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Experian, one of the most fam women in Egyptian history, wasn't even Egyptian. She was a Greek Macedonian who allegedly spoke nine languages and became the first Ptolemy in 300 years to learn Egyptian. She probably also wasn't the stunning beauty that Hollywood made her out to be. She was a ruthless political genius who declared herself the living God of Isis. She smuggled herself inside a linen sack to meet Julius Caesar and convinced Mark Antony she was the reincarnation of the goddess Aphrodite. This is the story of Cleopatra, a Greek Macedonian queen who became the last pharaoh of Egypt. So sit back, relax, and welcome to History Camp. What's up, people? And welcome back to History Camp. My name is Mark Gagnon, and thank you for joining me in my tent, where every single week, we explore the most interesting, fascinating, controversial stories throughout all history, forever, from all time, always. Yes. This is my attempt to understand everything that's ever happened on this big, beautiful blue planet we call Earth. And there's been lots of stuff going on, and I'm just trying to catch up. All right? I just got here, so there's a lot of stuff to get into. All right? And as always, I want to thank you for tuning in. The show is not possible without you, the lovely viewer at home that keeps the fire burning. It's also not possible without my dear friend Christos. How are you, pal? Doing great. All right, Christos, we are talking about Cleopatra. All right, we don't have time to be delving into your personal details. Okay? I know you had a big New Year's, all right? You're with a harem of women. You were in Ibiza on a yacht. Allegedly. Allegedly. But people don't want to hear about that, all right? They want to hear about Cleopatra, the most famous Egyptian who was an Egyptian. Yes. Now, a few things on this. Let me just start by saying I'm not Egyptian. I wasn't raised Egyptian. I don't. I'm not a historian. This is just stuff that I researched. Okay? So feel free to drop a comment if you are an Egyptian historian. You want to correct the record. But we are diving into who this woman was and why she is so captivating and why we think we have a perception of her. You know what I mean? Like, every year on Halloween, there's some girl that shows up to the club dressed as Cleopatra, Always a baddie. And you got to think, like, is that really what Cleopatra looked like? Does she really have just, like, a bob and bangs? I doubt it. Right? Probably not. Also, if you hear some chuckles in the background, I'm also joined by my dear pal David. Que pasa? What's up, dude? Thank you so much for joining us, guys. This is. This is going to be a fun one. Okay, now, just off top, people are going to get pissed because I know there's some. Some folks out there, they're like, no, Cleopatra. Not only was she Egyptian, she was black. A lot of this has been a thing that people say. I don't know the details. All I can tell you is that most historians agree that she was Greek. Macedonian. You're welcome. Christos. She was a Greek woman. Just Greek. Just. Just Greek. You're not even giving any credit to Macedon. Come on, dude. She was probably born in 69 BC. Come on. Now. Into the Ptolemaic dynasty, basically the dynasty of Ptolemy, who was a Greek Macedonian royal, and created this royal dynasty that basically ruled Egypt for 300 years. Her ancestor, Ptolemy the First, was one of Alexander the Great's bodyguards and one of his highest generals. So Alexander the Great, if you don't know, we did a whole episode on him. Go check it out. He basically starts conquesting the world and just goes around everywhere. Goes to Egypt, goes to Alexandria. Right? Creates. Well, it's not Alexandria at the time. It's just a little beach. But then he turns it into Alexandria, named after himself. And who does he put to run it? He puts his pal Ptolemy. So Ptolemy has some kids and down the line we get Cleopatra. So when Alexander dies in 323, the entire, you know, the entire empire gets split up. But here's where it gets weird. For three centuries, the Ptolemies ruled Egypt, but stayed completely separate from Egyptian culture. Right? They spoke Greek, they worshiped Greek gods, and they married within their own bloodline to keep their families pure. Yes, they were. They were linking with the stepsisters, if you will. And when they get married within their family, and I mean literally, like, they're just marrying like. Some people speculate, historians will speculate that Cleopatra's parents were likely siblings, which was a pretty common practice in the Ptolemaic tradition, because, again, bloodlines are the most important thing that you can have specifically in the ancient world, oftentimes because they were descendants from gods, so to speak. And so you got to keep the godly blood internal. So that means Cleopatra's mom got stuck in a Egyptian washing machine. And now we have Cleopatra. Her father is said to be Ptolemy xii, and her mother, the historians are not exactly sure who she was, but it is suspected that she is Cleopatra V. Tryphaena, or Tryphaena, as my dear pal Christos would correct me. Now, the Ptolemies married their siblings because, again, they believed that they were divine, like Egyptian gods. Right. Plus they kept, you know, keeps power concentrated and prevents foreign royal families from having influence. And if you know anything about, you know, ancient history, even to today, to an extent, you got to keep the people with power, you know, internal. But by Cleopatra's time, this inbreeding had created some issues. Most of her recent ancestors had been weak and ineffective and, you know, barely spoke to their Egyptian subjects at all. And as a result, it creates this, you know, class system where the people that are being ruled kind of don't really respect or like the ruling family. But Cleopatra was different. She was the first ptolemaic ruler in 300 years to actually learn Egyptian. It is said that she mastered Hebrew, Arabic, Ethiopian, and at least four other languages. More importantly, she understood something that her ancestors missed, that if you want to rule Egypt and you got to get the Egyptians on your side, otherwise you're going to be facing a revolution. So when Cleopatra is born, Egypt is technically independent, but basically just a client state of the Roman Empire. So, you know, it looks independent on paper, but in reality, it depends on Rome for protection and also money and financing and survival in general. So when Cleopatra was a young woman, her father had been kicked out by his own people, and he only got the throne back because Rome basically supported him. And Needed him to be in charge in order to, you know, continue pimping out the Egyptian, you know, economy. So growing up, she watched her father constantly get humiliated, not only by people internally within Egypt and the courts within Alexandria, but also by Roman politicians who just treated Egypt like, like an atm, like they were just, you know, going in there jacking it. So Romans would show up and they'd want some loans and they want some exports and you know, know, all the stuff that was growing in this very fertile part of the country and part of the world. And they basically threatened to do a regime change if they didn't get paid. Sound familiar? This taught her two crucial lessons. Right. First, Rome is the real power in the Mediterranean. And secondly, the only way to survive was to make you basically indispensable to the right Roman. So she understands the political game from a very, very early age. Then in 51 BC, she's about 18 years old, her father dies and leaves the throne to both Cleopatra and her 10 year old brother, Ptolemy the 13th. And according to Egyptian tradition, they're supposed to get married to each other and rule this client state together. But despite the marriage, Cleopatra has no intention of sharing power with this 10 year old little brother. Right, Slash husband, brother. So within three years she begins issuing decrees in her own name and just sidelining her brother entirely. And his court advisors, who were worried about being pushed out of power, rallied around this boy and framed Cleopatra as a threat to Egypt's stability. And this is like just the classic story with, you know, ancient empires is there's just constant battles for secession and constant battles for who's actually going to take over power. So shortly after these political moves turned into open rebellion, and backed by Alexandria's military and bureaucracy, her brother's faction forced Cleopatra to leave Egypt, just fully flee. And it triggered like a civil war basically. Right. Which if you're Ptolemy xii, you gotta know you can't have two rulers. Like that's just bad, just bad etiquette, right? You just pick one. And as a result, he didn't, he picks two. Immediately there's infighting and civil war breaks out. And this is where most people would have given up. But Cleopatra starts raising her own army in Syria. Yeah, she's preparing to basically fight her way back when something unexpected happens. A man shows up in Alexandria and that man is Julius Caesar. So 48 BC, Julius Caesar is chasing his rival Pompey across the Mediterranean. And we did a whole episode on Julius Caesar and kind of his beef with Pompey, you should check that out we go over this story in detail, but just for a brief overview. Pompey is fleeing to Egypt expecting to be given safety. But the advisors of Cleopatra's brother, Ptolemy xiii, sees this as an opportunity. In hopes of proving their loyalty to Caesar, they murder Pompey and they present his head to Caesar as a gift. Now, you would expect Caesar to be pretty stoked on this, right? He's not. He's disgusted. Pompey was an enemy, but he was also a Roman senator and in some ways a friend. Like a rival pal, co worker dude, you know, so having him murdered by foreigners is, Is an insult to Julius Caesar, who's like, yo, I can handle my own biz. It's also an insult to, like, the Roman dignity. Like, hey, we can't have this basically a Roman colony, like, murdering our politicians. So what does Caesar do? He occupies Alexandria, declares martial law, and depends, demands that Cleopatra and her brother settle the dispute in front of him. Which, I mean, so funny if you're in Ptolemy's court, Ptolemy the 13th, and you're like, hey, we have a great idea. Julius Caesar's guys over here, Pompy, we're going to kill him and Caesar's going to be stoked. And then they just see this thing backfire and they're like, oh, we did not anticipate him losing it on us. So this is where Cleopatra pulls off one of the greatest political moves in history. All right? She knows that she can't just, like, walk into the palace, right? Like, her brother's people control the city and will probably just kill her. Okay? Like, if she shows up, all of a sudden, she's dead. And then Ptolemy the 13th is like, well, I guess I'm in charge. But she also knows this is her chance to make a personal impression on one of the most powerful men in the Mediterranean, definitely in Rome. So she has herself smuggled into the palace wrapped up in a linen bag. Yeah, think about that. She's literally betting her life that Caesar will be intrigued rather than annoyed by this theatrical entrance. And it's high stakes, right? Because Caesar's one of these guys, it's hard to predict exactly what he's going to want. She might show up, pop out the bag, be like, surprise. And then he's like, what are you doing? This is absurd and a mockery to what it means to be, you know, a Roman colony. You know, so we're going to kill you. But she ends up being right. Caesar is thought to be, like, 52 years old at this point and very experienced. With basically every different type of political manipulation. But he's absolutely charmed by this 21 year old queen who has the audacity to smuggle herself into the palace to present herself and her case to why she's the rightful ruler and pharaoh of Egypt. So within, you know, a day, their friends, within a few hours, they're lovers. And within days, Caesar has decided that Cleopatra is going to rule all of Egypt and basically oust her brother. But this isn't just a romance, right? This is a mutual beneficial alignment. Cleopatra needs Roman military support to secure the throne. Caesar needs Egypt's wealth and to fund his own political moves back in Rome. Everybody wins, right? But once she isn't back in power, Cleopatra does something unprecedented. Not only is she like, hey, I'm the pharaoh, I'm ruling everything. She, according to the records, declares herself the reincarnation of the goddess Isis. Yes, Isis was the most popular goddess in Egypt, associated with magic and motherhood and protection. And this does a bunch of things. It's, you know, not only propaganda, it's a political strategy that solves all sorts of problems. First, it gives her legitimacy within the Egyptian priest class who never fully accepted this outside, you know, Greek, Macedonian, Ptolemaic rule. And this is something you see all throughout, you know, history that you have the ruling priestly class that's connected to the divine. Then you have the monarchical class, the, you know, power hierarchy that controls like the day to day. And they're almost always at odds with each other. And so as a result, you need to come up with some type of way to fuse both of them. I mean, Henry VIII is a classic example, right? He's ruling England, but the Catholic Church has some sway. So he's like, you know what? Start my own church. And this happens time and time again. And Cleopatra is no exception. Secondly, what this does is it sets up a narrative where opposing Cleopatra means you're literally opposing Isis. You're opposing the gods themselves. And third, Isis worship was spreading throughout the Roman world. So by identifying herself with Isis, not only is she positioning herself as a religious figure within Egypt, but also a religious figure throughout the entire Roman Empire. But she's also careful to present herself differently to different audiences. So to Egyptians, she, she was this living, you know, incarnation of Isis. But to the Greeks she's a queen and to the Romans she is a political ally. So with this one move, she kind of satisfies everyone all at once. But her religious dimension really becomes crucial because Cleopatra genuinely seems to believe in her own divine status. So ancient sources describe these elaborate religious ceremonies where she literally appears as Isis, like, dressed up in, like, this whole grand ritual with, you know, sacred regalia and these mystic rituals. And this takes us into the next chapter, this divine bloodline. So by 47 BC, Cleopatra gives birth to a son named Caesarion, which literally means just little Caesar. Not like the pizza, like, just like, literally like Caesar, but little, like, you know, like, what's like Chicharito. That's. That's a classic. What's like a. What's like a little nickname for, like, a little Latino kid? Gordito. Gordito. The son of Gordo. But this is the. The Roman version. Now, one little side note. A lot of people think C section, like, Caesarean comes from Caesar. Like, there's a myth that's like, oh, Caesar was born C section. So that's where Cesarean comes from. It's technically not the case that this is technically different. Caesarean is spelled differently than cesarean section. And. But it comes from the Latin word to cut, which, you know, makes sense. You cut people out when you do a C section. Just a little side note. Now, she claims that Caesar is the father, which now creates a massive storm in Roman politics, right? Caesar already has political enemies in Rome who are suspicious of his relationships with this foreign queen. And if he acknowledges Caesarion as his son, he's essentially admitting that he placed Egyptian interests ahead of Roman ones. And if Caesarion is Caesar's true son, then Cleopatra has created her own heir who carries Roman power and divine Egyptian architect authority, which, again, for the Ptolemies, they haven't done in 300 years. They've always kept it within the Ptolemaic bloodline, but now she's just introduced this Roman dude, Caesar. Now, Caesar never officially acknowledges being Cesarean's father, but he also doesn't deny it, right? He brings Cleopatra to Rome and places her in a villa across the river where she basically lives openly, kind of as his mistress. And this is scandalous even by Roman standards, right? Roman wives were supposed to be modest and stay out of politics and just kind of raise the kids who are going to be future, you know, princes and K kings and foreign queens were supposed to stay in their own country. So this crosses a bunch of lines, but here was Cleopatra hosting dinner parties for Roman senators and commissioning statues of herself as Isis and just basically behaving like she runs Rome. Now, Roman writers describe her as arrogant and manipulative, but they also admit that she's incredibly intelligent and well educated. She can discuss philosophy with Roman intellectuals and debate politics with senators and charm dinner guests with these crazy stories from Egyptian history. 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That's the flakes promise. Now let's get back to the show. Now this situation becomes really difficult to maintain when Caesar's enemies start openly accusing him of planning to make himself king of Rome with Cleopatra as his queen. And this leads to 3-15-44 BC better known as the Ides of March. Caesar is assassinated in the Roman Senate, causing Cleopatra to then flee back to Egypt with her son Caesarion. But her position is now incredibly dangerous. Right. She's just lost this amazing alliance she had with the future Emperor of Rome. Now, Caesar's death creates a power vacuum in Rome and everyone knows Egypt and is the prize that will fund whoever wins coming out of this struggle for power. Now, after Caesar's death, the Roman world splits between Caesar's adopted son Octavian, who later becomes Augustus Caesar, and Caesar's top general, Mark Antony. Remember that name. Antony gets control of the Eastern Mediterranean, which happens to also control Egypt, while Octavian takes control of the Western world. That's like Italy, Spain, Gaul, aka France. And in 41 BC, Mark Antony summons Cleopatra to meet him in Tarsus to have a diplomatic meeting about Egypt and its future. And this is where Cleopatra stages her second legendary entrance. Again, Cleopatra was able to impress Julius Caesar, showing up in the bag, popping out what's good? So she's like, maybe I can do the same thing with old Mark Anthony. So she sails to meet him dressed as Aphrodite, arriving on a gold barge with these massive purple sails and like these clouds of incense. And it's like this whole performance that is designed this specific, specific way because Anthony likes to present himself as the God Dionysus. Now, in the Greek faith, in the Greek religion, these gods represent different forces. And Aphrodite, you probably know, is like the goddess of love or whatever, but it's more than that. She rules desire and attraction and persuasion and the loss of self through passion. So when Aphrodite shows up in, you know, different myths, people stop thinking rationally and start acting on just pure emotional impulse. Dionysus, on the other hand, ruled intoxication and ecstasy and theater and chaos. He goes against the social order with wine and madness and, you know, the feelings of becoming something other than yourself. And together they govern the same human experience which is ultimately losing control and giving into impulse. So when Cleopatra appears as Aphrodite to meet Anthony, she's turning their alliance into like this, like role play living myth that the ancient world that they lived in would have instantly recognized. And once again, it works. This is what's crazy. Anthony is just completely captivated, not just by the show, but just by Cleopatra herself. And again, this is where you get so many of the stories of her being like this beautiful seductress. People dispute this, but let's get a picture of old classic Cleopatra. This would be helpful right now. But again, ancient sources describe her as charismatic and intellectually brilliant, but they don't really refer to her as beautiful. Even Plutarch writes that Cleopatra's beauty of alone wasn't extraordinary. Which crazy diss. Right. Probably didn't need to include that. But he did. But he did say that her intelligence and her voice and her conversational skills made her irresistible. I mean, so yeah, this is the Hollywood version that people see with the bangs. I mean, wood. But yeah. What's this one? That one? World History Encyclopedia. I mean, she cute? That's a. That's a good looking woman. She's cute, right? Now imagine that woman, but also knows nine languages. Military hawk is. Yeah, it's like a beast. Like, knows how to manipulate people. Like, knows philosophy. Six to a nine right there. Yeah, easily, easily. Like, I mean, that's not even a six, that's a seven. Yes. Yeah, but she's an Alexandria 10. She's an Alexandria, also Christos 10. Also a Christos 10. I mean, I'm just a miles 15. Easily, easily. So again, you can see where the myth kind of comes from. But again, she's not bad looking. I think. I think Plutarch's explanation is pretty good. It's not extraordinary. But she's a beast. I would. Absolutely. So within weeks, Anthony just abandons his planned military campaigns and follows Cleopatra back to Alexandria, where he then spends the next year living in her palace Which, I mean, she's. She's running. She's running the show. Dude, that's also got to be a metaphor for something, right? He always. He has all these plans, and he's running the Eastern Roman Empire. All of a sudden, he's like, oh, Alexandria seems nice. Yeah, let's just go. Let's just do that. But now, once again, this isn't just romance, okay? Don't get caught up in that angle. It is a strategic alliance, because once again, Cleopatra needs Roman protection to keep her in power, and Antony needs Egypt's wealth to compete with Octavian for control of the entirety of Rome. So once again, they're building a new power structure. You got Roman soldiers, Egyptian money, plus, like, this Greek mystical God tradition thing that they're both kind of larping as. So for the next decade, Cleopatra and Mark Anthony build what amounts to, like, an alternative Roman Empire based in Alexandria. But one of the craziest things that they create was something that they called the inimitable. Dude, that word is hard, bro. Inimitable livers. Now, this is basically like a drinking club centered around the Dionysian ideas of chaos, while kind of also, like, mocking, like, the Roman Republic. And according to the stories, there are some wild parties. According to one legend, Cleopatra once dissolved a pearl, literally, like a pearl worth millions of dollars in vinegar, and then drank it. Just basically win a bet about who could throw, like, the most expensive dinner party. So if she's just, like, bar dropping pearls and drinking them, she's like, yeah, this was a mill. Like, this cocktail was easily like, like, that's a. That's a lambo. How much is a Lambo? 250k a couple lambos is what I'm saying. Right. And this isn't just for a good time. Obviously, that was part of it. But it's the same instincts for putting on this show that carries over into politics. And that legend, whether it happened or not, we don't know, spreads throughout the entire empire. And then in 34 BC, Cleopatra and Mark Anthony hold what becomes known as the donations of Alexandria. This is a massive public ceremony where territories are assigned to their children. So remember Caesarean, he's proclaimed the king of kings. Cleopatra and Antony openly present themselves as rulers of Rome's eastern world. And this is essentially a declaration of war against Octavian. Now, Cleopatra and Antony are claiming that their relationship is. Isn't just a political alliance. It is a sacred marriage that restores the cosmic order between Dionysus and Aphrodite. And then to the Egyptians, Isis, and then, you know, all of this stuff that is basically disrupted by the assassination of Caesar. Meanwhile, back in Rome, Octavian is pushing his own propaganda campaign, basically designed to destroy Cleopatra and her reputation. He couldn't openly attack and criticize Mark Antony because, you know, he was still a Roman citizen and a consul and very much involved in Roman politics. So instead, he targets Cleopatra, claiming that she's a foreign seductress that is trying to usurp the Roman Empire and corrupt Roman values. Octavian's writers describe her as this sexually manipulative witch who uses magic and exotic beauty to control Roman men in this attempt to, like, destroy Rome and conquer it with, you know, Egyptian Eastern tradition. Now, this propaganda campaign became so effective that it literally survives 2,000 years. And it is largely the basis for why people think Cleopatra is just an absolute baddie with a fatty. You know what I mean? But the evidence kind of tells a different story, right? She's politically smart, but not really sexually manipulative in the way that Octavian and his writers set out to make her. Even Roman writers who disliked her, like Cicero, admitted that she was really intelligent and really well educated. So this seductive beauty thing is largely just a propaganda campaign by Octavian meant to hide the fact that Roman generals willingly allied with this powerful foreign Queen. Now, in 32 BC, war between Octavian and the Antony Cleopatra alliance was basically inevitable, right? So what does Octavian do? Time to go to war. But in this wild way, he only declares war on Cleopatra, not on Mark Antony. Now, this allows him to present the conflict as Rome defending itself against this foreign outsider in this aggressive power, and not a actual Roman civil war. Now, this battle occurs on September 2, 31 BC at Actium, off the coast of Greece. Now, this is where things get super complicated, because no one actually knows what happened. Okay, There's a few different stories. The traditional one is that Cleopatra suddenly fled in the middle of battle, and Antony abandoned his own fleet to follow her, and Octavian won a decisive victory without either of them at the helm of their armies. But modern historians are actually skeptical of this version, which, again, comes mainly from Octavian and his own propaganda. Other theories suggest that Antony and Cleopatra realize that they are outnumbered and that they're going to lose the battle and decide to basically retreat in order to fight another day, or that Antony and Cleopatra just lose the battle outright. But it was actually much closer than Octavian's writers claimed. Now, what's certain is that after Actium, Antony and Cleopatra retreat to Egypt, while Octavian prepares a final invasion so nearly after a year after the battle of Actium, Cleopatra and Antony remain in Alexandria, basically regrouping and attempt to negotiate peace or form a final battle or final moment of resistance. I mean, Cleopatra tries diplomacy and escape. And ancient sources even claim that she debated destroying her own treasure rather than letting Octavian have it. But Octavian, being a proper war general and madman, wants total victory. He wants it all. So he's already planning to march Cleopatra through Rome in chains. Then, August of 30 BC, Octavian's forces breach Alexandria's defenses. Mark Antony, believing that Cleopatra has already committed suicide, takes his own life with his sword. But crazy twist, Cleopatra is still alive, barricaded in her own mausoleum. And now when Octavian's soldiers capture her, she realizes her fate. She's going to be taken to Rome, publicly humiliated and then executed as a warning to any other potential rebels. Now this is completely unacceptable for someone who literally told everyone and kind of believes that she's a living goddess. So around 8-12-30 BC, Cleopatra commits in her mausoleum, allegedly. Now here is where the historical record gets murky. Apart from taking her life, there is another famous story about Cleopatra dying from an asp bite, basically like a small viper or an Egyptian cobra. However, this story once again comes from Roman propaganda and not Egyptian sources outright. According to this version, she had poisonous snakes smuggled into her prison in a basket of figs and basically committed su allowing herself to be bitten. But modern toxicologists point out a problem with the story. Egyptian cobras are large snakes, way too big to hide in a fruit basket, and their bites don't always kill, but when they do, death can take hours and oftentimes involves convulsions and swelling and very obvious external symptoms that someone just got bit. Now, Roman sources describe Cleopatra's death as peaceful, with no visible marks on her body. So this suggests that she probably used a fast acting poison rather than a snake venom. But of course, you know, the theory still persists. This is why Cleopatra is often depicted as, you know, having snakes around her. There'll be a lot of sculptures with her, like holding snakes and stuff. So as a pharaoh, Cleopatra would have had access to exotic poisons from throughout the ancient world. And Egyptian medical texts describe several substances that could have likely killed her really quickly with a relatively peaceful death. Now, the story of the snake bite might actually be more symbolic and kind of serve a few different symbolic ritual purposes as propaganda. So in Egyptian mythology, the cobra was associated with divine royal protection. So by claiming she died from a cobra bite, Cleopatra's supporters could present her death as a transformation back into her divine form as Isis. But here's an even more intriguing possibility. Some historians have supposed that Cleopatra might not have died at all. Yeah, yeah. Imagine this is. This is a classic tale. This is Tupac, this is Epstein. Some historians propose that Cleopatra might have faked her own death and escaped Egypt. First, Octavian never displayed Cleopatra's body publicly, which would have been pretty unusual for such an important victory. Literally, he claims basically all of Rome and this woman is in the way. And he could have easily just showed her body publicly and been like, hey, we did it. Secondly, he immediately orders the execution of Caesarion and Antony's eldest son, but allowed Cleopatra's other children to live. If he wanted to eliminate all the threats to power, why would he have spared some of the children? And third, there are tiny references in later Roman sources to a woman resembling Cleopatra being seen in various parts of the empire years after her alleged death. Now, once again, this escape theory is difficult to prove and it's not accepted by most modern historians, but it suggests that Cleopatra arranged a body double to be found in the mausoleum while she fled Egypt with loyalists who had basically prepared secret routes out of the country. Now, this would explain why Octavian was so quick to execute all the male heirs, but wasn't sure whether Cleopatra was really dead and needed to eliminate potential threats for future rebellions. Now, once again, historians doubt that she escaped, but there are some gaps in the records, and those gaps lead directly to the next mystery, the lost tomb of Cleopatra. Now, whether Cleopatra died in Alexandria or vanished from historical records, one fact is certain, that her tomb to this day has never been found. Some ancient writers say that Cleopatra was buried in a royal mausoleum that she built herself alongside Mark Antony, and it was stocked with all these treasures. While other sources suggest that this tomb was near or deliberately modeled after the tomb of Alexandra the Great. But Alexandria itself is the problem. Large portions of this ancient city are now underwater, and earthquakes over the years have caused sections of the coastline to just collapse into the Mediterranean. And what wasn't swallowed by the sea was buried under 2000 years of continuous urban life, which basically make excavation nearly impossible. There's also a darker theory. It's possible that Octavian himself may have deliberately erased it. A burial site for Cleopatra would have been very symbolic. This would have been a place that people would rally around and remember that Rome didn't win so cleanly, and she would have became almost a martyr for the Egyptian cause. So Octavian destroyed it, and that would have been a final move not just killing her, but ultimately erasing her from history. Again, this is difficult to prove, and no one knows for certain. And this is where the mystery lies, right? If Cleopatra's tomb were ever found intact, looted, or even just identified, it wouldn't just be another archaeological discovery. It could essentially rewrite what we know about the last days of ancient Egypt and that very moment that Rome became an empire. Now, today, Cleopatra's story matters a lot because it shows how historical narratives can really be distorted by propaganda. Right. For 2,000 years, one of the most accomplished rulers in ancient history has been remembered primarily as just this hot girl who took advantage of powerful men with them things, you know what I mean? But that's probably far from the truth, right? The real Cleopatra was very cunning and ruthless, and when she needed to do what she needed to do to maintain power, she was able to do it. And through her skills, politically, she was able to conquer and control so much of Egypt and even lead a quasi rebellion against the Roman emperor Octavian. And she really tried to preserve her country's independence during this massive period of historical change. And whether she succeeded partially or failed, ultimately, it depends how you judge her goals. But there's no question that she was one of the most capable rulers of her era. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of Cleopatra. I mean, kind of a baddie dude. Like, that's sort of sick. Some might say the original baddie. The original. Right. The OG I mean, there is something to be said, like, yeah, is it possible that she, like, would cozy up to powerful men in order to get power for herself? It's like, yeah, kind of. But also, men controlled all the power. So, like, if she was able just to be like, hey, I'm the queen. You guys got to cozy up to me, then it might be a different story. But, like, she needs Rome and the Roman Emperor is going to be a dude. So inevitably it's like, yeah, that's what she's going to have to do. It's also kind of a smart strategy for the Egyptians in a way. Like, if I was Ptolemy xii, I would have been like, hey, Cleopatra, you're in charge. Forget your brother, you run it and get out there and make all these men fall in love with you and then create this crazy empire kind of kind of fire, right? It's also crazy. Did you know this? Cleopatra would have looked at the pyramids and been like, what are those things about? Wait, why? Because the pyramids were built, like, I forget the exact date. You could probably look it up specifically, but it's like 3000 BC. Cleopatra was born in 69. Cleopatra was born closer to the iPhone than she was to the pyramids. How crazy is that? Yeah, pyramids were built 2600 BC to 2100 BC, allegedly. So she's born in 69. She's literally closer to us now than she was to the pyramids. So she'd be walking around looking at pyramids, like, what are those about? Whatever. Why do they build those giant things? That's crazy. Also, if I was her, I would have. I would have gone into the pyramids. I would have just set up camp there. I don't know why no one did that. I mean, Alexandria is nice. Can we get a map of Alexandria? Can we get a photo of what it looked like? Because it is a beautiful town or a beautiful city, Rather. Current day or. Yeah, get current day. Dude, I want to go to Alexandria right now. Like, it's beautiful. Like, if I lived in Egypt, I wouldn't be in Cairo. I'd be in Alexandria 100. I mean, I think she is a pretty formidable ruler, and I think what she did is pretty admirable if you look at, like, the scope of, you know, women ruling countries back in the day. I mean, look at this. This is gorgeous. Come on. Got a nice port town, nice bridge. Yeah. That was the whole reason why it was so, so lucrative. They had these deep ports, and they had all these resources from Egypt, they were able to ship around the Mediterranean. I mean, it's. It's fire. I'm a. I'm a fan of Cleopatra, I gotta say. I mean, is there anything you learned, Croestes? No, but a lot of people do draw the parallels between Alexandria. Sorry. Cleopatra and Daenerys from Game of Thrones. Oh. So she had a lot of power, and then she got together with that big Hulk guy who's like another ruler. Allegedly. Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. I wonder if it's based on that also, can you pull up a sculpture of Cleopatra? I want to see, because I've seen pictures or sculptures of her at the Met, and she's got a snake on her at all times. And it comes from that myth or that story, rather, that she killed herself with a snake. I mean, David, what did you learn about Cleopatra? You weren't listening. Come on, bro. Sorry. I was doing a lot of work. Come on, dude. I mean, this is humiliating. Here I am, giving my all, trying to educate the people, and you're sitting here just pearls of swine. I'm just looking for the grape of Nanking. Next that. Whoa. All right. I mean, I mean, I mean that's. I mean that's, that's a. That's a. Oh, that one right there. Can you search Cleopatra with a snake? Oh, is that her as Isis? Whoa. I mean, she was. She just out. Yeah, that's. These are the ones that I've seen so you can see her. She got that snake. She got that snake coiling around. I mean, but yeah, you can see why, like, symbolically that would have been important. I mean, what a crazy life, right? What an absolutely insane life. I mean, shout out Cleopatra. Oh, wow, that's an old one with her, with the, with the snake, with that, with the aspect. Yeah. And I think the asp is the same thing you see on the top of like the Pharaoh crown. Right. So like the snake has such a symbolic meaning to the Egyptian people. I mean, fascinating. What do you guys think? Drop a comment. I would love to know what are your thoughts about Cleopatra? Is there anything I missed? Anything I completely glossed over? Anything I got completely wrong? I read all the comments, so be nice. Okay. YouTube, Spotify, I'll go through every which one. I have great news for you. If you like this episode and you like this channel, we got all sorts of different episodes on Greek history, Roman history, Egyptian history. You should check them out. Furthermore, if you like stuff like this, we have religion camp where we deep dive into all sorts of religious topics. And on top of that, we have Camp Gagnon. Yes, my namesake Camp Gagnon. And that's where I do long form interviews with people way smarter than me that know everything and can actually explain stuff with professional expertise. And furthermore, we also do deep dives on all sorts of miscellaneous stuff from the. The occult to the CIA to, you know, all sorts of wacky stuff in between. And if you just rock with the history stuff, that's cool as well. Make sure you give this channel a subscribe drop a comment. It really helps us and it keeps the fire burning. Anyway, I will see you all in the future to talk about the past. Peace. What's up, people? We're gonna take a break real quick because this episode is sponsored by me. Yes, Camp R and D. That is the merch. That is the threads that we'd be wearing around here at the camp campsite. And we got all sorts of cool stuff. My buddy Zach just cooked up a sick UFO collection. You can go check it out there at Camp R and D. I really appreciate you guys. 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