Cleopatra

Though Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra possessed not a drop of Egyptian blood. She was Greek, above all. And her fierce ambition focused on reviving the glories of her Greek kingdom. She strove to create a Greco-Roman world where Greek and Hellenized orientals east of the Adriatic would be associates of Romans rather than mere subjects. The seduction of Julius Caesar was part of her strategy. And her influence on Rome's rule proved to be enormous. By contrast, her ill-fated relationship with Mark Antony was intensely human. Michael Grant's gripping biography presents an extraordinarily rounded portrait of Cleopatra that never loses sight of her political savvy and ambition.