Cleopatra The queen who challenged Rome and conquered eternity

Alberto Angela, 1962-

Book - 2021

"One of Italy's most revered cultural figures reconstructs the extraordinary life of the legendary Cleopatra at the height of her power in this epic story of passion, intrigue, betrayal, and war. Our world today would not be the same without Cleopatra. While she is one of the most famous figures in history, the legendary Egyptian queen remains, in many ways, an enigma. In this mesmerizing history, Alberto Angela offers a fresh and dynamic portrait of this extraordinary ruler, revealing a strikingly modern woman born in an ancient era and skilled in the art of diplomacy and war, who would conquer the heart of a general-Marc Antony-and Rome itself. Cleopatra focuses on a twenty-year period that marked a sweeping change in Roman hist...ory, beginning with the assassination of Julius Caesar that led to the end of the Republic, and ending with the suicides of Antony and Cleopatra and the birth of the Augustan Empire. Angela brings the people, stories, customs, and traditions of this fascinating period alive as he transports us to the chaotic streets of the capital of the ancient world, the exotic port of Alexandria in Egypt, and to the bloody battlefields where an empire was won and lost. Meticulously researched and rich with vivid detail, this sweeping history, reminiscent of the works of Simon Schama, Mary Beard's SPQR, and Tom Holland's Rubicon, recreates this remarkable era and the woman at its turbulent center"--

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Subjects
Genres
Biographies
Published
New York, NY : HarperVia, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 2021.
Language
English
Italian
Main Author
Alberto Angela, 1962- (author)
Other Authors
Katherine Gregor (translator)
Edition
First HarperVia edition
Item Description
Translated from the Italian.
Physical Description
xii, 426 pages : maps ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN
9780062984210
9780062984227
  • Preface
  • 1. The Twilight of a Republic
  • 2. The Death of Caesar
  • 3. Rome in Chaos
  • 4. Cleopatra Returns to Alexandria
  • 5. Cleopatra Remembers Caesar
  • 6. The Battle of Philippi
  • 7. Cleopatra and Antony Meet
  • 8. True Love
  • 9. The Start of a Nightmare
  • 10. The Battle of Actium
  • 11. The End of Antony and Cleopatra
  • 12. The Dawn of an Empire
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Maps
  • Sources Cited
  • Bibliography
  • A Note from the Translator
Review by Booklist Review

The English translation of Angela's Cleopatra focuses on a time of great upheaval in the ancient world--the transition of Rome from Republic to Empire--through the lives of six major players. Besides the titular Egyptian ruler, they are Caesar, Brutus, Mark Antony, Cassius, and Octavian. By the end of the story only the last would still live. Angela narrates lush descriptions of historic places and events as he presents the actions of each character and describes possible emotions and motivations for their choices. Cleopatra is centered as a catalytic figure, someone whose movements affected not only her contemporary world but the greater view of history. Her acumen and intelligence are detailed as well as her beauty, though it is admitted that the latter is frequently drawn from biased accounts that painted her as only a seductress. The political machinations, betrayal, and battles may appeal to those fans of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series interested in a real-world game of thrones.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Italian TV host Angela casts Cleopatra as "an amazingly modern woman" in this spirited yet somewhat overwrought account. Focusing on the period between March 44 BCE, when Cleopatra returned to Egypt from Rome after the assassination of her lover and ally Julius Caesar, and her suicide in August 30 BCE following military defeat by Octavian, Angela portrays Cleopatra as an astute ruler who enabled Egypt to retain sovereignty despite creeping Roman influence over the Levant. He recounts the saga of Cleopatra's doomed romance with Marc Antony, but also explains the significance of her deliberate combination of Hellenistic influences, rooted in her Greco-Macedonian ancestry, with ancient Egyptian culture and religion, in particular the goddess Isis. Though Angela strives to make the ancient world accessible to modern readers, long sections in which he plays tour guide through the streets of Rome and Alexandria offer genuine insights but slow the narrative pace, and the significance of Cleopatra and Marc Antony's first meeting is undercut with comparisons to Lady Gaga and Jim Carrey's "jaw dropping to the ground" in The Mask. This well-intentioned history swings and misses. (Mar.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A readable narrative of the legendary Egyptian queen that combines scholarship with novelistic detail and character depth. First published in Italy in 2018, this popular history captures the essence of one of the most iconic figures in world history, a "stunning-looking, intelligent, and elegant woman with a deep gaze, and oozing sensuality." Italian scholar, paleontologist, and journalist Angela focuses his inquiry on a key question, one that Cleopatra scholars have explored for centuries: "How did a delicate, lone woman, in an ancient world dominated by men, lead the kingdom of Egypt to its greatest expansion ever and become one of history's brightest stars?" The author devotes the first 100 pages of his lengthy study building up to the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.E., showing how the watershed event affected Cleopatra's own vulnerable standing in the geopolitical realm. She took protection under Rome to stabilize her position of power in relation to her ambitious brothers and ensure Egypt's autonomy. Upon Caesar's death, however, she had to cultivate good standing with the new leadership. Using her singular combination of beauty, confidence, intelligence, and cunning, she was able to seduce Mark Antony, a process that Angela re-creates with fairly over-the-top description. Notwithstanding the author's lapses into overheated language ("we can picture the queen on her bed, her curves rising with every breath, as she gazes at Antony confidently, intensely, invitingly, her full lips half open"), he effectively draws on previous scholarship, wading through legend and myth to get at the truth of what actually occurred. Angela engages readers with rhetorical questions and emphasizes that Cleopatra was a thoroughly modern woman, instrumental in paving the way for the Roman Empire under the ruthless Octavian. "Cleopatra is not only an alluring woman and a queen very capable of managing power," he writes, "but also an incredible historical catalyst." A character-rich historical biography that will have special appeal to young students of history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.