The Female Pharaoh Cleopatra - History Essay

Cleopatra

Cleopatra VII Philopator (in Greek, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ; (Late 69 BC – August 12, 30 BC) was an ancient Greek queen and the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.
She was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a Greek royal family which ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great's death during the Hellenistic period. The Ptolemies, throughout their dynasty, spoke Greek and refused to learn Egyptian, which is the reason that Greek as well as Egyptian languages were used on official court documents like the Rosetta Stone. By contrast, Cleopatra did learn Egyptian and represented herself as the reincarnation of an Egyptian goddess Isis.
Cleopatra became pharaoh in the springtime of 51 B.C. when her father, Ptolemy Auletes, died. He left the throne to his eighteen-year-old daughter, Cleopatra, and to her younger brother, Ptolemy XIII, who was only twelve at the time. Cleopatra took greater power over her brother. She was forced to have a consort throughout her reign. Her consort could either be a brother or a son, no matter what their ages were. Cleopatra married her brother, Ptolemy XIII. She dropped his name from all official documents despite the insistence the Ptolemaic had that the male presence be first among co-rulers. Cleopatra put her name and face on the coins of that time period, ignoring her brother.
A group of men led by Theodotus, the eunuch Pothinus, and a half-Greek general, named Achillas, overthrew Cleopatra in favor of her brother. They believed he could be influenced easier, so they became his council of regency.
In the early days of the Ptolemy the control region of the Egyptians expanded greatly. This included the island of Cyprus, Cyrenioca, which had already controlled modern day Libya, Syria, and Phoenicia. They also controlled some major cities in Asia Minor and Greece.
After Ptolemy XIII, her brother and husband, died by drowning in the Nile, Caesar restored her power so Cleopatra became the sole ruler of Egypt. Caesar must have been...