Cleopatras

by John Whitehorne

Although there are many books written about the most famous Cleopatra, this is the only study in English devoted to her less well-known but equally illustrious namesakes. Cleopatras traces the turbulent lives and careers of these historically important women, examining in particular the earlier Macedonian and Ptolemaic Cleopatras, and the impact of their dynastic marriages on the history of the Hellenistic world. John Whitehorne also evaluates current views of Cleopatra VII's dramatic suicide, and considers the evolving political significance of royal women in the last three centuries BC. Clearly and engagingly written, Cleopatras reveals the true significance to the ruling dynasties of the 34 known Cleopatras who were not Cleopatra the Great, and illuminates some fascinating but little-known aspects of ancient Greek and Egyptian history along the way.

Genres: History

264 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 1994

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book about the pre-Cleopatra VII Ptolemaic Queens was long overdue - many of these women were as fascinating, powerful, and multi-faceted as their more famed descendent, and I enjoyed hearing their stories. However, Mr. Whitehorne was not, I believe, the one to write it. This book wavers ineptly in tone, highly formal phrases warring with uncomfortably chatty asides. While Whitehorne makes much of the facts on his subjects being ultimately unknowable, he nonetheless makes assumption after assumption, until one feels like defending the poor historical royals from his gossipy pen. The section on Cleopatra III, forced into marriage with her uncle Ptolemy VIII sometime in her teens, was particularly offensive, as Whitehorne debated the question of whether or not she had been raped (oscillating between the two equally stereotypical narratives of an innocent girl assaulted in her bed by a reeking molester of an uncle and a scheming teenager seductress plotting to dethrone her mother with no room for the emotionally complex situation that probably did occur, one unlike the frameworks to which we modern people are accustomed) until I wanted to scream. Also, am I right that Whitehorne missed two of Cleopatra Selene (of Mauretania)'s children, or was that research done after this book was published?

[Oli Turner]

#cleopatras by #johnwhitehorne published in 1994. I was aware of the seven Cleopatras. However, the German classical encyclopaedia of pauly-wissowa has entries on 33 cleopatras including mythological ones - so that was new to me. This book includes historical cleopatras going back to Herodotus and macedon. There were a couple of really interesting early chapters spending time with Alexander the Great and his father Philip. One of Philip’s many wives was a cleopatra possibly killed by olympias (Alexander the great’s mother) to prevent any challenge to her son’s right to rule. Alexander the great’s sister was also a cleopatra. We are almost halfway through the book before cleopatra I appears and we go to Egypt. Cleopatra vii only gets one chapter discussing theories about her death. The justification being that the focus of the book is on all the other cleopatras and vii has plenty of books written about her. The final chapter is about cleopatra vii’s daughter cleopatra Selene who went to Rome with Octavian after her mother and Marc Anthony’s suicide and got married off to the king of Mauritania. This was a good companion work to the other book on the cleopatras that I read last week. Seeing things from a slightly different perspective. But I felt the other book was a little clearer in setting out the relationships and family dynamics with the multiple family trees throughout. Although this one had some more details on the cleopatras preceding and following the main seven.