| Question Home |
Position:Home>History> Was Cleopatra really in love with Caesar and Anthony?Question: Was Cleopatra really in love with Caesar and Anthony!? How can we be certain that Cleopatra really had romantic relations with Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony!? Is it possible that those stories were either fabricated by Caesar's and Anthony's enemies in order to discredit them!? What about the possibility that the relationships reflected political alliances rather than actually romantic liaisons!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: We can't know for sure about her actually loving either of the men!. With Caesar, it's most likely a political move combined with mutual respect!. Though barely into adulthood, Cleopatra had shown both her genius and her political acumen!. Caesar at the time he met her had defeated every foe, and had no equal!. Yet here was this young woman who knew what she wanted and acted as she had to to achieve her goals!. The fact that Cleopatra came to Rome with Caesar would suggest that they were in fact romantically involved!. However, Caesar would not do anything that threatened his Roman support!. For instance, he never officially acknowledged Caesarian as his son, a move that would have left Cleopatra with a toehold into gaining power in Rome itself!. Caesar's death left Cleopatra in a vulnerable position, with Roman factions fighting for power and the Egyptian grain stores offering a tempting target to those factions!. Controlling the grain supplies provided direct leverage against Rome itself, given the reliance of Rome on those stores!. Cleopatra's affair with Anthony seems to have been legit, though there is no doubt that Octavius used it to picture Anthony as being corrupted by decedant Eastern practices!. Indirect evidence Cleopatra actually cared for Anthony includes the fact she continued to support him long after it became apparant he was a flawed tool, more interested in being with her than in securing his position in Rome!. Had she not had some feelings for him, we might have expected to see her negotiate with Octavian to turn over Anthony in order to retain her own life and freedom!. So, to answer your last question, I suspect it's a case of both romantic liasons combined with political manouvering and expediency!. But since we don't have any writings from Cleopatra herself, we can only guess at what and how much she felt about each of those men!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Its julius caesaer coz cleopatrabin love with him when her first loveWww@QuestionHome@Com Who really knows at this distance in time!?Www@QuestionHome@Com |