Why Did Cleopatra Wear Heavy Eye Makeup?
The Truth Behind Cleopatra's Famous Eye Makeup
Cleopatra's heavy eye makeup was not intended to seduce men but was actually meant to frighten and repel flies and other insects.
Cleopatra VII (51-30 BCE) was the last queen of Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty. The name "Cleopatra" had previously appeared in the royal family of Alexander the Great of ancient Macedonia, followed by Syria's Seleucid dynasty, and was also occasionally used as a queen's name in the Ptolemaic dynasty, but Cleopatra VII is the most famous. Cleopatra was the second daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes.
She was a woman of both beauty and talent who possessed great culture and education. She spoke Egyptian as well as several other languages fluently, allowing her to converse with diplomatic envoys without interpreters.
At age 17, following the tradition of the Ptolemaic house, she married her 9-year-old brother Ptolemy XIII and became co-ruler, but soon the two came into conflict, dividing the court into two factions. At one point, Cleopatra's position weakened, and she retreated to Syria.
Rise to Power: Political Marriage and Civil War
In 48 BCE, she met Caesar, who had entered Egypt in pursuit of Pompey, and gained his support. In the resulting Alexandrian War, Caesar initially struggled but eventually defeated Ptolemy XIII, who was killed. Caesar appointed Cleopatra and her 5-year-old youngest brother Ptolemy XIV as co-rulers of Egypt, but she essentially became Caesar's lover and bore him a son, Caesarion. After Caesar's triumphal return to Rome, Cleopatra made an official visit to Rome with the young king and entered Caesar's residence.
However, when Caesar was assassinated in March of 44 BCE, she hurriedly returned to Egypt, killed Ptolemy XIV, and established Caesarion as her co-ruler. In 42 BCE, Mark Antony, who had joined forces with Octavian to eliminate the group that had assassinated Caesar, met with Cleopatra in Tarsus, Asia Minor the following year. Captivated by her beauty and wit, he accompanied her to Alexandria and became her lover. In 40 BCE, Antony returned to Rome and made a strategic marriage with Octavian's sister Octavia, which seemed to end his relationship with Cleopatra. However, in 37 BCE, when Antony came to the East for the Parthian campaign, he rekindled his affection for Cleopatra while also receiving her military support. They had male and female twins together.
The Parthian campaign of 36 BCE ended in complete defeat, but Cleopatra rushed as far as Phoenicia to provide aid. In 34 BCE, when Antony achieved victory in Armenia, he broke with tradition by holding his triumph ceremony in Alexandria rather than Rome. Cleopatra dressed as the goddess Isis and ruled as queen of the Eastern Hellenistic world, with many surrounding countries as her vassal states. This news soon reached Rome, and between 35-34 BCE, an active propaganda and criticism campaign began between Octavian and Antony, escalating from political issues to exposing scandals in their personal relationships.
The Final Conflict
In 33 BCE, Antony gathered Eastern Roman legions and allied troops at Ephesus, while Cleopatra provided warships and military funds. In 32 BCE, Antony finally sent divorce papers to Octavia, and Octavian, to avoid the appearance of civil war, declared war only on Cleopatra. In the naval battle of Actium in 31 BCE, they competed for world domination, but during the battle, Cleopatra fled with her fleet, and Antony followed her, bringing the fight to a quick end.
In 30 BCE, in Alexandria, Antony committed suicide, and Cleopatra, fearing being paraded in a Roman triumph, reportedly took her own life by allowing herself to be bitten by a poisonous snake. Though Cleopatra, who had enchanted two representative Roman generals, Caesar and Antony, was vilified by Romans as the "Witch of the Nile," her clean final death was highly respected.