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Shakespeare & Beyond

Cleopatra and Fake News: How ancient Roman political needs created a mythic temptress

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Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra
Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra

Jacquelyn Williamson

is an Egyptologist, with a special focus on gender and religious power. Her book, Nefertiti’s Sun Temple: A New Cult Complex at Tell el-Amarna, part of Brill’s Harvard Egyptology Series, was published in September 2016. She is involved in the ongoing investigation of Kom el-Nana at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt, the site of a sun temple associated with Queen Nefertiti, which is the subject of her first book. She has been a member of several archaeological missions in Egypt and has worked in many museums including the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Harvard Semitic Museum, and has held teaching and research positions at UC Berkeley, Harvard University, and Brandeis University. Dr. Williamson teaches classes on the art and archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean World. — View all posts by Jacquelyn Williamson

Comments

Very informative. I look forward to learning more. Archaeologists have helped demystify some fables that have been used for political mileage in history.. Thank you.

Peter Ndungu — October 26, 2017

This is a great post- never thought of it quite this way before! Looks like “fake news” is NOT just a modern issue…

Nusrat Khan — November 3, 2017

If there’s a lack of sources other than all the Greek and Roman writers who have written about her, how have you come to the conclusion that she really wasn’t all that bad? Octavian was in fact a tyrant and a sneaky, untrustworthy figure; but that does not mean, therefore, that Cleopatra was not the monster she was almost unanimously made out to be. If she consorted with Julius Caesar and then Antonius, she was in very, very bad company, worse even than Octavian. Julius Caesar was a disgusting creature by all accounts, as was Antonius, the idiot and drunk. Antonius earned his bad reputation, not from the slanders of Octavian but from the man who was murdered by Octavian, Cicero, who was a good man albeit somewhat indecisive and, in end, gullible. I hope you are not trying to exonerate Cleopatra simply on the grounds that she was a woman. The fact that she is woman is not “exhibit A” for her innocence of the charges laid at her feet. Though the ancient sources call her a “whore”, they also universally praise her intellect and her command of the 8 or 9 languages she spoke. When it comes to historical personages, people have to learn to take the good with the bad and stop trying to explain everything away and selectively paint people they identify with based on their nationality or gender in the best possible light.

Fyre — June 29, 2018

“Monster she was made out to be”? But the accusations were that she was sexy. Nothing about massacres, or torture, or oppressive rule. Just luxury and decadence and a way of influencing men. Not much of a monster, considering some of the real monsters in history.

John Bergstrom — July 15, 2019