Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff

My sister-in-law couldn’t put it down; another friend couldn’t put it down fast enough!

Two different reactions to Stacy Schiff’s biography of Cleopatra.    I take the middle ground. It isn’t a page turner, but it is interesting, and even though you know the outcome, surprisingly suspenseful.

Shakespeare aside, I didn’t know anything about Cleopatra. Now I know that she was Greek, not Egyptian. She had four children, one with Julius Caesar, three with Mark Antony (one set of twins.) Her empire, over which she ruled absolutely, provided most of the food for the Roman Empire. She murdered a few siblings along the way, but she ruled (mostly) uncontested for twenty-two years.

When writing a biography of Cleopatra, one of the problems is the shortage of primary source material. The Roman accounts were often written 100 years after Cleopatra’s death and being Roman are not very flattering. We also have no idea what she looked like. (Probably not Liz Taylor.) The only surviving image of the Queen is on a coin. 

In spite of this and a tendency to flowery prose, Schiff crafts a personable and readable biography.