This document discusses and compares five depictions of Cleopatra VII from antiquity and film. Roman historians like Suetonius, Cassius Dio, and Pliny portrayed her negatively as ruthless, greedy, and deceitful in an effort to undermine her power and establish Roman dominance. Modern films from 1945 and 1963 depicted her differently to appeal to audiences - the 1945 film showed her as a silly teenager controlled by men, while the 1963 film portrayed her as a sensual yet powerful queen, reflecting changing gender roles. Overall, Cleopatra has long fascinated the Western world and been represented in various, sometimes contradictory, ways that embody stereotypes about women through history.
Slaves were the employees of the ancient world, scholars estimate that perhaps a third of the population of ancient Athens were slaves, and for ancient Rome, scholars think that well over half of the population at the height of the Roman empire were slaves. Slavery was such an integral part of these ancient cultures that we cannot truly understand their history unless we appreciate the role slavery played in their cultures.
Slavery in the ancient world was not based solely on race like in the Confederate South. When a city was defeated the women and children were often enslaved, the men were often slaughtered, though sometimes they were enslaved to work in the mines. Pirates also enslaved those whom they were able to capture. Also, people were often sold into slavery to pay their debts.
Ancient literature includes these stories of slaves:
• The Cynic Philosopher Diogenese of Sinope was captured by pirates and sold into slavery.
• The Stoic Philosopher Epictetus was a former slave of a former slave.
• In the Odyssey, the loyal swineherd Eumaeus was the slave of Odysseus, who had been captured by pirates as a youth.
• The Old Testament Hosea bought his runaway wife Gomer at a slave auction after she was enslaved to pay her debts.
The categories of slaves discussed, in order of mistreatment, are:
• Household and/or small farm slaves. In ancient Greece, they were part of the household, or oikos.
• Concubines, consenting and unwilling, often captured in war.
• Independent city slaves and tradesmen.
• Field hands working as chain gangs on large plantations.
• Laborers in mines in quarries, usually a death sentence.
We review the Atlantic Magazine article, My Family’s Slave, the story of a Filipino servant girl, to better understand what it may have been like to be a household slave in the ancient world.
This video draws from these blogs on slavery in the ancient world:
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/slaves-in-the-ancient-world-blog-1-were-slaves-the-employees-of-the-ancient-world/
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/slaves-in-ancient-greece-and-rome-blog-2/
The Atlantic Magazine article we describe:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/
Please share with your friends!
Slaves were the employees of the ancient world, scholars estimate that perhaps a third of the population of ancient Athens were slaves, and for ancient Rome, scholars think that well over half of the population at the height of the Roman empire were slaves. Slavery was such an integral part of these ancient cultures that we cannot truly understand their history unless we appreciate the role slavery played in their cultures.
Slavery in the ancient world was not based solely on race like in the Confederate South. When a city was defeated the women and children were often enslaved, the men were often slaughtered, though sometimes they were enslaved to work in the mines. Pirates also enslaved those whom they were able to capture. Also, people were often sold into slavery to pay their debts.
Ancient literature includes these stories of slaves:
• The Cynic Philosopher Diogenese of Sinope was captured by pirates and sold into slavery.
• The Stoic Philosopher Epictetus was a former slave of a former slave.
• In the Odyssey, the loyal swineherd Eumaeus was the slave of Odysseus, who had been captured by pirates as a youth.
• The Old Testament Hosea bought his runaway wife Gomer at a slave auction after she was enslaved to pay her debts.
The categories of slaves discussed, in order of mistreatment, are:
• Household and/or small farm slaves. In ancient Greece, they were part of the household, or oikos.
• Concubines, consenting and unwilling, often captured in war.
• Independent city slaves and tradesmen.
• Field hands working as chain gangs on large plantations.
• Laborers in mines in quarries, usually a death sentence.
We review the Atlantic Magazine article, My Family’s Slave, the story of a Filipino servant girl, to better understand what it may have been like to be a household slave in the ancient world.
This video draws from these blogs on slavery in the ancient world:
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/slaves-in-the-ancient-world-blog-1-were-slaves-the-employees-of-the-ancient-world/
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/slaves-in-ancient-greece-and-rome-blog-2/
The Atlantic Magazine article we describe:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/
Please share with your friends!
A Cult By Any Other Name: Early Christianity and the Greco-Roman Mystery Reli...Haley Shoemaker
A comparison of Early Christianity and the Mystery religions of Rome in the 2nd Century. More specifically I compare baptism as it is depicted in Tertullian's famous work "On Baptism" to its portrayal in Apuleius' novel "The Golden Ass."
This is a review of "The Journal of Social History" which I wrote for my Introduction to Historical Methods class at MSUM. Red marks courtesy of Prof. Nathan Clarke.
Steve Biko has gone down as a hero in South Africa. He has also been widely denigrated for the glaring similarities between his views and the 1960s classic Black Power by Stokely Carmichael. This work examines this seeming plagiarism in its socioeconomic context.
How to Create Map Views in the Odoo 17 ERPCeline George
The map views are useful for providing a geographical representation of data. They allow users to visualize and analyze the data in a more intuitive manner.
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
Welcome to TechSoup New Member Orientation and Q&A (May 2024).pdfTechSoup
In this webinar you will learn how your organization can access TechSoup's wide variety of product discount and donation programs. From hardware to software, we'll give you a tour of the tools available to help your nonprofit with productivity, collaboration, financial management, donor tracking, security, and more.
The Art Pastor's Guide to Sabbath | Steve ThomasonSteve Thomason
What is the purpose of the Sabbath Law in the Torah. It is interesting to compare how the context of the law shifts from Exodus to Deuteronomy. Who gets to rest, and why?
1. Haley Lynn Shoemaker
Ancient Near East
Exam 1
Visions of the Queen: Cleopatra Then and Now
Cleopatra VII as ruler, woman, public figure and sex symbol has fascinated the western
world since her spectacular and untimely death. She has been painted at various points in history
as the wanton harlot, the selfish child, the treacherous snake or the strong self-possessed feminist
ideal. In every depiction she is shown to be wealthy and power-hungry. She was wildly
unpopular in Rome, and Roman historians communicate this clearly in their writing. By contrast,
in American movies, Cleopatra is almost universally depicted as a protagonist. Even when she is
characterized as scheming, greedy and promiscuous, she is still cast in a favorable or a
sympathetic light. This paper deals in particular with five depictions of the infamous Cleopatra.
Three are from antiquity: Suetonius’ De Vita Caesarum, Divus Julius; Cassius Dio’s Roman
History; and Pliny the Elder’s Natural History. The remaining two portrayals examined here
come from American cinema: the 1945 production of George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and
Cleopatra with Cleopatra being played by Vivien Leigh; and the 1963 film Cleopatra with
Elizabeth Taylor as the eponymous lead.
Suetonius preferred in his account of the lives of the Caesars to overlook Cleopatra’s
actions in favor of those of Julius Caesar, which is perhaps understandable given his thesis.
However, he did emphasize the hold which Cleopatra had over Julius Caesar, saying:
He would have gone through Egypt with her in her state-barge…
had not his soldiers refused to follow him. Finally he called her to
Rome and did not let her leave until he had ladened her with high
2. honors and rich gifts, and he allowed her to give his name to the
child which she bore.
Cassius Dio wrote in much greater detail in Roman History about Cleopatra. He chose to present
her as ruthless, cunning and deceitful. He pointed out her greed, saying “she proceeded to gather
vast wealth from their estates and from various other sources both profane and sacred, sparing
not even the most holy shrines.” He then recounted Cleopatra secretly offering her kingdom to
Augustus, and also Antony offering his own life to save her while she was threatening to burn all
her treasure if Augustus did not meet her demands. Pliny highlighted Cleopatra’s fabulous
wealth, decadence and avarice. He told of her owning the largest pearls in all of history and
throwing one into vinegar, where it dissolved, merely to impress Antony with her riches. Pliny
recalled these infamous pearls to celebrate Rome’s triumph over Cleopatra:“when that queen…
was captured, the second of this pair of pearls was cut into two pieces, so that half a helping of
the jewel might be in each of the ears of the Venus in the Pantheon at Rome.” This was
particularly significant as Cleopatra claimed to be a god, the daughter of Isis; by taking a token
of this “daughter” and putting it on a goddess of Rome, Pliny firmly established Roman
dominance.
Modern sources, particularly movies, have dealt with the subject of Cleopatra a little
differently than primary sources did. This is logical, as the movies were made to attract modern
viewers who idolize Cleopatra, not to please Roman emperors who saw her as an enemy of the
Empire. There were similarities, however: in Caesar and Cleopatra, Cleopatra was rendered as a
silly, selfish and short-sighted teenager who was constantly told to stand back and be quiet while
the grown-up men sorted out her kingdom. Julius Caesar favored her over her brother because
her brother was controlled by courtiers, whereas Julius Caesar believed, correctly, that he could
control Cleopatra. She was a spoiled though lovable child who slowly learned to think critically
3. by watching Julius Caesar, and as she learned she was teased by her handmaidens for being too
serious and solemn. The only other female character in the movie was Ftatateeta, Cleopatra’s
nurse and the person closest to her, and she was a cackling witch with mad eyes who committed
murder and was executed. Clearly, this movie was shot with an eye to making sure that the
female characters, including the queen, did not challenge the superiority and sovereignty of the
male characters. This was a fitting theme for 1945, when women had joined the workforce en
masse due to the outbreak of World War II, and were subsequently challenging societal norms in
a variety of other unsettling ways.
This version of Cleopatra’s character stands in stark contrast to the Cleopatra played by
Elizabeth Taylor in 1963. Taylor’s portrayal epitomized the Cleopatra of myth and legend, a
revelation in silks made up of two conflicting personalities: she is part sensual exotic
otherworldly seductress and part arrogant megalomaniacal power-hungry queen. This was a
Cleopatra for the ages, a Cleopatra larger-than-life. She was aloof and unapproachable, and she
endured the death of first Julius Caesar and then her son Caesarian. She was here shown as a
woman who stood on her own, perhaps reflecting the ways gender roles had changed from 1945
to 1963. However, while she was a powerful woman, that power was strictly limited to her
ability to sexually influence powerful men. She could not exercise power directly, only seduce
those who could.
Whether she was good or evil, innocent or corrupt, passive or aggressive, there can be no
question that the story of Cleopatra and her turbulent reign of Egypt has fascinated Western
civilization for centuries. She seems to have embodied every possible positive and negative
stereotype about women at some point. While various differences exist between her
4. representation in Roman sources and the way we picture her today, her story is still being told.
Obviously, she continues to be a powerful symbol in our world today.