Cleopatra the Great

by Joann Fletcher

  161 ‘Great Mother of the Gods’. Witt 1971, p.131.

  161 ‘Ptuwlmis djed tuw en ef Kisrs . . . Ptolemaios named Caesar’. Holbl 2001, p.238, with ‘pharaoh Caesar’ on demotic stela Louvre 335 in Holbl 2001, p.238.

  161 ‘the child’s parentage was not in doubt. He combined Egypt and Rome in his lineage’. Southern 2001, p.123.

  162 Caesar’s news and plans for new law in Suetonius, Caesar 52 in Graves trans., p.32.

  162 ‘the Sun Child’. Ray 2003, p.10; Isis gave birth to sun in Plutarch, Moralia 354.C in Tarn 1932, p.146; Caesar as Montu and Amun in Goudchaux 2001 p. 133 and Ray 2003, p.ll, who also states child equated with Alexander.

  163 ‘Female Horus, the Great One, Lady of the Two Lands . . . the Goddess who loves her father . . . Image of her father’. After Tait 2003, p.4.

  163 Mammisi’s false door in Arnold 1999, p.223; false door of Dendera mammisi in Arnold 1999, p.231 and Holbl 2001, p.270.

  163 ‘keeping dreadful death far away when in labour’. Anth. Pal.6.270, after Llewellyn-Jones 2003, p.218.

  163 ‘From your mother, greetings. We received the letter from you in which you announce that you have given birth to your child. I kept praying to the gods every day on your behalf. Now that you have escaped, I am spending my days in the greatest joy. I sent you a flask full of olive oil and several pounds of dried figs’. Pap. Munch III.57, in Rowlandson (ed.) 1998, p.292.

  163 ‘Cleopatras Basilisses’, ‘of Cleopatra the female king’ on coin BM.Cleopatra VII.3 in Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, no.186, p.178, and Wyke 2002, fig.6.1, p.203.

  164 ‘she had caused to be built joining the temple of Isis several tombs and monuments of wonderful height and very remarkable for their workmanship’. Plutarch, Antony, Dryden trans., p.775.

  164 For tomb’s location in Hadra quarter see Ashton 2003(b) p.28 and Ashton 2003 pp. 120-2.

  164 ‘the tomb which she was building in the grounds of the palace’. Cassius Dio 51.8 in Scott-Kilvert trans., p.69

  164 ‘actually formed part of the temple buildings; and if this be so Cleopatra must have had it in mind to be laid to rest within the precincts of the sanctuary of the goddess with whom she was identified’. Weigall 1914, pp.289-90.

  164 ‘Came. Saw. Conquered’. Suetonius, Caesar‘37’, Graves trans., p.25; ‘such a victory transported Caesar with incredible delight’. Caesar, Alexandrian War 77, Way trans., p.133.

  165 ‘courteous, insincere conversations in which the two men specialised’. Grant 1969, p.181.

  165 ‘Africa! I have tight hold of you!’. Suetonius, Caesar 59, Graves trans., p.35.

  165 ‘a very rare occurance’. Gillam 2004, p. 104.

  165 ‘springs from the Eye of Ra . . . from the left eye of Osiris . . . from the eye of Thoth’. Manniche 1999, p.26.

  166 ‘with the best of myrrh on all her limbs’. Breasted 1988, p.113.

  166 ‘green eye paint for the right eye and black kohl for the left eye’. Wilson in Quirke (ed.) 1997, p.190.

  166 ‘many-colored robe . . . part was glistening white, part crocus-yellow, part glowing red and along the entire hem a woven border of flowers and fruit clung swaying in the breeze ... in innumerable folds, the tasseled fringe quivering. It was embroidered with glittering stars on the hem and everywhere else, and in the middle beamed a full and fiery moon’. Apuleius, based on Graves trans, p.270.

  166 ‘Black-robed Queen’. Plutarch in Witt 1971, p.97, p.147; devotees’ vestments in Apuleius XI, Graves trans., p.286; priests’ studded stoles in Riggs 2002, p.98.

  166 ‘fell in tapering ringlets on her lovely neck’. Apuleius, Graves trans., p.270.

  166 ‘shone a round disc like a mirror . . . vipers rising from the left-hand and right-hand partings of her hair’. Apuleius, based on Graves trans., p.270.

  167 ‘which sang shrilly when she shook the handle’. Apuleius, based on Graves trans, p.270.

  167 ‘filled with every kind of real precious stones, every kind of perfume, every kind of grain’. Shore 1979 p.149.

  167 ‘Ptolemy living forever beloved of Ptah . . . Lady of Dendera, Lady of Heaven, Mistress of All Gods’. After Shore 1979, pp.138-41.

  167 ‘Festival Scent . . . Madjet’. Manniche 1999, p.108; ‘secret unguent’. Manniche 1999, p.45; ‘for anointing the golden goddess Hathor, great mistress of Dendera’. Manniche 1999, pp.40-1.

  168 ‘may have had a performative function’. Gillam 2004, p.108.

  169 ‘generative light falling strongly from the moon’. Plutarch, in Mond and Myers 1934 I, p.ll.

  169 ‘your sister Isis comes to you, rejoicing in love for you, she placed your phallus on her vulva and your seed issues into her, she being as alert as a star’. Spell 632a-633b, based on Benard and Moon (eds) 2169, p.228.

  169 ‘the Moon’. Cassius Dio 50.5, Scott-Kilvert trans., p.39.

  169 ‘at this secret hour that the Moon-goddess, sole sovereign of mankind, is possessed of her greatest power and majesty. She is the shining deity by whose divine influence not only all beasts, wild and tame, but all inanimate things as well, are invigorated; whose ebbs and flows control the rhythm of all bodies whatsoever, whether in the air, on earth, or below the sea’. Apuleius, Graves trans., p.268.

  171 Two hundred and forty gold pieces in Suetonius, Caesar 38, Graves trans., p.26; 60,000 gold pieces = 1,500,000 denarii based on Suetonius, Caesar 50, Graves p.31, so 240 gold pieces = 6,000 denarii.

  171 ‘chanting ribald songs as they were privileged to do, this was one of them — “Gaul was brought to shame by Caesar, by King Nicomedes he. Here comes Caesar, wreathed in Triumph for his Gallic victory’”. — Suetonius, Caesar 49 in Graves trans., p.31.

  172 ‘between two lines of elephants, 40 in all, which acted as his torch-bearers’. Suetonius, Caesar 37, in Graves trans., p.25.

  173 ‘see how easily an old man slips . . . the man who many fear must also fear many himself. Decimus Laberius in Grant 1969, p.192 and Volkmann 1958, p.83.

  173 ‘he was a gladiator’. Juvenal, Satires VI.110 in Green trans., p.13.

  174 ‘what modesty can be looked for in some helmeted hoyden, a renegade from her sex, who thrives on masculine violence’. Juvenal, Satires VI.254-257, in Green trans., p.136; female gladiator with Anubis lamps in Kennedy 2000, p.11; Amazons as Isis devotees in Lichtheim 1980, pp.151-56.

  174 ‘a display recorded to have been thought more wonderful even than the show of gladiators which he gave’. Pliny Natural History XIX.22, in Loeb trans., p.435.

  174 ‘to sleep in tents pitched along the streets or roads, or on rooftops’. Suetonius, Caesar 39, Graves trans., p.27.

  175 ‘an overnight celebrity’. Garland 2005, p.28.

  Chapter 7

  179 Cleopatra’s correspondence with Theon dated 7 March 46 BC and 14 March 46 BC, stating ‘Theon, to the city of the Ptolemaeans, greetings. Subjoined is a copy of the proclamation transmitted to us, together with the command in response, so that you may know it and deposit it in your public archives as fitting. Take care of yourselves, so you may be well, Farewell, year 6, phamenoth 12’. Van Minnen 2003, p.43.

  179 ‘he was born in regnal year 6, day 15 of Epiphi, in the 8th hour of the day under the majesty of the Sovereign, Lady of the Two Lands, Cleopatra. The child’s appearance was like that of the son of Ptah and there was jubilation over him by the people of Memphis. He was called Pedubastis and all rejoiced over him’. After Reymond 1981, pp.165-77; Lichtheim 1980, pp.59-65; Brooklyn 1988, No.122, p.230; Walker and Higgs (eds.,) 2001, p.187.

  179 ‘the sea of the Greeks’. Lichtheim 1980, p.88.

  180 ‘extraordinarily well proportioned.) Wonderful also was the adornment of the vessel besides; for it had figures at stern and bow not less than 18 feet high, and every available space was elaborately covered with encaustic painting; the entire surface where the oars projected, down to the keel, had a pattern of ivy leaves and Bacchic wands . . . by a crowd to the accompaniment of shouts and trumpets’. Athenaeus, Deipnosophists V.204, i
n Gulick trans., p.423, see also Goddio and Bernard 2004, p.162.

  180 ‘Navigium Isidis’ in James and O’Brien 2006, p.247, Witt 1971, pp.16584; Isis’ temples in Caputo 1998, p.247, Puteoli’s Isis temple in Ward-Perkins and Claridge 1976, pp.15-16.

  181 Suggestion she visited temple ‘to thank the divinity linked to Isis for having given her Caesar’s son’ in Goudchaux 2001, p.133; recent interpretation of mosaic in Walker and Higgs (eds) 2001, p.333, with detail of Cleopatra (?) with parasol in drawings at Windsor Royal Library (Pf.Z.19214) in Walker and Higgs (eds) 2001, p.335.

  182 ‘decreed that from sunrise until dusk, no transport, cart wagon or chariot of any form would be allowed within the precincts of Rome ... no exceptions to this order’. Hagen 1967, p.274.

  182 ‘high titles and rich presents’. Suetonius, Caesar 52, Graves trans., p.32.

  182 ‘worth 60,000 gold pieces’. Suetonius, Caesar 50, in Graves trans., p.31.

  182 Suggestion that pearls could be those Mithridates seized is supported by reference to them coming to her ‘through the hands of the Kings of the East’. Pliny Natural History IX.121-122, Loeb trans., p.243.

  182 ‘do not think they have a real villa unless it rings with many resounding Greek names’. Varro, in Farrar 1998, p.22; ridicule by Cicero, De Leg.ll.2 in Walker and Higgs (eds) p.288; water features in Ward-Perkins and Claridge 1976, nos 81-8; gardens in Farrar 1998; excavations of gardens in Pinto-Guillame 2002.

  183 Egyptian-themed wall scenes in Kleiner 2005 pp.172-4, Walker and Higgs (eds.,) pp.286-7, Ward-Perkins and Claridge 1976, p.69, Matyszak 2003, p.156.

  184 ‘he carried tessellated and mosaic pavements with him on his campaigns’. Suetonius, Caesar 46, in Graves trans., p.29.

  184 ‘tossae Britannicae’. Bowman 2003, p.67, describing ‘some kind of rug’ which is ‘referred to in a famous third-century inscription from Thorigny as tossae Britannicae’.

  184 Priests’ wooden headrests in Witt 1971, pp.94-5.

  184 ‘a keen collector of gems, carvings, statues and Old Masters’. Suetonius, Caesar 47, Graves trans., p.30.

  185 ‘crammed with gold and silver vessels from Delos and Corinth, an “automatic cooker’ which he had bought at an auction, embossed silver, coverlets, pictures, statues and marbles’. Cicero, in Earl 1968, p.99.

  185 ‘used the official residence on the Sacred Way’. Suetonius, Caesar 46, Graves trans., p.29.

  185 ‘villae marittimae’. Ward-Perkins and Claridge 1976, p.16.

  185 ‘more imposing than any known palace or villa of contemporary Hellenistic kings’. Trevelyan 1976, p.19; Alexander mosaic in Grant 1976, pp.175-6, 185.

  185 Isis’ images in Ward-Perkins and Claridge 1976, No.186, p.57; Isis’ Italian temples in Witt 1971, figs 22-3, 25-7; ‘House of Mysteries’ in Ward-Perkins and Claridge 1976, No.204; Piso’s villa in Trevelyan 1976, p.45 and Grant 1976, p.137; Laurentum villa in Weigall 1928, pp.241-3.

  186 ‘Cleopatra’s Baths’. El-Daly 2005, p.137; Aphrodite bathing on crocodile in Roven et al. 1988, p.123.

  186 ‘people regard baths fit only for moths if they haven’t been arranged so that they receive the sun all day long through the widest of windows, if men cannot bath and get a tan at the same time and if they cannot look out from their bath tubs over stretches of land and sea’. Seneca, Epist.86, 4-13 in Hoss 2005, p.20.

  186 ‘surrounded by glass windows overlooking the sea’. WeigaU 1928, pp.241-3.

  186 ‘masses of water that fall crashing down from level to level’. Seneca Epist.86, 4-13 in Hoss 2005, p.20.

  187 ‘oeno’. Dioscorides in Manniche 1999, p.131; soap in P.Enteux 82, in Rowlandson (ed.) 1998, pp.172-4; brechu discussed by Dioscorides in Manniche 1999, p.132.

  187 ‘not without its use to a wrinkled body’. Martial, Epigrams XIV.60, 1871 trans., p.612; lomentum in d’Ambrosio 2001, p.8 and Pliny, Natural History XXII.156, trans., p.405.

  187 ‘the glutinous matter wherewith the Halcyon cements its nest’ as ‘certain cure for spots and pimples’ in Ovid, Art of Beauty 76-78, Lewis May trans., p.115; see also Metro News 2007. 187 ‘creta fullonica’. D’Ambrosio 2001, p.8; ‘nitrum’ in Martial, Epigrams VI.93 in Jackson 1988, p.50.

  187 ‘freshens her complexion with asses’ milk’. Juvenal, Satires VI.469-70, Green trans., p.145; milk for wrinkles in Pliny, Natural History

  XXVIII.183, trans., p.125; emulsion in Manniche 1999, p.135.

  187 ‘ancient form of chemical peel, the cosmetic procedure used to straighten out wrinkles or even out pigmentation’. Chemistry World 2006, p.22.

  188 ‘his head carefully trimmed and shaved’. Suetonius Caesar 45, in Graves trans., p.29.

  188 ‘see that your legs are not rough with bristles’. Ovid, Art of Love III. 193-9, Lewis May trans., p.91.

  188 ‘medicines for hair loss are recorded in her own words, more or less as follows. ‘Against hair loss: make a paste of realgar [arsenic monosulphide] and blend it into oak gum, apply it to a cloth and place it where you have already cleaned as thoroughly as possible with natron [salts]”, adding that ‘I myself have added foam to natron to the above recipe, and it worked nicely’. Galen, De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos XII.403-404 in Rowlandson (ed.) 1998, p.41.

  188 ‘she put her wig on back-to-front in her confusion’. Ovid, Art of Love III, 243-6, after d’Ambrosio 2001, p.18; Egyptian and Roman wigs in Fletcher 2005; German hair in Ovid, Amores 1.14, Lewis May trans., p.31, Indian hair in Parker 2002, pp.41-2.

  188 ‘on no account let your lover find you with a lot of ‘aids to beauty’ boxes about you. The art that adorns you should be unsuspected ... So let your servants tell us you are still asleep, if we arrive before your toilet’s finish(ed.) You will appear all the more lovely when you’ve put on the finishing touch. Why should I know what it is that makes your skin so white? Keep your door shut, and don’t let me see the work before it’s finish (ed.) There are a whole host of things we men should know nothing about!’. Ovid, Art of Love III.209-210, 225-229, Lewis May trans., p.91.

  189 Antonius ‘rubbed her feet’. Plutarch, Antony, Dryden trans., p.769; Mendesian unguent used for feet and Cleopatra’s 400-denarii hand cream in Manniche 1999, p.63; 400 denarii = lib perfume in Pliny Natural History XIII.20, trans., p.111.

  189 ‘seductively brings on sleep, so that without getting drunk, the sorrows and tensions of daily anxieties are loosened and untied like tangled knots’. Plutarch, Concerning Isis and Osiris 80 = Moralia 383.d in Montserrat 1996, p.70.

  189 ‘foreign essences’ in Pliny Natural History XIII.24, trans., p.113; promotion of perfumes by Arsinoe II and Berenike II in Athenaeus, Deipnosophists XV.689.a in Griffin 1976, p.93.

  189 ‘Aphrodite’s Elixir’, ‘Bloom of Youth’ in Smith 1992, pp. 163-7.

  190 ‘Rose breasted Lady’. Witt 1971, p.298, note 71; ‘the finest extract of roses in the world was made at Cyrene while the great Berenice was alive’. Athenaeus, Deipnosophists XV.689.a, see Griffin 1976, p.93; roses introduced to Egypt by Ptolemies in Carter 1940, p.252.

  190 Egyptian rock crystal bottles in Rogers et al. 2001, pp.81-2; Cleopatra’s agate vessels in Suetonius, Augustus 71, Graves trans., p.90, see also Cleveland 1964.92 in Berman 1999, p.484; blue glass vessels in Ward-Perkins and Claridge 1976, nos. 231, 234.

  190 ‘one cannot escape the conclusion that on some occasions, Roman soldiers were pleasantly sweet-smelling!’. Ottaway 2004, p.56, recalling Caesar’s men ‘stinking of perfume’. Suetonius, Caesar 67 in Graves trans., p.37.

  190 Ostia toilets in Hodges 1974 fig.229, p.199; Isis’ latrine image in Ward-Perkins and Claridge 1976, p.57; Amasis’ goldpot in Herodotus, 11.172-4, de Selincourt trans., p.197; Ptolemaic chamber pot in Pliny, XXXIII.50, Loeb trans., p.41; Alexandria’s drains in Empereur 1998, pp.125-43.

  190 ‘bands of the behinds’ in Hall 1986, p.55 and ‘rhakos’, ‘a sort of tampon made of wool or linen’, in Milanezi 2005, p.78.

  191 ‘Unswept Hall’ mosaic in Davidson 1998, p.xv; skeleton mos
aic in Ward-Perkins and Claridge 1976, no.18; seafood mosaic in Ward-Perkins and Claridge 1976, no.253.

  191 ‘a man for whom such a dinner sufficed had no need of gold’ in Wilkins and Hill 2006, p.200.

  193 ‘Puis Punica’ and ‘lagana’ tagliatelle enjoyed by Cicero, see Jarrat and Jarrat in Grant 1999, p.39, 65; for typical wealthy Roman menu see Jones 2006.

  192 ‘the eel you consider the greatest divinity, and we the greatest dish’. Davidson 1997, p.8. 192 ‘pale skin, slender figures and large eyes’. Hyperides in Davidson 1997, p.9.

  192 ‘opsomanes’, ‘gunaikomanes’. Chrysippus in Davidson 1997, p.9.

  192 ‘see the red fish playing between my fingers’. Cairo JE.25218/IFAO 1266 based on Manniche 1987, p.88.

  192 Venus in Juvenal, Satires VI.300 in Green trans., p.138; ‘oysters from Kent and Essex became very popular in Rome, and perhaps in Alexandria too; and it may be that they were already known to the Inimitables’. Weigall, 1928 p.128.

  192 ‘Numidian birds’. Satyricon, 55 in Parker 2002, p.58.

  193 Cleopatra’s figs in Plutarch, Antony 85 in Rowlandson (ed.) 1998, pp.40-1; Egyptian fruit sent to Italy in Empereur 2002, p.35; Alexander’s ice dessert in Fagan (ed.) 2004, p. 119.

  193 ‘the Roman equivalent of the modern champagne’. Rackham 1916, p.223.

  193 ‘perfumed singer and musical virtuoso’. Volkmann 1958, p.88.

  194 ‘worse still is the well-read menace, who’s hardly settled for dinner before she starts . . . , comparing, evaluating rival poets . . . she’s so determined to prove herself eloquent, learned . . . Avoid a dinner partner with an argumentative style . . . choose someone rather who doesn’t understand all she reads. I hate these authority-citers . . . who with antiquarian zeal quote poets I’ve never heard of. Juvenal, Satires VI.434-56, Green trans., p.144.

  194 Her effect on Caesar ‘is not to be underestimated. Influenced by his relationship with her, he began to act more and more like a Hellenistic ruler’. Holbl 2001, p.239.

  194 ‘the home of all tricks and deceits’. Cicero, Pro. Rab. Post. 35 in Wyke 2002, p.211; Cicero’s ‘problem’ with women in Grant 1972, p.96.