Cleopatra

by Stacy Schiff

Already it was a zero-sum game: a woman’s authority spelled a man’s deception.

he was the kind of opportunist who makes a great show of marveling at his sheer good luck.

BEHIND EVERY GREAT fortune, it has been noted, is a crime;

Amid the Macedonian aristocracy there was ample precedent for murdering your sibling, none for marrying her. Nor was there a Greek word for “incest.”

Arguably she had more powerful female role models than any other queen in history.

As much as one third of Ptolemaic Egypt may have been in female hands.

“The art of speaking,” it was later said, “depends on much effort, continual study, varied kinds of exercise, long experience, profound wisdom, and unfailing strategic sense.” (It was elsewhere noted that this grueling course of study lent itself equally to the court, the stage, or the ravings of a lunatic.)

Alexandria had its share of female mathematicians, doctors, painters, and poets. This did not mean such women were above suspicion. As always, an educated woman was a dangerous woman.