The Famous Cleopatra -Showed Up On Netflicks on Wednesday With Different Theme-Taking Liberties

 Nadene Goldfoot                                        

What I have found out about Cleopatra is quite different from the Netflix version which was one theory.  

    All this area was once called Macedonia/ 

Cleopatra's father was said to be a Macedonian. He was Ptolemy XII born in about 112 BCE and died by 51 BCE.   Ptolemy XII married his relative Cleopatra V, who was likely one of his sisters or cousins; they had at least one child together, Berenice IV, and Cleopatra V was likely also the mother of his second daughter, Cleopatra VII. The king's three youngest children – Arsinoe IV, Ptolemy XIII, and Ptolemy XIV – were born to an unknown mother. 

Ptolemy XII's uncle Ptolemy X had left Egypt to Rome in the event there were no surviving heirs, making Roman annexation of Egypt a possibility. In an effort to prevent this, Ptolemy XII established an alliance with Rome late into his first reign. Rome annexed Cyprus in 58 BCE, causing Ptolemy of Cyprus to commit suicide.

Bust of Ptolemy XII housed at the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities at the Louvre in Paris;

                                     

Cleopatra was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a Hellenistic kingdom based in Egypt. Centuries after her death, she still manages to keep people fascinated about her life to this day.  One such fascination is the reason behind her heavy makeup which according to studies was not peculiar to Cleopatra alone but women of her time.  The striking thing about hers was her eye makeup. Her eyeshadow was bright blue, which she accentuated with green paste on the lower eyelids. Deep dark kohl was used to make her eyelashes look longer and darken her eyebrows.

 Macedonia was a region of SE Europe which is now divided among the countries of Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia.  Salonica is a Greek port city of historical importance to Jews.  It had been called Thessaloniki.  The Jewish community dates back to classical times and was visited by the apostle Paul in 50 CE.  He visited synagogues in Salonica and Beroea, probably for proselytizing purposes.  Writing about it in the New Testament tells readers that it was a city with Jews who had more than one synagogue there.  

                Jewish family of Salonika in 1917, the greatest haven for Jewish exiles along with Constantinople after 1492.  The mixture of speakers of Greek mixed with Spanish speakers, the in 16th century the Portuguese Marranos arrived.  There was a Greek conquest by 1912 and the city had 80,000 Jews.  Population interchanged between Greece and Turkey after WWI.  By 1940, 5,000 Jews had  immigrated to Palestine, France and USA.  19 convoys of Jews were taken to Poland by Nazis for extermination.  In 1992,  1,100 Jews were living in Salonica.  

The history of the Jews of Thessaloniki (Salonica) reaches back two thousand years.

The former "Romaniot" Jews of Macedonia spoke Greek, but after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, Sephardi immigrants gradually absorbed the Romaniots by marriages;  the major community was at Salonica;  others, far smaller, were at Cavalla, Castoria, Drama, etc.  Most of the 60,000 Jews in the Greek area of Macedonia were exterminated during WWII.  

Through out the Middle Ages, the Jews remained in the town under various rulers.  In 1098 they were attacked by the Crusaders.  

"Ptolemy XII Auletes, (Greek: “Flute Player”) in full Ptolemy XII Theos Philopater Philadelphus Neos Dionysos Auletes, (born c. 112 BC—died 51 BC), Macedonian king of Egypt, whose quasi-legitimate royal status compelled him to depend heavily upon Rome for support for his throne. During his reign Egypt became virtually a client kingdom of the Roman Republic. He was the first Ptolemy to include Theos (God) in his formal title. (Auletes was not part of his formal title.)

Following the sudden, violent deaths of the last two fully legitimate members of the Ptolemaic family in Egypt, the people of Alexandria in 80 invited Ptolemy XII to assume the throne. Although he was known as a son of Ptolemy IX Soter II, his mother was a mistress of Soter, not a wife. In 103 he was sent by his grandmother, Cleopatra III, queen of Egypt, in the company of his brother and Ptolemy XI Alexander II, his predecessor, to Cos, an Aegean island near Asia Minor, for safekeeping. Captured in 88 by Mithradates VI Eupator, ruler of Pontus, a kingdom in Asia Minor that was then at war with Rome, young Ptolemy appeared in 80 in Syria, from where, according to Cicero, he arrived in Egypt, while his brother became king of Cyprus.

Shortly after his arrival in Egypt, Ptolemy married Cleopatra V Tryphaeana (“the Opulent”), his sister, and in 76 he was crowned in Alexandria according to Egyptian rites. At Rome, however, anti-Senate politicians in 65 raised the issue of Ptolemy’s legitimacy, producing a questionable will of Ptolemy XI Alexander II purporting to bequeath Egypt to the Roman people. Ptolemy, seeking Roman support, sent troops to assist the consul and general Pompey the Great in Palestine. Cicero, representing Pompey’s interests, persuaded the Senate to oppose Roman annexation. Facing serious opposition from the people of Alexandria and still unsure of his status at Rome, Ptolemy bribed Julius Caesar, one of the Roman consuls for the year 59, with 6,000 talents, in return for which Caesar passed a law acknowledging his kingship. Rome nevertheless divested Egypt of Cyprus the next year, and, when his brother in Egypt failed to support him, the island’s king committed suicide.

                                Queen Berenice was a Judean princess in late 1st century BCCE to 1st century CE.  She was the daughter of Herod's sister, Salome.  

The loss of Cyprus and Ptolemy’s submissive attitude to Rome outraged the people of Alexandria, who drove Ptolemy out of Egypt and accepted his queen, Tryphaeana, and his eldest daughter, Berenice IV, as rulers in 58. Residing at Pompey’s villa at Rome, he employed bribery to obtain the support of the Roman senators. He also arranged the assassination of delegations sent by his opponents from Alexandria, where, following his queen’s death, the people had made Berenice IV sole ruler. While the Senate delayed an answer, Ptolemy, continuing to dispense bribes, fell deeper into debt to Roman moneylenders. Late in 57 the Senate passed a resolution to support Ptolemy, but, when a prophecy forbade the granting of active aid, the Egyptian king departed for Ephesus, a city in Asia Minor.

In 55, after promising Pompey’s lieutenant Aulus Gabinius, proconsul of Syria, 10,000 talents, Ptolemy was returned to Egypt with a Roman army. Once restored, he executed his daughter, who had headed the opposition at Alexandria. Shortly before his death in 51 he proclaimed his eldest surviving daughter, the celebrated Cleopatra VII, and his eldest son coregents. His extensive bribery left Egypt in financial trouble".

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Brittanica Encyclopedia

https://face2faceafrica.com/article/cleopatras-heavy-eye-makeup-was-not-just-for-looks-it-also-protected-her-from-infections

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.