Matt Elton: The fact that there were multiple Cleopatras perhaps shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me — but it did. Why do you think the existence of the other Cleopatras is overlooked?
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones: It’s because of the dominance of Cleopatra VII – the Cleopatra, the indigo-eyed, Liz Taylor Cleopatra. That’s who we think of when we think of Cleopatra. The way in which her identity has been constructed has led us to see her as a lone wolf, a unique woman in the ancient world. The idea of one woman stepping out of the patriarchy to achieve amazing things has been very persuasive.
But she was not a lone wolf at all. There was a whole family of women behind her who formed the template for what she was able to become. Without the other six Cleopatras, it would have been impossible for Cleopatra the seventh to do what she did. So although her life and ambitions are remarkable, they are nonetheless better observed in the context of the dynasty that produced her.
You write in your book that the history of the Cleopatras begins not in Egypt, but further to the east. What was the empire into which the first of the Cleopatras was born, and what do we need to know about the geopolitical situation at the time of her birth?
By the second century BC, the Hellenistic period had already been going for about 150 years. It was a world forged following the death of Alexander the Great, and his empire being split up between rival generals. Cleopatra I was born into the house of Seleucus, which owned essentially all of what’s now Syria, Palestine, Israel and swathes of Mesopotamia
