About This Item
The Presses Universitaires de France and Frémeaux & Associés offer this biography of Cleopatra, by Christian-Georges Schwentzel, specialist in the Hellenistic and Roman Middle East. Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt (69-30 BC), is an exception in the history of mankind she is one of the few women to have achieved political power. According to ancient texts, it owes it's success to it's irresistible charm it seduces Julius Caesar then Marc Antoine, successive masters of the Roman world. But she is also a political leader who manages to conquer her subjects through daring economic reforms, in favor of the poorest, and through a religious ecumenism which leads her to present herself as a living goddess speaking to all peoples. Here, Christian-Georges Schwentzel deconstructs the fantasies she has been subjected to since Antiquity and tells us the story of the queen-goddess who won immortality by transforming herself into a myth.
