Synopses & Reviews
The Romans regarded her as fatale monstrum”a fatal omen. Pascal said the shape of her nose changed the history of the world. Shakespeare portrayed her as an icon of tragic love. But who was Cleopatra, really?
Cleopatra was the last ruler of the Macedonian dynasty of Ptolemies. Highly intelligent, she spoke many languages and was rumored to be the only Ptolemy to read and speak Egyptian. Her famous liaisons with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony had as much to do with politics as the heart. Ruthless in dealing with her enemies, many within her own family, Cleopatra steered her kingdom through difficult times, and very nearly succeeded in creating an eastern empire to rival the growing might of Rome.
Her story was well documented by her near contemporaries, and the tragic tale of contrasts and oppositionsthe seductive but failing power of ancient Egypt versus the virile strength of modern Romeis so familiar we almost feel that we know Cleopatra. But our picture is highly distorted. Cleopatra is often portrayed as a woman ruled by emotion rather than reason; a queen hurtling towards inevitable self-destruction. But these tales of seduction, intrigue, and suicide by asp have obfuscated Cleopatras true political genius.
Stripping away our preconceptions, many of them as old as Egypts Roman conquerors, Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley offers a magnificent biography of a most extraordinary queen.
Review
Choice“Tyldesley seeks to redress Cleopatra’s seductress image by viewing her within the larger context of Egypt’s dynastic affairs and cultural history…. The book’s final chapter describes how the Roman propaganda machine stripped the intelligent, educated queen of her political validity and fashioned her posthumous identity as an immoral, unnatural woman and (alternatively) tragic heroine.”
Review
Times Higher Education Supplement “A very readable account of the life of Cleopatra VII, and one that goes some way to redress the way in which she is often viewed. It also provides intriguing insights into life and society in the Egypt of the Ptolemies and the position of Egypt in the world-system of its time.”
Sunday Telegraph
“Tyldesley’s strength has always been her storytelling, and here she is on top form. The Ptolemaic court was an in-bred and volatile place where assassination of family rivals was commonplace, and she brings out well the effect of the entry of Rome into this bewildering madhouse.... Tyldesley takes this terrific story on in fine style…a gripping narrative.”
The Mail on Sunday
“One of the many merits of this sympathetic biography is that [Tyldesley] is able to place Cleopatra securely in Egyptian culture and history.”
Los Angeles Daily News
“Fascinating and irresistible.”
Tucson Citizen
“This is a multilayered biography of one of the most interesting historical figures ever. Tyldesley presents the great queen in such a way that she almost leaps from the printed page.”
Choice
“Tyldesley seeks to redress Cleopatra’s seductress image by viewing her within the larger context of Egypt’s dynastic affairs and cultural history…. The book’s final chapter describes how the Roman propaganda machine stripped the intelligent, educated queen of her political validity and fashioned her posthumous identity as an immoral, unnatural woman and (alternatively) tragic heroine.”
The Historian
“In her retelling of Cleopatra’s story, [Tyldesley] draws on established archaeological and classical sources to advance a new reading of this largely misunderstood figure.”
Review
"Tyldesley's biography of Cleopatra is engaging, brisk, and reasonably level-headed. This is not the usual story of passion and romance between the dazzling Egyptian queen and ambitious, easily seducible Roman dynasts whether Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, or any other of her supposed string of international lovers. In fact, according to one creative misreading of Plutarch, adopted by Shakespeare, she had even seduced Julius Caesar's old rival, Pompey the Great, as she later did his son. If true, it would mean that she had been to bed with just about all the key Roman players in the civil wars of the mid-first century BC. Tyldesley's main aim is a more austere one. It is to see Cleopatra in the context not only of Roman power and civil war, but also in the context of Egyptian society and of the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty that had ruled the country for almost three hundred years...." Mary Beard, the New York Review of Books (read the entire New York Review of Books review)
Synopsis
A vivid biography of the ancient worlds most famous queen.
About the Author
Joyce Tyldesley, Ph.D., holds a first class honors degree in archaeology from Liverpool University and a doctorate from Oxford University. She is currently Honorary Research Fellow at Liverpool University, and a tutor at Manchester University. She has acted as consultant on several television projects, and is an experienced broadcaster. Her previous books include a sequence of popular biographies of Egyptian pharaohs, with particular emphasis on the lives of prominent Egyptian women. She lives in Bolton, England.