![]() ![]() The names were sometimes altered during the reign to mark an important event. ![]() It symbolises their supremacy and holy might. She adds there will always be groups who want to flatten and claim Cleopatra, one way or the other, to suit their narrative.īut, Kennedy says, asking if Cleopatra was Black, white, or another race is the wrong question because “it suggests that these are universal and not historically contingent categories.The royal titulary of the Egyptian Pharaohs was the standard naming convention taken by the kings of Ancient Egypt. “There is a tendency in the modern world to fixate on famous figures of the past who represent civilizations,” Kennedy says. The publication of the book Systema Naturæ in 1735 saw Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus classify humankind into four distinct “varieties.” Race began as a human-coined shorthand to categorize groups based on continent and skin color.Īs such, these classifications were created far too late to accurately apply to ancient civilizations. Racial classifications as we recognize them today are largely a product of 17th and 18th century Western anthropological thought, particularly during the European Enlightenment. We should not separate them, but in our modern search for singular identities, we restrict Cleopatra in ways that she was not restricted to in her own life,” Kennedy says. “These objects are for different audiences and reflect different aspects of Cleopatra’s identity. Kennedy adds that visual representations of Cleopatra that more closely resembled Egyptian rulers have been historically overlooked in favor of her likeness on coinage, which is more closely aligned with standard Greek iconography. This is a gender division, not ethnic or modern bio-racial.” She notes that references to Black-skinned Egyptians are present in ancient texts, but there is a gendered element to this: “Ideologically, women were associated with pale or ‘white’ skin and men with dark or ‘black’ skin. “The reality is that one can say that there were ancient Egyptians we would today consider ‘Black’ in so far as they were non-Arab, non-Phoenician, Africans,” Kennedy says. She notes that the gaps on Cleopatra’s family tree leave room for people to misinterpret indigenous Egyptian identity as Black. “She could have been Greek, Macedonian, Egyptian, and Roman all at the same time,” Kennedy says. So by the time of Cleopatra’s grandparents, there may have been an Egyptian element.” Sources suggest that if she was not Macedonian, she was probably Egyptian. Roller, a professor emeritus of Classics at Ohio State University, wrote for the Oxford University Press blog in 2010, “Assuming, however, that Cleopatra’s grandmother was not from the traditional Macedonian Greek stem, the question arises as to just what she was. However, many experts say there is no evidence to suggest either woman was Black.Īs Duane W. The part of Cleopatra’s bloodline that remains a mystery is that of her mother and paternal grandmother. The dynasty was established when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 323 B.C. The Ptolemy dynasty descended from Greek Macedonian roots and ruled ancient Egypt during its Hellenistic era, with marriages typically occurring within the family. What They Did With It Is a Warning for Today Read More: Women Achieved Enormous Power in Ancient Egypt. But she eventually claimed the so-called double crown, replacing her brother as sole ruler. Upon the death of her father, Cleopatra ascended the throne in 51 B.C., sharing with one of her younger brothers Ptolemy XIII. (Egyptian Arabic is the most commonly spoken vernacular in Egypt today.) Cleopatra was the first Ptolemaic ruler to learn native Egyptian, a now-extinct language that Spoken Coptic descended from. She undertook medical studies as well as learning philosophy, rhetoric, and oratory, and was believed to speak many languages in addition to her native Greek. She was the last member of the Ptolemy dynasty to rule Egypt after 5,000 years of Pharaonic rule her reign lasted 21 years before she died by suicide in August 30 B.C.Ĭleopatra was the second of five children born to King Ptolemy XII, and his wife, Cleopatra V. Who was Cleopatra?Ĭleopatra VII was the seventh, but most well-known Egyptian ruler, to hold this name. ![]() Here’s what to know about Cleopatra, Egypt’s last Pharaoh, and the discussions around her identity. “If we want to be more historically accurate, we need to understand how ancient peoples considered their ethnicities instead of universalizing and de-historicizing our own views,” she adds.
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