Season 3 - The Egyptian War - Episode 5 - Part 11 - English Version

 

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The "Julius Caesar" Series 

Season 3 - The Egyptian War - 

Episode 5: Queen Cleopatra

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Versión española

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 This story is inspired by real events that took place 

in the struggle between Julius Caesar and Pompey, 

as well as Caesar's encounter with Cleopatra.

 

 

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PART 11 : THE PACT

 

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Summary of the previous part: Cleopatra's coronation ceremony as Pharaoh has begun. 

 

 The guests and witnesses of this coronation have just seen Cleopatra arrive at her palace in Alexandria.

She will now take her oath.

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A bit of history: In 332 BC, Egypt, then under Persian rule, welcomed Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, as a liberator. The hero of Greek antiquity quickly resumed his journey through the Persian Empire. After the assassination of Alexander's posthumous son, one of his generals and most loyal companions inherited the kingdom of Egypt in 305 BC. Ptolemy I (305-282 BC) thus became the first ruler of the Lagid (named after his father Lagos) or Ptolemaic dynasty. 

His successors, who ruled Egypt for three centuries, were astute enough to adopt the customs of the country in order to blend in and gain acceptance: they married their brothers and sisters, appeased the gods, adopted traditional Egyptian attire for major ceremonies, built temples, and were crowned as Pharaohs. They thus appeared, if not as Egyptians, at least as… the most Egyptian of the Greeks. The Ptolemies established this Hellenistic culture, of which they were the heirs, notably through the founding of the Library of Alexandria at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. 

Cleopatra inherited this dual culture. Born around 69 BC, she was the daughter of Ptolemy XII, who reigned over Egypt for thirty years. She ascended the throne at the age of eighteen. As in the Ptolemaic dynasty, a woman could not rule alone, so she married her half-brother, Ptolemy XIII. In Alexandria, violence was constant: to gain the throne, people did not hesitate to commit petty crimes within the family. Cleopatra herself had one of her half-sisters killed, and her husband conveniently drowned after opposing her.