About the Book
The definitive story of the seven Cleopatras, the powerful goddess-queens of ancient Egypt
One of history’s most iconic figures, Cleopatra is rightly remembered as a clever and charismatic ruler. But few today realize that she was the last in a long line of Egyptian queens who bore that name.
In The Cleopatras , historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the dramatic story of these seven incomparable women, vividly recapturing the lost world of Hellenistic Egypt and tracing the kingdom’s final centuries before its fall to Rome. The Cleopatras were Greek-speaking descendants of Ptolemy, the general who conquered Egypt alongside Alexander the Great. They were closely related as mothers, daughters, sisters, half-sisters, and nieces. Each wielded absolute power, easily overshadowing their husbands or sons, and all proved to be shrewd and capable leaders. Styling themselves as goddess-queens, the Cleopatras ruled through the canny deployment of arcane rituals, opulent spectacles, and unparalleled wealth. They navigated political turmoil and court intrigues, led armies into battle and commanded fleets of ships, and ruthlessly dispatched their dynastic rivals.
The Cleopatras is a fascinating and richly textured biography of seven extraordinary women, restoring these queens to their deserved place among history’s greatest rulers.
384 pages (hardcover)
I’ve debated a bit about how to approach reviewing this book, because I’m in two minds about it. On the one hand, I was captivated from page one. Completely absorbed, I flew through this book and I learned a lot from it.
On the other hand, it might be a bit too introductory if you’re well-versed in this specific period of history.
That being said, I have a few nonfiction reading niches and none of the include Ancient Egypt, so this book was entirely new information to me, and it opened up an area of history that I’m currently excited to learn more about.
That’s the mark of a successful nonfiction book, in my estimation: does it make people want to learn more?
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones has an almost conversational way with his prose. I felt like I was sitting in a college class with my favorite professor. He has the ability to break down complex topics in a way that is easy to understand and relatable to the average reader.
I should clarify: I did not feel lectured to, but rather like I was sitting front-row for an epic story.
I learned a lot from this book, not only about the Cleopatras but also about the world they lived in. Llewellyn-Jones puts the events that transpire and the women involved in them in context with the world they inhabit. This was particularly interesting in a few points, where some of the Cleopatras were portrayed historically as being particularly brutal or determined to attain power (arguably, they were), and the author took time to address how the very fact that she was a woman impacted how her actions were portrayed by those who recorded the history.
To be clear, some of the Cleopatras truly were brutal and strived for power and glory, but the author worked hard to humanize even their most outrageous actions and put them in context in the time in which they lived, which was a magisterial feat, considering some of the events covered in this book.
It’s difficult to keep the family lines in order, and I was grateful that there were family trees in each section of the book. That, along with the author’s careful writing, kept everyone clear in my head as I read. I learned as well that the Cleopatras were not numbered in their lifetime. The numbers came later, as a way to make it easier to keep them apart (there were seven in total, and I greatly appreciated having them numbered as I read).
Some of the Cleopatras get more attention than others, but some lived longer than others and some had their lives recorded a bit better as a result. The few who came before Cleopatra VII (the Cleopatra) had scarce information on them, but that was also when the dynasty was starting to crumble and there was just generally less information about them and their lives. I also was interested in the reasoning behind all the familial marriage, and he goes into a bit of the logic behind that (which was fascinating), but it’s not the focus of the story here aside from making the family lines difficult to track.
On a personal level, I found the later Cleopatras to be less interesting than the first three. The earlier women lived when the empire was building and growing and the Cleopatras retained the most power and impact on the political landscape around them (There were also some wild things that happened in their lives.). I found the later ones to be less compelling for a few reasons: there was less information about a few of them, and I’ve already read enough about Cleopatra VII to not really glean more new information about her here (which is going to harken back to my first point about the book: your interest level will wax or wane depending on how much you already know when you start reading). I think what I’m saying is that I realized that I know nearly nothing about this part of the world during the earlier time period, and I realized I wanted to learn more.
Which, as I said earlier in this review, is the mark of a successful nonfiction book: it makes the reader want to learn more.
None of this takes away from the fact that these women lived at the heart of an empire that was rising and falling during a fascinating period of human history. They (sometimes) grabbed power and (sometimes) retained it. They made distinct impacts on the world they inhabited. Some of them are still talked about reverently today. One of them might be one of the most famous female figures in history.
This is history in its most epic form, a true example of reality being stranger than fiction.
The Cleopatras was a fascinating book. While it very much is an overview about the lives of these seven historical figures, it is packed full of interesting information and written in a highly accessible way. If you’re already well-versed in this period of history, you might discover you already know a lot of what’s written here. However, if you’re like me and you know very little about any of this, give the book a try.
I am glad I did.