As the only daughter of Roman Triumvir Marc Antony and Egyptian Queen Cleopatra VII, Cleopatra Selene was expected to uphold traditional feminine virtues; to marry well and bear sons; and to legitimize and strengthen her parentsâ rule. Yet with their parentsâ deaths by suicide, the princess and her brothers found themselves the inheritors of Egypt, a claim that placed them squarely in the warpath of the Roman emperor.
âSupported by a feast of visual and literary referencesâ (Caroline Lawrence), Cleopatraâs Daughter reimagines the life of Cleopatra Selene, a woman who, although born into Egyptian royalty and raised in her motherâs court, was cruelly abandoned and held captive by Augustus Caesar. Creating a narrative from frescos and coinage, ivory dolls and bronzes, historian and archaeologist Jane Draycott shows how Cleopatra Selene navigated years of imprisonment on Palatine Hillâwhere Octavia, the emperorâs sister and Antonyâs fourth wife, housed royal children orphaned in the wake of Roman expansionâand emerged a queen.
Despite the disrepute of her family, Cleopatra Selene in time endeared herself to her captors through her remarkable intellect and political acumen. Rather than put her to death, Augustus wed her to the Numidian prince Juba, son of the deposed regent Juba I, and installed them both as client rulers of Mauretania in Africa. There, Cleopatra Selene ruled successfully for nearly twenty years, promoting trade, fostering the arts, and reclaiming her motherâs legacyâall at a time, Draycott reminds us, when kingship was an inherently male activity.
A princess who became a prisoner and a prisoner who became a queen, Cleopatra Selene here âfinally attains her rightful place in historyâ (Barry Strauss). A much-needed corrective, Cleopatraâs Daughter sheds new and revelatory light on Egyptian and Roman politics, society, and culture in the early days of the Roman Empire.
Jane Draycott is a lecturer in ancient history at the University of Glasgow. A Roman historian and archaeologist, Draycott has excavated sites ranging from Bronze Age villages to World War I trenches. She lives in Scotland.