Cleopatre

The Presses Universitaires de France and Frémeaux & Associés offer this biography of Cleopatra, by Christian-Georges Schwentzel, specialist in the Hellenistic and Roman Middle East. Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt (69-30 BC), is an exception in the history of mankind: she is one of the few women to have achieved political power. According to ancient texts, it owes it's success to it's irresistible charm: it seduces Julius Caesar then Marc Antoine, successive masters of the Roman world. But she is also a political leader who manages to conquer her subjects through daring economic reforms, in favor of the poorest, and through a religious ecumenism which leads her to present herself as a living goddess speaking to all peoples. Here, Christian-Georges Schwentzel deconstructs the fantasies she has been subjected to since Antiquity and tells us the story of the queen-goddess who won immortality by transforming herself into a myth.