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From an interview in the New York Times:
Gail Collins: Your new biography of Cleopatra is coming out this fall, right? I’m reading it, and I’m pretty sure that from now on, whenever I hear elected officials complain about the treachery of their opponents, I’m just going to say: “Ha! You should try being queen of Egypt in 40 B.C.”
Stacy Schiff: Red and blue states were nothing to a woman who not only played to two radically different constituencies but also knew she could be removed by Rome, deposed by her subjects, undermined by her advisers — or stabbed, poisoned and dismembered by her own family. On the other hand, Cleopatra had one great advantage. She lived at a time when female sovereigns were not anomalies. And when women enjoyed rights they would not again enjoy for another 2,000 years. You could call them early feminists, if I may use a dirty word.
via Of Mama Grizzly Born? – Opinionator Blog – NYTimes.com.
I think it might be time we declared a moratorium on books about Cleopatra … a quick glance through Amazon shows from the past couple of years:
- Cleopatra the Great: The Woman Behind the Legend by Joann Fletcher
- Antony and Cleopatra by Adrian Goldsworthy
- Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff (the above-mentioned one presumable)
- Cleopatra: A Biography by Duane Roller
- Cleopatra and Antony: Power, Love, and Politics in the Ancient World by Diana Preston (I’ve got a review of this on one of my laptops … I should post it)
- Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt by Joyce Tyldesley
… then again, this one coming out in a few weeks makes one go hmmmm when one sees the authors:
- Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt by Zahi A. Hawass and Franck Goddio
(i.e. not someone from the Dominican Republic)
rogueclassicism 