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No woman of ancient times is better known nowadays than Cleopatra, yetmost of us know little about her beyond Elizabeth Taylor and WilliamShakespeare. As Duane W. Roller writes in his brief, readable biography, we“lose Cleopatra as she becomes tangled up in the encumbrance of herreputation.” Sticking closely to ancient sources, Roller notes that most of thefamous stories about her never happened. Rather than the passion-drivenseductress of fiction, Cleopatra was a strong woman leading the struggle topreserve the Near East from domination by theRoman West. She was also an accomplished naval commander and author of medicaltreatises. Cleopatra’s eventual defeat at Roman hands doesn’t diminish heractual accomplishments, but probably set the stage for her reputation as anexotic temptress. And no, she didn’t take her own life through the bite of apoisonous snake.
