Mark Gagnon

A couple Lambos is what I'm saying, right?

And this isn't just for a good time.

Obviously, that was part of it.

But it's the same instincts for putting on this show that carries over into politics.

And that legend, whether it happened or not, we don't know, spreads throughout the entire empire.

And then in 34 BC, Cleopatra and Mark Antony hold what becomes known as the Donations of Alexandria.

This is a massive...

public ceremony where territories are assigned to their children so remember cesarean he's proclaimed the king of kings cleopatra and antony openly present themselves as rulers of rome's eastern world and this is essentially a declaration of war against octavian

Now, Cleopatra and Antony are claiming that their relationship isn't just a political alliance.

It is a sacred marriage that restores the cosmic order between Dionysus and Aphrodite and then to the Egyptians, Isis, and then, you know, all of this stuff that is basically disrupted by the assassination of Caesar.

Meanwhile, back in Rome, Octavian is pushing his own propaganda campaign, basically designed to destroy Cleopatra and her reputation.

He couldn't openly attack and criticize Mark Antony because he was still a Roman citizen and a consul and very much involved in Roman politics.

So instead, he targets Cleopatra, claiming that she's a foreign seductress that is trying to usurp the Roman Empire and corrupt Roman values.

Octavian's writers describe her as this sexually manipulative witch who uses magic and exotic beauty to seduce.

control Roman men in this attempt to like destroy Rome and conquer it with, you know, Egyptian Eastern tradition.

Now this propaganda campaign became so effective that it literally survives 2000 years.

And it is largely the basis for why people think Cleopatra is just an absolute baddie with a fatty.

You know what I mean?

But the evidence kind of tells a different story, right?

She's politically smart, but not really sexually manipulative in the way that Octavian and his writers set out to make her.