As Schiff explains midway through the book,įor a women who was to be celebrated for her masterly manipulation of Rome, Cleopatra’s story would be entrusted primarily to that city’s historians she effectively ceases to exist without a Roman in the room.įor the early years of Cleopatra’s life, there isn’t much to go on, which makes the first few chapters of Cleopatra more full of more speculation than narrative. Even the Roman historians who wrote about her fell into traps of melodrama and sexism when trying to tell her story, although I guess that second part is to be expected. Using accounts from male Romans historians at the time and shortly after, Schiff explores those author’s motivations and biases when writing about Cleopatra to see what truth she can find.Ĭleopatra’s story is a fascinating one, in spite of the things that we don’t know about her. Stacy Schiff’s autobiography of Cleopatra tries to dispel these rumors, to go back to the very limited historical record from that time and see what we actually know about this young, Egyptian queen. If popular memory is to be believed, Cleopatra slept her way to the top, then killed herself with a snake (how does that even make sense!) when her lover abandoned her to an advancing, hostile Roman army. The Cleopatra of popular culture is a seductress, temptress, and sometimes savvy politician who ruled Egypt at a time of expanding Roman power. Long Review: When I think Cleopatra, I inevitably think Elizabeth Taylor, 1963, seducing Richard Burton as Marc Antony with thickly-painted eyes and gold-plaited braids. Opinions expressed in this review are my own, and don’t reflect the thoughts of the panel or reflect our ratings of the book.
Why I Read It: This book was shortlisted for the Indie Lit Awards in nonfiction, and I am a judge for that panel. One Sentence Review: After a dense first few chapters, Cleopatra becomes an absorbing look at a woman remembered more often for the things that she wasn’t than for the things that she was. One Sentence Summary: The Cleopatra of pop culture is very different from the Cleopatra of history, who we don’t actually know that much about.
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