[tense music]
[narrator] What is a Pharaoh?
She is the sands and the sky.
♪ See the sky ♪
And everything in between.
♪ Catch the dream ♪
Egypt is her firstborn.
♪ Standing tall until the end ♪
And when the moment comes...
♪ I'll survive ♪
♪ I'm not falling down ♪
...she must be ready to sacrifice everything
to protect what she loves most.
[Mark Antony] What have you done?
["Love and Rage" playing]
[Cleopatra] I did what I had to do to protect what is mine.
[Thyrsus] My lord, Octavian, he's willing to grant your request.
On one condition.
Kill Antony.
[Mark Antony] All I want is your trust.
[theme music]
[upbeat music]
[children laughing]
[laughing continues]
[Shelley] After the Battle of Actium,
Mark Antony enters a period of clinical depression.
[Jacquelyn] Their navy is gone.
Their military is splintered.
[Shelley] He does not speak to Cleopatra.
And her confidence in him is eroded.
And so, confidence in their relationship is eroded.
[Shelley] "Can I trust him?"
"Does he trust me?"
[Shelley] There's a lot of doubt there.
[Jacquelyn] Cleopatra knew
the full might of Rome
coming against Egypt
spelled the end for an independent Egypt.
[Jacquelyn] There is no question that they are
in immediate jeopardy.
[Jacquelyn] Cleopatra knows
that in order to protect the continuance of Egypt as a dynastic state,
that she needs to protect her heirs.
So, she sends them away to make sure that they are safe.
[Shelley] If her children don't survive,
particularly Caesarion, who was her co-pharaoh...
that's the end.
[Cleopatra crying]
[Colleen] As the earthly incarnation
of the goddess Isis,
Cleopatra is also the earthly embodiment of divine motherhood.
[Colleen] Just think about how heart-wrenching it must have been
to send her children away.
And yet, she had no choice politically or for their safety.
[Charmion] Pharaoh, we have to go.
I know, just give me a minute.
[Cleopatra cries]
You two... [soft chuckle]
You two are one blood, hm?
[Cleopatra] My blood.
Divine blood.
Don't you forget that.
[Selene] I won't forget.
[Charmion] Pharaoh.
[Cleopatra crying]
The things that are most precious to Cleopatra are her children.
Because as long as they're safe, as long as they're alive...
she's alive.
And there's hope for Egypt.
Cleopatra is always a diplomat first
and a military strategist second.
[Shelley] It's clear now that diplomacy isn't gonna work.
Cleopatra doesn't want war.
She doesn't feel that Mark Antony is ready for war.
Kill Antony.
His life for yours.
[Thyrsus] And your children's, of course.
[Sally-Ann] I think Cleopatra would consider killing Mark Antony.
He is no longer any use to her.
And has, quite frankly, become a liability at this point.
She might believe that she still has a chance
of coming to terms with Octavian.
Perhaps, even by betraying Mark Antony.
Because, after all, Mark Antony was Octavian's primary enemy.
There's really no reason that Cleopatra cannot remain queen of Egypt
if Mark Antony is out of the picture.
Mark.
Thyrsus sent a message from Octavian.
He says he can guarantee safety for the children and I...
[sighs deeply]
...if I kill you.
[scoffs]
So that's why you are here.
No.
I turned him down.
- We are in this together. - [laughs]
Yeah.
Like we were together in Actium.
I sent our children away
because I choose us.
I know that together, no one can defeat us.
Rome and Egypt.
Where is he?
[Shelley] Those of us who are romantics,
we want this to be the greatest love story of all time.
But Cleopatra was not a romantic.
She was a pragmatist.
Cleopatra is interested in self-preservation, um,
of herself and also her children, but her country, too.
[Shelley] And she believes, at this point,
that Mark Antony is still the key to that partnership.
[tense music]
[grunts]
Tell Octavian we are done!
[Mark Antony pants]
[Sally-Ann] Mark Antony seems to be a bit of a loose cannon.
He is now behaving irrationally,
he's taking it out on the messenger.
[panting]
[Shelley] If Cleopatra is going to retain her place on the throne,
she has to have Rome as her partner.
Tell that coward, if he wants me dead, do it himself.
[Sally-Ann] Mark Antony isn't going to enter into any negotiations.
There's not gonna be any other ending other than war.
[Debora] Octavian has declared war on Cleopatra.
She understands that neither she nor Mark Antony
were going to get away from this.
[rhythmic thumping]
[Islam] In the spring of 30 BC,
Octavian, as he enters Egypt,
sends a mammoth, uh, army.
It's, it's the biggest
army invasion in Roman history until this point.
With the defections from Cleopatra's forces to Octavian
and Mark Antony's losses at the Battle of Actium,
Octavian's legions now heavily outnumber
those of Cleopatra and Antony.
Octavian wants to finish this once and for all.
[insects chirping]
[Jacquelyn] Egypt is unusually wealthy
in terms of their material wealth.
[Colleen] Octavian needs this
to pay his troops.
[Jacquelyn] Octavian wants to annex Egypt badly.
Rome will treat them as their breadbasket
and not care if they impoverish Egypt.
[tense music]
[Colleen] Octavian's army marches towards Pelusium.
Octavian could have sailed straight for Alexandria
but he does not.
He regroups and moves his forces by land.
[Colleen] This is important because, along the way,
Octavian is securing alliance after alliance.
[Islam] He is keen to get the local population
against Mark Antony and in turn, against Cleopatra.
[Debora] Octavian has released this vicious propaganda against Cleopatra,
so even though Mark Antony was the one who was unfaithful to his sister,
Cleopatra is framed as this great seductress.
As a temptress, as a drunk, as a witch.
It's misogynistic and it's xenophobic.
So, she's a threat.
The Roman senators see this woman
influence two of its great heroes
and they've had enough.
It's about time, as far as they're concerned,
for Octavian to put an end
to Cleopatra's meddling in Roman affairs.
That's the perfect strategy to gain the allegiance
of any of Mark Antony's remaining allies.
[Colleen] Octavian is ensuring
that when it comes time for the final battle
with Mark Antony and Cleopatra,
that he will have no enemies to his rear.
[insects chirping]
[Colleen] As Octavian's army marches towards Alexandria,
Mark Antony is in a serious depression.
Cleopatra attempts to improve his mood by throwing a lavish banquet.
- [indistinct chatter] - [celebratory music playing]
[Jacquelyn] The reason that Cleopatra throws the banquet
is part of the religious ideology of this area.
Mark Antony, as the manifestation of the god Dionysus,
is the god of revelry
and this banquet would have served to support and reinvigorate
that religious message of him as a legitimate eastern monarch.
[indistinct chatter]
[Islam] It's directly challenging Rome.
It's saying, "We are in power."
[Islam] It's a declaration that she doesn't care what Rome thinks.
It's a dangerous call for war.
[whispering]
[Jacquelyn] As Octavian's army approaches Alexandria,
Antony and Cleopatra's forces at this point,
are disorganized, they're demoralized.
[indistinct chatter]
The Commander of Pelusium has surrendered.
And defected to Octavian.
[Shelley] Octavian is receiving defections from the Egyptian side
and from other allies
that used to be with Egypt
and they're now going over to Rome.
That two-faced Pelusium commander will never see his wife or daughter again.
Not in this lifetime.
It will take more than that to stop Octavian now.
I know.
It will take the help of the gods.
Lucky for you, you have one right here.
[soft music]
Octavian is no match for us.
[thrilling music]
[Cleopatra] Friends.
Even in the best of times,
there are traitors amongst us.
We know that in our own land,
some have betrayed Egypt,
opening their gates to Octavian's forces.
No one betrays Egypt and gets away with it.
Your enemies are our enemies.
To Mark Antony.
[cheers, applause]
[Sally-Ann] The Egyptian people must have been extremely nervous
about the Roman Army marching upon them.
Because Rome up until this point,
they've been seen as a support
and now they've essentially become an enemy.
[indistinct chatter]
[Islam] It's too late for Cleopatra to get on Octavian's side.
She's in quite deep now with Mark Antony.
Are you asleep?
No.
[Sally-Ann] So, she really does have everything to lose at this point.
It's not only her own life and her position,
but it's her country.
- [Mark Antony] How long? - We have time.
- And eyes? - Our scouts have eyes on them.
Tell the cavalry we leave now.
[Cleopatra] Thank you, Maelius.
[tense music]
[inhales]
[Colleen] The one advantage that Cleopatra has
is that she's defending her home territory.
And she knows from prior experience with Julius Caesar,
that the Egyptians are no lovers of Rome.
Egypt does not want to be under Roman control or Roman occupation.
[Jacquelyn] Mark Antony is an accomplished military mind.
That is a very serious home-field advantage for them.
He and Octavian's forces meet right outside of Alexandria.
- [soldiers yelling] - Come on!
[Shelley] Mark Antony is a soldier.
He knows what goes into winning a battle.
[Shelley] He enjoys going into battle.
He enjoys fighting alongside of his men.
Antony and Cleopatra's forces have had some time to rest and recuperate.
[Jacquelyn] Whereas, Octavian's forces have been on the active march
and so, uh, Antony's forces are at least fresh.
[tense music]
[Cleopatra] What's going on?
Is there water and provisions for the wounded?
Yes, yes, it's done.
- And the armory, has it been checked? - [Iras] As we speak.
[Colleen] Based on previous experience,
Cleopatra knows the vulnerability
of Alexandria's water sources.
[Colleen] She knows that they can be poisoned.
I want two guards stationed at every well and every water supply.
[soldiers yelling]
The other disadvantage that Mark Antony and Cleopatra face
is simply the lack of supplies and force.
They do not have the troops, and they no longer have the supply lines.
[Shelley] Cleopatra is a lover, not a fighter.
She understands that war can go either way,
she feels that Mark Antony doesn't really understand
the lay of the land in Alexandria.
[grunts]
[Shelley] Maybe he has bit off
- more than he can chew here. - [Mark Antony] Come on!
She's nervous.
[grunts]
[horse neighs]
[swords clinking]
[somber music]
We have won the battle, but...
[Cleopatra] But what?
They have more troops, Cleopatra.
I know.
We are not done yet.
Are we?
No.
We are not done yet.
Good.
[Shelley] He's really worried.
Which makes Cleopatra worried. [soft chuckle]
But she sends him off to the next battle.
[somber music]
[soldiers clamoring]
[soldier yells]
There's this huge siege.
[tense music]
- [swords clinking] - [grunting]
Mark Antony is getting desperate.
[Colleen] He has his archers fire offers of gold
to any of Octavian's forces who defect.
He's having to break the siege.
[Colleen] Mark Antony makes a bold and risky move against Octavian.
He launches a land and naval attack simultaneously.
Their forces do meet right outside of Alexandria
which is a deciding, significant battle.
[grunts]
[neighs]
[swords clinking]
[soft music]
General, the Egyptian naval fleet has defected to Octavian.
No, that can't be true.
I'm afraid it is, General.
No. No, no, no, no. No.
At this point, nothing is stopping Octavian
from landing in Alexandria.
[soldiers clamoring]
[loud banging]
What was that?
Go and check what is happening, please.
- Okay. - Quickly.
[soldiers yelling]
[Shelley] Cleopatra was convinced the gates around Alexandria
could not be breached.
They were well protected.
[all clamoring]
When Octavian and his troops make that breach,
it is clear to Cleopatra,
the Egyptian troops have defected.
Which means the country is in the hands of Octavian.
[melancholy music]
[Shelley] For most of us, if we were in Cleopatra's situation,
um, the end is nigh.
I think we would have a nervous breakdown, panic attack.
[yelps, chuckles]
[Charmion] Our defenses are down, we have to go.
[Shelley] Cleopatra is probably feeling
defiant at this point.
If they are here, it means the general...
Quiet, Iras.
[Charmion] Pharaoh, we have to go now.
[Colleen] Now even if Cleopatra manages to hold on to her throne
or successfully passes it on to one of her children,
Egypt is going to be a province of the Roman Empire.
- Pharaoh, we need to... - I said be quiet!
[melancholy music]
This needs to get to Antony.
[Charmion] Pharaoh, we have to go now.
Her life's work, her legacy,
it's in danger, if not gone.
[insects chirping]
[tense music]
[Cleopatra] Hurry.
Hurry!
[Sally-Ann] Cleopatra gathers all her wealth
in her mausoleum in her tomb.
This is one of her last bargaining chips.
Octavian needs this treasure to pay his troops.
[Colleen] Cleopatra's tomb is only partially finished.
She's barricaded inside.
I won't let Octavian capture me.
We're going to burn it all down.
That bastard touches nothing.
[Colleen] Cleopatra is threatening to set her tomb on fire
and to go up in flames
with her entire treasure.
[Mark Antony] Cleopatra!
Did you hear that?
- [Cleopatra] Mark? - They're coming. They're coming for us.
- [Mark Antony] Drop something now. - [panting]
Get a rope, quick!
Hold on, my love! [grunts]
[panting]
Pull!
[strained grunt]
[effort grunting]
[Cleopatra screams]
Mark Antony has to actually be hauled up through a window.
Mark Antony has attempted to commit suicide
after receiving a note from Cleopatra.
[Shelley] We don't know what was in that note.
Shakespeare would have us believe
Cleopatra fabricated her own suicide
in the hopes that that would prompt
Mark Antony to commit suicide.
The bravest thing to do,
according to a Roman person,
is to commit suicide.
[Jacquelyn] And this is a way to maintain your valor and your dignity
- even in the face of death. - [crying]
Just stay. [sniffles]
Just stay.
[crying]
Cleopatra...
Shh, shh...
[sniffles]
[whimpers]
[Shelley] He wants to die with Cleopatra.
[wailing]
And he dies in Cleopatra's arms.
[somber music]
Octavian, our astute politician, who is also ruthless...
does not want Cleopatra dead
at the hands of the Romans
because she becomes a martyr.
And all those Egyptians who have defected to Octavian
are gonna rise up in rebellion.
This is a Pharoah.
You do not kill...
a Pharaoh.
To get into her barricaded tomb,
Octavian's men break through the roof.
[distant clattering]
[Cleopatra] Light the torch.
[Roman commander] You, put that fire out, come on!
Seize her!
[screaming]
I am mistress of the two lands.
Thea Neotera.
I'm a god.
Do not disrespect me.
I would die for Egypt.
What would you die for?
[Cleopatra] No.
[all whimpering]
No. No!
[attendants whimpering]
Stop!
No!
[Shelley] The soldiers take her to the palace
where she used to receive ambassadors.
Octavian comes in.
They've never met before.
Looks like your African sorcery failed you this time.
Pharaoh?
You know, your witchcraft must be very strong
to turn two great sons of Rome against their own
because the talk of your beauty flatters you...
immensely.
What are you smiling about?
Witch!
You're a lot shorter than I thought you'd be.
You know...
your children look just like you.
Especially your eldest.
They'll be a great comfort to you in Rome.
[Shelley] At this point,
Cleopatra believes that her children are safe.
She has sent them away with trusted members of her household.
And so, she believes she has nothing to fear.
You should have just taken my offer when you had the chance.
I'm going to enjoy dragging you through the streets.
And those...
bastard half-breeds of yours.
They're gonna watch.
[Shelley] She realizes that Octavian has captured her children.
And it always amazes me that she doesn't crumple at that point.
Get her out of here now!
One of the most important things that any, uh, Roman military leader can do
to gain the support and love of the Roman people
is to have a remarkable celebration of his military victory called a triumph.
[Colleen] To complete his victory,
Octavian needs to bring Cleopatra back to Rome
to parade her in his triumph.
[melancholy music]
[melancholy music continues]
See that this gets to Octavian.
[Cleopatra] Trust me, he's gonna want to read it.
Don't worry, we'll all be here when you get back.
[Jacquelyn] Cleopatra writes a letter to Octavian
requesting that she and Antony be permitted to be buried together
and to allow her son to inherit Egypt.
[Jacquelyn] What we're seeing is this last moment of Cleopatra
clinging to this overarching goal throughout her entire life
of trying to make sure
that the Ptolemaic Dynasty will not die out.
That Egypt does not become a province of the Roman Empire.
[Cleopatra] We'll do it together.
It's the right thing to do.
Worthy of a God.
[Shelley] She has a plan.
Cleopatra always has a plan.
She's researched poisons that won't be painful,
that won't distort her body.
She decides how she's going to die.
[somber music]
[Shelley] And she decides with whom she is going to die.
It's not Octavian,
it's not the Roman Senate,
it's Cleopatra.
She is in control.
[somber music]
[somber music continues]
[birds squawking]
[light music]
[approaching footsteps]
[Colleen] When Octavian receives that letter,
he knows Cleopatra is not going to come back to Rome
and she has committed suicide.
[somber music]
[Jacquelyn] Being taken in a Roman triumph would have been tremendously humiliating.
It's very unlikely that Cleopatra would've been treated with velvet gloves.
Defeated enemies are usually killed right afterwards.
So she knew that her death was on the horizon anyway.
There was no way Octavian could have allowed her to live.
[Colleen] Octavian knows it's over.
[Shelley] We do not know the method with which Cleopatra committed suicide.
The one that every film producer loves
is that she died as the result of the bite of the Egyptian cobra or asp.
[Colleen] The cobra is a symbol of royalty.
So even if the asp was not a part of her suicide,
it was a perfect symbol to represent
that she was leaving this world as queen of Egypt.
[Jacquelyn] Cleopatra and Mark Antony,
their burials have never been found.
We don't know whether or not she got her last request,
that they get buried together.
[Shelley] The quest of archaeologists looking for Cleopatra's tomb...
futile.
[fire crackling]
[Shelley] Octavian is not going to allow a tomb
with the remains of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.
That would have become a center point for rebellion.
[fire crackling]
It was not the Roman tradition to entomb bodies.
They didn't mummify bodies, they cremated.
I think Cleopatra and Mark Antony were cremated.
[somber music]
This is the true turning point in history.
[tense music]
Egypt totally loses its independence.
[indistinct chatter]
[Shelley] It's over. It becomes a province of Rome.
Egypt's long history as a great civilization ends.
[Jacquelyn] Egypt now becomes the grain basket of Rome.
Rome would not have been able to go on militarily
without being able to spend vast amounts of Egyptian wealth.
[Jacquelyn] Rome tapped the bank of Egypt and impoverished it.
It really ends Egypt as the dynastic land that we think of today.
Cleopatra is the last pharaoh of Egypt.
[epic music]
[Debora] Shortly thereafter,
Octavian has the Senate declare him Emperor.
The Emperor Augustus.
[Islam] He wanted to be ruler forever.
That was his idea of what a dictator should be.
[Sally-Ann] Ironically, like Cleopatra before,
Octavian is elevated as a living god.
[Debora] Cleopatra's death
was one of the... final phases
of what we consider to be ancient Egypt.
[Debora] We still have Cleopatra's other three children.
[Shelley] The children of Mark Antony and Cleopatra,
they'll represent a threat to Octavian.
♪ They will come for you and me... ♪
Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene
and little Ptolemy Philadelphus
are taken back to Rome.
♪ From my deepest scar ♪
♪ Oh-oh-oh ♪
However, there is no way that he could permit Caesarion to live.
[Shelley] Caesarion was raised to be a Pharoah.
He could rise up,
he could say, "I am Caesar's son.
I should be ruling Rome."
He's just too big a threat to Octavian.
So he is executed.
He, he is killed.
[Debora] When Octavian takes the children back to Rome,
he parades them behind an effigy of Cleopatra
with a snake or an asp clasped to her arm.
He humiliates them publicly
by having them walk behind this effigy of their mother
and weighing them down with gold chains.
The chains were supposedly so heavy
that they were stumbling and they could barely walk.
[Debora] People actually felt sympathy for the children,
but after that,
he sent them, surprisingly,
to live with his sister, Octavia,
who was Mark Antony's wife
when these children were conceived.
[Sally-Ann] So the long-suffering Octavia brings up Mark Antony's children.
The two boys fall off the historical radar,
but Cleopatra Selene marries Juba of Mauretania.
So, Cleopatra Selene, ironically,
becomes another African queen.
Cleopatra Selene rules over a sumptuous court
at the capital of Mauretania,
much like Alexandria.
[Colleen] Cleopatra Selene's court is also filled
with literature and philosophy and art.
Selene, like her mother before her, has constructed a tomb.
It's one of the most impressive of the ancient world.
[Sally-Ann] We know from some of the remains in her tomb
and from the sides of their palaces,
that she actually took Egyptian statues to her palaces
to continue that connection to her mother and her homeland.
[Debora] She has a son who becomes her and her husband's heir.
[Shelley] She named that son, Ptolemy, after Cleopatra's father.
That dynasty continues, though,
because her granddaughter
marries into the Roman Imperial family.
And so Cleopatra lives on.
[Shelley] Even in antiquity, she lived on through her daughter
and she lived on through her grandson.
[epic music]
Cleopatra is significant in that she is the last ruler
of an independent, powerful Egypt.
[Debora] We think about female empowerment.
There is no Rome without Egypt.
This is a woman exercising power.
[Colleen] Cleopatra was trying to save the country
that she loved from destruction.
[Cleopatra] I am Isis.
Queen of Kings!
I would die for Egypt.
[Cleopatra] What would you die for?
[Colleen] She has become an icon.
I resisted Cleopatra for a really long time.
Uh, in my scholarly life.
I said, "I am not gonna study you. I'm not gonna study you."
I would have this recurring dream where there was this shadowy figure,
certainly an ancient person, clearly a woman,
who would say to me,
"You have to tell my story."
"You have to do it."
I want people to know the story of Cleopatra
because she was an African queen.
And that's a fact that's been buried,
it's been erased, it's been white-washed.
Generation after generation are absolutely mesmerized by Cleopatra.
Her story resonates,
I think, with every woman.
[narrator] Cleopatra was one of the most influential rulers
the world has ever known.
Her legacy as the most famous of all African Queens is assured.
[Shelley] She will live on until...
there's no one else to tell her story.
[closing theme music]