Cleopatra: overrated

Some skub ensued over a cheatin'-heart who did a "Cleopatra", a horrible history except not even trying with the "Clown Nose" trick. Bret Devereaux took the unusual tack of reviewing, instead, Cleopatra VII's reign. I didn't want in on it - yet. Now I've found this review of a French book from 2021.

I don't know when Helena Gomez poasted her review but let's pretend it was Friday night. Bernard Legras wrote his book years before all this. Sure. That's the ticket . . .

It was Devereaux's thought (and, interestingly, Thomas Harlan's thought) that the whole Cleopatra-Ptolemy "Lagid" dynasty claimed the rights to the Seleucid Empire, which was an ex-Empire by the time Ptolemy XII passed away in Egypt, leaving his own throne to - well, to the strongest. Who turned out to be ... Gaius Julius Caesar.

Keep in mind Rome was still, legally, a Republic. Back West, Rome hadn't annexed (for instance) Mauretania. Over on the Eastern side of the southern Med, Rome's interests would be just-as-well served by a friendly Hellenistic kingdom, like Odenathus' some centuries later. For those Romans, Cleopatra VII was a fine choice for a client: first Gaius and then Marcus Antonius also lusted after further riches of the Orient.

Bernard Legras and, more so, his reviewer Helena Gomez hold that Cleopatra was a wise ruler of Egypt, given the mess the earlier Ptolemies had dumped upon her (and that war with her brother). Cleopatra did well with the public fisc, they claim; it seems not during the Gaius years, but finances were much better during the Marcus years.

Terminal-Hellenistic Egypt was perhaps one of the more-difficult places to rule wrong... as long as your rule wasn't contested by priests, Jews, Greeks and other special-interests. Ruling Egypt wrong had been ongoing since, at least, Ptolemy V defeated a nativist rebellion by bribing the major priests. Cleopatra was able to unite her pharaonate by threatening everyone with Rome or anarchy. Also, Rome ensured that Egypt wasn't getting invaded from Cyrene or Judaea. All this, further, would have kept the Nubians from getting ambitious.

What Devereaux gets, which at least Gomez doesn't, is that Cleopatra having lost her chance at Syria with Gaius' death went on to support Antony's adventure. An Egyptian patriot should, I think, aim to support Egyptian interests, not foreign adventures. (Take heed, Gamal Abdul-Nasser.)

BACKDATE 8/15. Got some catchin'-up...