Greek Dialogues - Cleopatra's Daughter | Cambridge Centre for Greek Studies

Date and Time: Wednesday, 24th April, 2024 at 18:00h GMT

Room: G21, Faculty of Classics, Sidgwick Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DA

The first Greek Dialogues seminar of the Easter Term features Dr. Jane Draycott (University of Glasgow) discussing the varied and eventful life of Cleopatra Selene, Egyptian royalty descended from one of Alexander the Great's generals who became a pawn in Roman imperial politics.

Cleopatra Selene, as the only daughter of Roman Triumvir Marc Antony and Egyptian Queen Cleopatra VII, was expected to uphold traditional feminine virtues; to marry well and bear sons; and to legitimize and strengthen her parents’ rule. Yet with their deaths by suicide, the princess and her two brothers - neither of whom lived to adulthood - found themselves the inheritors of Egypt, a claim that placed them squarely in the warpath of the first Roman emperor Augustus. Rather than put her to death, he wed her to the Numidian prince Juba, son of the deposed regent Juba I, and installed them both as client rulers of Mauretania in north-western Africa. There, Cleopatra Selene ruled successfully for nearly twenty years, promoting trade and reclaiming her mother’s legacy—at a time, when kingship was an inherently male activity.

A princess who became a prisoner and a prisoner who became a queen, Cleopatra Selene’s life sheds new and revelatory light on Egyptian and Roman politics, society, and culture in the early days of the Roman Empire.