Ten Weird Facts About Cleopatra

Gracie McAlister and Edited by Abby Gweon
February 11, 2019

Cleopatra was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. This is a list of 10 weird facts that you may not have known about Cleopatra.

  1. Cleopatra married two of her brothers. When she was 18 she took the throne of Egypt, and to keep the throne she married her little brother, Ptolemy VIII. Their family tried to marry within the family to keep the bloodline pure. They didn’t know that doing this causes genetic disorders. After her first husband died, she married her other brother, Ptolemy XIV.

    Painting by Pietro da Cortona depicting Julius Caesar giving Cleopatra the throne of Egypt. Image courtesy of Google Images.
  2. Julius Caesar had a statue made of her. Julius Caesar fell in love with Cleopatra and had the statue made of her in the Venus temple in Rome.
  3. She did not have any children with either of her brothers, but she had a boy named Caesarian with Julius Caesar, and she also had three other children named Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene, and Ptolemy Philadelphus with Mark Antony.
  4. She spent around 50% share of the kingdom income on beauty and other luxuries for herself. The other half she used for the kingdom.
  5. Cleopatra could speak Egyptian-Arabic, which was a big deal in her time. As the ruling family, they had all official documents written in Greek and in Egyptian-Arabic.
  6. She was the first in her family to accept the local culture, ancient costumes, and Egyptian Gods. This may have benefited the kingdom, since she ruled Egypt and agreed with their everyday life.
  7. She persuaded her people that she was the reincarnation of the Goddess Isis. She may have done this so the kingdom would think of her as more than just their ruler. She may have also actually thought she was the reincarnation of the Goddess Isis.

    A depiction of Cleopatra committing suicide with a snake bite. Image courtesy of Google Images.
  8. Her eye makeup had four lead based substances that protected her from eye infections, which were very common in Ancient Egypt.
  9. She owned her own perfume factory. She was very flirty and thought fragrance had a lot to do with persuasion and took a big interest in perfume.
  10. A lot of people believed that Cleopatra died from a snake bite, but she had a quick death and a snake bite would have taken hours to kill her. She was said to always have a comb soaked in poison with her, so this could have been how she died.

Source: https://www.history.com/news/10-little-known-facts-about-cleopatra