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Antony & Cleopatra: The Doomed Love Affair That United Ancient Rome & Egypt
The tragic love affair of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is a staple of popular ancient history, immortalised by Shakespeare and Hollywood and mercilessly parodied in Carry on Cleo. In this dual biography Patricia Southern attempts to rescue both from the stereotypes, portraying their alliance as a mutually advantageous one, and both of them as capable political operators. Southern has a flair for this kind of narrative-history-with-argument, but she has already written extensively on both Antony and Cleopatra as well as Caesar, and for those who have read those earlier books there will be little new here.
189 pages, Paperback
First published May 28, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 11, 2021
Overall good book and good read - I would recommend it to those interested in the Roman and Egyptian Empire. However, the title is a bit misleading. I expected to be focused on the relationship between Marc and Cleopatra - this was only addressed in the last couple of chapters. Glad I read it nonetheless.
December 10, 2013
Absolutely Brilliant book!!! Loved every page of it. At times it felt like a good novel but it was better than that-this story really happened. Incredible real life story which took place in times before Christ. All people mentioned in the book really existed. Mark Antony’s life was just incredible. I am just wondering how a person can go through so much in his life? From one extreme to another, love, wars, close to dying and then again back to the top. Someone should make a movie about Mark Antony’s Life. This is the next book of Pat Southern which I am going to read. Just cannot wait.
July 16, 2015
A better title would be: Octavian's smear campaign against Antony & Cleopatra. Frankly, there wasn't that much about Cleopatra and Antony's relationship. I did feel pretty bad for Antony by the end of the book seeing how manipulative Octavian was and murderous. I suppose Antony got the last laugh, because it was his grandson that ultimately became the great emperor of Rome!
November 20, 2011
Absolutely brilliant book, fantastically unbiased and uses so many sources. Romans are my new favourite thing!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews