Universal Encyclopedia
Who was Cleopatra?
Cleopatra VII (69–30 BC) was the last active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt and the final pharaoh of ancient Egypt: a multilingual, highly educated queen who allied first with Julius Caesar and then with Mark Antony to preserve her kingdom’s independence from an expanding Rome.
Last updated: October 2026
After defeat at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, she and Antony took their own lives, and Egypt became a Roman province. Almost everything the world “thinks” of her — seductress, sorceress — comes from the propaganda of the man who defeated her, Octavian, the future Augustus.