Cleopatra

Why are we still interested in Cleopatra? She has that eternally attractive combination of sexual allure, political power - even divine status - and personal wealth. She had by any standards an eventful life and an unforgettable death. She very nearly tipped the balance of power at a crucial moment in history: had she and Antony succeeded in maintaining their empire in the east, our cultural life might be very different today. In this concise, readable, well-illustrated book, Susan Walker and Sally-Ann Ashton look at the historical Cleopatra, at images of Cleopatra as a Greek queen and as ruler of Egypt, at contemporary perceptions of her and at how we see her today. We see how Roman propaganda depicted her as a threatening woman with non-Roman qualities of excessive behaviour and emotional manipulation, a view that has come down through Shakespeare''s Antony and Cleopatra and forms the basis of our understanding of her over two thousand years later.>

List of contents

Preface and Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations with Sources
1. From Heroic Suicide to Banknote Icon: Modern Views of Cleopatra
2. The Historical Cleopatra
3. Cleopatra's Royal Image in the Greek and Roman World
4. Cleopatra as Queen of Egypt
5. Coda: The Meaning of Cleopatra's Death
Selected Further Reading
Index

About the author

Sally-Ann Ashton is Assistant Keeper in the Department of Antiquities, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK.

Product details

• Authors: Sally-Ann Ashton, Susan Walker, Susan Ashton Walker
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 25.08.2006
• EAN: 9781853996733
• ISBN: 978-1-85399-673-3
• No. of pages: 144
• Dimensions: 134 mm x 214 mm x 12 mm
• Series: Ancients in Action; Ancients in Action
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Humanities, art, music > History; Non-fiction book > History > Biographies, autobiographies; Antike, Altes Ägypten, Afrikanische Geschichte, Geschichte allgemein und Weltgeschichte