General Information
Title of Book: Cleopatra: A Life
Genre: Biography
Author: Stacy Schiff
Publisher: Bay Back Books / Little, Brown and Company
Copyright Date: 2010
Number of Pages: 324
Settings: Alexandria, Egypt, Rome, Ephesus, Antioch, Tarsus, Nile River
(there were all sorts of other places, but these are the main ones that reappear throughout the book.)

Main Characters:
Cleopatra- A member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the family who took the throne after Alexander the Great. A great woman who showed that people can be equal ruler. For a while she ruled with he dad and brothers but then she took the throne for herself and left a legacy.
Julius Caesar- A Roman General who played an important part in the Roman Empire. He was also very persistent to stay in charge. Most importantly known for the success from his military campaigns.
Mark Antony- A supporter of Julius Caesar, who also played a part in the transformation of the Roman Empire. He held control over Italy. Cleopatra gave birth to three children that he was the father of while he was married to Octavia.

Book Summary
This book is a very factual account of Cleopatra’s life. Since it’s a biography not too much along the lines of a story takes place so you just have to keep your mind very organized while reading in order to take in all the facts. The book shows how Cleopatra ignores the precedent about women that everyone chose to believe. She wanted to show the world what power women could really have. She formed intimate relationships with two of the most powerful men on earth at the time, Mark Antony and Julius Caesar. Also in her life she married both of her brothers and later in life killed both to achieve higher power. Cleopatra was continuously looking for ways to be the best and when possible, she took advantage of the circumstances, slowly and secretly increasing her worldly power.

This book is told through the perspective of the author, an outside third party. This impacts the book greatly because you don’t really get a strong connection because the author isn’t actually a part of the story, she is just trying to inform people about Cleopatra’s life so she knows all the facts, just not the emotions that go along with the story.

Application Questions
The most important event in this book is simply when Cleopatra becomes the pharaoh. The long and detailed explanation of her getting there happens in chapters 2 and 3. She originally has to share her throne with her father then brothers, by being married to them, but eventually she gains the throne solely for herself and this creates a basis for rest of the book, telling about the things that took place during her reign.

Character Description
Cleopatra was one of the most powerful women in all of history. She came from a family who were Egyptian, however they spoke Greek and she decided to embrace the culture around her and learn how to speak Egyptian. For a while she ruled with men at her side, her father, brothers, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony- but she always seemed to have this single power about her. She accomplished a lot of things on her own. She was the first member of her family to become a ruler of Egypt and she was one of the most prominent women role models at the time. I would compare Cleopatra to my aunt because she kind of branched out on her own to become a missionary and she was kind of the first person in our family to do that and even though she encountered some trials while being a missionary she always fought to see the positive side. She also couldn’t be contained in Nebraska, she had the freedom to move across the world and she did, much like Cleopatra’s power.
“She had played the game cannily and correctly, more effectively than any Ptolemy before her, only to find herself back at square one.” (p. 141) This quote shows that no matter how many times she got down, she kept fighting to bring herself back up.
“And Cleopatra was as problematic a captive as she had been an enemy.” (p. 308)
This quote proves that she was one of the most impactful women in all of history, because she simply couldn’t be contained.

Quotes
“And already—the fault as ever of the sultry, sinuous, overtly subversive East—Egyptian women had caused their share of trouble.” (p. 257)
I knew that Egyptian women were kind of special because they were more recognized in their culture than in any others that were around at the same time. However, I am learning that sometimes they used their power in somewhat sneaky ways. They really tried to get their own way in everything they did, it didn’t matter what it would take from them.

“To one guest a palace dinner itself appeared as a fortune rather than a mean.” (p.74)
I have been learning all about the Egyptian culture and one thing I’ve noticed is that they like to show off their riches. This quote is just one example of them displaying their wealth for all to see. They wanted to make sure that people all over the world knew of their wealth, because it was a from of power.

Events
On pages 295-300 Cleopatra’s love of her life, Antony died in her arms and she had to deal with that traumatic experience. It was so difficult for her in fact that she took her dagger and tried to kill herself, but she was stopped by Proculeius. If she had actually died that day, she would not have had the chance to continue to show this world how great of a leader she was and we would be left without some of the lessons she taught us. She eventually did kill herself but not before she made a difference in the world.
On page 205 it talks about Cleopatra and Antony’s relationship and how that helped to connect Egypt and Rome. Together they were in charge of a very large portion of the world, and if this hadn’t happened then someone else would have been given that power and some of the things accomplished under the two of them wouldn’t have happened and that could have changed the way the world ended up today.
Life Lessons
Don’t make rational decisions based on your emotions. Cleopatra almost killed herself when Antony died, if she had then she wouldn’t have been able to accomplish some of the greatest things in history. My decisions don’t quite go that far today but I have to be careful in making quick decisions because if I don’t take time and think about what I’m doing I might regret it in the future.
Be faithful in your marriage. Cleopatra kind of just settled down with different men all the time, whoever felt most pleasing at the moment and that kind of got her relationships with people all twisted up because they couldn’t trust her. I can apply this in my life by being honest with my friends and family so that they know that they can always trust me.
Always work hard, even if you get put down. Cleopatra was a woman and that might have been kind of hard for her to be strong about her opinions because of her gender, she might have gotten judged just because she was a female. However she worked hard to not let that identity define her, she overcame it so much that she became one of the most powerful women in all of history. I can apply this in my life by always working hard to overcome obstacles placed before me because I don’t know where I could end up in life.

Alternate Title
The Ultimate Affair, because all throughout the book I was being introduced to different people that Cleopatra was having affairs with and that was basically how she got where she was in life. She manipulated numerous amounts of people just to get her way.

Recommendation
I personally would not recommend this book to anyone because it’s kind of a hard book to read. It is first and foremost a biography, so there isn’t very much personal appeal to it. Most of the book just gives facts that were rather confusing so I had to constantly look up the history so I knew what I was reading.