Cleopatra

Cleopatra was the last queen of Egypt. Her father, King Ptolemy Auletes, died when she was seventeen years old, leaving the throne to his son Ptolemy Dionysus (then thirteen years old), provided he would marry his half-sister Cleopatra. The Romans were appointed guardians of these children.

Cleopatra married her brother, and they reigned jointly until she became dissatisfied with his attempt to obtain sole power.

She resolved to seek assistance from Julius Caesar; but not daring to go openly to him, as she was watched by her brother's friends, she caused a servant to carry her on his back in a roll of carpeting into the room of Julius Caesar.

When the carpet was unrolled, the beautiful girl sprang out, and, throwing herself at the feet of the Roman general, begged him with tears to take her part. He promised to do so, and attempted to effect a compromise.

For a short time Cleopatra and her brother were reconciled; but Ptolemy, renewing the contest, was soon defeated, and drowned in the river Nile.

Cleopatra then married her young brother, a boy of eleven years, who was already affianced to his sister Arsinoe.

Cleopatra soon poisoned him, and assumed the sole government 43 B.C. With her death (30 B.C.) ended the dynasty of Ptolemy in Egypt, which had lasted for two hundred and ninety-four years; and Egypt became a Roman province.

There were three queens of Egypt under the Ptolemies,--Arsinoe, Berenice, and Cleopatra. Most of them were the sisters as well as the wives of the kings. There were thirteen kings of Egypt by the name of Ptolemy, during whose reigns Egypt attained a high degree of prosperity. Each of these kings had another name; but they were called Ptolemy, from Ptolemy Lagus, the first of the name. (Ptolemy means warrior.)

Cleopatra's history is so well known, as also all the circumstances of her tragic death, that we need only sum it up by quoting from Tennyson's "Dream of Fair Women."