"It has always
been preferable to attribute a woman's success to her beauty rather to her
brains, to reduce her to the sum of her sex life"
| By Gamal Nkrumah |
Stacy Schiff
Winner of the Pulitzer
Prize
Alexandria lets you
indulge in its collective allegories and epics. From one particular historical
point of view the legends are intact. From another no less academic viewpoint
everything is unraveling -- from Rome to Tarsus, and Saint Mark could be
turning in his grave. A heroic queen can become a coward and a saucy but stern
blue-blood, a seductress. The story of the city lingers long at this historical
juncture as the author takes up the narration, and in her version of
Alexandria, Cleopatra's first encounter with Ceasar isn't so seamless. She
isn't even one of his fans. As for Mark Anthony, he is an object of devotion,
even prodigious desire.
There is sometimes a
'message in a bottle' allure about political personalities that elude their
proper place in history. Cleopatra was born in 69 BC, the second of three
daughters was the celebrated and legendary last queen of Egypt. She is
remembered to this day as an illustrious temptress of mighty Roman men of war.
Cleopatra VII's sisters -- the elder Berenice and the younger Arsinoe -- were
two such no less wily women who somehow eluded their proper place in history.
Why this is so is left, I suppose, to the reader's conjecture. However,
questions of historical relevance must be addressed.
As a pretender to the
Ptolomaic throne in the absence of her father in Rome, the elder sister was
executed upon Auletes' triumphal return. His fame as a fabulously wealthy
Ptolomy did not however ensure a proper place for him in history. He was after
all, Auletes the Piper. He was "the pharaoh who piped his way while Egypt
collapsed."
Yet it was his dutiful
daughter who presided over the Ptolemaic dynasty's ruin. A feat that ironically
assured that she acquired a proper place in history. Cleopatra VII ingratiated
herself with her father, playing the devoted daughter and winning his
affections. She was the apple of Auletes' eye.
