Cleopatra VII, one of Egypt’s most powerful pharaohs, was born in Alexandria in 69 B.C. into a family of Egyptian royalty; her father was the pharaoh of Egypt. She had two older sisters, a younger sister, and two younger brothers. When her father was overthrown, her eldest sister, Bernice, took the throne. This rule did not last long; after three years of reign, she was beheaded. Since Cleopatra VII’s other older sister, Cleopatra VI, died from a disease while Bernice was ruler, Cleopatra VII was next in line to inherit the throne at around age seventeen or eighteen.

When she took the throne, she was forced to marry her twelve-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII, but this was only because the law stated that a woman needed to have a man ruling by her side; a woman cannot rule alone. Cleopatra was the first of all of her ancestors who took the throne who could truly speak Egyptian. Ptolemy XIII stayed in the shadows as Cleopatra ruled alone. She did not associate herself with him often. Instead she found love in Julius Caesar. Together they had a son, Caesarion. However, Ptolemy XIII's advisors exiled Cleopatra to Syria after they stripped her of her powers in 48 BC. She took her younger sister, Arsinoe, with her.

When Julius Caesar was murdered by his own senators in 44 B.C., the nation was divided between Mark Antony and Octavian. Cleopatra thought that Mark Antony was stronger, and she sided with him. After a while, she fell in love with him, and in 36 B.C., Cleopatra married Mark Antony and had three children. However, when Antony was murdered by Octavian and his army, Cleopatra was so grief-stricken and so feared being captured by the Romans that she committed suicide in 36 B.C. Two pinpricks were found in her arm which indicated that she probably allowed herself to be bitten by an asp in the fig garden where her body was found. She had her wish, which was to be buried next to Antony.

"Be it known that we, the greatest, are misthought."

~Cleopatra

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