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A new biography
Oxford University Press
April 2010
On Sale: April 1, 2010
Featuring: Cleopatra
256 pages
ISBN: 0195365534
EAN: 9780195365535
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
Few personalities from classical antiquity are more
famous—yet more poorly understood—than Cleopatra VII, queen
of Egypt. In the centuries since her death in 30 BC, she has
been endlessly portrayed in the arts and popular culture,
from Shakespearean tragedy to paintings, opera, and movies.
Despite the queen's enduring celebrity, however, many have
dismissed her as a mere seductress. In this major new
biography, Duane Roller reveals that Cleopatra was in fact a
learned and visionary leader whose overarching goal was
always the preservation of her dynasty and kingdom.
Roller's authoritative account is the first to be based
solely on primary materials from the Greco-Roman period:
literary sources, Egyptian documents (Cleopatra's own
writings), and representations in art and coinage produced
while she was alive. His compelling portrait of the queen
illuminates her prowess as a royal administrator who managed
a large and diverse kingdom extending from Asia Minor to the
interior of Egypt, as a naval commander who led her own
fleet in battle, and as a scholar and supporter of the arts.
Even her love affairs with Julius Caesar and Marcus
Antonius—the source of her reputation as a supreme
seductress who drove men to their doom—were carefully
crafted state policies: she chose these partners to insure
the procreation of successors who would be worthy of her
distinguished dynasty. That Cleopatra ultimately lost to her
Roman opponents, Roller contends, in no way diminishes her
abilities. This definitive portrait restores the
Egyptian queen to her rightful historical status as a potent
force in the ancient world—one whose policies and influence
longsurvived her and played a determining role in the future
course of the Roman empire.
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