Destiny can be shaped by an encounter between two people.
If their paths never crossed, how different would history be?
But brought together by the fates
and driven by fierce ambition, determination, and love,
empires can be built...
or shaken to their very core.
Got you.
You cheat.
- How did I cheat?
You cheated.
Together, Mark Antony and Cleopatra will do both...
blazing their own unforgettable trail through history.
What?
I'm pregnant.
After Cleopatra entertains Mark Antony in Tarsus,
she invites him back to Alexandria.
The relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony
definitely begins as a pragmatic political arrangement.
But it seems to quickly develop into something more
where there really is love between them.
While Mark Antony is in Alexandria, he's having a great time there.
But he's also gonna be uneasy because in Rome,
there is an agreement now that power is being shared.
Octavian pretty much holds the West.
Mark Antony, the East.
They both have ambitions
to get the other person out of the picture.
Where have you gone to?
I am here.
Nothing is wrong.
Don't do that.
Do what? - Lie to me.
I'm not.
You can't share my bed and lie to me.
It's Octavian.
There are rumors he's threatening to break the alliances,
making moves of his own.
What sort of moves?
It isn't clear yet.
Then why are you waiting?
Mark, you should be in Rome right now finding out for yourself.
I'll not give him the satisfaction.
How dare he try to upset an alliance that you made possible?
No, Mark, you need to go back to Rome
and put that little bird back in his cage before he grows wings
and tries to destroy everything you've fought for.
Mark Antony stays away too long.
He isn't doing Roman business.
That leaves Octavian in Rome,
in the seat of power, close to the Senate.
All they hear back in Rome is about the extravagant banquets.
Go, my love.
We will be here waiting for you...
when you get back.
Octavian is beginning to undermine
Mark Antony's reputation in Rome,
hinting that the same thing that happened to Julius Caesar with Cleopatra
is now happening to him.
Cleopatra persuades him.
"Go back to Rome.
Make sure Octavian is under your thumb
instead of the other way around."
When Mark Antony leaves Egypt and goes back to Rome
to repair his relationship with Octavian,
Cleopatra is pregnant.
Mark Antony may have been infatuated with Cleopatra,
but when it comes to marriage,
he picks what he thinks
is the most politically sound person.
When you are Gaius, then I am Gaia.
Mark Antony marries Octavian's sister, Octavia.
It's somebody who's related directly to Octavian.
It's someone who ensures, or so he thinks,
that Octavian will be on his side.
In ancient Egypt, when she was having a child,
that was considered a very dangerous time for a woman.
Not only is she at risk of losing the baby and losing her life,
but the country itself is at risk of losing its ruler.
No!
Cleopatra gives birth to twins.
It was seen as something divine.
It was seen as a gift from... from the gods.
And it cemented Cleopatra's image as Isis.
Cleopatra knows the Roman tradition of political marriages.
She understands why Mark Antony had to do this.
Mark Antony marries Octavia for political reasons,
to appease her brother Octavian.
It's, again, a strategic move.
In Cleopatra's mind, it's fine.
Go ahead, take a Roman wife. Sure.
But he doesn't come back for three years.
What's that? What's that? Yeah.
Caesar had a Roman wife.
He still wrote to her,
took an interest in their child.
Mark Antony, not a word.
Not a word.
Even after Cleopatra delivers twins.
Not a word.
Essentially, he ghosts her. He's gone.
But during that time,
Cleopatra turns Egypt's fortunes around.
She's increased taxes a bit,
but she's also increased exports.
She's increased employment.
And suddenly, Egypt's situation is looking very prosperous.
The sources on Rome don't have any details about...
what Cleopatra did during the three years.
But from Arabic accounts, Egypt was thriving.
The economy was, like, booming.
The people loved Cleopatra.
She was seen as an effective leader.
During those three years
that Mark Antony stays away from Cleopatra,
he's busy building an Eastern Empire and waging war against Parthia,
a major power in what is now modern-day Iran.
Mark Antony wants to be able to gain control of the Parthians
because this will elevate his own standing within the Roman Empire
and establish him as a significant power player
in association with Octavian.
The Romans have been trying to conquer the Parthians for a while
and haven't been successful,
and so, that would be an important establishment for him.
He thought he was going to be supported by Octavian,
but Octavian doesn't really help him in the way that Antony expected.
He needs military support.
He needs money.
Mark Antony has the expectation
that by marrying Octavia, Octavian's sister,
he's going to get what he needs from Octavian
for the Parthian campaign.
However, Octavian only provides him with two legions,
and so he still requires more forces
if he's going to have a successful invasion of the East.
As conflict intensifies,
Mark Antony knows that now he needs to seek alliances,
and Cleopatra has to be top on his list.
Mark Antony summons Cleopatra.
He can't rely on Octavian,
and he's realized that he does need Cleopatra.
After Mark Antony summons Cleopatra,
she travels to Antioch in Syria.
At this stage,
Cleopatra does have the upper hand,
and she's the one who can make demands.
She wants old Ptolemaic territories,
and she wants to ensure
that these territories can return to her kingdom.
Those territories being Cyprus and Crete, especially.
Please clear the room.
- Cleopatra-- - No.
You don't get to explain.
You had three years.
Not a word.
Not to me
or the children.
The children, did you bring them?
Did I bring them?
To you?
I know the reason you summoned me here.
I know...
about your sorry little dance with Octavian.
I have spies of my own.
I know you need my help.
Why should I give it to you?
You're right.
You're absolutely right.
What we're seeing are two power players coming together
to try to figure out how to best promote,
uh, each other's mutual interests.
And so Mark Antony needs Cleopatra
for his ongoing structuring of the Eastern Roman Empire.
He doesn't have enough men.
He doesn't have enough supplies.
She needs him for her associations with Rome.
She gives him a list of demands.
And it's basically,
"I want everything back that Julius Caesar took away."
She wants Mark Antony to claim the twins as his
and also be given territories to be in charge of.
And also Caesarion, she wants recognized as the son of Julius Caesar.
That's still important.
I want it.
I want it all.
Cleopatra and Mark Antony spend an entire winter
in Antioch, Syria, negotiating.
What Cleopatra wants
is to restore the glory of the Ptolemaic Kingdom.
So, I thought about your demands,
about everything you want.
Everything I deserve.
Everything Egypt deserves.
Well, it's still an enormous price.
For an enormous ask which only Egypt can provide.
I'm not here to argue with you, Pharoah.
Why are you here then?
Why am I here?
I'm here because you win.
I win what?
Everything.
Why?
Because of us.
Can I really trust you?
I can't share your bed and lie to you, now can I?
Your rules.
This means that Cleopatra is more powerful than ever.
She's now restored the Ptolemaic Kingdom to its former glory.
And in return, Mark Antony gets the military manpower that he needs
for his Parthian campaign.
Egypt regaining control of these territories
allowed Egypt to prosper in truly remarkable ways.
The more a nation owns land,
the wealthier the core of that empire becomes.
So, these lands would have added substantial power, wealth,
and security to Cleopatra,
which are key elements that she always wants,
that every Ptolemaic King wants.
And it's at this point,
Mark Antony meets for the first time
his children by Cleopatra.
My little god. Hello.
Hello to you.
- Are you gonna come here too? - Yeah. That's it.
My perfect little gods. Look at you both.
And from all accounts,
he is absolutely besotted with them.
He does name his twins the Sun and the Moon.
Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene.
Mark Antony and Cleopatra are elevating their children
to, literally, the sun and moon in the heavens.
They are setting them up to be the inheritors
of a massive Eastern Empire
that Mark Antony and Cleopatra are creating together.
We bow too. Yes.
- My lord. - Aw.
Although Mark Antony is preparing to invade Parthia,
these are months where Mark Antony and Cleopatra
have a chance to rekindle their romance and time together as a family.
And she becomes pregnant with their third child.
Then life got in the way.
And life for them is kind of, like, very serious.
Politics, strategy, wars,
trying to stop the Parthians from, uh, invading his territory.
Despite Cleopatra's financial support,
Mark Antony's Parthian invasion fails.
Much of this is because his former ally, the King of Armenia, betrays him.
The Parthians essentially defeat Mark Antony.
It's... it's a disastrous campaign for Mark Antony.
He loses thousands of men.
Huge damage to his supplies.
And it's a perfect opportunity for Octavian to make use of that.
But now he has this tangible evidence
that Mark Antony is an inefficient commander.
At this point, Cleopatra is back in Egypt.
She's not able to accompany Mark Antony on the campaign
because she's giving birth to their third child together...
- ...Ptolemy.
- What?
His campaign is not going exactly according to plan.
And Octavian grows in confidence with each of Antony's defeats.
And this last battle, Antony is...
It annoys me when you stop like that.
Pharaoh, right now, these are just rumors.
We should know more from our trusted official channels soon.
How soon?
In a few weeks or--
That isn't good enough.
If we're hearing these rumors,
you can be sure Octavian is hearing them as well.
I will push for a faster response.
Hm.
In the interim, how else would you like to proceed?
Find out where Antony is.
Cleopatra is concerned about Mark Antony's losses,
and so she goes to visit him in Antioch, Syria,
where he has retreated with his troops.
I said do not disturb me!
Cleopatra.
Nothing is working.
That hairless little prick is trumping my every move, all of them.
Then make new moves.
I have. A dozen times.
It's as if he can read my mind.
Enough.
No matter what I do, he is there.
How could he possibly read your mind?
Have you forgotten who you are?
You are a better man than Octavian will ever be.
You're stronger. You are a better soldier.
A better fighter.
And you can do it.
You have all of Egypt behind you.
You must go out there...
and act like you know what you are.
What am I, Cleopatra? What am I?
You are a warrior.
You are my warrior.
- Remember that. - Yes.
- Okay? - Yes.
Okay.
Act like you know you've already won.
I already won.
I won.
And I love you.
Cleopatra is in quite deep now with Mark Antony.
Also, three kids involved.
And Mark Antony has not just promised her support,
he's also promised to take care of her kids
by giving them different territories around the region.
Mark Antony needs her financial support.
Cleopatra is the one calling the shots.
To cement their relationship
and to... give it a divine validity,
Cleopatra marries Mark Antony.
Mark Antony's marriage to Cleopatra is frowned upon in Rome.
He is already married to Octavia, Octavian's sister.
In Egypt, it's a different story.
Kings often had multiple wives,
and Cleopatra is only married to one person at this point in time.
Mark Antony.
There's a big ceremony that follows the marriage.
The Donations of Alexandria.
Your Isis greets you.
I pity enemies of Egypt.
I pity them more when Egypt and Rome are united.
These vipers underestimate our divine union,
our wisdom,
our wealth,
our numbers,
the favor of our gods.
Today, I stand here.
We stand here before you
with our divine future thriving before us.
The ceremony was extremely lavish.
We have the children dressed in costume,
we have Cleopatra dressed as Isis.
And Mark Antony is essentially giving the territories of Rome to the family.
And I promise you,
anyone who dares to threaten our divine union
will regret the day they were born!
At the Donation of Alexandria,
Mark Antony stands up and proclaims
that Caesarion is, is Julius Caesar's heir.
Mark Antony formally hands over
all of the territories that Cleopatra wanted.
The Donations of Alexandria
not only recreate the Ptolemaic Empire at its greatest extent,
but it actually gives to Egypt
more territory than the Ptolemaic Empire had ever controlled before.
In addition to giving away the Roman territories, um,
Mark Antony now divorces, um, Octavian's sister.
So, to add insult to injury,
uh, Mark Antony almost seems as if he's cutting his ties with Rome.
You know that emoji where the head explodes?
That's Octavian when he hears about the Donations of Alexandria.
"What is Mark Antony doing?
He's lost his mind.
He doesn't have the power to do this."
But at the same time, this gives Octavian the perfect piece of propaganda.
Look at Mark Antony behaving like an eastern king.
Look at Mark Antony not acting the part of a true and proper Roman.
It's very easy then for Octavian to cast the Donations of Alexandria
as an anti-Roman plot.
Mark Antony gives Octavian the excuse for war.
But not against Mark Antony
because the Roman people cannot endure another civil war.
Who's the scapegoat then?
Cleopatra.
"It's that witch."
And that's the beginning.
That's the beginning of the propaganda
against Cleopatra by Octavian.
And it's the beginning of the unraveling
of Mark Antony's reputation in Rome.
- Mm.
So...
...Octavian thinks you've bewitched me...
and put all of Rome in danger.
Hm.
Good.
Octavian is very angry and offended.
He's released this vicious propaganda against Cleopatra.
So, even though Mark Antony was the one who was unfaithful to his sister,
uh, Cleopatra is framed as this great seductress,
and she's done these, these things to trap him.
Little angry men often make big mistakes.
Octavian's mistake is how much he underestimates us.
I think we should destroy him.
Hm.
At this particular point, um...
Octavian has declared war on Cleopatra.
In 31 BCE,
Cleopatra and Mark Antony go head-to-head in all-out naval warfare with Octavian
in what is known as the Battle of Actium.
This is the climax of a decade of rivalry.
She goes with many ships, thousands of soldiers,
and they head towards Greece.
Cleopatra is very actively involved in military life.
She wants to know the details,
she wants to know the tactics, she wants to play a part in them.
And she... she's not a leader who's in the palace.
She's very much on the front line.
This is gonna be a showdown that's gonna change
the history of Rome
and change the history of Egypt.
Cleopatra and Mark Antony plan their naval strategy together.
She's supplying 200 of their 800 ships and nearly all of the financing.
But this doesn't sit well with all of Antony's generals,
some of whom don't want to take orders from a woman.
With all due respect,
our allegiance is to the General, not a--
You will do well to remember what I bring to the table.
- Oh, you dare to talk to me like-- - Enough!
- What she suggests goes against-- - She?
What I think you meant to say was,
"Thank you, Isis,
for providing us with the world's most invincible naval fleet,
which we will deploy immediately,
with a force so mighty that Octavian won't know what's hit him."
Am I correct?
Yes, General.
Thank you.
But I had it.
Mark Antony's Roman allies
become increasingly suspicious of Cleopatra.
She represents an absolute monarchy.
She represents an eastern empire.
And she's a woman.
Mark Antony needs to be a strong Roman general,
and his alliance with Cleopatra threatens that identity
in the eyes of his Roman allies.
They are worried that he is acting less like a Roman general
and more like an eastern king.
And because of that,
many of Mark Antony's commanders defect and join Octavian's army.
Once the battle begins,
Mark Antony and Cleopatra are on separate ships.
Mark Antony leading the fleet at the front and Cleopatra behind.
On the morning of September 2nd,
Mark Antony and Cleopatra attempt to punch through the blockade
that Octavian has at the Bay of Actium.
Now, Mark Antony and Cleopatra combined have fewer ships than Octavian.
The other major difference between the two navies
is that Mark Antony's ships are much larger.
They have more firepower,
but they also are way less maneuverable than Octavian's lighter ships.
Cleopatra and Mark Antony both made
a series of problematic battle decisions,
which is sort of surprising,
due to the fact that they're both pretty savvy.
But they strung out their fleet, uh,
and allowed themselves to become trapped.
Octavian's lighter and more maneuverable ships
managed to nearly surround the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
We're told by the Roman sources that Cleopatra,
when she realized that Mark Antony was being defeated,
turned her ships around and decided to sail back to Alexandria.
Row!
Row! Faster! Harder!
Row!
She doesn't want to be captured.
There would have been no point at all in her staying
in a battle that they were effectively losing.
Her primary goal remains the safety of her own kingdom.
The safety of Egypt.
She has no choice but to try to make it back to Egypt
with as many of her ships as possible.
If she loses all of her navy at the Battle of Actium,
Egypt will be defenseless.
Her ships' gone.
General, all of them.
She did what?
It's easy to see from the Roman perspective
that Cleopatra taking her fleet
and leaving Actium is an act of treachery.
What did you do? Did you try to stop her?
- No. - Did you try to stop her?
It might have actually been the best decision even for Mark Antony,
at least keeping part of the Navy intact
in order to fight Octavian another day.
Mark Antony, knowing the battle is all but lost,
flees and manages to catch up to Cleopatra's fleet.
What have you done?
- I couldn't risk my fleets. - Ours!
And you should have asked me first.
I'm the General, not you.
Useless without my army.
How dare you?
Mark Antony is the commander of the forces,
so he is the one that's going to make the final decision.
But it is interesting that when things go wrong,
Cleopatra is the one that gets the blame.
If you're going to give me an army, let me govern it.
It was the right decision.
But you cut me out.
I did what I had to do.
But you did it without asking me.
I did what I had to do to protect what is mine.
Ours, Cleopatra!
Not yours! Ours!
It's not something that your average Roman would have done at the point of a battle.
Um, but actually, Cleopatra's thinking about herself and her own power.
She's putting herself and her family first.
Who do you think you are, Cleopatra?
The Pharoah! That is who!
Watch who you are speaking to.
They can hear all of this up there.
My men, my loyal men are laughing at me.
I'm not responsible for you and how you feel.
I made a decision and I stand by it.
All I want...
is your trust.
The Battle of Actium is a disaster for Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
They have lost their one opportunity to meet and beat Octavian
outside of Egypt's borders.
Now they have no choice but to fall back to Egypt
and simply defend their territory.
Octavian, with this victory,
he's proven his power against Mark Antony,
against the Ptolemies.
This puts him in a great position,
and he, he already had a great position because he was in Caesar's will.
But now he's proven it.
It's tangible. It's undeniable.
After the Battle of Actium,
Cleopatra takes control.
She writes to Octavian.
"If you allow me and Mark Antony to live,
we will go anywhere.
And you can have Egypt."
Mark, no one, can ever know. Please.
She doesn't quite try to appeal to him
in the, in the same way that she did to Caesar
and to Antony in the past,
but she is pragmatic.
At this stage, she probably knows that she will be exiled,
but she still wants her children to have rule at least over Egypt.
She also asks Octavian for Antony to live.
Cleopatra needs to cut a deal with Octavian just to survive.
Her fate, that of her family and her kingdom,
are entirely in Octavian's hands.
My lord, Octavian, thanks Pharoah for your message
and instructs me, as his ambassador, to inform you...
he's willing to grant your request.
Okay.
On one condition.
A simple request.
Kill Antony.
His life for yours.
And your children's, of course.