Cleopatra VII was the Egyptian queen who Romans loved to hate. By the end of 30 BC, her reputation plumbed the depths. She was, after all, the “fatal monster” who had seduced Mark Antony and lured him into an alliance that had ended in defeat to Rome’s emperor-in-waiting, Octavian. The whole squalid episode had reached a climax earlier that year when, with Octavian’s forces closing in on the Egyptian capital of Alexandria, the couple had taken their own lives.
But there’s another side to this story. For at the same time as Cleopatra’s name was being dragged through the mud, enthusiasm for Egypt – which Octavian had seized for the Roman empire – was at an all-time high in Rome. There was an explosion of Egypt-inspired decoration, from ornate frescoes to hulking pyramids, like Gaius Cestius Epulo’s imposing tomb at the Porta San Paolo in the south of the city.
So while Rome was consumed by a burning hatred of Cleopatra, its admiration for the kingdom that had produced her shone undimmed. One person who would, no doubt, have been baffled by this juxtaposition was Antony and Cleopatra’s only daughter, Cleopatra Selene.
Retaining control of Cleopatra’s children meant
