do that permanently was to kill them.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45So, to some extent, she's a creature of her time,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48she was in this environment, she couldn't have been anything else.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50But, it is worth reminding ourselves,
0:25:50 > 0:25:53we shouldn't view this in too romantic a haze, you know.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56However much we feel about her, however much we might be sympathetic
0:25:56 > 0:25:59to this strong, independent-minded woman in a world dominated by men,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Cleopatra couldn't afford to be nice.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04I think that you've got to appreciate the realities
0:26:04 > 0:26:07of politics, in her world.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11And it's naive to wring your hands
0:26:11 > 0:26:14over what happened at that time.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17And I would suggest, you know, people should look sideways
0:26:17 > 0:26:19to House of Cards.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22You know, it's not any better.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25Judged by our modern moral code,
0:26:25 > 0:26:28Cleopatra certainly has blood on her hands.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31But this was an age where killing your rivals
0:26:31 > 0:26:35was par for the course, even if they were your own relatives.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38In Cleopatra's world, if you wanted to survive,
0:26:38 > 0:26:43you did what you had to do, even if that meant killing your own sister.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47Over the centuries, Cleopatra has been cast as a killer,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50a seductress and, of course, a beauty,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53but one of the most enduring images of her
0:26:53 > 0:26:57is as a tragically doomed lover.
0:26:57 > 0:26:58And, for this image,
0:26:58 > 0:27:01we have one rather well-known playwright to thank.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06Our separation so abides and flies
0:27:06 > 0:27:10That thou, residing here, goes yet with me.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13William Shakespeare has a lot to answer for
0:27:13 > 0:27:16when it comes to how we view Cleopatra.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20His play, Antony and Cleopatra, has almost come to define
0:27:20 > 0:27:25the persona and the story we most closely associate with her today.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29He transformed her image from the whoring foreigner
0:27:29 > 0:27:34of the Romans to the tragic romantic heroine of the English Renaissance,
0:27:34 > 0:27:38seen through the lens of her doomed love affair with Mark Antony.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43However, the reality of their relationship is rather different
0:27:43 > 0:27:47and Cleopatra was anything but a star-crossed lover.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51After Caesar's murder, Cleopatra needed a new protector.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53So she turned to Caesar's protege,
0:27:53 > 0:27:58Mark Antony, who now ruled the eastern half of the Roman world.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01They met at Tarsus, in modern day Turkey.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03And we'll go to Tarsus...
0:28:04 > 0:28:06..in a barge,
0:28:06 > 0:28:08the most beautiful ever seen.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13'Cleopatra's famous arrival at Tarsus, in a golden barge,
0:28:13 > 0:28:17'was designed to appeal to Antony's love of luxury.'
0:28:17 > 0:28:19Cleopatra knew exactly what she was doing
0:28:19 > 0:28:23and what Antony could deliver for her.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27I'm sure that, when they meet at Tarsus in 41,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30both have very real political agendas.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33Both really need to use the other
0:28:33 > 0:28:35for their own political positions,
0:28:35 > 0:28:37they need to strengthen their own political positions
0:28:37 > 0:28:38in different ways.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42And I've no doubts at all that Cleopatra comes out
0:28:42 > 0:28:46a lot stronger on the throne, even, than she was before.
0:28:47 > 0:28:52'Wowed by the spectacle of Tarsus, and Cleopatra's immense wealth,
0:28:52 > 0:28:54'Mark Antony fell into bed with her
0:28:54 > 0:28:56'and their relationship is cemented
0:28:56 > 0:28:59'when she bears Antony several children.'
0:29:01 > 0:29:03They were her ticket.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06They were Egypt's ticket...
0:29:06 > 0:29:09out of patronage,
0:29:09 > 0:29:12out of dependence,
0:29:12 > 0:29:16out of obligation.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19And, so, she was willing to sacrifice,
0:29:19 > 0:29:21if you consider it a sacrifice,
0:29:21 > 0:29:26and I don't think she did, this was a tool - her body was a tool.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29You want a son? I'll give you a son.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31You want twins?
0:29:31 > 0:29:32I'll give you twins.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35Give me Egypt.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38We like to think of Cleopatra very much as someone
0:29:38 > 0:29:39who is passionate,
0:29:39 > 0:29:41and who is ruled by her heart.
0:29:41 > 0:29:43And it's something that
0:29:43 > 0:29:44the Romans also promoted.
0:29:44 > 0:29:46They weren't particularly keen on portraying her
0:29:46 > 0:29:48as an astute, sensible politician.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51They wanted to show her as a weak woman
0:29:51 > 0:29:54who was falling into all the feminine traps
0:29:54 > 0:29:58of not thinking logically, being ruled by her heart.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02We like that, too. We still find it difficult to accept powerful women
0:30:02 > 0:30:04who behave in a logical way.
0:30:04 > 0:30:06With Antony and Cleopatra,
0:30:06 > 0:30:08the romance always tends to loom large.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10After all, there aren't many romances
0:30:10 > 0:30:12between two people who were important political leaders.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15And it's the politics that tends to suffer, as a result,
0:30:15 > 0:30:17because when you're looking at the human drama,
0:30:17 > 0:30:20you're looking at the passion, you're looking at their suicides,
0:30:20 > 0:30:23so close to each other after they've suffered defeat,
0:30:23 > 0:30:27then it's all about that, but you forget the context of it all.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31Cleopatra depended, throughout her life, on having Roman backing.
0:30:31 > 0:30:33She needed to make sure
0:30:33 > 0:30:35that she stayed alive, which meant staying queen.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38The only way to do that was to get the Romans to back you.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41Egypt was not meaningfully independent at this point,
0:30:41 > 0:30:43it was very much part of Rome's sphere of influence.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46The problem is the Romans keep having civil wars,
0:30:46 > 0:30:47so you never know which lot of Romans
0:30:47 > 0:30:49you've got to get to support you.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52Seemingly under her spell,
0:30:52 > 0:30:55Mark Antony openly pushed Cleopatra's agenda.
0:30:55 > 0:30:57The historian Plutarch summed up
0:30:57 > 0:31:01how the Romans now viewed their relationship.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04Such being Antony's nature, the love for Cleopatra
0:31:04 > 0:31:05that now entered his life
0:31:05 > 0:31:09came as the final and crowning mischief that could befall him.
0:31:09 > 0:31:11It excited, to the point of madness,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14many passions, that had, hitherto, lain concealed,
0:31:14 > 0:31:18and stifled and corrupted all those qualities in him
0:31:18 > 0:31:20that were still capable of resisting temptation.
0:31:21 > 0:31:26Now this coin, minted at Antioch, exemplifies Roman fears.
0:31:26 > 0:31:27It shows, on one side, Antony
0:31:27 > 0:31:29and, on the other, Cleopatra.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33In two successive settlements, Antony redrew the map of the East.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36In 37BC, he gave to Cleopatra
0:31:36 > 0:31:38what had once comprised the Ptolemaic Empire -
0:31:38 > 0:31:41the richest cities of the Middle East.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44Three years later, in a triumphal ceremony in Alexandria,
0:31:44 > 0:31:48he recognised, as his own, the children Cleopatra had borne by him.
0:31:48 > 0:31:53He gave their daughter, named Cleopatra the Moon, aged six,
0:31:53 > 0:31:54Libya and Crete.
0:31:54 > 0:31:59Her twin, Alexander the Sun, was made ruler of Media.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01Their other son, Ptolemy Philadelphus,
0:32:01 > 0:32:02was made king of Asia Minor.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07Cleopatra had reached the zenith of her power.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10She'd saved Egypt and her children would now rule
0:32:10 > 0:32:12most of the Eastern Mediterranean.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14Now, she hadn't done all this
0:32:14 > 0:32:18just by being the romantic heroine of Shakespeare,
0:32:18 > 0:32:22or the sexy temptress the Romans liked to write her off as.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26Instead, the evidence suggests that she was a hard-headed
0:32:26 > 0:32:30and canny politician who knew how to get what she wanted.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33But this isn't the enduring image we're left with,
0:32:33 > 0:32:37because the romantic fantasy is, quite simply,
0:32:37 > 0:32:39an easier story to sell.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41For nearly two millennia,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44mostly male authors have defined Cleopatra,
0:32:44 > 0:32:49almost exclusively, through her relationships with powerful men,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52rather than judging her on her own merit.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56What's often missed in the retelling of Cleopatra's story
0:32:56 > 0:33:00is her real skill as a leader and ruler.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05Her father had squandered a fortune bribing Rome not to invade,
0:33:05 > 0:33:06so, when she came to the throne,
0:33:06 > 0:33:10Cleopatra found her country almost bankrupt.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13But she'd been raised to rule.
0:33:13 > 0:33:19She had a very clear understanding of how to govern her country
0:33:19 > 0:33:21and how to get her economy back on track.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26In fact, she knew her country intimately
0:33:26 > 0:33:30and knew how to make Egypt work to her advantage.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33The key was to align herself with the temples,
0:33:33 > 0:33:35which were a powerhouse of the economy.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38I think it's very significant
0:33:38 > 0:33:42that within, perhaps, a month of coming to the throne
0:33:42 > 0:33:44Cleopatra has gone south,
0:33:44 > 0:33:46she's sailed right up to Armant.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50She's to be seen as she goes up there, in her royal barge.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54You can imagine people coming to the banks and watching as she went by,
0:33:54 > 0:33:58and she ends up for what's a very important religious ceremony
0:33:58 > 0:34:00in which she herself takes part.
0:34:01 > 0:34:05From the temples comes wealth, so Cleopatra realises
0:34:05 > 0:34:07that keeping in with Egyptian religion
0:34:07 > 0:34:09is not simply a marvellous theatrical event,
0:34:09 > 0:34:13it is the key to getting the economy moving again.
0:34:13 > 0:34:15So she makes donations to temples,
0:34:15 > 0:34:18she takes an interest in the things that go on there
0:34:18 > 0:34:21and, above all, she cultivates them,
0:34:21 > 0:34:24almost literally, as a source of wealth and a source of support.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28But Cleopatra knew that the prosperity of the temples,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31and of Egypt, depended on the River Nile.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37If it came high enough, then the harvest was secure.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40CHANTING
0:34:40 > 0:34:44But several times in Cleopatra's reign, the Nile failed to flood.
0:34:47 > 0:34:49With starvation and unrest looming,
0:34:49 > 0:34:51she issued a series of royal decrees
0:34:51 > 0:34:55giving the peasants protection while getting the harvest in,
0:34:55 > 0:34:58alleviating their tax burden,
0:34:58 > 0:35:01making sure that the corn supply to Alexandria was secure.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05Without her country, she couldn't survive,
0:35:05 > 0:35:07but I think she identifies with that country enough
0:35:07 > 0:35:11to realise that it's not a matter of just using the country,
0:35:11 > 0:35:15that the country is her - that she's intimately bound up with Egypt
0:35:15 > 0:35:17and the future of Egypt, vis-a-vis Rome,
0:35:17 > 0:35:19which is a very major problem,
0:35:19 > 0:35:23depends on the unity of the queen and country together.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28Economic know-how, strategic thinking and savvy management
0:35:28 > 0:35:33aren't necessarily the attributes we'd associate with Cleopatra.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37We certainly don't inherit a picture of her as a competent ruler
0:35:37 > 0:35:41from the modern stereotypes or the classical accounts,
0:35:41 > 0:35:43but perhaps we should.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46Recent biographies and histories are starting to acknowledge
0:35:46 > 0:35:49the successful aspects of her rule.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54Not only was Cleopatra a great administrator,
0:35:54 > 0:35:57she was also adept at her own brand management,
0:35:57 > 0:36:01especially in how she projected her image to her subjects.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04At Dendera, a huge temple complex in the south of Egypt,
0:36:04 > 0:36:09Cleopatra carried on building the great temple started by her father.
0:36:09 > 0:36:14Here she mapped the future of her dynasty through her son, Caesarion.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17By studying the iconography at Dendera,
0:36:17 > 0:36:21modern historians have discovered that Cleopatra was, in fact,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24a brilliant propagandist, especially when it came to showing
0:36:24 > 0:36:27how ordinary Egyptians should see her.
0:36:29 > 0:36:30But famous as this wall is,
0:36:30 > 0:36:33its hieroglyphs have never been translated.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36John Ray has studied them for Timewatch
0:36:36 > 0:36:38and believes their significance goes
0:36:38 > 0:36:40beyond that of conventional temple inscriptions.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44Egyptian hieroglyphs were about ideas,
0:36:44 > 0:36:47rather like crossword puzzle clues, that are designed
0:36:47 > 0:36:51to make you think about them - you have to tease out their meaning.
0:36:53 > 0:36:55Cleopatra's name appears high up,
0:36:55 > 0:36:59but buried further down the wall is a string of epithets
0:36:59 > 0:37:00describing her qualities.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05Great of strength.
0:37:05 > 0:37:07Might, power.
0:37:07 > 0:37:11She wants to be seen as somebody who is a world power.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15As a performer on the stage in her own right.
0:37:15 > 0:37:16There she is, great of might.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20And here, behind the two goddesses,
0:37:20 > 0:37:23we have a quite simple and, rather pleasant, title -
0:37:23 > 0:37:27good of counsel. Good of policy.
0:37:27 > 0:37:29She wants to show herself as a wise ruler,
0:37:29 > 0:37:33as a capable ruler, as somebody whose rule over Egypt
0:37:33 > 0:37:35is good for the Egyptians themselves.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40The scenes on Egyptian temple walls are highly conventional.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44The monarch makes offerings, for the people, to the deities.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47But John Ray has discovered a deliberate telling irony
0:37:47 > 0:37:49in Cleopatra's choice of goddess.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53The relief suggest that Cleopatra's position is a mirror image
0:37:53 > 0:37:57of that of the goddess Isis, and therefore deserves the same respect.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01Now Isis is an interesting lady.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03She accompanies Osiris everywhere,
0:38:03 > 0:38:07until Osiris is put to death by his enemies.
0:38:07 > 0:38:13So, out of the union of Isis and the dead god, Osiris,
0:38:13 > 0:38:15came the new king.
0:38:17 > 0:38:18We're beginning, I think, to see
0:38:18 > 0:38:23the reason for some of the figures on this wall.
0:38:23 > 0:38:28Cleopatra stands at the end, behind her son, Caesarion,
0:38:28 > 0:38:30and she's like the goddess Isis
0:38:30 > 0:38:34that she's standing and facing on this wall - she's a single mother.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39There is a coded message here
0:38:39 > 0:38:43saying that the queen and the gods are in the same situation.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47Cleopatra, I think, is playing a very big game,
0:38:47 > 0:38:50she is dynastic to her fingertips.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53She, obviously, had a feeling of destiny that she wanted to restore
0:38:53 > 0:38:58the country back to being the centre point of a Mediterranean empire.
0:39:00 > 0:39:05In the Western tradition, her skill and intelligence is often missing
0:39:05 > 0:39:09from her story, or simply seen as another part of her deviousness.
0:39:10 > 0:39:15However, that's not how all cultures see this Egyptian queen.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18In the Islamic world, which was largely free of Roman propaganda
0:39:18 > 0:39:23about Cleopatra, she's seen in a very different light.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26Islamic authors hail her as a "virtuous scholar"
0:39:26 > 0:39:29and focus on her positive traits -
0:39:29 > 0:39:33her skill as an administrator, her comfort discussing science
0:39:33 > 0:39:36with some of the great thinkers of the day
0:39:36 > 0:39:37and as a polymath,
0:39:37 > 0:39:41who could master everything, from mathematics to philosophy.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53The Islamic historian Al-Masudi, who lived in the 10th century,
0:39:53 > 0:39:57wrote a positive account of her intellectual ability
0:39:57 > 0:40:00and described Cleopatra as,
0:40:00 > 0:40:02"A sage, a philosopher,
0:40:02 > 0:40:06"who elevated the ranks of scholars and enjoyed their company."
0:40:07 > 0:40:10She wrote books on medicine, charms and cosmetics,
0:40:10 > 0:40:13in addition to many other books ascribed to her,
0:40:13 > 0:40:16which are known to those who practise medicine.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21It's surprising to realise how,
0:40:21 > 0:40:24in a culture different and separate from our own,
0:40:24 > 0:40:27the Cleopatra we all think we know
0:40:27 > 0:40:29is someone altogether different.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38In the Eastern world, Cleopatra is not only acknowledged
0:40:38 > 0:40:42as an intellectual, but also as having a clear vision
0:40:42 > 0:40:45for her country and a burning desire to make it
0:40:45 > 0:40:48a world power once again.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51Well, she's certainly... I mean, Cleopatra's seen
0:40:51 > 0:40:52in a much more positive light,
0:40:52 > 0:40:54in the medieval Arabic sources.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57She's seen as a very great ruler,
0:40:57 > 0:40:59a very clever woman,
0:40:59 > 0:41:02a great architect, scientist.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05She's supposed to have been a doctor, of some kind,
0:41:05 > 0:41:08conducted medical experiments, and so on.
0:41:08 > 0:41:10And there are a lot of reasons for that.
0:41:10 > 0:41:15There's a difference in a culture that can appreciate a woman ruler
0:41:15 > 0:41:17in that way.
0:41:17 > 0:41:19But I think it's also interesting
0:41:19 > 0:41:22that these sources are often from Egypt itself
0:41:22 > 0:41:26and, so, in a sense, she's a national heroine by that stage.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34In the 1920s, some Arabs even embraced Cleopatra
0:41:34 > 0:41:38as an icon of their nationalist cause.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40The Egyptian playwright Ahmad Shawqi
0:41:40 > 0:41:42painted the queen as a nationalist heroine,
0:41:42 > 0:41:45who dedicated her life to defending her country
0:41:45 > 0:41:48from the evils of Roman imperialism.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51When he wrote his play, The Death of Cleopatra,
0:41:51 > 0:41:54Egypt was under British colonial rule,
0:41:54 > 0:41:57so it made perfect sense to adopt Cleopatra
0:41:57 > 0:42:00who also had resisted Western imperialism.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07Just as Cleopatra became an icon for Arab nationalists in the 1920s,
0:42:07 > 0:42:11later in the 20th century, she also became the subject
0:42:11 > 0:42:14of a fierce debate about racial identity.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19When Timewatch explored Cleopatra's life in the 1990s,
0:42:19 > 0:42:22it did so amidst the backdrop of an academic tussle
0:42:22 > 0:42:24over the mystery of her race.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28As a child, Shelley Haley was told by her grandmother
0:42:28 > 0:42:29that Cleopatra was black.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34Shelley remembered this years later.
0:42:34 > 0:42:35I was teaching at Howard University,
0:42:35 > 0:42:39which is a historically black college,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42and I was teaching Women in the Ancient World,
0:42:42 > 0:42:45and we were talking about Cleopatra.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49And the students in the class kept asking me,
0:42:49 > 0:42:52"Was she black? Was she black? Was she black?"
0:42:52 > 0:42:54And I kept saying, "No, no, no.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57"She was Greek, she was Greek, she was Greek."
0:42:57 > 0:43:03And I can remember this, as if it was yesterday...thinking,
0:43:03 > 0:43:09"OK. Today in class, I'm bringing in The Cambridge Ancient History,
0:43:09 > 0:43:14"so the students could see that there's a direct line
0:43:14 > 0:43:17"from Ptolemy to Cleopatra VII."
0:43:18 > 0:43:21I went over to the library and I got volume 9
0:43:21 > 0:43:23of The Cambridge Ancient History
0:43:23 > 0:43:26and I brought it into class and I opened it up
0:43:26 > 0:43:28and I unfolded the genealogy.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31And I said, "There! See?"
0:43:33 > 0:43:35And what I saw, where my finger landed,
0:43:35 > 0:43:38was on the question mark...
0:43:38 > 0:43:39for her grandmother.
0:43:42 > 0:43:43And it was like...
0:43:43 > 0:43:47it was like stepping outside of yourself...
0:43:48 > 0:43:50..and realising...
0:43:50 > 0:43:53"Oh, my goodness. Maybe...
0:43:54 > 0:43:56"..my grandmother was right."
0:43:56 > 0:43:58If Cleopatra's black,
0:43:58 > 0:44:02then it opens up a whole new avenue
0:44:02 > 0:44:05to interpret her.
0:44:05 > 0:44:10And we can use the methodologies of feminist thought
0:44:10 > 0:44:12to project backwards
0:44:12 > 0:44:17and see if we can't start to untangle the complexity
0:44:17 > 0:44:19that Cleopatra was.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23The dominant culture does not see Cleopatra as black
0:44:23 > 0:44:25and doesn't accept Cleopatra as black.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28Why isn't there a countercharge against these people
0:44:28 > 0:44:32that's taking it from the context of Roman and Greek, or whatever?
0:44:32 > 0:44:34- That's a very good question.- Why...
0:44:34 > 0:44:37Why don't they have the burden of proof to prove that she was white?
0:44:37 > 0:44:40- Cos they don't know either.- Right.
0:44:40 > 0:44:41Well, in the '80s and '90s...
0:44:43 > 0:44:46..in the face of the bold assertions
0:44:46 > 0:44:50of Cleopatra's European origins...
0:44:50 > 0:44:53African-Americans were, of course, outraged
0:44:53 > 0:44:58and felt they had to step up to the plate about this.
0:44:58 > 0:45:03And, also, there was a development, a boom in African-American studies,
0:45:03 > 0:45:07which meant there was a much more substantial intellectual backing
0:45:07 > 0:45:10for arguing the case.
0:45:10 > 0:45:13I mean, a lot of nonsense has been
0:45:13 > 0:45:17written and spoken, on both sides.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20But you can see what's at stake - the identity.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23It's a question of identity - the identity of the classicists
0:45:23 > 0:45:26who want to uphold the superiority
0:45:26 > 0:45:29of what they are teaching and discussing
0:45:29 > 0:45:33and the identity of the African-Americans who want to uph...
0:45:33 > 0:45:35who are desperately, and appropriately,
0:45:35 > 0:45:39trying to regain the dignity they've been robbed of.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42If Cleopatra had been black,
0:45:42 > 0:45:45I find it amazing that the Romans,
0:45:45 > 0:45:49who found everything else to throw against her that they could,
0:45:49 > 0:45:51never bothered to mention the fact.
0:45:51 > 0:45:53It's true that we don't know, for sure, who her mother was.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57It's true that we don't know, for sure, who her father's mother was.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01And there was a tradition that her father's mother was...
0:46:01 > 0:46:04was a concubine, rather than the queen.
0:46:04 > 0:46:06That, in itself, is disputable,
0:46:06 > 0:46:08it's very hard to be sure about that.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11But, in all the propaganda thrown around,
0:46:11 > 0:46:14wouldn't somebody have said that she had a slightly dusky appearance?
0:46:17 > 0:46:19We don't know if Cleopatra was black,
0:46:19 > 0:46:21but was colour an issue then?
0:46:24 > 0:46:26In a contemporary painting of a ceremony to Isis,
0:46:26 > 0:46:29the goddess with whom Cleopatra identified,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32black priests and white serve as equals.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37It seems quite likely that they wouldn't have been very interested,
0:46:37 > 0:46:40themselves, in what "race" Cleopatra was.
0:46:40 > 0:46:41I put it in inverted commas.
0:46:42 > 0:46:46You can argue that her family was Macedonian,
0:46:46 > 0:46:47but, then, you leave out of account
0:46:47 > 0:46:52the fact that there were all those queens and all those children.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56Now, even in perfectly ordinary families nowadays,
0:46:56 > 0:47:00with rather modest access to...
0:47:00 > 0:47:02to sexual pleasure...
0:47:03 > 0:47:09..it can be quite difficult to know who the fathers of children are.
0:47:09 > 0:47:11You know, the American expression,
0:47:11 > 0:47:14"Mama's baby, Papa's maybe."
0:47:14 > 0:47:16That, you know, paternity is uncertain.
0:47:18 > 0:47:23In 2009, the discovery of this skeleton,
0:47:23 > 0:47:26believed to be Arsinoe, Cleopatra's sister,
0:47:26 > 0:47:29once again raised the issue of her race.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34Until recently, Cleopatra's dynasty
0:47:34 > 0:47:37was thought to be Greek, European, Caucasian.
0:47:37 > 0:47:41But some scholars now believe Cleopatra and her siblings
0:47:41 > 0:47:43had African blood.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46Could the answer be in this skull?
0:47:46 > 0:47:49The distance from the forehead to the back of the skull is long,
0:47:49 > 0:47:52in relation to the overall height of the cranium,
0:47:52 > 0:47:55and that's something that you see quite frequently
0:47:55 > 0:47:58in certain populations, one of which is ancient Egyptians.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02Another would be... black African groups
0:48:02 > 0:48:03will also show that characteristic.
0:48:03 > 0:48:08This one certainly looks more white European,
0:48:08 > 0:48:10but it has got this long head shape.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13It could suggest a mixture of ancestry.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19Our revelation backs up the controversial theory
0:48:19 > 0:48:22that the princess, and therefore her sister Cleopatra,
0:48:22 > 0:48:23also had African blood.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29The issue of Cleopatra's race is a fascinating one,
0:48:29 > 0:48:32and, in the Western world, especially the US,
0:48:32 > 0:48:35it's one that's laden with symbolism
0:48:35 > 0:48:38set against a backdrop of colonialism and slavery.
0:48:38 > 0:48:41It is one of those striking things that tells us
0:48:41 > 0:48:42far more about our own preoccupations
0:48:42 > 0:48:44when we start wondering
0:48:44 > 0:48:46about whether or not Cleopatra was black, was brown,
0:48:46 > 0:48:48was dark-skinned, light-skinned,
0:48:48 > 0:48:50what colour hair she had.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52It's very interesting that, in the ancient world,
0:48:52 > 0:48:54nobody seems concerned with that at all.
0:48:54 > 0:48:56And those aspects of race are not big -
0:48:56 > 0:48:59the Greeks and the Romans don't talk about them, really.
0:48:59 > 0:49:03They have all sorts of other prejudices about peoples
0:49:03 > 0:49:06and their societies, but it's not the physical aspect.
0:49:06 > 0:49:08But we have this sense that it's important...
0:49:08 > 0:49:12But it is striking that people will argue
0:49:12 > 0:49:15about Cleopatra's ethnicity, the shape of her face, her colouring
0:49:15 > 0:49:18and reconstructions of her tend to vary,
0:49:18 > 0:49:21depending on the preoccupations and the prejudices
0:49:21 > 0:49:23of the person doing it at the time.
0:49:23 > 0:49:24Erm...
0:49:24 > 0:49:26the truth is we don't know.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32The fact that we still argue about her beauty,
0:49:32 > 0:49:37race or sexuality is a testament to her enduring appeal.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40But a key part of her legend is down to the fact
0:49:40 > 0:49:45that she took her own life in such a dramatic and tragic style.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48In fact, her legendary suicide
0:49:48 > 0:49:51became almost inevitable as events played out.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56In 31BC, Cleopatra and Mark Antony went to war
0:49:56 > 0:49:59with the Western half of the Roman Empire under Octavian.
0:50:02 > 0:50:07Their forces met in a decisive naval battle at Actium in Greece.
0:50:07 > 0:50:11Cleopatra and Mark Antony lost.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14Antony was doomed, so he took his own life.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19Cleopatra was now alone and vulnerable.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21She, too, knew her own end was near.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25Cleopatra realised...
0:50:27 > 0:50:30..that her vision for Egypt
0:50:30 > 0:50:31was dead.
0:50:31 > 0:50:32It was dead.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35Egypt is the centre. That's...
0:50:35 > 0:50:36that is her whole life.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40Other things can happen around the perimeter,
0:50:40 > 0:50:43but Egypt's always at the centre.
0:50:43 > 0:50:44Cleopatra spent her life
0:50:44 > 0:50:47fighting the Romans.
0:50:47 > 0:50:49Octavian's now won.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51Antony's dead.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54What choice is there left to her?
0:50:55 > 0:50:59She could be taken alive, taken to Rome.
0:50:59 > 0:51:01Paraded, in triumph, for all the Romans to see -
0:51:01 > 0:51:05this Eastern queen there...
0:51:05 > 0:51:06captive.
0:51:06 > 0:51:08She's not prepared to let that happen.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11And the death that she chooses
0:51:11 > 0:51:13is a death which makes a very strong statement.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18The royal snake of Egypt was the cobra, or asp,
0:51:18 > 0:51:21whose bite conferred eternal life.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23This would be an Egyptian death.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28Plutarch wrote that she summoned a snake expert
0:51:28 > 0:51:33who smuggled one past her guards, in a basket of figs.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35His equivalent today is Nasr Tolba.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE
0:51:43 > 0:51:46Cleopatra lived and died in Alexandria,
0:51:46 > 0:51:49which is the habitat of the most vicious cobra of all -
0:51:49 > 0:51:51the coastal cobra.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55Its fangs are very sharp and it can bite up to ten people,
0:51:55 > 0:51:57killing them easily and quickly.
0:51:57 > 0:51:58HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE
0:52:02 > 0:52:04I definitely would have given her
0:52:04 > 0:52:08the same kind of cobra, as opposed to other types of poison
0:52:08 > 0:52:10taken via the mouth to the gut.
0:52:10 > 0:52:12The cobra's venom goes straight into the bloodstream
0:52:12 > 0:52:14and, so, is far more effective.
0:52:20 > 0:52:22For that reason, if I was with that great woman,
0:52:22 > 0:52:27and wanted to do her a favour, I would have given her a cobra,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30as a means of easy, quick and painless death.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38And dying in this way,
0:52:38 > 0:52:43she's achieving immortality the Egyptian way.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47So it's not just the Romans that she's cheating,
0:52:47 > 0:52:50she's almost cheating death itself.
0:52:50 > 0:52:52We don't really know what happened when Cleopatra died.
0:52:52 > 0:52:53She goes into a room
0:52:53 > 0:52:55and she dies in it.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58It's generally accepted that she killed herself
0:52:58 > 0:53:01and this is what the Romans think, although they don't know how.
0:53:01 > 0:53:03The story of the snake, kind of, develops later
0:53:03 > 0:53:05and, then, it becomes two snakes.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08It's also been suggested that she might have been killed,
0:53:08 > 0:53:10that it was convenient for Octavian to get rid of her
0:53:10 > 0:53:13rather than having an enemy hanging round,
0:53:13 > 0:53:15and there's a lot of sense in that one, too.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18Personally, I think she probably did commit suicide
0:53:18 > 0:53:21because she had a very Macedonian-Greek upbringing
0:53:21 > 0:53:25and, to the Greeks, suicide is a very viable option,
0:53:25 > 0:53:27it's not an opting out, it's a positive action.
0:53:27 > 0:53:29And I think that's what she did.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31But, again, like so much about Cleopatra,
0:53:31 > 0:53:33we probably will never know.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36Part of Cleopatra's mystique does rely
0:53:36 > 0:53:38on the fact that she killed herself,
0:53:38 > 0:53:39she took her own life,
0:53:39 > 0:53:41and, of course, that meant she died relatively young -
0:53:41 > 0:53:43she's only in her late 30s.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46So, like all great beauties, all romantic figures,
0:53:46 > 0:53:48if people obsess about their appearance,
0:53:48 > 0:53:52it's easier if they die before they get too old.
0:53:52 > 0:53:53And Cleopatra the grandmother
0:53:53 > 0:53:56somehow doesn't fit with the modern stereotype.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03When Rome learned it had won the wealth of Egypt,
0:54:03 > 0:54:06interest rates fell from 12% to 4%.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11Octavian continued building at Dendera,
0:54:11 > 0:54:14adding a shrine to Isis opposite the reliefs of Cleopatra.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20He allowed her three remaining children to live in peace.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26In Rome, her goldclad statue as Venus stood for 300 years.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32Octavian now called himself Augustus,
0:54:32 > 0:54:34transporting a huge obelisk to Rome
0:54:34 > 0:54:38telling the people he had conquered Egypt on their behalf.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42But he couldn't forget Cleopatra and he made sure we never will.
0:54:43 > 0:54:49Augustus founded his reign on her defeat in a very specific way
0:54:49 > 0:54:54that, when he was about to have a month named in his honour,
0:54:54 > 0:54:56instead of choosing the month of September,
0:54:56 > 0:54:58which would have been normal -
0:54:58 > 0:55:01the ninth month, because that was month he was born in -
0:55:01 > 0:55:03he chose to have the eighth month,
0:55:03 > 0:55:07which was the month in which Cleopatra committed suicide,
0:55:07 > 0:55:11to have that month named after him.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14And we're still living in that moment,
0:55:14 > 0:55:17in the sense that the eighth month we call August,
0:55:17 > 0:55:21so we're still celebrating the death of Cleopatra every year.
0:55:22 > 0:55:26Cleopatra becomes a dream. Cleopatra becomes an alternative.
0:55:26 > 0:55:28And she's, obviously, especially appealing
0:55:28 > 0:55:32for anyone who decides they don't really like what actually happened.
0:55:32 > 0:55:33So you get all sorts of claims
0:55:33 > 0:55:35about how wonderful the world would have been
0:55:35 > 0:55:37if Antony and Cleopatra had only won.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40No real basis for them. A, because, obviously, they lost,
0:55:40 > 0:55:43but, also, she didn't champion any particular causes,
0:55:43 > 0:55:46she wasn't particularly popular with her own people,
0:55:46 > 0:55:48because she couldn't afford to be,
0:55:48 > 0:55:50she didn't have time to waste on that sort of thing.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52She didn't really make any major contributions
0:55:52 > 0:55:54to Greco-Roman culture in a wider sense,
0:55:54 > 0:55:57apart from being spectacular
0:55:57 > 0:55:59and dying in this way.
0:55:59 > 0:56:03So our legacy is very much of the fame
0:56:03 > 0:56:06and the romance and the drama.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08There's very little that's concrete about her,
0:56:08 > 0:56:10because, in the end, she lost.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13In a sense, she's left us
0:56:13 > 0:56:15with a puzzle,
0:56:15 > 0:56:17because our scepticism,
0:56:17 > 0:56:22as we go into the evidence for what we've been told about her,
0:56:22 > 0:56:28draws us on to unpicking what is propaganda
0:56:28 > 0:56:30and to seeking more deeply
0:56:30 > 0:56:32into what is actually evidence.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36I think you could see Cleopatra as a blank canvas
0:56:36 > 0:56:37that people have projected
0:56:37 > 0:56:39their own images onto,
0:56:39 > 0:56:42but the truth is there's so much evidence from the Roman sources,
0:56:42 > 0:56:46so many opinions about her, so much information about her,
0:56:46 > 0:56:49that I think what we're actually tempted to do
0:56:49 > 0:56:54is to project Roman views onto that canvas she left us.
0:57:07 > 0:57:10We might never know the real Cleopatra.
0:57:10 > 0:57:15Two millennia of myth, propaganda and dramatic licence
0:57:15 > 0:57:18may well have buried the truth forever.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21But, over time, even that fictional character -
0:57:21 > 0:57:24who she is, what she represents, has changed.
0:57:24 > 0:57:29To the Romans, an evil Eastern harlot, crushed by moral Rome.
0:57:29 > 0:57:33To the Islamic world, an enlightened ruler and a scholar.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38But for audiences watching everything from Shakespeare
0:57:38 > 0:57:40to Hollywood blockbusters,
0:57:40 > 0:57:43one image has tended to hold sway -
0:57:43 > 0:57:47the archetypal femme fatale, beautiful and sexy,
0:57:47 > 0:57:50but with a romantic, tragic twist.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56Everyone has a different image of Cleopatra in their mind's eye.
0:57:56 > 0:58:00A strong woman of colour, a star-crossed lover,
0:58:00 > 0:58:04a scheming seductress, or a ravishing beauty.
0:58:04 > 0:58:09But it's important to remember that, underneath these superficial labels,
0:58:09 > 0:58:12Cleopatra was a real woman.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15A woman who ruled one of the greatest civilisations
0:58:15 > 0:58:17in the ancient world.
0:58:17 > 0:58:22A woman who died trying to save her kingdom from Roman domination.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25And the fact that it was the writings of her Roman enemies
0:58:25 > 0:58:30that guaranteed her fame is, perhaps, the ultimate testament to
0:58:30 > 0:58:33just how remarkable a woman she really was.