Kleopatra – Aufstieg und Fall der letzten Pharaonin

Cleopatra – when you hear this name, you probably immediately have an image in mind. Maybe you think of Asterix and Obelix or some Hollywood film. But very few of you probably know this coin. It shows the profile of a woman, and part of the inscription reads: "To Cleopatra, Queen of Kings." The coin

appeared around 34 BC. At this time, Cleopatra was at the height of her power. She ruled Egypt and several neighboring territories. But just a few years later, in despair, Cleopatra took her own life, and Egypt fell to the Roman Empire. This video explores how Cleopatra rose to become one of the most powerful

women of the ancient world, why she lost her power so quickly, and who the woman behind the clichés was. We start almost three centuries before Cleopatra's death, in 323 BC. In that year, another powerful king died: Alexander the Great. With his death, he left behind a vast empire. The question was, who would follow

in his footsteps? In fact, several men divided the vast empire among themselves like a cake. One of them was the general. Ptolemy secured his rule over Egypt, which Alexander had conquered about 10 years earlier. Like Alexander, Ptolemy came from Macedonia and thus felt he belonged to the Greek cultural sphere. This is evident, for example, in the fact

that after his accession, he moved the capital of Egypt to Alexandria, which had already been founded by Alexander. Perhaps you have heard of the famous Library of Alexandria, which must have been truly enormous, or of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Ptolemy also had himself proclaimed Pharaoh,

thus clearly embracing Egyptian traditions to win over the local population. Cleopatra was a descendant of this Ptolemy. She was probably born in 69 BC; we don't know the exact date. Her father was Ptolemy the Z, who ruled Egypt at that time. As you can see, the Ptolemies were rather uncreative when it came to naming their descendants. This also applies to the women.