The Bottom Line
Pros
- Lots of information about Cleopatra.
- Thought-provoking interpretations and anecdotes.
- Good and abundant black & white illustrations.
- Up-to-date and thorough.
- Information that isn't readily available everywhere else.
Cons
- Audience unclear.
- Focus vague.
- She says she re-arranged chapters. That explains a lot.
- Expensive.
Description
- Tables; B&W photos.
- Reliance on non-written sources.
- Chapter on sources, both historical and literary, noting biases.
- Third chapter is on the relationship between the queen and the king, whether as wife, sister, or daughter.
- The fourth chapter describes women who came to power in the New Kingdom and Ptolemaic Period.
- Other chapters describe Cleopatra's portrayal as a goddess and her temples.
- The chapter on Mark Antony and Cleopatra gives insight into why the Romans so feared Cleopatra's influence.
Guide Review - Cleopatra and Egypt
Ashton begins Cleopatra and Egypt with questions about current portrayals of Cleopatra, somewhat discussed by her and others in the 2001 British Museum volume on Cleopatra:
- Was Cleopatra beautiful or ugly?
- Was she African?
- Does it matter?
Cleopatra and Egypt is mostly about Cleopatra, but it is also about her family and the iconography of pharaohs, queens, and regents. Ashton tells what monuments, temples, statuary, and coins show about Cleopatra's position in Egypt and with respect to Rome. She looks at the relationships between Cleopatra and especially Mark Antony, but also Augustus.
Although Ashton wished to rely on the art, numismatics, and archaeological evidence, she made use of written material, too. To me the most interesting chapter was the second, "Sources," on the writers, poets and historians, mostly Roman, but also Greek and Alexandrian (Egyptian). Her final chapter, "The Legacy of Cleopatra," which tells what happened to the people in Cleopatra's life, is, likewise, more history proper than the middle, art and archaeology-based chapters.
