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Volume I, Number6 December 1st, 2000
deTraci Regula
Cleopatra Conquers RomePalazzo Ruspoli Via del Corso, 418 - 00186 Roma
New Exhibit Focuses on Political Mastery, not Erotic Rumors.
Cleopatra has returned to Rome in a triumph of her own; Augustus must be spinning in his tomb.
A new exhibit focusing on the political savvy of the last Ptolemaic
Queen and Pharaoh of Egypt has opened at the Palazzo Ruspoli in Rome. Drawing from hundreds of objects, many lent by the British Museum, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, the collection acknowledges Augustus' hostility to Cleopatra and how this has colored our own perceptions of this remarkable Queen.
As Caesar's adopted son and "heir apparent", Augustus had much to lose if Cleopatra's son by Julius Caesar ever gained acceptance by the Romans. As the winner, Augustus influenced the historians of the time to cast Cleopatra as a conniving seductress; that she was the powerful mother of his own potential rival, who would have become Pharaoh of rich Egypt, is often overlooked.
Though Cleopatra's presence in Rome as the mistress and ally of Julius Caesar was hardly welcome to many respectable Romans, the attraction of mysterious Egypt was irresistible. Rome took to all things Egyptian with a passion, even embracing the worship of Egyptian gods and goddesses in the heart of the Roman empire, an "egyptomania" which endured for several hundred years and which still influences art and architecture today.
A Kid in Ancient Egypt By Ilene Springer
Prior Issues October 1st, 2000 |
