Women to be feared

• Cleopatra


  A woman the Romans feared
• Klee-oh-pat-ra


  Cleopatra
• Roman coin dated


  c. 32 BC
• Hathor was an Egyptian deity with a range of roles, including: the sky, fertility, joy, celebration and love. She used a sistrum to drive away evil, and was often depicted with a cow's head, and with a red sun disc as part of her crown. Here, Cleopatra wears a crown associated with Hathor (note sun disc and cow horns, and Caesarion wears the crown of Upper & Lower Egypt). The artistic style is very typically Egyptian, with stylised depictions of hair, drapery and posture.
• Virgil's Aeneid is a prescribed text
• Virgil's Aeneid


  A Roman epic poem from the 1st century CE
• Virgil's Aeneid


  • Aims to give the Romans a sense of their great history and destiny
  • Praises Augustus, the first Roman emperor
  • Tells the story of the founding of Rome by the Trojan hero Aeneas
• Aeneas fought a war in Italy against the Rutulians, led by Turnus
• Aeneas had an army with him
• Aeneas came from Troy
• Turnus came from Italy
• Cleopatra


  Queen (pharaoh) of Egypt during the 1st century BCE
• At this point, the Roman Empire dominated most of the Mediterranean world, but Egypt was not yet part of the Roman Empire, and Cleopatra was viewed by some Romans as a threat to Roman dominance
• Cleopatra's full name


  Cleopatra VII Philopator (who loves her fatherland)
• Cleopatra was a descendant of Ptolemy, a Macedonian Greek man who had supported Alexander the Great's conquests. When Alexander died, Ptolemy went to Egypt (which Alexander had conquered) and he claimed it for himself. Cleopatra's family had ruled Egypt for almost 300 years.
• Cleopatra


  Egypt's last queen (pharaoh)
• Cleopatra becoming queen


  1. Became queen at age 14 as co-ruler with her father

  2. When her father died, she became co-ruler with her younger brother who was just 10

  3. Cleopatra dominated her younger brother, but was then expelled from the palace in a coup
• Shortly after, Cleopatra's younger brother displeased Rome, and Julius Caesar (Rome's most powerful politician) declared Cleopatra should rule Egypt
• Julius Caesar and Cleopatra


  Had a baby together, Caesarion
• Cleopatra spent some time in Rome, living in Julius Caesar's country villa. She insisted people called her "Queen", and Julius Caesar put a statue of her in the Temple of Venus
• Julius Caesar was killed by Roman senators who wanted to end his dictatorship. Cleopatra fled to Egypt with their son.
• 3 years later


  Cleopatra joined Mark Antony in an alliance/relationship
• Cleopatra and Antony had twins, and 5 years later they got married in 69 BC
• Antony gave Cleopatra and her children lots of Roman-controlled land in a grand ceremony called the Donations of Alexandria
• Antony's rival, Octavian


  Claimed Cleopatra had bewitched Antony into doing this, and he claimed Antony wanted to move the centre of the Empire to Alexandria. Stoked by fear, the Romans declared war on Cleopatra
• The war (really a civil war between Antony and Octavian) was decided in 31 BC at the Battle of Actium, which Octavian won. Antony and Cleopatra fled.
• In 30 BC, Octavian took an army to Egypt, winning the Battle of Alexandria. Antony killed himself, and shortly after Cleopatra so died, having been captured by Octavian.
• Egypt in the time of Cleopatra


  • A client kingdom of Rome, with all major decisions dictated by Rome
  • Capital city was Alexandria, with around half a million inhabitants, the second largest city in the Mediterranean after Rome
  • Egypt was very wealthy due to the fertile Nile floodplains, and was used as a protective buffer zone between the Roman Empire and the Seleucid and Parthian Empires to the east
• Medea


  A woman the Greeks feared
• Medea


  • Refused to play by the rules of Greek society
  • Was a powerful witch
  • Was independently minded and ruthless
• Medea was a mythological woman who appeared in myths about the Greek hero Jason. She was seen as scary to Greek audiences because she would not be controlled.
• Medea was born on the edge of the known world, on the island of Colchis, making her a "barbarian" in Greek eyes.
• How Medea helped Jason

  1. Jason came to Colchis looking for the Golden Fleece

  2. Medea, under the influence of the gods, fell in love with Jason and helped him retrieve the fleece

  3. To escape, Medea killed her own brother
• Medea and Jason settled in the Greek town of Corinth and had two sons.
• Some years later


  Jason divorced Medea to marry the princess of Corinth, Glauce
• Medea's revenge


  1. Medea grieved for her ruined marriage

  2. The king of Corinth, Creon, was afraid of Medea's vengeance so he exiled her

  3. Before leaving, Medea gave Glauce a poisoned wedding dress and crown, which killed Glauce and Creon

  4. Medea then murdered her own sons to get revenge on Jason
• Jason arrived too late to stop Medea, and he could not punish her for the murders, because when he got to their house she was already in a flying dragon chariot of her grandfather (the Sun) that he had loaned to her.
• Medea escaped to Athens and nobody punished her for her crimes.