Why Cleopatra was more than a bewitching beauty
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Welcome to the History Extra Podcast. We often think of Cleopatra as a bewitching beauty who used her feminine wiles to get to the top. But was that really the case? And what other skills and qualities did she have? In today's third installment of our four-part Sunday series on the life and times of Cleopatra, I'll be tackling these questions with my expert guest, Professor Islam Issa from Birmingham City University. He's an author and broadcaster whose books include Alexandria, The City That Changed the World, and the perfect person to help us get a sense of the real Cleopatra.
Islam, thank you so much for being with us again. In our third episode, we're going to be exploring a particular aspect of Cleopatra, and that's her as a leader and trying to reframe the narrative around her strengths and her skills. Yeah. I'd like to start today's episode with one of the most famous dates in all of ancient history, which is the fifteenth of march forty four BC,
Which is of course the moment when Julius Caesar was assassinated. To fill us in on the lead up to this and to centre Cleopatra in this story. Where have Cleopatra been in the months and the years leading up to this point? And what was the relationship now like between these two? figures. Yeah, thinking about such a monumental event in world history.
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