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 Through
Feb. 25th 2001, then to the British Museum (April-August) and
the Field Museum from October 2001 to March 2002.
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.
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