Mystery Files (2010–…): Season 1, Episode 10 - Cleopatra - full transcript

The year is 49 BC.

Civil war rages across
the Roman Empire.

Because Rome was so
powerful, it dominated

the Mediterranean world.

The violence
spillsinto neighboring Egypt,

where a teenage girl is
thrust onto the throne

of this mystical kingdom.

She will go on to become
one of the key power

players of ancient history.

Military might is not theonly
secret of her success.

Sexual temptation,
alone, can't explain it.



So how does this
iconic queen defy death

in a brutal, male-dominated age?

We investigate the private
realmof the last pharaoh of Egypt,

as we open the mystery
files on Cleopatra.

For 2000 years,
legends ofQueen Cleopatra's love life

have inspired countlesspaintings,
plays, and movies.

But now, scholars arehunting
for the real queen,

and exploring how,
againstthe odds, she mesmerized,

first, Julius Caesar, and then,
Mark Antony, two of Rome's

most influential leaders.

Cleopatra is born in 69 BC,
eldest daughter of a long line

of powerful Egyptian pharaohs.

There have been six otherQueen
Cleopatras in the dynasty

before her, named after
its founder, Ptolemy I.



Author Mei Trow has
been researching

these turbulent times.

Ptolemy was Greek,
and he settled in Egypt

after the death of Alexander.

Alexander the
Greatwas the Macedonian warlord

who conquered Egypt in 332 BC.

After his death, one
of his top generals,

Ptolemy, took over the country.

And from that began
the Ptolemaic dynasty,

which lasted for 300 years.

When she is just18,
Cleopatra's father dies.

She ascends to the
throne, and becomes

Queen Cleopatra VII,
rulingalongside her 10-year-old

brother, Ptolemy XIII.

Their brother-and-sister
union is customary.

Doctor Christopher Snyderhas
researched the dynasties

of ancient Egypt and Rome.

Cleopatra was
set up as a consort

for her brother, Ptolemy.

And that is tradition,
Egyptian tradition,

that it was a way to
keep this divine blood

within the royal family.

Doctor Debbie
Challisexplains how precarious life

as a Ptolemaic royal will be.

There's been infighting
within the Ptolemies

for the last 50 years,
ifnot going back before that.

Betrayal and assassination

are a constant risk of court.

Cleopatra's own fatherwas
one of the few rulers

not to have been murdered.

And now, the teenage queen
facesimminent danger from abroad.

Across the Mediterranean
Sea, to the north,

is one of the most
expansionistsuperpowers in history--

Rome.

It dominated the
Mediterraneanworld 2000 years ago.

And the Romans, of course,
wereincredibly pushy, aggressive,

adventurous,
and they tooktheir civilization as far

as they could to
the west, and as far

as they could to the east,
which included Egypt.

At the time of
Cleopatra's accession,

the empire stretches
from the North Atlantic

to the Eastern Mediterranean--

at its heart, Rome.

In that great city,
professor Valerie Higgins

lectures on ancient history.

There is a slight gap,
here, when they haven't

completely conquered Egypt.

They've conquered some of
theouter territories of Egypt,

but they haven't
conquered Egypt itself.

But Egypt is progressively
beingbrought into the Roman sphere

of influence.

Rome's hold
over Egypt is financial.

Cleopatra's predecessors
hadborrowed large sums of money

to fund their internal
power struggles.

If you were trying to keepin
power, like Ptolemy XII--

Cleopatra's father-- and
youwanted to borrow some money to,

basically, pay some troops,
or to borrow the Roman troops,

then you'd take a
massiveloan out from Rome.

Fortunately,
Egyptis a credit-worthy customer.

Egypt has grain.

And remember, the
rulers of Rome have

got to keep their people happy.

And one obvious way of doing
itis with food, and plenty of it.

Egypt's
fertilitymakes her desired,

and has also kept her safe.

If you were to make
eachEgypt a full province,

you would have to
give it a governor--

a Roman governor, who could,
with all the wealth that Egypt

had behind it, could
actually challenge

the leadership in Rome.

If you can keep the native ruler

on the throne, a native rulerwho
is actually a client king,

then you've got the
best of both worlds.

In Egypt,
Ptolemy Xlilis one of these client kings.

His sister, Cleopatra,
is his queen.

Rome is getting paid.

There is a fragile peace.

But it could collapse
at any moment.

There had been meetings
in the Senate about

whether Rome should
take over Egypt.

Only three
yearsinto Cleopatra's reign,

a royal power struggle inEgypt
gives the Roman dictator,

Julius Caesar, the
excuse he needs.

Ptolemy XIII had advisors whokind
of instigated a rebellion,

or a disagreement,
between the two,

and Cleopatra was kicked out.

Cleopatra
surviveswith her life, then,

flees into exile.

Caesar leads his
troops into Egypt,

on the pretext ofmediating
between the Queen

and her brother.

The only hope for
the deposed queen

is if she can convince
Caesar to take her side.

But Cleopatra has
nothing to offer

Caesar that he can't simplytake,
apart from one thing--

herself.

Pat Brown has studied thelife
and death of Cleopatra.

So the story goes,
that inorder to meet Julius Caesar,

she was put into a
carpet, and rolled up.

And they carried her
in to the palace,

and then unrolled this
infront of Julius Caesar.

And out came Cleopatra.

The Greek historian, Plutarch,

records that Caesar
isenamored by Cleopatra's wit,

and overcome by her charms.

Julius Caesar
stayed in Alexandria,

and was forced into acivil
war between Cleopatra

and her brother.

And he did put himself
at great physical risk.

And many of his friends
werewondering why he was involved

in this sort of local conflict.

Caesar'sinvolvement is now total.

His forces engaged
the Egyptian Army.

Cleopatra's nemesis
andbrother, Ptolemy XIII, dies.

But instead of
taking over Egypt,

Caesar gives it
back to Cleopatra,

and installs her as queen,
alongside her other brother,

Ptolemy XIV.

Cleopatra has kept her country,
and is back on the throne.

How she managed to
charm a whole nation out

of an all-powerful dictatorhas
puzzled historians.

It's very difficult
to know exactly where

Cleopatra's charm came from.

If you look at portraits of her,
on her coinage in particular,

she looks, frankly, plain.

The popularlegend
relates that Caesar

fell for Cleopatra,
simply because she

was so extremely attractive.

It's usually hard to
tellwhat people in antiquity

actually looked like.

And we get written
descriptionsoccasionally, but very seldom

do we get to realisticportraits on
coins, and busts,

and things like that.

Artist India Amosis
analyzing images believed

to be of Cleopatra,
to tryand produce an impression

of what she looked like.

Because this is myprofession,
drawing portraits,

I'd like to say that it
was an easy challenge.

But it definitely wasn't.

I had to look at statues,
coins, images on paper,

and they were so
different and varied.

Some were sort of
more stylized--

for instance, the coins.

And then you've got the statues,
and they were often broken.

Some of them were
with broken noses,

or just weathered over age.

India thinks
she may have discovered

a reason why the coins
might appear less

attractive to some observers.

Yeah, well, with
the side profile,

any prominent features,
which she certainly has,

with the hook nose,
the flared nostril,

quite a kind of prominentbump
chin, probably makes her,

to some people,
lessattractive than the softer,

rounded feature that you seefrom
the front-on 3/4 profile.

I wouldn't say that she was anugly
person, definitely not.

But there is an
alternative explanation.

Well, I think the
depiction on the coin

is, really, to show her
as mannish as possible.

After all, the Roman
world was male.

And the Queen of Egypt
has got to appear to be

a general, just like they were.

She was.

She was commander in chiefof her
armies, of her navies.

And so the male imagegoes
very much with that.

Today, opinions are still

divided about whether
Cleopatra was as

beautiful as her myth claims.

But even if she is the
most beautiful woman

to have ever existed,
is the promise of sex

with her enough
motivation for a highly

intelligent and
calculating ruler,

like Caesar, to change
his entire behavior,

lose valuable territories,
damage his political standing,

and even risk his life?

Now, this is fascinatingand
very difficult to explain.

It can't just be a pretty face.

There must have been morethan
just her physical charm.

Now, scholars are focusing

beyond her physicalappearance,
and investigating

Cleopatra's other attractions.

I think something
that's often overlooked

is how intellectual
Cleopatra was.

Cleopatra spoke

Greek and Egyptian,
but also languages

like Aramaic and Syriac.

She was a verywell-educated young woman,

and it would come to serveher
well as Queen of Egypt.

She was a scientist.

She was a philosopher.

She could debate with
the finest Greek minds.

And she was also,
undoubtedly, the richest woman

in the Mediterranean world.

And people like
Caesar like that.

Intelligent, sexual, and rich--

Cleopatra has
several devices she

can employ in her seduction.

And it works.

So far, Cleopatra's
attributes have

saved her sovereign
independence, achieved

by seducing Julius Caesar,
now, a dictator, and therefore,

the most powerful man
in the Roman world.

But it is Caesar's very
successthat will be his downfall.

The Roman Republic
isstrongly anti-monarchist,

and Caesar's rule is
looking suspiciously

like that of a king.

The Romans decide,
the tyrant must go.

On the 15th of March, 44BC,
Caesar is assassinated.

After Caesar was
murdered, Cleopatra

was in a terrible situation.

She had nobody there
to support her anymore.

Rome's empire isdivided
again, and later

erupts, once more,
into civil war,

as Octavian, Caesar's
adopted son and heir,

goes head to head
with one of Rome's

most formidable and
successful generals--

Mark Antony.

Octavian and Mark Antony weretwo
very different individuals.

Octavian was not a soldier.

He was an astute politician,
avery careful, and very modest

man.

Antony was a
larger-than-life figure.

He was a great soldier,
agreat lover, a great friend

to many of his fellow soldiers.

In a rerun ofthe
earlier Roman conflict,

Cleopatra's Egypt is
a key battleground.

Antony petitions thequeen
to support his side.

Again, Cleopatra wants
to keep her throne,

and retain Egyptian
sovereign status.

And again, she has nothingto
bargain with that Antony

can't already take by force--

apart from herself.

For the second time,
Cleopatramust seduce one of the most

powerful people in the world.

She's definitely puttingherself
out for Mark Antony,

to dazzle him, as
much as anything else.

She's got a lot to lose,
if she doesn't do that.

Those sumptuous banquets
thatCleopatra held on her barge,

where she takes off
one of her earrings,

one of the largest
pearls ever recorded,

and dissolves it in
a glass of wine--

literally, conspicuous
consumption.

This is something that,
over all of the moments,

the sheer opulence of it all.

Cleopatra hasadded
extravagance, excess,

and gluttony to her
list of enticements,

to lure Mark Antony.

Displays of wealth and
lavish offers of food

are intoxicating--

effects that go far deeper
thancultural or historical context.

At New York University,
Dr. Lucy Brown

has scanned the
brains of subjects

who are receiving
sexual, financial, and

gastronomic positive stimuli.

And what we'll look at

is the change in his brainactivity
in different regions.

And we'll extrapolate,
from that, different brain

systems that are involved.

Yeah, that's good, perfect.

Great.

Dr. Brown's
results reveal

that the reaction in the
brain to sexual stimuli

is similar to the arousalprovoked
by the promise of food

and money.

These inducements triggerdeep,
neurological effects,

that transcend culture
and the passage of time,

and would have worked
thesame way 2000 years ago.

Keeping the reward system active

is what Cleopatra was
doing, by providing

all of these wonderful contextsfor
Caesar and Mark Antony.

Cleopatra's techniqueis
a stage-managed concert

of pleasures.

It's all carefully planned.

She uses her money.

She uses her sexuality.

Everything is orchestrated--the
hair, the dress, the perfume

that she uses.

And all of it is
very calculating.

Yet historians have identified

a stranger aspect of
Cleopatra's seduction

of Caesar and Mark Antony--

perhaps the key
component of her legend

as a magical Eastern temptress.

Is it possible the
Romans, like Egyptians,

believed that a pharaoh
is a god in human form?

I think we sometimes
underestimate how

superstitious the Romans were.

If Antony, himself,
regards Egypt's rulers

as divine, then
perhaps, he is also

convinced he is nowconducting
intimate relations

with a living goddess.

They believed in
gods and goddesses.

They were real.

The Romans regularly performed

rituals to stay in their favor.

And here, we
have an Egyptian society

with tremendously powerful gods,
who have been around forever,

it seems.

By the time
of Cleopatra's reign,

Egypt was already an
ancient civilization.

Incredibly, the 21st centuryis
closer to the Roman era

than the Romans were to
thebuilding of the pyramids.

How these billion-toncreations
were ever erected

is already an enigma
to the Romans.

In an age of deep
religious conviction,

Romans would have been inawe
of Egypt's mystical past,

and of the bizarre godsthat
watch over Cleopatra.

We think,
in termsof hawk heads and crocodile

deities, they are frightening.

There is that kind
ofsupernatural malevolence,

somehow, I think, from Egypt.

To the Romans,
Egypt is mysterious,

exotic, and frightening.

I think it was scary.

I think we have to
imagine that most

people in the ancient
world were what, today,

we would call superstitious.

Plutarch tells
us how Cleopatra plays

on Antony's spiritual
beliefs, in the way

she presents herself to him.

Well, she appears beforehim
as the female goddesses

of both Egypt and Greece--

an Isis, who's the goddess
offertility, the greatest goddess

in the Egyptian mythologies,
fused with Aphrodite,

the goddess of love.

But some scholars argue

this is more than
fantasy role-playing,

and that Antony may
view Cleopatra to be,

at least in part, supernatural.

Evidence lies in thedeep-rooted
psychological and

religious attitudes of Romans.

Investigations into
the works of Horace,

a major Roman poet,
alive andwriting while these events are

unfolding, reveals
clues of what Romans

really thought, 2000 years ago.

Latin scholar, Dr. Paul
Gwynne, is analyzing

the language Horace usesto
describe the seduction

of Antony by Cleopatra.

Horace writes in such
a sophisticated way.

There is not one word,
in any of his poetry,

that he's not thought
about, that he's not

placed with care and attention.

He has noticed
a few of these carefully

chosen words in
Horace'sdescription of Cleopatra.

We see her as,
in the very center

of the poem, a fatale monstrum.

Now, how you translate theword
fatale monstrum is always

difficult. Both the
words, separately,

have religious connotations.

Fatale means
death-dealing, fatal,

in the sense that it's fateful.

Monstrum is something to
beadmired and wary of, and also,

at the same, a
monster, something

that's out of the ordinary.

As Horace
describesCleopatra as monstrum,

from where the modern
word monster derives,

it implies he considersher
outside the ordinary,

exotic, and alien.

In terms of whether MarkAntony
believed he was sleeping

with somebody divine,
I thinkit's so difficult for us

to think like that,
givenwe're so rational, now.

It's very tempting,
inour modern, cynical world,

to think that key players,
like Caesar, like Mark Antony,

were above such things,
that they were actually very

hard-bitten, very cynical,
very clever, and merely

paying lip service to all that.

I don't think that's true.

I think that's to
misunderstand what

the ancient world is all about.

They were brought up
to know nothing else.

The research
indicates that Caesar

and Antony might well
believe Cleopatra

to really be a goddess.

It's an irresistiblebackup
to her master plan.

I think we're looking at
acombination of factors, here.

You've got her sense of
physicalpresence, her beauty, which

would have been accentuated
by makeup, and clothes,

and hairstyle, and so on.

You've got her ability
tospeak umpteen languages,

and to entertain.

You've got her sexuality.

You've got her power.

She was pharaoh of
Upper and Lower Egypt.

Put that lot together,
and you have got something

that adds up to a charm.

Factor in, this
woman is a goddess,

and I think that, to
people like Caesar,

to people like Mark
Antony, this would

have been enormously powerful.

Her seduction
of Antony complete,

the pair form a partnership--

Antony, gaining the
wealth of Egypt,

Cleopatra, keeping herlife,
her throne, and Egypt

as an independent nation.

Paid for with Egyptian
richesand fed on Egyptian grain,

for a while,
Antony andCleopatra's armies hold off

those of their enemy, Octavian.

But at what price?

The conservative,
Octavian, would

have used Cleopatra's
ostentatious lifestyle

against Mark Antony.

He would have, back
in Rome, been trying

to convince the Roman peoplethat
the solid soldier, Mark

Antony, was being seduced by
theevil temptress from the east.

In the end,
hiscountrymen turned against him.

And even with the
resources of Egypt,

Antony could not stand up to
thesheer military might of Rome.

On the 1st of August, 30 BC,
when Cleopatra is 39 years old,

she and Antony surrender.

Rather than be
captured by Octavian

and dragged to Rome inchains,
Antony and Cleopatra

commit suicide.

Octavian takes over Egypt,
andimposes direct rule from Rome.

The country, finally,
becomesjust another Roman province.

The land will not be
solelyunder Egyptian control

for another 2000 years.

Egypt's last queen isdead,
but she has survived

far longer than expected.

Having both Julius Caesarand
Mark Antony as lovers

enabled Cleopatra to
both hold on to power,

and to extend her
power for many years,

beyond what any Egyptianwoman,
perhaps, had ever done.

Yet even in
death, Cleopatra's hold

over the Roman imaginationis
as strong as ever.

It is common in
the classical world

to destroy images of
conquered enemies.

The Greek biographer,
Plutarch, records

that although Octavian
orders the tearing down

of Mark Antony's
statues, Cleopatra's

ought to be left standing.

Octavian then arranges fora
lavish display, bearing

the spoils of Egypt and
an effigy of Cleopatra,

to be paraded through Romeduring
his victory procession.

Plutarch writes that Octavian
isbribed into leaving the statues

of Cleopatra unharmed.

Might it be that he, too,
knowing how she was revered

as a goddess by her people,
may have been enthralled

by the larger-than-life
legend of Cleopatra,

as the world still is, today?