The Search for Cleopatra

by Michael Foss

Book Overview

Cleopatra is wreathed by so many outsized myths that it is sometimes difficult to tell the woman from the legend. For centuries, historians have scarcely deviated from the occidental, Horatian... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559704225
• ISBN13: 9781559704229
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

The Power and the Glory

I like the author's philosphy of history: in the first chapter of "The Search for Cleopatra," Foss writes that our picture of the past "is not some absolute of historical truth founded on a mountain of small certain facts." Rather, history "reveals itself in drama, passion, elemental conflict, emblematic events that become the basis for mythologies."Cleopatra was a fascinating character, a myth in life and death. She was more brilliant than beautiful, a consummate politican and a ruthless leader. She was the mistress of the two most powerful Roman leaders of her era, partly because she wanted her Ptolemaic dynasty to survive and partly because she seems to have been genuinely devoted to her two lovers. The "Search for Cleopatra" is not a biography as such. Rather, it tells the story of a pivotal time in which Cleopatra played a central role. Foss sketches all of the major protagonists--Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Octavian and a host of lesser characters--against the background of the Roman civil wars and Cleopatra's skilled but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to come out on top in a very high stakes game.Was Cleopatra a cruel, calculating woman, a person who did not hesitate to execute her younger brother and sister in order to rule unchallenged? Or was she a loving mother, concerned about the welfare of her children and genuinely in love with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony? As with any complex character, the answer may be "both," and this well-written book does an excellent job of making a powerful woman and a dangerous time a bit more understandable to the modern reader.If you are interested in the life and times of Cleopatra, you might also want to pick up "Alexandria: City of the Western Mind" by Theodore Vrettos. Vrettos devotes a substantial part of his book to telling the story of Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, but he also describes how Alexandria transmitted Greek culture to the modern world. Another interesting view of the subject is "Not by a Nose," an essay by Josiah Ober in "What If? 2," which ponders how the world might have been different if Antony and Cleopatra had defeated Octavian at the Battle of Actium.

Feminine Wiles; Oriental Guile

Whether or not Cleopatra would qualify as "black" by contemporary definitions (and unless we magically got a DNA sample, that possibility simply can't be ruled out, given the limited information about her antedecents), we can be sure of two things: first, that she was vilified as have most other powerful women throughout the ages; second, that she was despised by the Romans as representing an alien, "Oriental" culture. Foss writes well, and by judicious use of the limited source material he re-tells the epic tale of the Queen of the Nile. The main elements (Caesar, Antony, asp, etc.) are thanks to Shakespeare, famous; less well-known are the tortured politics of Hellenistic Egypt. Cleopatra's family, the Ptolemys (the Macedonian dynasty which inherited the pharoah's throne from Alexander the Great) would satisfy any modern definition of "dysfunctional." With their unique blend of habitual incest, infidelity, profligacy, fratricide, patricide, matricide and perennial regicide, it took a political genius just to survive in the Ptolemy family, and Foss infers from Cleopatra's relative longevity that she was just such a genius. Provided you can get your head around relationships like "wife-mother" and "uncle-husband," this is a great yarn.

Very Pleased

I think that this is a very informative and interesting book. Before I read this book I hardly knew anything about Cleopatra. It was very intersesting to read about the romance and events that happened between Cleopatra and Julius Caesar and between her and Marc Anthony. I really don't see why all of these people are putting so much emphasis on her skin color. None of us have actually seen her so we don't know what she looked like. People should care more about what the author was really trying to talk about: A powerful, captivating woman with a very interseting life. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about an amazing woman. Thanks for reading my review! :)

A very insightful book

I thought this book was excellent because it covers so many topics. It also had a differant view of the queen than I've usually seen. As far as the race issue is concerned, Cleopatra was not black or Roman or Egyptian, but pure Macedonian Greek. So it is most likely she was pale skinned and had blond hair and green eyes.

Cleopatra Queen of the Nile

I thought this book was VERY good gave an insight veiw oh who cleopatra was and her descendants who were not of the black skin colour. Cleopatra was of Egyptian and Roman Decsent. Alexander was where her line started The Phtolomey Dynasty. Egyptians were NOT black people they had the skin colour of a normal red skin Arab. and in Cleopatras Days in Alexandria most people would have been a "Lialy white skin" because alexandria was a greek city. So my friend from OHIO you "Get over it" .