THE AFRICAN QUEEN Intelligent, shrewd and charming, Cleopatra VII was a force to be reckoned with
ALAMY X1, GETTY X3, REX X1, ISTOCK X3
She was a daughter of Egypt – part of the Macedonian-Greek Ptolemaic Dynasty that had ruled since the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. Queen of Egypt, Cyrene and Cyprus, she was renowned for her passionate nature, beauty, intellect and determination to advance the interests of the Ptolemaic legacy.
They were masters of Rome – powerful, ruthless military generals who had expanded the might of the Roman Empire, seizing power for themselves and seeking to add the vast Egyptian Empire to Rome’s ever-expanding list of imperial conquests.