When Marc Antony Met Cleopatra: The Moment That Changed History

“I am no coward. I cannot be cowed by a mere Caesar. My spirit remains unconquerable. You have Rome; I have Egypt. The gods have decreed us both our destinies. Let us not pretend that we can alter their will. I shall not be paraded through your streets as a vanquished queen. My end will be as I choose, on my terms, with my dignity intact. I will not be triumphed over.”- Cleopatra

The romance between Marc Antony and Cleopatra had the potential to alter the course of history. A love story that could have changed everything. If their ambitions had worked out differently and Antony had successfully gained sole control of Rome, with Cleopatra as his queen. The world we know would be completely different. Unfortunately, their passionate love affair would end in mutual suicide in 30BC as Roman forces closed in on Alexandria, threatening their capture.

Antony and Cleopatra’s fateful relationship began with the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44BC. His death plunged Rome into chaos and civil war eventually dividing the empire between two strong leaders. Marc Antony ruled the eastern regions of Greece and the middle east, whereas, Octavian (Augustus) controlled the west including Spain and Gaul.

The Parthian Empire posed a massive threat to Antony’s newly inherited territory which prompted him to a plan a military campaign. One that was costly. To fund this campaign, Anthony sought the financial support of Egypt. Cleopatra was one of the wealthiest woman in the world. He sent a summons to have her to meet him in Tarsus, modern-day Turkey, in 41BC.

Cleopatra, the young queen of Egypt, was renowned for her charm, beauty, and allure. She had always been able to use her bold seductive nature to maintain and expand her power. Her first notable conquest had been her very long standing relationship with Julius Casear. She was the mother of his only son, Caesarion. Their deeply private relationship only ended with Caesar’s death when he was assassinated by his own senate. Cleopatra found herself alone for the first time ever.

Delaying and putting off the journey, Cleopatra asserted her status as a queen who wouldn’t be at Antony’s beck and call. She was too busy trying to figure out her next move after returning to Egypt. Eventually, she did embark on the journey to Tarsus arriving up the Cydnus river in a magnificent barge adorned with flowers and perfumed with exotic scents.

Cleopatra was sitting gracefully on the barge’s beautiful deck looking quite elegant surrounded by her servants and golden trappings when she instantly captivated Marc Antony at first sight. He was known for his appreciation of women and she did not disappoint. Antony thought she was something special from the moment his eyes laid upon her.

The legendary love story of Queen Cleopatra and her Marc Antony is a tale full of passion, power, and politics. Their story will forever continue to fascinate historians. The couple’s relationship and marriage is one of the most famous romances in all of history. One that illustrates to the world how love can truly be a powerful influence changing the course of empires.

In today’s post, I have an excerpt detailing the first time Marc Antony ever met Cleopatra. It’s from Plutarch’s own account, a Greek historian who wrote a history of the life of Antony in the first century AD. He details their first meeting in Readings in Ancient History vol. 1. Please see below for the full eye-witness account of the couple’s first meeting. Thank you!

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Excerpt from Ancient History vol. 1. Written by Plutarch

“She had faith in her own attractions, which, having formerly recommended her to Caesar and the young Pompey, she did not doubt might prove yet more successful with Antony. Their acquaintance was with her when a girl, young, and ignorant of the world, but she was to meet Antony in the time of life when women’s beauty is most splendid, and their intellects are in full maturity. She made great preparations for her journey, of money, gifts, and ornaments of value, such as so wealthy a kingdom might afford, but she brought with her her surest hopes in her own magic arts and charms.…she came sailing up the river Cydnus in a barge with gilded stern and outspread sails of purple, while oars of silver beat time to the music of flutes and fifes and harps. She herself lay all along, under a canopy of cloth of gold, dressed as Venus in a picture, and beautiful young boys, like painted Cupids, stood on each side to fan her.

Her maids were dressed like Sea Nymphs and Graces, some steering at the rudder, some working at the ropes.…perfumes diffused themselves from the vessel to the shore, which was covered with multitudes, part following the galley up the river on either bank, part running out of the city to see the sight. The market place was quite emptied, and Antony at last was left alone sitting upon the tribunal; while the word went .through all the multitude, that Venus was come to feast with Bacchus for the common good of Asia.

On her arrival, Antony sent to invite her to supper. She thought it fitter he should come to her; so, willing to show his good humor and courtesy, he complied, and went. He found the preparations to receive him magnificent beyond expression, but nothing so admirable as the great number of lights; for on a sudden there was let down altogether so great a number of branches with lights in them so ingeniously disposed, some in squares, and some in circles, that the whole thing was a spectacle that has seldom been equaled for beauty.

The next day, Antony invited her to supper, and was very desirous to outdo her as well in magnificence as contrivance; but he found he was altogether beaten in both, and was so well convinced of it, that he was himself the first to jest and mock at his poverty of wit, and his rustic awkwardness. She, perceiving that his raillery was broad and gross, and savored more of the soldier than the courtier, rejoined in the same taste, and fell into it at once, without any sort of reluctance or reserve.

For her actual beauty, it is said, was not in itself so remarkable that none could be compared with her, or that no one could see her without being struck by it, but the contact of her presence, if you lived with her, was irresistible; the attraction of her person, joining with the charm of her conversation, and the character that attended all she said or did, was something bewitching. It was a pleasure merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an instrument of many strings, she could pass from one language to another; so that there were few of the barbarian nations that she answered by an interpreter.

Antony was so captivated by her, that while Fulvia his wife maintained his quarrels in Rome against Caesar by actual force of arms, and the Parthian troops…were assembled in Mesopotamia, and ready to enter Syria, he could yet suffer himself to be carried away by her to Alexandria, there to keep holiday, like a boy, in play and diversion, squandering and fooling away in enjoyment that most costly, as Antiphon says, of all valuables, time.

Were Antony serious or disposed to mirth, she had at any moment some new delight or charm to meet his wishes; at every turn she was upon him, and let him escape her neither by day nor by night. She played at dice with him, drank with him, hunted with him; and when he exercised in arms, she was there to see.

At night she would go rambling with him to disturb and torment people at their doors and windows, dressed like a servant woman for Antony also went in servant’s disguise, and from these expeditions he often came home very scurvily answered, and sometimes even beaten severely, though most people guessed who it was.

However, the Alexandrians in general liked it all well enough, and joined good humouredly and kindly in his frolic and play, saying they were much obliged to Antony for acting his tragic parts at Rome, and keeping his comedy for them.”

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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.  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.   
   
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.    

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