Kristiana's Reviews > The Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt

The Cleopatras by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones is the first of its kind in how it explores the Cleopatras of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and overall Llewellyn-Jones' approach appears thorough and offers a refreshing portrayal of women in power.

"The Cleopatras' worst crime? Being women. And worse still, being women with genuine power to wield."

From Cleopatra I Syra to Cleopatra VII (the Cleopatra we all know), Llewellyn-Jones provides an excellent critique of scholarship on female power and leadership in history. In particular, his focus on numismatic, epigraphic and statuary evidence was promising as for once conclusions were (for the majority of the time) drawn from how these figures genuinely portrayed themselves during their reigns. Of course, at times where there is a lack of contemporary evidence, storytelling invariably carried the main threads of this discussion of power. But, as someone who studied Classics, this is incredibly difficult to avoid when attempting to reconstruct timelines and the lives of historical figures long dead.

I'd recommend The Cleopatras for anyone fairly new to the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt but at times the writing might feel 'dense' for the average non-fiction reader. It is definitely beneficial to have some familiarity with the Hellenistic period and imperial expansion during the Roman Republic. The Cleopatras provides a richer backdrop to this period of history when we understand in more depth the power wielded by Egypt's queens in both the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires, and the enigma that is Cleopatra VII is finally put in context.

"Cleopatra VII comes into her own when we understood that she was one of a long line of extraordinary ruling women - that she was one of the Cleopatras."