Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth

by Michel Chauveau (Author), David Lorton (Translator)

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ISBN-13: 978-0801489532

ISBN-10: 0801489539

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Cleopatra: kohl and vipers, barges and thrones, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. We have long been schooled in the myth of the Egyptian ruler. In his new book Michel Chauveau brings us a picture of her firmly based in reality. Cleopatra VII reigned in Egypt between 51 and 30 B.C.E. Her primary goal as a ruler was to restore over the eastern Mediterranean the supremacy of the Lagides, the dynasty of Macedonian origin of which she herself was a descendant. We know the queen best from Greek and Latin sources, though these must be used with caution because of their bias. Understandably enough, they reflect not only matters of interest to Romans, but also the propaganda that Octavian used against the queen during his struggles with Mark Antony. Chauveau combines his knowledge of Egyptian sources with judicious use of classical materials to produce an authoritative biography of Cleopatra, the woman and queen, seen in the light of the turbulent era in which she lived.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hoping to rescue the Egyptian queen from "clich‚s that have been spread by... [a] complaisant literature," not to mention by Elizabeth Taylor vehicles, French Egyptologist Michel Chauveau (Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra) offers Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth. In this concise biography based on the few surviving Greek, Latin and Egyptian texts that mention her, Chauveau, former member of the Institut Fran‡ais d'Arch‚ologie Orientale and current director of studies at L'cole Practique des Hautes tudes in Paris, shows how the lack of sources (as well as Cleopatra's own attempts to mythologize her reign) has allowed romantic legends to flourish. He disputes the claims of other biographers on such subjects as the trajectory of her affair with Mark Antony, and points out biases in the accounts of Plutarch and other Roman historians. (Trans. from the French by David Lorton)
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Students who read this brief volume will find little of the movie queen but a great deal of Roman history. Cleopatra's defeat made Octavian emperor of Rome, and he arranged for the spin on history to make his actions look good. The book includes scholarly footnotes, with translated quotations from historical sources such as Cicero, Plutarch, Caesar, Dio Cassius, Suetonius, Pliny the Elder, etc. There are two maps: one of Egypt during this period and one of the eastern Mediterranean. Black-and-white photographs of Ptolomaic and Roman coins and of paintings in the Louvre (probably painted during the Renaissance) are included.
Irene F. Moose, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Cornell University Press (September 9, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0801489539
ISBN-13: 978-0801489532
Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.4 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,274,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1484 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > Africa
- #2015 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > Middle East
- #2638 in Books > History > Ancient Civilizations > Egypt

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The myth remains safely intact

Byilmkon May 24, 2002

This book translated from the French is effectively a seventy-odd page thesis claiming to "reduce the person of Cleopatra to the facts, to what the ancient writers reported..."
Before reading a word I found myself asking if laying bare the bones of such a famous historical figure is detrimental to our perception of Cleopatra. Indeed, the profligacy of the myth is precisely why she has endured. We want our image of Burton and Taylor, our Shakespearian heroine. What could be achieved by revealing what is usually a disappointing reality?
The book then disappointed. I was expecting an outline of these myths (other than the well-trodden Boccaccio, Shakespeare and Hollywood) which would then be analysed to provide the facts and what did, indeed, lie beyond the myth.
It just didn't happen.
The first sixty pages are good summation of the period told from the Roman ancient sources but there is more fact about Anthony, Caesar and Octavian than the subject of the book. Even to begin there is a major problem with the sources for Cleopatra. Given there was only one contemporary (Strabo) who mentions Cleopatra once and a couple of stele, the rest of the ancient sources are secondary (1-3 centuries after the events). All Chauveau manages to confirm is that the `myth' of Cleopatra is all we have and the `facts' are either non-existent or simply distorted. He relies heavily on Plutarch (who is the one ancient source who depicts Cleopatra through his life of Anthony and anything he says is deliberately aimed at providing the myth) and intimates several times that we know nothing conclusive, stating that the ancient sources disagree on Cleopatra's origins.
All we have is relayed through her interaction with Rome. This is repeated on page 48 when the author astutely acknowledges that : "Cleopatra practically disappeared from history, according to the principle that Roman affairs were the sole subject of interest to our sources". Given this admission then you question the entire premise of the book, which is to take us beyond the "myth".
The four page conclusion could serve as the conjecture behind the entire thesis, but the preceding seventy pages effectively prove that, even to the ancient sources, the myth of Cleopatra is our reality, for nothing exists to remove us from that image of Burton and Taylor the silver screen. And, perhaps, nothing should exist.

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Could Cleopatra Have Changed the World?

ByTheodore A. Rushtonon May 5, 2004

Cleopatra might have changed the world.
Instead, as this rather deficient biography indicates, she did little other than to be remembered in history as one of the world's most intriguing and yet little known women. She became a legend, similar to King Arthur and Camelot, perhaps because history and biography tends to be written about winners rather than losers.
On the first page of the introduction, Chauveau admits "We do not in fact have any ancient account of her reign, not even a simple biographical summary!" It makes a rather difficult to write anything relevant about her, especially "beyond the myth" as this book claims to offer, when so little is known about her actual life.
Unfortunately, it's more of a pedestrian account of a formative stage in the Roman Empire than an analysis of what Cleopatra might have achieved. This is a woman, in the words of the historian Dio Cassius but absent from this book, "captivated the two greatest Romans of her day, and because of the third she destroyed herself."
Chauveau asserts, "From the purely historical point of view, Cleopatra is thus but an empty figure without an existence of her own, the privileged but ever subordinate partner in the lives of her contemporaries."
Okay. At the time of Julius Caesar, Egypt was still independent. Alexandria, the capital, was the largest, richest, and most prestigious city of that time. Suppose Cleopatra had succeeded in shifting the center of Roman power to Alexandria? The result might well have been an eastern-based empire instead of the eventual Euro-centric empire of Rome; think of the impact of Christianity had the Popes been based in Alexandria instead of Rome.
Cleopatra, by herself, almost made it happen. As it was, the Gnostic brand of Christianity flourished briefly in Egypt and the Near East. Had Egypt, or the Near East, been the heart of Christianity there might have been no Islamic religion; instead, a new religion may have arisen in the West.
This is "an empty figure without an existence of her own"?
Cleopatra may well have been the last sigfnificant challenge to the hegemony of Rome. Our history is based on what the Romans allowed to survive, not on the achievements of rivals and rebels such as Cleopatra in Egypt and Boudicca in England. Surely, a biography of Cleopatra should recognize her as a woman who almost changed the world. For some reason, the book doesn't even include her portrait from a bas relief in the Temple of Hathor, Dandarah, Egypt.
Instead, this book stumbles along without seeming to recognize that Cleopatra came as close as anyone in thousands of years in changing the history of the world.

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Myths old and new

ByNikaon March 26, 2006

Almost every scientist when writing about famous historical persons sets himself a task of separating reality from the myth.Also Michel Chauveau is trying to do so.Still the myths created during the lives or soon after the death of the heroes of the legends are not very dangerous for the historical truth.They merely exaggerate the deeds these persons had really committed and the qualities of character they had really possessed.The myths created after 2000 years by modern historians endanger reality much more.The book by Michel Chauveau is based on the historical facts.It is a great pity that the author mentions without commentaries a modern myth according to which Octavian had wanted Cleopatras death before the triumph.This myth is absolutely unfounded.The queen could commit suicide only after 2 unsuccessful attempts.Octavian had commanded to do everything in order to save the dying woman.He had threatened to murder her children in case she would try to kill herself. We may read about it in the book by John Whitehorne "Cleopatras." Could Cleopatra have changed the world?The question ought to be raised otherwise:could the military conflict with Rome have been avoided?For even in the case of Mark Antonys military victory Cleopatras situation would have become tragic and hopeless.The Romans would have never accepted the Egyptian queen as their sovereign.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Could Cleopatra Have Changed the World?

Cleopatra might have changed the world.
Instead, as this rather deficient biography indicates, she did little other than to be remembered in history as one of the world's...Read more

Published on May 5, 2004 by Theodore A. Rushton

Strange Biases

This book purports to bust open the myths that have perpetuated without much evidence. What it does instead is offer its own theories on Cleopatra with just as little, or even...Read more

Published on September 17, 2002 by Stephanie Dray

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