Queen Cleopatra

There was a time long ago

when women ruled with unparalleled power,

as warriors, queens, mothers of nations.

They bowed to no man.

Their actions echoing unapologetically throughout history.

And there was none among them more iconic

than Cleopatra.

Vixen or strategist?

Collaborator or maverick?

Her legend has been retold for millennia.

But few know the real woman. Her truth.

I am Isis!

I am a God!

Worshipped and feared by Egypt,

courted and reviled by Rome,

a leader of undeniable power that no one could afford to ignore.

I would die for Egypt.

What would you die for?

She loved deeply,

fought courageously,

outsmarting her rivals.

Cleopatra walked through the sandstorm of history

and left footprints so deep

that no man could ever erase them.

My grandmother was the inspiration for me.

I would come home and I would tell her about what I was learning.

You know, "Oh, we're learning about the Greeks,

and we're learning about the Romans.

And today we learned about Cleopatra."

And I remember clear as day, her saying to me,

"Shelley, I don't care what they tell you in school,

Cleopatra was Black."

Since 323 BC,

a family originally from Macedonia, the Ptolemies,

have ruled Egypt,

but now, a sudden shift of power

will change the life of one teenage girl forever.

Cleopatra was first and foremost, a scholar.

She was a scientist.

She was a linguist.

Those things mattered to her

just as much, if not more, than politics.

The Library of Alexandria was important to Cleopatra

because she was very learned.

She studies the Egyptian language,

and the Ptolemies before her

did not see a value in learning the language.

When she went to the library as a kid,

she would've been reading about the female queens of Egypt.

That would've made her aspire to be a queen.

I'm not done yet.

It's time.

It's a very bittersweet moment.

As is true for any monarch.

In order for them to rule, their parents must die.

Enough with the sniffling.

Is everything ready?

Yes, Father.

The Ptolemies had been in power now

since roughly 323 BCE.

So we're now talking about...

a good 200 years later.

Where are you?

Cleopatra's family becomes rulers of Egypt

because the very first Ptolemy is a general of Alexander the Great,

who conquered Egypt and kicked out the ruling Persian dynasty.

The Ptolemies were ruthless.

They weren't warm and fuzzy.

I don't trust any of them.

If I may.

Go! Go away!

You keep your head on you.

These goons will wipe away everything I've done.

Cleopatra is not the eldest daughter

of Ptolemy XII.

He had, in fact, already executed her older sister...

...because she had dared usurp the throne.

It seems, however, Cleopatra was his favorite,

and in his will, he intended for Cleopatra

to rule alongside her brother, Ptolemy XIII.

Our legacy is safe with me.

When I look at you...

I see me.

Cleopatra was either 17 or 18 years old when her father died.

So upon his death,

Cleopatra now has virtually a crisis on her hands.

She has three living siblings.

Two brothers named Ptolemy

and a sister named Arsinoe.

Cleopatra had every reason to be afraid of what her siblings were capable of...

even though they were younger than her.

My father has ascended.

Obviously, I will take care of everything, Your Highness. I...

We'll be doing things differently from now on.

What did...

What does she mean?

Cleopatra's brother is very much affected

by this eunuch Pothinus,

who has raised him, really.

And Arsinoe similarly has a eunuch who has raised her,

so a lot of the decisions that are made by Cleopatra's siblings

are not necessarily their own.

You may love your sibling,

but you also understand that your sibling will stab you in the back.

And so, I think that that is kind of the relationship she had with Arsinoe.

There was a long history in the Ptolemy dynasty

of them fighting with each other,

exiling one of their siblings,

murdering one of their siblings.

Growing up a Ptolemy means that you are engaged

in constant family warfare.

You are looking to kill each other and hoping to not be killed in return.

It was a very Game of Thrones kind of environment.

The coronation in Memphis

would've attracted the highest administrators and priests.

It was a time when the Ptolemaic rulers became part

of a 3,000-year-old tradition of Egyptian kingship.

They've started gathering.

Pothinus is welcoming everyone.

I'm not surprised.

Sit.

He's just being helpful.

More like helping himself.

Uh, careful with that.

I'm not done working on it yet.

You should be a scholar.

And leave Egypt in the hands of idiots?

Mind what you say.

I could've been Pothinus.

No.

He shuffles when he walks.

It is time to present you to the people.

The people already know me. They can present the boy.

I know it's tedious.

But it is tradition.

And people find comfort in traditions.

It's time for some new traditions.

Come on.

Let's get the boring stuff over with

so you can focus on the fun stuff,

like the drought and our debt to Rome.

In addition to her male advisors,

Cleopatra also has two female advisors,

Charmion and Iras.

They were with Cleopatra since she was a child,

and often, scholars don't realize

how important these two women were to Cleopatra.

Let it begin.

Unfortunately for Cleopatra, in her father's will,

Cleopatra is supposed to rule Egypt alongside her brother, Ptolemy XIII.

You could eliminate the competition through murder

or you could marry.

That doesn't mean that they didn't murder,

but they chose to marry first.

Ready, little brother?

Children of Egypt,

we are here at this time to witness Thea Philopator Cleopatra

and Ptolemy Theos Philopator.

There has to be a male and female pharaoh

because Isis and Osiris were the major gods in Egyptian religion,

and since the male and female pharaohs are also gods,

they have to reflect Isis and Osiris.

Gods marry their brothers and their sisters.

That's what gods do.

And so, this was considered completely proper behavior.

And certainly for a Ptolemaic ruler

who wanted to support traditional religion,

that was absolutely the way.

I present to you...

Osiris and Isis reborn.

Because her brother-husband Ptolemy was only a child,

Cleopatra had a definite advantage in terms of her strategic position.

But Ptolemy has very powerful advisors at court.

His main advisor is Pothinus.

Pothinus wants to be the real power.

Cleopatra stands in the way.

Once Cleopatra succeeds to the throne,

one of her first acts is to undertake a pilgrimage

to cement her relationship with the Egyptian people.

Stinks.

Will you behave yourself, please?

These are our people. They're watching.

Sorry.

Hi.

I think that her wanting to learn more about the Egyptian people

was a way to try to integrate herself more into the country.

There were three primary populations in Egypt as a whole.

Of course, we have native Egyptians.

We have the Greek peoples, who came in with the Ptolemies,

and then we also have a very sizable Jewish population.

All three of these populations did not like each other,

but they were all unified in the fact that they didn't like Rome.

For the most part,

the Ptolemies separated themselves from the indigenous Egyptian people.

Come on, that's beautiful. Look at the colors.

We have those colors at home.

Cleopatra's affinity for the Egyptian people

was looked at askance by people like Pothinus,

who thought that this was just a silly gesture by a silly girl.

But the indigenous people saw this as a mark of leadership.