The Failure Of Cleopatra's Rule Of Rome

Cleopatra

Definitely a good leader. She remained in power while constantly straggling with a brother or sister and keeping alliances with Rome at the same time. She held her own even when the first Roman Emperor was coming against her. Her fatal mistake was that she reached too far. She tried to become the ruler of the thenknown world, along with her lover and her children. Rome just didn't let that happen... 1
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firstly, Cleopatra's family may have ruled Egypt, but they were Greek. Cleopatra was the first of her family to learn native egyptian - bearing in mind her family ruled egypt for 300 years. She also closely associated herself with the egyptian goddess, Isis. This would indicate she had a respect for the people she ruled and understood the
importance of being able to relate to them. Therefore she was popular among Egyptians.
Her father had a catastrophic reign and when he died, she squabbled with her siblings over who would rule egypt.
She cleverly manoeuvred herself into a good political position - marrying her brother to 1.)keep her brother's supporters happy, 2.) keep the Egyptians happy - she was going along with tradition and upholding her father's will 3.) keep any male, who opposed female rule, happy.
More importantly, she allied herself with Ceasar and sealed the deal by producing a son. She gradually edged her brothers out of the picture over time, so much so that it was barely noticed.
Rome was of course, the biggest power in the Mediterranean and argueably, the world, at that time. By attaching herself as the consort of it's biggest leader she was gaining the Roman empire as an ally and securing the Roman army. In return, Ceasar was gaining the support and wealth of Egypt - it is important to note that Egypt effectively fed Rome and was extremely wealthy. We can't know for sure if this was a love match, but it was definitely two political giants joining together as equals, when nearly all of Rome's allies were subjects paying tribute.
When Ceasar was killed unexpectedly, Cleopatra was left in both a bad
and good position - she made sure everyone was aware she considered her son by
Ceasar as an heir to Rome. This put her son in a dangerous position, which would later backfire.

In a dangerous move, Cleopatra again allied herself with a Roman politicianMark Anthony. The Roman people increasingly began to see her as a threat to their republic - They were very much against Kings and Anthony was effectively
King of Egypt. Furthermore, he rejected his Roman wife to be with Cleopatra.
This turned Rome against him and Octavian began to establish himself as emperor and true heir to the now deified Julius Ceasar.
Cleopatra's attempt to get a foothold in Roman politics began to backfire on her
- her son was now a very real threat to Octavian (later Augustus) Rome needed
Egypt's wealth and Octavian clearly wasn't going to get it with Anthony or
Cleopatra still around.
So in a way she was a good leader, bonding with her people and she showed great political astuteness.
However her ambition argueably led to her downfall - No doubt you know what happened - Anthony and Cleopatra lost against Octavian and her son was killed.
She may have understood her own people, but she couldn't have understood
Romans very well - she should have known they would never accept her as a consort of Anthony's (Their marriage wasn't recognized in Roman law) that they would never accept her son as a leader (Julius Ceasar himself knew this and in his will dictated Octavian as his heir), and she should have known the idea of kingship was abhorrent to them.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-cleopatra-151356013/?noist=