WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH:

CLASSICS NEWSLETTER

ABOUT THE NEWSLETTER

Hello and welcome to the Classics Department’s newsletter for Women’s History Month! When considering the classical and ancient world, it is all too easy to be drawn in by tales of warriors, kings and heroes (such as Achilles, Aeneas and Hercules) and be blinkered to the stories of the incredible women who also once lived. That is why I am immensely proud to present some brilliant articles written by students and staff about the lesser-known women who have made their own marks on the history of civilisation. There are poets, scientists, queens, warriors, murderers and sorceresses, so I hope there might be something in here to interest you.

I am also incredibly grateful to Dr. Helen Morales, Professor of Hellenic Studies at UC Santa Barbara and former Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge (and author of Antigone Rising), for kindly providing a thought-provoking and incisive introduction to this newsletter:

Sappho was one the reasons I was drawn to studying Classics. Her poetry is exquisite, she broke social norms writing love poetry to women as well as men, and she was hugely admired. As a rather awkward queer high school student, the fact that Sappho lived and wrote meant a great deal to me (even if we know frustratingly little about her). Now I’m interested in the hetairai of ancient Greece. A hetaira was an upper-class prostitute (or so you will read - the word translates simply as ‘female companion'). The hetaira was rumored to have written the famous funeral speech attributed to and delivered by Pericles. The hetaira Phryne was said to have become so wealthy that she offered to rebuild the walls of after had destroyed them. But were hetairai really sex workers who became wealthy and famous? Or were they independent women (musicians, writers, celebrities) who were called sex workers in order to undermine them (not unlike, one could argue, the slut-shaming of Meghan Markle by the British press). Studying ancient women can expand our horizons, because they offer examples of different ways to live, and resilience and creativity in a society that was afraid of women’s independence and power.

The classical world is such a diverse and fascinating field, with some of the most complex, twisted and interesting figures, as I hope will be made clear here. Even if you have never been interested in or studied Classics, I would encourage you to have a glance at some of the articles here, you might surprise yourself!

Mary Brown L6M

Contents:

¨ Agrippina by Zara Wedgewood U6A ¨ Medea by Eleonora Coull L6F ¨ Sappho by Mrs. Tennant ¨ Boudicca by Dennis Williamson 3C, Joshua Parish 3S, Josh Mulholland-Wells 3P and others ¨ Antigone by Sophia Dex L6A ¨ Review of A Thousand Ships by Poppy Kellock U6G ¨ Hypatia by Beth Philips 3F ¨ Olympias by Mr. Dammers ¨ Pericles by Alex Mair U6P ¨ Aspasia by Mr. Dammers ¨ Female Gladiators by Bonnie Gray L6F ¨ On the Treatment of Ancient Women by Evelyn Brough 4A ¨ Women in Sparta by Mr. Dammers ¨ Cleopatra by Mary Brown L6M ZARA WEDGEWOOD U6A

Agrippina the Younger Agrippina the Younger is best known for being the original “evil stepmother” and the murderous wife of Emperor Claudius. There are three main sources on her life, all of which are heavily biased: her story has been twisted and manipulated as, for Tacitus (who tends to portray strong women as evil anyway), she is a symbol of the corruption of the JulioClaudians and the faults of the Imperial system. Agrippina’s real rise to power began when she married the emperor Claudius, her own uncle (even for the Romans this act was horrifying and required laws to be changed)! Sources of course claim Agrippina relentlessly seduced Claudius, portraying her as a devious temptress, willing to sell her own body for power and largely ignore the political and economic value she would provide as she strengthened Claudius’ claim to power due to herself and Nero (her son) being the only surviving descendants of Augustus. From then on, Agrippina’s influence grew; she set a new precedent as being the first empress to be featured with the emperor on the same coin, established a veteran’s colony named Colonia Agrippinensis (the modern city of Cologne), gave financial backing to public games in Asia and, most importantly, built up a number of personal and political ties to several senators, which further increased her influence over the senate. If Agrippina is remembered for anything it should be her ambition for Nero. Her plotting and manipulation led to Claudius adopting Nero as his own son and Nero marrying Octavia (Claudius’ daughter) three years later. This solidified Nero’s status as the “next-in-line emperor” and, when it seemed Claudius was changing his mind, he died. Almost all sources agree that Agrippina killed him with poison (a woman’s weapon) either through his drink, mushrooms or having a doctor force it down his throat. Her next moves show her cunning as news of the death was kept quiet until the senate was convened, and Nero’s succession confirmed. Only when Agrippina was satisfied was Claudius announced as dead and the 16-year-old Nero hailed as emperor. From that day forward, Agrippina’s role in public life resembled more of a man’s than a woman’s. Coins were minted to mark Nero’s accession with him facing Agrippina, marking them as equals and making it very clear exactly whose scheming had ensured Nero’s power. Agrippina was the powerhouse behind the scenes: she wrote letters on his behalf, received dignitaries, and even had senate meetings moved to the imperial palace so she could secretly listen behind a curtain. Less than a year into his reign and her relationship with Nero already had cracks: tensions had been rising due to her influence over imperial policy and the people were not happy with having an “emperor ruled by a woman”. Tacitus reports that Agrippina was so desperate not to lose her control over Nero she resorted to seducing him (but incest is a popular claim against the Roman elite so should mainly be ignored). In the end, Nero’s lover Poppaea Maxima persuaded him to kill his mother. However, Agrippina was prepared for assassination attempts, she regularly drank poisons to build up her immunity and, due to her being the only surviving great-grandchild of Augustus, many men refused to kill her by sword. Instead, Nero’s complicated plan involved tricking his mother onto a collapsible ship which sank in the bay of Naples. But Agrippina would not go down so easily, she swam to shore and returned to her villa where she met her defiant end. As she was being beaten by Nero’s assassins, she pointed at her womb that her traitorous son had come from and shouted, “strike here!”. Instead of the exile and starvation that many of her predecessors faced, Agrippina died a “masculine death”, suitable for someone who was often accused of acting too far outside her gender. ELEONORA COULL L6F

Medea

I’m sure most of you are already familiar with the myth of Medea, famed sorceress. But just in case you’re not, here’s the story. Medea came from Colchis (located in modern-day Georgia) and was the daughter of the king, Aeëtes. One day the Argonauts, with Jason as their leader, arrived in Colchis, seeking the Golden Fleece. Medea supposedly fell in love with Jason and agreed to help him on the condition that he would take her away with him when he left. And so, when Aeëtes demanded that Jason complete three tasks before he be allowed to take the fleece, Medea helped him complete them. First, she helped him yoke fire-breathing oxen and plough a field with them by giving him fire- resistant ointment (take note, firefighters). Then she helped Jason defeat the warriors that sprang up from sown dragon teeth: the trick was to throw a rock amidst the army so they would start fighting, and eventually kill each other. Finally, Medea provided Jason with sleeping herbs to use on the sleepless guardian dragon, so he could collect the Golden Fleece. Thus, Jason was allowed to depart in peace, having completed all three tasks, with Medea and the fleece by his , right? Wrong. Aeëtes had never expected Jason to succeed and did not actually plan to let him depart with the fleece. He pursued them, leaving Medea with no other choice (in her mind) but to slaughter her brother and scatter his pieces in the sea to delay her father (he would have to stop and collect them to give his son a proper burial). Jason and Medea encountered some trouble on their way home back to Iolcus, such as the giant bronze man, Talos, but nothing powerful enough to stop them. But even when they got home their troubles weren’t over. Pelias, king of Iolcus, refused to give Jason the throne (the whole reason why he went to get the Golden Fleece), so once again Medea had to step in. She convinced Pelias’ daughters that if their father were to be chopped up and boiled with herbs, he would be rejuvenated (very believable, of course). Obviously, this was not the case and Medea had in fact tricked the daughters into murdering their own father. Thence, Medea and Jason were forced to flee from Iolcus, and they settled in Corinth, where they had two children together. Now comes the best part, in my opinion, that is the section of the myth most famously depicted in Euripides’ Medea. Jason betrays Medea and intends to marry Glauce/Creusa (depending on the source), the daughter of the king of Corinth, Creon. Medea is then exiled, along with her children, and is told she only has one day to pack up her things and, basically, get lost. Medea, both distraught and wrathful, decides she must take revenge: Jason cannot insult her so and get away with it. She murders Glauce first, sending a gift covered in poison, that also ends up killing Creon when he tries to save his daughter. She then realises that the most effective way to hurt Jason is to kill his children, even though this would end up hurting her more than him. Medea slaughters her children and escapes to Athens on a chariot sent by her grandfather, the god Helios. And they all lived happily ever after, except that most people are dead, and Medea has killed the people she loved most. Medea by Frederick Sandys

It’s easy to think that Medea is pure evil. How could she kill her own brother and children, let alone all the others as well? But she’s a lot more than that. Looking at Medea’s portrayal in the play by Euripides, which shocked the audience when it was first performed in 431 BC, it is clear that she is much more than the typical wicked woman, scorned and vengeful. Medea challenges the nature of heroism itself; Jason is not allowed to have his fun and then abandon her when it is convenient to do so. On the contrary, he is forced to suffer the consequences of his actions and is punished accordingly. Medea is ELEONORA COULL L6F also much cleverer than the men in the play: she tricks Jason, Creon and Aegeus (the king of Athens), by picking up on their weaknesses and showing them exactly what they wanted to see, be that the desperate mother, the understanding wife or the helpful friend. They all end up giving her exactly what she wanted, even if they were originally set on a different course of action. Medea also famously gives the ‘Women of Corinth’ speech, quoted at suffrage meetings over 2300 years later, in which she describes how of all creatures, women are the most wretched, and featuring the line: “I’d rather stand three times in the front line that bear one child”. Must have been shocking for the all-male audience of the play! She also has the complete support of the chorus, the women of Corinth, up to the point where they find out she plans to kill her children, which is a nice little bit of female solidarity. Overall, the take-home message of the play is that if you hurt her, she will make you regret it, and can you really blame her (even if her means are a little extreme)?

Medea’s story is one that is still performed so often, not least because it offers one of the greatest roles for a woman in theatre to play. But her story, what happens to her, can be easily mapped onto our contemporary world. She is a woman who has fundamentally been betrayed and abandoned. One cannot help but be sympathetic to this strong and powerful woman who gave up everything, her homeland, her family, to follow a ‘hero’, who turns out to be a rather pompous and self-righteous man. Yet, in the end, she is cast aside once she is no longer ‘desirable’, left a foreign woman Medea on her golden chariot, by Germán with no financial means to look after herself and her Hernández Amores children. And that is why I think Medea is still so relevant, because, even in the heavily patriarchal world of Mycenaean Greece, she does not allow herself to be used by men as they see fit, but lashes out at those who have hurt her (albeit in ways I would not recommend to any of you nor condone).

If you think Medea is just as cool and interesting as I do, I recommend Euripides’ Medea, for starters, as well as Seneca’s Medea, and Medea by Christa Wolf if you want a modern interpretation (though it is still set in the same time period).

MRS. TENNANT The Poetess: Sappho of Lesbos

It is a cliché that the classical cannon of western literature is dominated by Dead White Males – a cliché because it’s often said and is manifestly true, and in this literature is no different from the history of western politics, philosophy, science, art, music, theatre…. The list goes on.

But amongst the Roll of Honour of classical literature, the names that dominate the reading lists and exam syllabuses - Homer, Virgil, Herodotus, Thucydides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Xenophon, Plato, Horace, Livy and Tacitus – stands a lone female figure.

Sappho was born around 630 BC on the Aegean island of Lesbos (i.e. over by Turkey) to an aristocratic family. The standard biography tells us that she ran an academy for single young women which devoted itself to the cult of and Eros – gods of love and sex. Married to a wealthy man called Cercylas, she had a daughter Cleïs, but came to a sticky end when at an early age she threw herself from a cliff, her heart broken by a young sailor. Almost certainly all tosh - especially the last bit.

But what we do know is that she enjoyed extraordinary fame even in her lifetime as a great lyric poet. Prolific in her lifetime, we have relatively little of her work: only one complete poem (Ode to Aphrodite) is extant, the rest surviving in fragments and through quotations by other writers. But Plato (no slacker in the intellectual department) labelled her the ‘tenth Muse’; her likeness appeared on coins (something we reserve for HMQ E2R); and she was even known as simply ‘The Poetess’, just as Homer, the Grand-Daddy of western literature, was ‘The Poet’.

But there were, and are, lots of poets, so what’s so special about Sappho?

Well, one simply cannot ignore her gender. In a world where men (and, frankly, even only a selected group of them) monopolised access to all political, legal and economic opportunities, Sappho is an authentic female voice, speaking to us powerfully and directly across the centuries, and this makes her a very precious commodity. We have so few female writers from the 1500 years covered by the classical civilisations (1000 BC – AD 500) – which feels shockingly poor show until one tries to catalogue female writers in the English language pre-19th century. It’s a short list.

Secondly, at a time when literature (by the likes of Homer and Hesiod) was all about men, gods and war, Sappho’s poetry instead focuses on the individual and the personal, revealing her innermost feelings with a candour and intimacy that seems thoroughly modern. She, brilliantly, describes love as the loosener of limbs – capturing that all-too-physical feeling when the object of one’s affections walks into the room... Here she is on the pain of separation: I have not had one word from her./ Frankly, I wish I were dead./ When she left, she wept/a great deal; she said to me, “This parting must be/endured, Sappho. I go unwillingly.” I said, “Go, and be happy/but remember (you know/well) whom you leave shackled by love.” Now imagine that in ancient Aeolic Greek. Oh, boy. And – in case you are tempted to think it was all fluffy, girly stuff - she was also a virtuoso of technique, inventing a new metrical form, the Sapphic, and attracting imitators amongst poets for centuries to come.

There is also the vexed question of her sexuality. Much (though not all) of her romantic poetry is addressed to women - in fact, the very word ‘lesbian’ was coined from the name of her home island – and considerable angst has been devoted to discussion of her sexual orientation: Was she heterosexual (but wrote imaginatively about relationships with women)? Homosexual (but wrote about relationships with men, as a cover)? But, quite apart from any assumption about the binary nature of sexuality (outdated thinking today but particularly invalid when applied to the classical world), this takes us down the slippery slope of thinking that authors can only write autobiographically, from their own personal experience. And reactions to her work – such as Pope Gregory VII’s edict in 1073 that her books should be burned and her embracing by the LGBTQ+ movement in the 21st century – arguably reveal more about the preoccupations of their own age than anything else. MRS. TENNANT

But whatever her biography, gender and orientation, Sappho was amongst the first in western literature to speak openly, honestly and directly about feelings and relationships – and from Shakespeare and Keats to Sylvia Plath and Khalid Hosseini, her influence has been incalculable.

Two images unlikely to tell us much about what Sappho really looked like. That hair net is particularly dodgy…

But this is definitely Lesbos.

τεθνάκην δ᾽ ὀλίγω ᾽πιδεύης φαίνομ᾽ ἔμ᾽ Sappho Fragment 31 αὔται·

φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισιν That man seems to me to be equal to the ἔμμεν᾽ ὤνηρ, ὄττις ἐνάντιός τοι gods who is sitting opposite you and hears ἰσδάνει καὶ πλάσιον ἆδυ φωνεί- you nearby σας ὐπακούει speaking sweetly

καὶ γελαίσας ἰμέροεν, τό μ᾽ ἦ μὰν and laughing delightfully, which indeed καρδίαν ἐν στήθεσιν ἐπτόαισεν· ὠς makes my heart flutter in my breast; for γὰρ ἔς σ᾽ ἴδω βρόχε᾽, ὤς με φώναι- when I look at you even for a short time, σ᾽ οὐδ᾽ ἒν ἔτ᾽ εἴκει, it is no longer possible for me to speak

ἀλλ᾽ ἄκαν μὲν γλῶσσα †ἔαγε†, but it is as if my tongue is broken and λέπτον δ᾽ αὔτικα χρῶι πῦρ immediately a subtle fire has run over my ὐπαδεδρόμηκεν, ὀππάτεσσι δ᾽ οὐδ᾽ skin, ἒν ὄρημμ᾽, ἐπιρρόμ- βεισι δ᾽ ἄκουαι, I cannot see anything with my eyes, and my ears are buzzing †έκαδε μ᾽ ἴδρως ψῦχρος κακχέεται†, τρόμος δὲ παῖσαν ἄγρει, χλωροτέρα δὲ ποίας ἔμμι, a cold sweat comes over me, trembling seizes me all over, I am paler than grass, and I seem nearly to have died DENNIS WILLIAMSON 3C, JOSHUA PARISH 3S, JOSH MULHOLLAND-WELLS 3P AND OTHERS

Boudicca

Boudicca (Boadicea is likely to be a medieval spelling mistake!) is famous as a Celtic warrior queen who led the British tribes in a bloody rebellion against Roman rule in AD 60-61. Boudicca was married to Prasutagus, the king of the Iceni tribe in what we know as Norfolk. Initially, Prasutagus and the Iceni tribe were on good terms with the Romans, who had invaded Britain in 43 AD. When Prasutagus died in around 59-60 AD, under Roman law his property passed to the Emperor Nero, but he hoped to provide some protection for his people and his family. For the Romans, however, this was a chance to take total control and they confiscated the property of Boudicca and other tribal chiefs. When Boudicca resisted, she was publicly stripped, beaten and her daughters raped.

To avenge this great humiliation to herself and her tribe, Boudicca joined forces with the neighbouring tribe of Trinovantes and the tribal forces first attacked Cambulodunum - Roman Colchester. During this attack they destroyed the temple of Claudius, a hated symbol of Roman rule, burning to death the Roman settlers who had sheltered inside it during the attack.

The Roman Governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, was in North Wales fighting the Druids when news of the rebellion reached him. He sent the IX legion of 4,000 men to confront the rebels, but it was ambushed and very few escaped with their lives. The rebels then attacked London and St. Albans (Verulamium), burning the Roman cities to the ground and mercilessly killing their inhabitants.

The rebels were finally defeated by Paulinus in AD 61 somewhere in the Midlands. Though the Romans were massively outnumbered, their superior weaponry and training enabled them to inflict a crushing defeat on the Britons. Trapped by their own vehicles which they had over- confidently stationed around the edge of the battlefield, the Britons were cut down and Boudicca took her own life. Britain - kicking and screaming – had become part of the first European community. Our relationship with Europe has remained complicated ever since, as Brexit has clearly demonstrated, and Boudicca continues to be a potent symbol of British resistance to foreign tyranny ever since, her statue standing on the Embankment outside Parliament (pictured below).

SOPHIA DEX L6A

Antigone Antigone is a Greek tragedy by Sophocles written in approximately 441BC. Antigone was the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, who were mother and son. She had 3 siblings - Ismene, Polyneices and Eteocles. Her brothers fought and killed each other in a battle for authority over Thebes, with Eteocles defending their home and Polyneices attacking it. Since Eteocles was a hero who died for the city and Polyneices was on the attack, only Eteocles was given a proper burial under the orders of her uncle Creon, king of Thebes. And so, Polyneices’ body was dumped outside the walls of the city. This angered Antigone, who was a loving sister and very righteous, so she went against the wishes of King Creon to give Polyneices a decent burial. Most of the play presents Antigone and Creon caught in a vicious, back-and-forth throwing of words, with Antigone standing for the values of family and Creon for the values of the state. During this conflict, Antigone expresses that she is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, death, to let her brother’s soul be put to rest. She shows she has no fears of the consequences of her actions and repeatedly undermines Creon’s position by stating: ‘Creon is not enough to stand in my way,’. She also makes it clear to the audience that she is not bothered that she is a woman and does not let the limits society forces upon her because of her gender get in the way of what she believes is morally correct and just. The Antigone is one of the surviving Athenian tragedies with a female protagonist, who in this case is Antigone. In plays of this nature, any female characters are largely portrayed as tragic figures who suffer due to the absence of men. However, since these plays were all performed and watched by men, this suggests that we should see Antigone as the Athenian men would have. Taking this into account, we should view her actions as out of place and outrageous, as she was a woman who was coming outside of the house, and therefore against convention, to directly oppose the decree of not only a powerful man, but her uncle. This presents Antigone as a character who embodies civil disobedience. However, we certainly cannot ignore her fiery passion and devotion to her family. The fact that she was brave enough to speak out when no one else would, even though many citizens also disapproved of Creon’s actions, shows her incredible strength of character. While knowing full well what the consequences would be, she still showed she had no fear as long as she achieved what she believed was just, and she intended to let ‘no one man’ stand in her way. She also shows her fearlessness when she states that the only authority she abides to and the only fear she has is for the Gods: ‘It was not God’s proclamation.’ She even ignored her sister Ismene’s pleas for her not to carry out her ‘mad’ plan and responded to her sister bitterly, suggesting not doing so would be a betrayal to her family. Another striking trait of Antigone is that ‘she was not afraid, not even when we charged her with what she had done. She denied nothing,’. This demonstrates how she was prepared to face consequences and be sentenced to death rather than lie, showing her raw determination. Her sister Ismene’s presence in the play contrasts with Antigone. She is portrayed as a conventional woman who behaves how an Athenian woman was expected to and does not dare to speak out against a man. Antigone rejects Ismene’s plea to not pick a fight because they were ‘born women, not to fight men’. This shows Antigone’s rejection of the implication that she cannot do what she desires because she is a woman. In Greek tragedy, the tragic hero is often portrayed as having very heroic and admirable traits, however they also have many flaws which ultimately lead to their demise. In Antigone’s case, it is her arrogance, inflexibility, and rigidity in her views. However, her strength and bravery make the Antigone a widely known and inspirational play to this day.

POPPY KELLOCK U6G

Natalie Haynes’ A Thousand Ships “I have sung of the women, the women in the shadows. I have sung of the forgotten, the ignored, the untold. I have picked up the old stories and I have shaken them until the hidden women appear in plain sight. I have celebrated them in song because they have waited long enough. Just as I promised him: this was never the story of one women, or two. It was the story of all of them.”– Calliope

When we recall the story of the Trojan War, the male heroes are those who instantly spring to mind. ‘Swift-footed’ Achilles – the greatest of the Greek fighters, Ithaca’s legendary King Odysseus, Trojan troop commander Aeneas. What had been missing for centuries, however, was a sufficient representation of the war from the perspective of the female victims involved. Of course, this was until the fabulous Natalie Haynes, author of the highly-lauded ‘Children of Jocasta’, published her most recent, female- orientated narrative of the Trojan War - ‘A Thousand Ships’. The title references the number of ships sent by the Greeks to in the preceding years to one of the most famous mythological conflicts, and the story is narrated from the perspective of Homer’s presumed muse – Calliope. Recognising that the victims of war weren’t solely those killed on the battlefield, the muse potently states: “when a war was ended the men lost their lives. But the women lost everything else”. She refers to the heartbroken mothers, sisters and wives witnessing the deaths of their beloved male counterparts, along with the sexual abuse of their daughters and themselves; a misery given scarcely recognised by the original poets, yet beautifully revisited by Haynes. Rather than working chronologically, Haynes offers a compilation of extracts depicting the experiences of the often-overlooked women, all facing individual challenges and moral decisions. Despite the occasionally brief perspectives, I found myself becoming emotionally connected to each of these women within the power of just a few pages. You might know of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, but are you aware of her sister Penthesilea, another skilful Amazonian Queen, who fearlessly fights Achilles to her death? We witness the sheer courage of Iphigenia, the Greek princess, facing death by her father, Agamemnon, during what she thought was to be her wedding to Achilles. Then follows the spectacular rage-infused revenge of Clytemnestra, as she kills her husband, seeking vengeance for her daughter’s murder. Penelope’s account is recalled through letters to her husband Odysseus, longing for his return home after the Trojan War. Having discovered his various exploits from Homer’s poems, she reflects on these, supplying the reader with the perspective of those left behind, outside of the action we know so well from Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’. These examples are to name but a few. Through her skilful flair for storytelling, Haynes is able to effectively demonstrate her intricate mythological knowledge, and, not just recognize, but scintillatingly bring to life the struggles, challenges and utter grief endured by these women. I would urge anyone who has even a small background knowledge of the Trojan War to read this book; it provided me with a new outlook on such a renowned event, and I was utterly absorbed to learn of the unseen and quite frankly ignored plight of these admirable women, during such an androcentric battle.

“A war does not ignore half the people whose lives it touches. So why do we?”

BETH PHILIPS 3F

Hypatia of Alexandria

WHO WAS SHE? Famous for being the greatest astronomer and mathematician of her time, the leader of the Neoplatonist school of philosophy in Alexandria and spectacularly overcoming the profound sexism of her society, Hypatia was born in 360 AD, Alexandria, Egypt to Theon of Alexandria, a Greek scholar and mathematician. She was a pagan and a Neoplatonist. Neoplatonic philosophy is a strict form of principle-monism that strives to understand everything based on a single cause that they considered divine, and indiscriminately referred to as “the First”, “the One”, or “the Good”.

CHRISTIANS AND PAGANS It was in the late Roman Empire during the reign of Constantine the Great (306–337) in the military colony of Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem) that the persecution of pagans began. He demolished a temple and built a church in its place. Although Hypatia was a pagan, she was tolerant towards Christians and taught many Christian students, one of whom was the future bishop of , Synesius. According to ancient sources, pagans and Christians alike adored Hypatia, and she established great influence with the political elite in Alexandria. Hypatia advised Orestes towards the end of her life. He was the Roman prefect of Alexandria, who was in the midst of a political feud with Cyril, the bishop of Alexandria. This partnership is what led to her death.

DEATH In March 415 AD, she was murdered by a mob of Christians led by a lector named Peter after rumours spread accusing her of preventing Orestes from resolving the feud with Cyril. Hypatia's murder shocked the empire, transforming her into a "martyr for philosophy". It was her death that later encouraged leading Neoplatonists such as Damascius to become increasingly passionate in their opposition to Christianity. Hypatia was selected as a symbol of Christian virtue in the Middle Ages, and some scholars believe the legend of Saint Catherine of Alexandria was based partly upon her. During the Age of Enlightenment, she became a symbol of opposition to Catholicism and, in the nineteenth century, European literature romanticized her as "the last of the Hellenes" (e.g., Charles Kingsley's 1853 novel Hypatia). Hypatia became an icon for women's rights, a pioneer to the feminist movement in the twentieth century. Since the late twentieth century, Hypatia's death has been associated with the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. However, this is historically incorrect as the library no longer existed during Hypatia's lifetime.

WHY SHE SHOULD BE REMEMBERED Besides the fact that she was an extremely intelligent woman, Hypatia was kind and generous in a world where people did not treat her with the same respect, an example being how she taught Christians and pagans alike, even when there were disputes between the two. One accomplishment of hers that changed the world was ‘On the Conics of Apollonius’, which divided cones into different parts by a plane, edited by Hypatia. With Hypatia's work on this important book, she made the concepts easier to understand, thus helping the work to survive through many centuries. The fact that she continued to be a pioneer and icon of women’s rights even after her death shows how brilliant she was. Hypatia overcame the sexism of her society and paved the way for women in mathematics so they would not be held back like she might have been had it not been for her determination and passion. What she managed to accomplish is truly admirable, especially to women in academia today. Hypatia should be remembered as the Great Female Scholar of Alexandria, a figure to inspire others to be whatever they want to be and not let anyone prevent them from doing so.

MR. DAMMERS

Olympias Olympias (375-316BC) was the mother of Alexander the Great. She was the daughter of Neoptolemus I, king of Epirus. She married Philip II of Macedon (his fourth marriage) in 357BC, in a political alliance.

The night before Olympias’ and Philip’s marriage was consummated, she dreamt that a lightning-bolt struck her womb, causing fires all around. Alexander was born in 356BC.

Estrangement from Philip

Olympias’ and Philip’s marriage was reputedly very stormy, owing to his moodswings and her jealousy and desire for Alexander to succeed to the throne of Macedon.

Things got worse in 337BC, when Philip married Cleopatra, the niece of Attalus, one of Philip’s Macedonian generals. She was his seventh wife! Olympias and her son, Alexander, went into exile at the court of her brother, Alexander I of Epirus. At the wedding feast, Attalus prayed that the gods would give Philip a legitimate heir through his niece. This further threatened Alexander’s position.

In 336BC, Philip married his (and Olympias’) daughter, also called Cleopatra, confusingly, to Alexander I, so that now Olympias could not count on her brother’s support against Philip.

Plutarch claims that Olympias steadily tried to poison Philip III Arrhidaeus, Alexander’s half-brother and a possible heir to Philip II, in a further effort to secure the succession of her own son, Alexander.

Philip Assassinated

At the wedding, at in October 336, Philip was assassinated by Pausanias, one of his own bodyguards. He tried to escape, running to three accomplices, waiting with a horse, but tripped on a vine, and was killed by some of Philip’s other bodyguards. Alexander was immediately proclaimed king.

MR. DAMMERS

The Roman Historian Justin (writing several centuries later) suggests that Olympias and Alexander may at least have been aware of a conspiracy to kill Philip – on her return to Aigai, she placed a crown on the body of Pausanias.

Ruthlessly Consolidating Power for Alexander

In an attempt to consolidate her son’s position by eliminating any potential rivals, Olympias had Philip’s widow, Cleopatra, killed, and Cleopatra’s daughter by Philip, Europa, murdered. They were burnt alive.

Olympias and Antipater

During Alexander’s campaigns in Egypt and Asia, Olympias held considerable authority in Macedon. Alexander had left his general, Antipater, as regent of Macedon, and Olympias and Antipater seem to have had something of a power struggle there. Olympias may even have slandered Antipater in letters to Alexander, in an effort to discredit him. Alexander IV and the Successor Wars

Alexander the Great died at Babylon in 323BC; after he died, his widow, Roxana, gave birth to his son, Alexander IV (Olympias’ grandson). Antipater, and his successor Polyperchon (from 319BC), acted as Regents for the infant Alexander IV and the incapacitated Philip III.

Antipater’s son, Cassander, however, opposed Polyperchon’s rule and established Philip III as king of Macedon. Olympias realised that, if Cassander were allowed to pull the levers of power, her grandson, Alexander IV, would be denied the throne, so she allied herself with Polyperchon against Cassander in 317BC, and drove him out of power in Macedon.

Olympias then convinced Philip III’s army to join her, and used them to capture Philip III and his wife, both of whom she had killed. Olympias is said to have given Philip’s wife, Adea Eurydice, the choice of a noose, hemlock or a sword; Adea ignored her, and hanged herself by her own girdle.

Death

Cassander besieged Olympias at Pydna in the winter of 317-316. She tried to escape by boat, but was captured. Cassander ordered that Olympias be killed, but his soldiers would not harm the mother of Alexander the Great.

Olympias had, however, made many enemies in her 40+ years at the centre of Macedonian politics, and families of those she had killed stoned her. It is said that Cassander denied her burial rites.

ALEX MAIR U6P

Pericles’ Oration

Of all the figures in the classical world, few are better known than Pericles (495-429BC). He was, after all, ‘the first citizen of Athens’, who organised the construction of the Parthenon, developed a democracy built around the people, provided significant funding for the arts, and led his city for over thirty years. At the public funeral in 431BC honouring the first Athenians who died in the Peloponnesian War (431-404BC), Pericles delivered his funeral oration. This oration is undoubtedly one of the most famous in history, inspiring others such as the Gettysburg Address of Abraham Lincoln. Pericles’ speech was however altogether different to almost all funeral orations that had preceded him. Instead of focusing specifically on those who had died and their transitions to the underworld, he instead centred his speech on how the soldiers died for the sake of the glory of Athenian values and institutions, of which there were no greater anywhere in the world. As such, Pericles declared Athens as “the school of Hellas” with “imperishable monuments” (a humble brag, perhaps). He then proceeded to talk about the honour of a noble death, punishing the enemy and suffering for your city. Once he had dealt with the merits of Athens and the courage of the fallen, he moved on to addressing those left behind, where this magnificent example of public discourse became somewhat more unsatisfactory.

To the parents, he comforted them with words on the honour of their children, and even encouraged them to have more offspring in order to forget their lost ones whilst reinforcing the city at the same time! Next in line was the brothers and sons, to whom Pericles explained that replicating the actions of their lost relatives would be a challenge but that glorious death is the only way to relieve all pain and criticism. However, and critically, he then moved on to the widows, though only to fulfil an obligation and only to fulfil it briefly. “The greatest honour a woman can have”, he said, “is to be least spoken of in men’s company, whether in praise or virtue”, thus consigning women to the peripheries of society. It is interesting to note that women, in private funerals, had been very involved up to this point, completing their traditional rituals of anointing dead bodies, beating their breasts or tearing their clothes. And so, after the fierce Amazonian warriors of Homeric epic, and the empowering female characters of Greek tragedy, this attack seems to diminish all the dignity that women may have commanded. One modern-day critic, Edith Hall, has said that, for all of Athens’ 5th BC greatness, this speech is a reminder that it was merely “a militaristic state and a brutal imperial patriarchy”.

But was Pericles’ viewpoint one shared by other men of authority in the classical world? For the most part, of course it was, with those such as Aristotle (384-322 BC) saying in his Politics that “the relation of male to female is by nature a relation of superior to inferior” or Hesiod (8th Century BC) saying in the Theogony, “whoever avoids marriage and the sorrows that women cause...reaches deadly old age without anyone to tend his years”. Thucydides (460-400 BC), a contemporary of Pericles, and from whom we have the contents of his oration, also paid scant regard to women, not once mentioning Aspasia, Pericles’ wife, or any women really, in his history of the Peloponnesian War. However, Plato (428-347 BC) seemed to have taken a more measured, perhaps even proto- feminist approach, saying that since men and women have the same mind, they have the same nature, and should be able to work alongside men, save for any field where physical strength is required.

So, whilst Thucydides, Hesiod, Aristotle and the rest are writing or speaking in their own era, where they would have known no different way to assess the roles of women in society, it is nevertheless fascinating to note who of the classical men were most misogynistic, and who actually seemed to be willing to give women a chance. It goes without saying that Pericles, for all his triumphs and achievements, falls into the category of the former. MR. DAMMERS

Aspasia

th At the end of his Funeral Oration, the most famous speech of C. 5 Athens, Pericles says that the highest praise that could be spoken of a woman was not to be spoken of. And yet his own girlfriend for the 15 years before his death in 429BC and mother of his heir was the most talked-about woman in Athens.

Growing up in , Aspasia was almost certainly from a wealthy family (since she was highly educated). She arrived in Athens c. 450BC, probably aged around 20 at the time, but as a foreign woman, she enjoyed far more freedoms than Athenian women, who were physically confined to the home and would have had very little education.

She has been characterised as a hetaira, a “courtesan”, whose company men sought for conversation, as well as sex – but it may be that these descriptions of Aspasia were fabrications, a political ploy by Pericles’ enemies to undermine him.

Consort of Pericles

She met Pericles, the leading politician of Athens, and at around the same time he left his wife and two sons. He appears not to have married her but treated her as an equal, which was unheard of in Athens at the time. Plutarch said that Pericles loved her διαφερόντως – exceedingly, and that he kissed her every time he left and returned home – imagine that!

Put on Trial

Plutarch tells us that Aspasia was accused of asebeia (impiety – not believing in the official gods) by the comic poet Hermippus in 431BC, who accused her of procuring young girls for Pericles’ enjoyment. “Sycophants” often brought false allegations to denigrate their political opponents or their associates and, as a woman accorded more liberty and influence than any of her C. 5th peers, Aspasia was a very easy target. In the end, the trial came to nothing. Pericles appears to have won the case for her, allegedly shedding copious tears of love for her in court.

A Teacher of Rhetoric:

Plutarch records that the house that Aspasia shared with Pericles became a centre for intellectual debate, with frequent visits from the philosopher Socrates, Pheidias (the sculptor and architect of the Parthenon) and the tragic playwright Euripides. She seems to have set up a school for upperclass girls, at which she taught them rhetoric, the key skill for public life at the time.

In the Menexenus, Plato has the philosopher Socrates say that he learnt rhetoric from Aspasia (with whom he may or may not have had an affair himself), and that she was very good at writing Funeral Orations. This is an obvious reference to Pericles’ famous speech over the dead of Athens at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War. Is Plato really suggesting that Aspasia wrote the Funeral Oration? Or is this a joke? Either way, Aspasia must have been very well known for her powers of rhetoric and as a teacher.

The Founder of Western Philosophy?

Plato only refers to two women in his 30-odd extant dialogues: Aspasia in the Menexenus, as mentioned above, and “Diotima” in the Symposium. Diotima means “honoured by Zeus; Pericles was often satirised

MR. DAMMERS by comic poets as being a human version of Zeus and many scholars have therefore posited that Diotima was a code-name for Aspasia.

In the Symposium, “Diotima” puts forward the view that love should aim for the higher ideals of the education of the soul, not physical pleasures; the particular should be subordinated to the universal; the transient to the eternal; the physical (and thus impure) to the ideal. This all looks very much like Plato’s Theory of the Forms, a cornerstone of Western Philosophy.

Aspasia in Conversation with Greek Philosophers - Michelle Corneille the Younger (1642- 1708) If we take “Diotima” as being Aspasia, we see her importance, not just to Pericles and his city, but to the development of Socratic thought. Socrates says that he learnt what true love is from Diotima, who is reported as putting forward the basis of Socrates’ life’s work:

One proceeds from recognition of another's beauty, to appreciation of Beauty apart from any individual, to consideration of Divinity, the source of Beauty, to love of Divinity.

. . . and directing his gaze from now, on towards beauty as a whole, he should turn to the great ocean of beauty, and in contemplation of it give birth to many beautiful and magnificent speeches and thoughts in the abundance of philosophy.

Cicero depicts a scene in which Aspasia gives an example of inductive reasoning, a key foundation for Philosophy, in the presence of Socrates – did she teach him this, too?

A Political and Social Mover-and-Shaker

Many in Athens felt that Aspasia wielded too much influence over her partner, Pericles. (Did anyone say “Lady Macbeth Syndrome”?). In particular, she was blamed for Pericles’ decision to support the Milesians (remember that Aspasia was from Miletus originally) in their dispute against the Samians (440-439BC). It was said that he attacked Samos to gratify his consort. Pericles besieged Samos, and forced it to pay a war-indemnity over 26 years.

This may have been one more straw on the back of the camel that was Spartan patience with the Athenian domination of the Aegean. Can Aspasia take any of the blame for the start of the Peloponnesian War (431-404BC), which brought Athens to its knees?

In a sense, Aspasia was vindicated in 430-29BC, when her son, Pericles the Younger, was allowed to gain full Athenian citizenship, despite her foreigner-status (and thus rescinding Pericles’ own Citizenshp Law of 451BC). It may be that this exception was granted only to Pericles, in sympathy after his two legitimate sons died in the plague.

After Pericles himself died of the plague in 429BC, Aspasia had an affair with the general Lysicles, who was of low-birth, as a sheep-farmer. The philosopher Aeschines Socraticus said that he owed all his social and political ascent to his association with Aspasia. She clearly was a woman of great influence!

BONNIE GRAY L6F Female Gladiators

Gladiator fighting is one of the most well-known and accepted parts of Roman culture, with films having been made and stories written about it and it is no wonder that men battling it out in the arena has become one of the most prominent images associated with entertainment in the ancient world. However, little is known about female gladiators. Did they exist? Who did they fight? Why did they fight?

Female gladiators – also known now as gladiatrices – were thought to have been around from the 1st or 2nd century AD; although they were nowhere near as common as their male counterparts. After men of the middle classes began to enter the arena alongside slaves and prisoners in order to experience fame and popularity, women began to do a similar thing. While high-born women did participate, scholars believe that gladiatrices were predominately lower-class women. This is because they are mainly referred to as ludia or mulieres (female performers or women) rather than as feminae (ladies). This is an interesting example of how the subtle nuances of words betray perceptions and opinions about those they describe.

But instead of seeking glory like many of their male counterparts might have done, it was freedom they were after. Fighting each other as well as animals was seen by a gladiatrix as a way to earn her independence from her husband, and even though the generally male audiences saw the events as a joke, there is evidence to suggest female gladiators began to be honoured as much as the men.

Gladiatrices were mostly treated the same as gladiators when it came to weaponry and clothing. Wearing little clothing, similar to the men, female gladiators are thought to have been given a shield in one hand and a weapon in the other, which was often a sword. Finally, a helmet that protected their heads, would be removed after victory, to show their faces to the people watching.

However, gladiatrices were not universally admired by any stretch of the imagination. Juvenal, a Roman poet and satirist, fumed that “what sense of shame can be found in a woman wearing a helmet, who shuns femininity and loves brute force?”. This has echoes, perhaps, of the staunch opposition to women fully participating in sports and the labour force in the 19th and 20th Century. Female gladiators were banned in 200 AD, when Emperor Septimus Severus commanded the banning of combat by woman in the arena in an attempt to restore decency among middle and upper class women. Yet despite their relative anonymity, the examples set by the bold and daring female fighters ought to be remembered and admired.

A carving of a pair of gladiatrices, named Amazonia and Achillea

EVELYN BROUGH 4A

On the Treatment of Ancient Women Reading an article by David Cohen from 1989 – ‘Seclusion, Separation, and the Status of Women’ – it came home to me that the depiction of women, particularly in classical Athens, has been clouded by misogyny by both ancient and contemporary writers: most writers are male and therefore give a male perspective on female life. I shall be analysing David Cohen’s article and giving a feminist perspective from the modern era.

Women in classical Athens were confined in their homes, excluded from public, political and economic life - although they will have created their own social life. David Cohen makes the point that married women had no allowance beyond their door and adolescent girls were forcibly sheltered from male view until marriage. Another contemporary writer explains: ‘The summation of a woman’s life was to remain inside and to be obedient to her husband’. This was unfortunately the truth and a common ideology of women in the ancient Mediterranean, promoting the belief that women should be oppressed and recognising a male-dominated hierarchy. Social anthropological studies of modern Mediterranean societies demonstrate that male-female separation of genders is highly common. Sophocles stated that “silence is the grace of women”, which I find highly ironic as it perfectly demonstrates a man’s insecurity about allowing women to voice an opinion, not simply out of fear of her virtue being decayed by using her voice, but rather a man’s reluctance for a women’s opinion to matter - however right she may be. You cannot ignore the pervasive belief that women were subservient to men and they had the absolute authority to decide what a woman should be, including silent. One of the authors who tells us most about the problems women had in these societies was Euripides - a playwright who created characters based on his patriarchal views. One of his characters, Melanippe, says: ‘The worst plague is the hatred race of women’; ‘Except for my mother I hate the whole female sex’. The generalisation of the entirety of the female sex demonstrates his complete ignorance and denial of female roles and purpose in society. Blindly, he only accepts his mother, which is only ever-so-slightly redeemable but also completely overshadowed by his overt misogyny. I cannot overlook the sexist societal mindsets in Ancient Greece and the Mediterranean. But, realistically, the values and beliefs of ancient world were so very different to ours on virtually everything, including relationships with women, that, however enraged I am, I have to accept that this mindset was unavoidable for most people, including women themselves. Thankfully, for the most part, the modern world is a very different place and the male perspective on women is no longer derogatory but encouraging.

MR. DAMMERS

Women in Sparta

Spartan women had far more freedom than other Greek women, and a mother of Spartan warriors was viewed as being as important as a warrior himself - only two types of people were given a statue:

• Warriors who died in battle • Women who died in childbirth

Education

Spartan girls received more education than many of their counterparts elsewhere in Greece, and some would have been educated outside the home, in formal schools. These girls were taught gymnastics, the arts, philosophy. At 18, a Spartan girl would undergo a physical test (to check that she would be able to bear healthy children). Those who passed the test would become Spartan citizens.

Spartan women were known across Greece for associating freely with men, for their outspoken and sharp wit, and for advising men in matters of state (see the Spartan queens below!).

Gymnopaedia

Spartan girls were encouraged to be physically strong (to enable them to bear strong babies, who would become warriors). They would compete alongside boys in the Gymnopaedia, a religious festival and contest of military dancing, athletics, wrestling and ball games. All competitors would be naked, which was intended to make everyone equal, but also allowed people to look for suitable marriage- partners.

Spartan Mothers

Women would be the head of the household when their husbands were away at war, or in the Spartiates’ barracks (unlike in Athens where a male kurios would be left in charge).

As well as giving birth to, and raising, children, Spartan women would supervise the household’s slaves – Helots.

Marriage

Spartan girls would not marry until their late teens or early 20s (whereas other Greek girls would marry much younger than this). It was felt that older women would be better prepared physically for successful childbirth.

It may have been that many Spartan women consented to their marriages, or at least had grown up with their husbands. Many marriages were “bride-captures”: the “bridesmaids” would “capture” the bride, shave her head and dress her in men’s clothes. They would then leave her in a darkened room,

MR. DAMMERS

to await her husband. Married partners might not live together for the first few years of marriage, while the husband was still in his barracks. Property-rights

Spartiates were the elite warriors for which Sparta was famous. They were trained in the Agogē from age 7. Needless to say, many Spartiates died (often fighting) before their wives and this was their financial situation after the death of their husbands:

• His private property and land were inherited by them on his death • She would then bequeath her private wealth equally to male and female children • Eventually, women owned 2/5 of wealth in Sparta • ... and were powerful in being able to loan money to males

A four-horse chariot-team owned by a Spartan woman won a race at the Olympics in 396BC, and in 392BC.

Spartan women were therefore accorded some more rights and freedoms than most other Greek women, but it would be wrong to view them as being emancipated in a modern sense – they were part of the military machine that drove Sparta, rather than being valued as individuals, as distinct from their capacity as child-bearers.

Aristotle (384-322BC) blamed the decline of Sparta as a power in Greece on the freedom and “luxury” accorded to women there!

Famous Spartan Queens

Gorgo

Gorgo was the daughter of king Cleomenes (520-490BC), and wife of the famous Leonidas, who led the Spartans at Thermopylae (480BC).

According to Herodotus, Gorgo herself played an important role in defeating the Persian invasion of 480BC. Demaratus, an ex- Spartan king, exiled at the Persian court, sent a message, written on a wooden tablet, covered in wax, to the Spartans. When it reached Sparta, the Spartan Gerousia (council) thought it was just a blank tablet. Only Gorgo knew to scrape away the wax, to reveal the secret message.

Once, when visiting Athens, she was asked why only Spartan women could control their men. She answered, "Because only Spartan women give birth to men". This gives an indication of the value Spartan women were given as child-bearers. Gorgo is one of the very few women mentioned by Herodotus in his Histories.

Archidamia

Archidamia, queen of Sparta (her husband was Eudamias I – 331- 305BC). In 272 BC, Pyrrhus of Epirus (SE Macedon) was besieging Sparta, then being joint-ruled by Archidamia's grandson, Eudamias II.

The Gerousia wanted to evacuate the women of Sparta to Crete. Archidamia entered the Gerousia, "with sword in hand", and opposed this idea, declaring that Spartan women would rather die than live to see Sparta destroyed.

The Gerousia decided to allow the women to stay on and defend the besieged city.

MARY BROWN L6M

Cleopatra

Cleopatra VII, arguably the most famous of all the Pharaohs, was an Egyptian queen who ruled for 21 years (51-30 BC). Her affairs with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony have been catalogued in history, literature and film (famously in Cleopatra (1963), pictured below left), yet her intelligence, ability and political acumen are often conveniently omitted. Her vilification by her enemies and the subsequent depictions of her in popular culture present Cleopatra as the original femme fatale. However, it is important to look beyond the caricature of the ‘harlot queen’ (as Pliny the Elder so charmingly described her) and instead fairly evaluate this fascinating and important woman.

Her family weren’t actually Egyptian (they were Macedonian) but she took the time to learn the language anyway, aided by her extraordinary linguistic skills. At age 18, Cleopatra became coregent with her 10-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII and they were married (in keeping with Egyptian customs). Soon, all was not well between the two. Egged on by his advisers, Ptolemy exiled Cleopatra to assume sole power of the country.

However, she was not going to tolerate this usurpation and bravely returned with an army of mercenaries to fight her brother. After Pompey fled to Egypt (during the Roman Civil War) and was executed by Ptolemy, Caesar was drawn into the feud between the sibling rulers (as Egypt was an ally of Rome). Cleopatra then allegedly smuggled herself into the royal palace in a rug to meet Caesar and personally appeal to him.

Her methods of persuasion were clearly successful because the Romans supported Cleopatra and she was reinstated as queen (Ptolemy was killed in the fighting). Cleopatra and Caesar also became lovers and she gave birth to Ptolemy Caesar. The child’s paternity is not fully clear and Caesar never publicly acknowledged him, but it is likely that he was Caesar’s child. It is usually at this point that the image of Cleopatra the seductress takes hold, that she somehow bewitched Caesar in order to further some nefarious agenda of hers. Yet this characterisation is wrong for multiple reasons. First, Caesar had his own motives for getting to know Cleopatra so intimately: Egypt was massively in debt to Rome and he wanted to ensure that it would be paid to help fund his campaigns. Also, strategic relationships between prominent figures from different countries are incredibly common, think Queen Victoria’s children, for example, as it is often mutually beneficial.

Caesar brought Cleopatra to Rome and she was there when he was assassinated in 44 BC. In the ensuing conflict between Mark Antony, Octavian and Lepidus, and Caesar’s assassins (Brutus and Cassius), both sides requested Egyptian support. Cleopatra initially stalled and then sent the four legions Caesar had left her to support the triumvirate. After their victory, Antony summoned Cleopatra to discuss what her role had been since Caesar’s assassination.

Cleopatra, playing hard to get, ignored several of his requests and delayed her journey to him. She arrived in glamorous robes, captivating Antony. Abandoning any consideration of his wife (Fulvia was back in Italy working tirelessly to help her husband against his former ally, Octavian), he began an affair with Cleopatra. Interestingly, he treated Cleopatra as an independent monarch rather than a ‘protected sovereign’, indicating a great level of respect for her and her country. MARY BROWN L6M

Painting of Antony and Cleopatra

Egypt began to grow more prosperous under Cleopatra’s rule, helped by the return of a lot of Egypt’s eastern empire (including Cyprus and Crete) and Cleopatra was a very skilled administrator. However, in 34 BC, Antony declared that Ptolemy Caesar was Caesar’s son and rightful heir and distributed kingdoms among his three children with Cleopatra. This incensed Octavian (Caesar’s adopted son) and he began to turn Rome against Antony.

In 31 BC, Antony and Cleopatra’s forces were defeated by Octavian in the Battle of Actium, during which Cleopatra personally commanded a fleet. In a bitter twist of fate, Antony heard that Cleopatra had committed suicide, prompting him to fall on his sword. Yet soon after it was revealed that this was false and, according to Plutarch, he was brought to Cleopatra shortly before he passed. After burying Antony, Cleopatra also committed suicide (supposedly poisoned by an asp, a symbol of divine royalty). Octavian then became the first emperor, Augustus, Egypt a Roman province and there were no more pharaohs ever again.

Cleopatra had been very useful for Octavian in his propaganda war against Antony for two reasons: she was a woman and a foreigner. Good old-fashioned sexism and xenophobia enabled him to turn the Romans against Antony. We must remember that history is ultimately written by the victors who often weaponise the ‘facts’ to further their own agenda. Octavian needed the Roman people to hate Antony and Cleopatra so of course he is going to do all he can to make that a reality. Historian Guy Weill Goudchaux said Octavian’s “campaign of propaganda and disinformation was worthy of Stalin”. In order for the first Roman emperor to succeed, it was vital that his opponents (namely Antony and Cleopatra) be totally vilified.

Cleopatra’s affairs with two of the most important men in Roman history are historically relevant and should be part of discussions about the queen. But I disagree with the way that they have eclipsed any of her other achievements (such as the fact she spoke 10 languages and ably governed her country) and the way they are the basis for our (usually negative and derisory) perceptions of her. It is an immense pity that Octavian’s version of events is our sole source, just think if Cleopatra’s side or thoughts had been documented and survived today and how much more nuanced this history could have been. Alas, it is not and never will be. Perhaps, then, we ought to engage with our capacity for critical thinking and challenge the presentations of Cleopatra in our culture. I would like to finish with Enobarbus’ explanation (and its modern English translation) for why Antony will never leave Cleopatra in William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, as I think it encapsulates just how fascinating a woman she was:

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. Other women cloy The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies, for vilest things Become themselves in her, that the holy priests Bless her when she is riggish

Age won’t wither her, and her charms are so varied that she never grows boring. With other women, the more familiar you grow with them the less appealing they become, yet Cleopatra makes you desire her the more you see her. Even her worst faults are charming, and holy priests bless her even when she acts the slut.