Fatal Monsters
Cleopatra, Her Sister Queens and the Downfall of a Dynasty
By Jane Draycott
Published by Atlantic Books
Cleopatra VII was not just the Egyptian queen and legendary lover of Mark Antony, immortalised by Shakespeare, she represented the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty that endured from 305 BCE to around 40 BCE.
Contrary to the impression created by “Antony and Cleopatra,” she also did not rule alone, but with siblings, one of whom – her last surviving sister Arsinoe – she ordered Mark Antony to murder.
Setting Cleopatra in the context of times at once savage and sophisticated is the aim of historian Jane Draycott, who redresses the balance after centuries of accounts written by men unable or unwilling to see from a female perspective. One of them was the Roman poet Horace, who called Cleopatra a “fatal monster”.
Draycott’s far more nuanced and highly detailed assessment is rooted in meticulous research.
In the absence of extant Egyptian literary sources, she relies mostly on Greek and Latin accounts, meaning she must parse a great deal of Roman propaganda. She also extrapolates from fragments of papyrus and graffiti.
While some of the detail might bewilder the average reader, we emerge with a rich picture that enhances rather than belies the Cleopatra of Shakespeare and all the other artists she inspired.
The knowledge she ruled with siblings and descended from a dynasty that did not hesitate to resort to incest and murder to try to perpetuate its rule is not incompatible with her exceptional skills as a diplomat and linguist – she was the first of the Ptolemaic dynasty to learn to speak the Egyptian spoken by her subjects.
Literary academics have long linked the speech in which the character Enobarbus describes Antony’s first sighting of Cleopatra sitting on a poop of “beaten gold” to Plutarch’s account.
Draycott lays out how Cleopatra’s arrival on the Ptolemaic royal barge, “the ancient equivalent of a superyacht” was calculated for maximum impact.
It had a golden stern, Tyrian purple sails, made with dye extracted from sea snails, and was rowed with silver oars. A company of musicians played flutes, pipes and lyres and Cleopatra, reclining beneath a canopy embroidered with gold, was dressed as Aphrodite, while incense perfumed the air.
“All of this combined to create an incredibly sexually charged atmosphere,” writes Draycott.
Cleopatra was exercising her female power to tame Rome. She succeeded in that she first seduced Julius Caesar, with whom she had a son, and then Mark Antony with whom she had twins in times when multiple births were exceptionally risky.
“If you have sufficient authority to seduce the two most powerful men in the ancient Mediterranean, surely you have enough power to accomplish anything else you set your mind to?” writes Draycott.
Ultimately, however, even Cleopatra was no match for the male might of Rome: the reign of the Ptolemaic dynasty effectively ended with Cleopatra VII – and yet her fame endures.
Barbara Lewis © 2026.
Fatal Monsters
Cleopatra, Her Sister Queens and the Downfall of a Dynasty
By Jane Draycott
Published by Atlantic Books
Cleopatra VII was not just the Egyptian queen and legendary lover of Mark Antony, immortalised by Shakespeare, she represented the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty that endured from 305 BCE to around 40 BCE.
Contrary to the impression created by “Antony and Cleopatra,” she also did not rule alone, but with siblings, one of whom – her last surviving sister Arsinoe – she ordered Mark Antony to murder.
Setting Cleopatra in the context of times at once savage and sophisticated is the aim of historian Jane Draycott, who redresses the balance after centuries of accounts written by men unable or unwilling to see from a female perspective. One of them was the Roman poet Horace, who called Cleopatra a “fatal monster”.
Draycott’s far more nuanced and highly detailed assessment is rooted in meticulous research.
In the absence of extant Egyptian literary sources, she relies mostly on Greek and Latin accounts, meaning she must parse a great deal of Roman propaganda. She also extrapolates from fragments of papyrus and graffiti.
While some of the detail might bewilder the average reader, we emerge with a rich picture that enhances rather than belies the Cleopatra of Shakespeare and all the other artists she inspired.
The knowledge she ruled with siblings and descended from a dynasty that did not hesitate to resort to incest and murder to try to perpetuate its rule is not incompatible with her exceptional skills as a diplomat and linguist – she was the first of the Ptolemaic dynasty to learn to speak the Egyptian spoken by her subjects.
Literary academics have long linked the speech in which the character Enobarbus describes Antony’s first sighting of Cleopatra sitting on a poop of “beaten gold” to Plutarch’s account.
Draycott lays out how Cleopatra’s arrival on the Ptolemaic royal barge, “the ancient equivalent of a superyacht” was calculated for maximum impact.
It had a golden stern, Tyrian purple sails, made with dye extracted from sea snails, and was rowed with silver oars. A company of musicians played flutes, pipes and lyres and Cleopatra, reclining beneath a canopy embroidered with gold, was dressed as Aphrodite, while incense perfumed the air.
“All of this combined to create an incredibly sexually charged atmosphere,” writes Draycott.
Cleopatra was exercising her female power to tame Rome. She succeeded in that she first seduced Julius Caesar, with whom she had a son, and then Mark Antony with whom she had twins in times when multiple births were exceptionally risky.
“If you have sufficient authority to seduce the two most powerful men in the ancient Mediterranean, surely you have enough power to accomplish anything else you set your mind to?” writes Draycott.
Ultimately, however, even Cleopatra was no match for the male might of Rome: the reign of the Ptolemaic dynasty effectively ended with Cleopatra VII – and yet her fame endures.
Barbara Lewis © 2026.
By Barbara Lewis • added recently on London Grip, books, feminism, history • Tags: Barbara Lewis, books, feminism, history