Dynasty
Cleopatra VII was not really an Egyptian at all. She was of Greco-Macedonian heritage, descended from Ptolemy Lagides, one of Alexander The Great's generals. Alexander absorbed Egypt into his empire in 332 BC, installing Ptolemy as governor. Ptolemy claimed the Egyptian throne for himself in 304 BC, founding the Ptolemaic dynasty. Cleopatra was born in 69 BC, the daughter of Ptolemy XII and his sister, Cleopatra VI. (Brother-sister marriages were a longstanding feature of the Egyptian royal household.) Cleopatra came to the throne in 51 BC, ruling alongside her ten-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII.

Talk like an Egyptian
In the eyes of ordinary Egyptians, Cleopatra was special. For a start, she could speak Egyptian, a skill few of her Ptolemaic predecessors had bothered to learn. She spoke several other languages in addition and had all the diplomatic skills to go with them. She was intelligent, witty and charming but she was a skilled administrator, too: under her direction Egypt regained much of the prosperity her father had allowed to drain away. She was clearly a woman of many attributes but was Cleopatra as beautiful as Shakespeare would have us believe? Sadly, it seems not. Contemporary sculptures and portraits on coins suggest she was rather plain. But she definitely had what it took. How else could she have bedded two of the world's most powerful men?

Hail, Caesar
Cleopatra's joint reign with her young brother soon ran into trouble and they had fallen out by 49 BC. In 48 BC, Cleopatra was expelled from Egypt by the young Ptolemy XIII and his backers. Determined to regain power, she enlisted the help of Egypt's powerful neighbour, Rome. Julius Caesar arrived in Egypt later that year, to be greeted by a novel spectacle: Cleopatra was smuggled to him wrapped in a rug. The pair began a liaison and Caesar quickly imposed a settlement reinstating Cleopatra to the throne as senior ruler with another, even younger, brother, Ptolemy XIV. Caesar and Cleopatra had a son, Caesarion, and Cleopatra spent time in Rome. She returned to Egypt in 44 BC, after Caesar's assassination. Most historians agree that she probably murdered Ptolemy XIV at this time, installing Caesarion as co-ruler in her brother's place.

Ant and Cleo
Mark Antony was one-third of Rome's ruling triumvirate, which took power after Caesar's assassination. He was a charismatic general loved by his men but, as a career soldier, he would have had little experience of a powerful, sophisticated woman like Cleopatra. When they met, in 41 BC, Cleopatra had her glad rags on and Antony liked what he saw. They settled in Alexandria, where they became one of the world's first celebrity couples. They had style, they had class - and they had ambition. Their vision was to create an autonomous empire with Egypt at its centre. This dream brought them into direct conflict with Antony's chief rival in the triumvirate, Octavian.

Death becomes her
By 31 BC, the writing was on the wall for Antony and Cleopatra. Their forces were defeated by Octavian's navy in a great sea battle at Actium in western Greece. A year later, Alexandria had been besieged by Octavian, who aimed to make Egypt a province of Rome. Left with no prospect other than defeat and disgrace, Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra was taken prisoner but committed suicide before Octavian could return her to Rome and humiliate her in a triumphal parade. It's not clear whether she poisoned herself or allowed an asp to bite her. Either way, she was outwitting her enemies to the last.