In the early chapters of the book, Nero is thinking on his family tree. He is a descendant of Mark Antony via his mother, Agrippina the Younger. In contemplating this lineage, he thinks about Kleopatra VII and her role as the last pharaoh of Egypt. The author, via Nero’s thoughts, describes Kleopatra as a beautiful and powerful queen, wife of Antony, who ruled a strong and wealthy kingdom that ultimately fell to Rome. He describes how Julius Caesar brought Kleopatra to Rome, “scandalizing” the city. Later Nero views the statue of the queen that Caesar erected in the Temple of Venus Genetrix, and his tutor, Seneca, describes it as the point where Caesar “laid the trap that caught him”, hinting that his dedication of the statue was the impetus for his eventual assassination. This connects Caesar’s downfall to the queen, a theme that was solidified by Augustan propaganda, as seen in the prose here. Nero also ruminates on Kleopatra’s children, who are described as being raised in Rome by Augustus’ “long-suffering sister” Octavia. He wonders what it would have been like to be marched in Augustus’ triumph behind a painting of their mother’s death (the author describes a large painting of Kleopatra being bitten with an asp, rather than an effigy, as is described by Cassius Dio).

Later in the story, Nero meets the last of Kleopatra’s living children, Alexander Helios, who calls himself Alexander Antonius and lives simply in Rome as an elderly, retired soldier. Historically, it is unknown what happened to Alexander Helios, after his sister was married to Juba of Mauretania, so the author creates a backstory for him where he became a Roman solider and served in a legion in Germania under Drusus. When Nero meets with Alexander, they discuss their shared lineage and Nero asks him about Kleopatra. Alexander states he remembers her voice the best, as it was “low and melodic, like a harp”, and that she was wonderful to listen to, good at sums, and laughed easily. To help Nero picture the queen, Alexander gives him a tetradrachm of Kleopatra, issued before she met Caesar (see the image above for an example of this type of coin). Alexander also states he feels as “old as one of the mummies in my native country. I fancy I must look like one, too”, evoking the Egyptomania trope of the decrepit mummy as an allusion for old age.

Later in the book, as Nero is walking through the city contemplating the possibility that he will become emperor if Claudius in assassinated, he comes upon the funeral of Alexander, and he describes it as the end of an era. He remembers the coin given to him, and asks “what would Cleopatra do? Would she hesitate even an instant to become emperor, if fate offered it to her?” He decides he will become emperor and eclipse both Alexander the Great and Kleopatra as a powerful, youthful ruler. Thus, Kleopatra is a figure against which Nero compares himself, which emphasizes her power and the longevity of her image after her death. In using Kleopatra’s image in this way, the author presents her as a powerful and resourceful queen, rather than a woman at the mercy of her emotions and lust, as she is often portrayed in other literature.

Author: Tara Sewell-Lasater