// The Chapters
From the Palace to the Mausoleum
Five acts. Thirty-nine years. Two empires. One woman who refused to kneel.
69 - 51 BC · The Princess
Daughter of the Ptolemies
Born into a dynasty where siblings murdered siblings for the throne, she learned early that intelligence was the only reliable weapon.
Cleopatra VII Philopator was born in 69 BC in Alexandria, the jewel of the Hellenistic world. She was Macedonian Greek, a descendant of Ptolemy I Soter, one of Alexander the Great's generals who seized Egypt after Alexander's death in 323 BC. The Ptolemaic dynasty had ruled for 250 years by the time Cleopatra was born, and they had maintained power through strategic incest — siblings married siblings to keep the bloodline "pure." Cleopatra's father, Ptolemy XII Auletes, was a weak king who survived through Roman patronage. She was educated at the Mouseion of Alexandria, the ancient world's greatest center of learning. She spoke Egyptian, Greek, Aramaic, Ethiopian, Troglodyte, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and Median — the first Ptolemaic ruler in 300 years who bothered to learn the language of the Egyptian people she ruled.
The Great Library
c. 58 BC · Mouseion, Alexandria
A girl of eleven studies in the greatest library ever assembled — 400,000 scrolls of the accumulated knowledge of the ancient world. She learns mathematics from Greek scholars, astronomy from Babylonian texts, and the art of rulership from watching her father beg Rome for his throne.
Auletes' Exile
58 BC · Alexandria to Rome
Ptolemy XII is driven from Egypt by his own people. He flees to Rome and pays Pompey 6,000 talents — nearly Egypt's entire annual revenue — to restore him. Young Cleopatra watches her father humiliate himself before foreign conquerors. She will spend her life ensuring she never has to do the same.
Ascension
51 BC · Alexandria
Ptolemy XII dies. Cleopatra, age 18, becomes co-ruler of Egypt with her 10-year-old brother Ptolemy XIII, whom she is expected to marry. She has no intention of sharing power with a child. Within three years, the regency council backing her brother will drive her from Alexandria.
Off the Record
Every image of Cleopatra you've seen in popular culture is wrong. Ancient coins — the only surviving contemporary depictions — show a woman with a prominent nose, strong chin, and intelligent eyes. Plutarch wrote that her beauty "was not in itself so remarkable," but her conversation, her intellect, and "the charm of her presence" were irresistible. She conquered with her mind, not her face.
48 - 44 BC · Caesar's Egypt
The Carpet and the Conqueror
She smuggled herself into the most powerful man on earth's quarters rolled in a linen sack. She left as the mother of his child.
In 48 BC, Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria pursuing Pompey after the Battle of Pharsalus. Cleopatra, exiled from her own capital by her brother's faction, needed to reach Caesar before Ptolemy XIII's advisors poisoned him against her. She had herself smuggled into the palace — ancient sources say she was wrapped in a linen bag or carpet. She was 21. Caesar was 52. Within months, they were lovers. Caesar defeated Ptolemy XIII's forces at the Battle of the Nile, where her brother drowned in the river. Caesar installed Cleopatra as sole ruler and stayed in Egypt for months. She bore him a son — Caesarion — and followed Caesar to Rome in 46 BC, where she lived in his villa across the Tiber while Roman senators whispered about the foreign queen.
The Carpet
October 48 BC · Royal Palace, Alexandria
A merchant's boat approaches the palace dock at dusk. A rolled carpet is carried to Caesar's chambers. When unrolled, a 21-year-old queen stands before the most powerful man in the world. Within the hour, she has his attention. Within a month, she has his alliance. Within a year, she has his son.
Battle of the Nile
January 47 BC · Nile Delta
Ptolemy XIII's army attacks Caesar's forces in the Alexandrine War. The fighting rages through the streets. The boy-king's forces are crushed and Ptolemy drowns in the Nile during the retreat. His golden armor drags him under. Cleopatra's throne is restored by Roman swords.
The Ides of March
March 15, 44 BC · Theatre of Pompey, Rome
Twenty-three stab wounds. Caesar dies on the Senate floor. Cleopatra is in Rome when it happens, living in Caesar's villa with their son Caesarion. She flees back to Alexandria within weeks. Her protector is dead. Her son's claim to Rome dies with him. She must find another way.
41 - 36 BC · The Eastern Empire
Antony and the Queen
She sailed to Tarsus on a golden barge. The perfume reached shore before the ship did.
Mark Antony, ruler of Rome's eastern provinces, summoned Cleopatra to Tarsus in 41 BC to account for her loyalties during Rome's civil wars. She arrived not as a supplicant but as a goddess. Plutarch records that her barge had gilded stern, purple sails, and silver oars that beat time to flute music. She was dressed as Aphrodite. Antony, who fancied himself the new Dionysus, was overwhelmed. They became lovers, political partners, and eventually married in an Egyptian ceremony. Cleopatra bore him three children: twins Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, and later Ptolemy Philadelphus. Together, they dreamed of an Eastern empire that would rival Rome — with Alexandria, not Rome, as its capital.
The Golden Barge at Tarsus
41 BC · Cydnus River, Tarsus
Gilded stern. Purple sails. Silver oars keeping time to music. The scent of perfume reaches shore before the ship does. Antony sits on his tribunal in the marketplace. The crowd leaves him to see the queen. He dines with her that night. He will never be the same.
The Donations of Alexandria
34 BC · The Gymnasium, Alexandria
Antony and Cleopatra sit on golden thrones and divide Rome's eastern territories among their children. Caesarion is declared King of Kings. Alexander Helios receives Armenia and Parthia. This is the moment Octavian has been waiting for — proof that Antony has gone native, that he answers to a foreign queen.
Antony's Parthian Disaster
36 BC · Parthian Empire
Antony invades Parthia with 100,000 men. The campaign is a catastrophe — 32,000 Roman soldiers die. He retreats in disgrace. Cleopatra meets him at the Syrian coast with supplies, gold, and clothing for his shattered legions. She saves him. In doing so, she binds him closer and ensures their fates are inseparable.
32,000 Romans dead
100,000 set out
Off the Record
Cleopatra reportedly dissolved a pearl earring worth 10 million sesterces in vinegar and drank it at a banquet with Antony — to prove Egypt's wealth exceeded anything Rome could imagine. Modern chemistry confirms that while vinegar cannot dissolve a pearl quickly, calcium carbonate does react with acetic acid. Whether the story is true or propaganda, it captured the ancient world's imagination about a queen who measured power in spectacle.
31 - 30 BC · The Fall
Actium and the End
The last battle of the ancient world. When it was over, Egypt was a Roman province and the age of the pharaohs was finished.
Octavian declared war — not on Antony, but on Cleopatra. A deliberate insult, framing the conflict as Rome versus a foreign queen rather than Roman versus Roman. The fleets met at Actium on September 2, 31 BC. Antony commanded 500 ships and 70,000 infantry. Octavian's admiral Agrippa outmaneuvered them. When the battle turned, Cleopatra's squadron of 60 ships broke through and fled south. Antony abandoned his fleet and followed her. His army surrendered without him. It was over. They retreated to Alexandria for one final year of feasting and despair — forming a club they called the "Companions of Death."
Scene 44
filmed
Battle of Actium
Decisive Defeat
Actium
September 2, 31 BC · Western Greece
500 ships. The entire Mediterranean world is watching. Agrippa's lighter vessels outflank Antony's heavy quinqueremes. Cleopatra's 60 ships break through the center and flee south. Antony, watching her purple sail disappear, abandons his fleet and follows. 300 ships are captured. The ancient world ends at Actium.
500 ships engaged
300 captured
Antony's Death
August 1, 30 BC · Alexandria
Told falsely that Cleopatra is dead, Antony falls on his sword. The blade misses his heart. Bleeding and conscious, he is carried to Cleopatra's mausoleum on a stretcher. She hauls him up through a window with ropes. He dies in her arms. She smears his blood on her face and chest.
The Asp
August 10, 30 BC · Alexandria
Octavian plans to parade her in his triumph through Rome in chains. She will not allow it. She is found dead in her royal robes, crown on her head, on a golden couch. Two attendants, Iras and Charmion, die with her. The method — snakebite, poison, or needle — remains debated. She was 39. Egypt becomes a Roman province. The age of the pharaohs is over.
Off the Record
Octavian found Cleopatra dead but desperately tried to have her revived — he wanted her alive for his triumph. He sent snake-charmers and doctors. When Charmion, Cleopatra's last surviving attendant, was asked "Is this well done?" as she straightened the queen's crown with her dying breath, she replied: "It is well done, and fitting for a princess descended of so many royal kings." It is one of the great final lines in human history.
30 BC - Present · The Afterlife
The Myth and the Woman
Rome wrote her story. Hollywood rewrote it. The truth is more compelling than either version.
Octavian — now Augustus — had Caesarion, Cleopatra's son by Julius Caesar, executed. He was 17. But her three children by Antony survived. Cleopatra Selene married King Juba II of Mauretania and ruled a prosperous North African kingdom. The Ptolemaic bloodline continued. Roman historians — Plutarch, Cassius Dio, Horace — wrote Cleopatra as a seductress and a temptress, a woman who used her body to corrupt great men. This was Augustan propaganda. She was, by every account, a brilliant administrator, a shrewd diplomat, a patron of learning, and the only Ptolemaic ruler who spoke Egyptian. She kept Egypt independent for two decades when every other Hellenistic kingdom had already fallen to Rome. She lost not because she was weak, but because Rome was unstoppable.
Caesarion's Death
30 BC · Alexandria
Augustus executes 17-year-old Caesarion — Julius Caesar's only biological son. His advisor Areios tells him: "Too many Caesars is not a good thing." The last pharaoh's bloodline through Caesar ends with a boy who never had a chance.
The Propaganda War
29 BC - Present
Augustus commissions histories that reduce Cleopatra to a seductress. Horace calls her a "fatale monstrum." For 2,000 years, Western civilization defines her by her love affairs. The documentary aims to restore what Rome erased: a ruler of exceptional intelligence who happened to be a woman in a world that couldn't accept both.