Cleopatra's Moon (32 page)

• Cleopatra VII became queen of Egypt at seventeen. At twenty, she was pushed out of Alexandria by her co-ruler/younger brother, whose handlers wanted power all to themselves. She then raised an army to fight for her crown. When Julius Caesar arrived in Egypt, she hid herself in a rug or bedroll to meet with him, outwitting her preteen brother and his handlers, and used her eventual alliance with Caesar to regain her throne.

• Plutarch reports that she spoke many languages, so that she could speak without interpreters to diplomats from Arabia, Judea, Nubia, Parthia, Syria, Medea, and many others. He also says she was the only one in her line of Ptolemaic rulers to learn Egyptian, the native tongue of her people. With such a facility for language, it is likely that she encouraged her children to speak multiple tongues.

• According to Plutarch, Cleopatra’s beauty was “not incomparable,” but the force of her personality, intelligence, and charm was undeniably powerful. He also says she had “a thousand ways to flatter,” as well as a melodious voice.

• Cleopatra signed all her royal decrees with the Greek word
genestho
, which means, “make it so.” A papyrus believed to have been signed by Cleopatra exists in the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung in Berlin. In the document, she authorizes a tax break to the Roman who would later be in charge of some of Antonius’s land forces during Actium.

• The Roman historian Cassius Dio says that Octavianus promised Cleopatra her kingdom, but only if she killed Antonius for him first. She, of course, did no such thing. Plutarch says Octavianus used “threats about the fate of her children” in negotiating with Cleopatra and that he used these threats like “a general uses siege engines” in battle.

• According to Plutarch, Cleopatra killed herself after tricking Octavianus and pretending she was going to Antonius’s tomb to pray.

• Most modern scholars now acknowledge that Octavianus masterminded a thorough smear campaign against Cleopatra in order to create an excuse to declare war on Antonius. By almost all accounts — including histories recorded by early Arabs who learned to read hieroglyphic centuries before Westerners — Cleopatra was revered as an intelligent, serious, devoted ruler of her country. Contrary to the Western penchant for sexualizing Cleopatra, Arab historians described her as “chaste.” After all, she had only two relationships her whole life — one with Julius Caesar and one with Marcus Antonius — both with the intention of preserving Egypt’s independence.

• In 44 BCE, Julius Caesar posthumously adopted his nephew, Octavianus, in his will and named him heir. Many thought Marcus
Antonius should have been named Caesar’s successor, thus creating the hostility between the two men.

• Octavianus was only eighteen at the time of Caesar’s death. He immediately took on Caesar’s name, but most historians refer to him as Octavian or Octavianus to avoid confusion. I used Octavianus to help differentiate him from his sister, Octavia.

• Antonius called Cleopatra to him in Antioch in 41 BCE and later returned to Egypt with her. In 40 BCE, while she was pregnant with the twins, he left her in Alexandria and went to Rome to marry Octavia and cement a peace treaty with Octavianus. He reunited with Cleopatra four years later and formally divorced Octavia in 32 BCE, which Octavianus used as an excuse to declare war on Cleopatra.

• Antonius did indeed bring little Iotape to Alexandros Helios for betrothal after a victory in modern-day Armenia. After conquering Egypt, Octavianus sent Iotape back to her homeland, and she was eventually married off to King Mithridates of Commagene.

• Antonius killed himself, according to Plutarch, in the manner described in this novel. I used creative license to insert Cleopatra Selene into the scene.

• Octavianus was renamed Augustus (the Revered One) in 27 BCE. Soon after, he renamed the month in which he defeated Antonius and Cleopatra
(Sextilis)
after himself (August). He died in 14 CE, when he was seventy-six years old — some say by the hand of his own wife, Livia, who may have served him poisoned figs. She lived until 29 CE.

• Cornelius Gallus — with whom I had Cleopatra Selene plan a coup — was indeed a low-ranking officer left in charge of Egypt by Octavianus. He did try to grab more power and prestige for himself and was later reported to have committed suicide after angering Octavianus.

• Juba, according to ancient sources, was — like Cleopatra Selene — a prince of a defeated country (Numidia). He was the only surviving member of his conquered family. He was carried in Julius Caesar’s Triumph as a baby, and because of his extreme youth, Plutarch says he was “the happiest captive ever captured.” Most scholars agree that Juba likely grew up in the household of Octavia after Julius Caesar died.

• Juba’s homeland, Numidia, became a Roman province in 46 BCE when Julius Caesar defeated his father’s army. In this novel, I have Octavianus send Juba to rule in Numidia first, only to discover the Roman governor in Numidia gives armed resistance to the switchover, which is why Octavianus moved him to Mauretania. There is no evidence it happened this way (but, of course, there’s no evidence it
didn’t
either!). Either way, Numidia continued to be ruled by a Roman governor, while Juba took over the kingdom of Mauretania. As a result, Juba is known to history as the king of Mauretania even though he started out as a prince of Numidia.

• One scholar writes, “It is possible that Juba was not the name given to [him] by his parents” (Roller,
The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene)
. I used creative license to make Juba mean
king
in Punic. Punic is an extinct Semitic language.

• Juba wrote almost all his books in Greek. His topics included Roman archaeology, Latin, painting, history, and the great Carthaginian explorer, Hanno, as well as works on Arabia and Assyria. Once in Mauretania, Juba turned his intellectual focus to geography. He sent expeditions around the coast of Africa and wrote about one of his major discoveries: the Canary Islands. Plutarch wrote that Juba “became the most learned of all kings.” He was also called Rex Literatissimus, which means “most literary king.”

• After Cleopatra Selene’s death in 6 CE, Juba ruled alongside their son Ptolemy until his own death nearly twenty years later. In 40 CE, the emperor Caligula killed Ptolemy in a fit of jealousy because Caligula thought Ptolemy’s cloak was nicer than his own. Ptolemy of Mauretania, grandson of Cleopatra VII, was almost forty at the time of his death.

• In 25 BCE, Agrippa came back to Rome from Spain to oversee the marriage of Marcellus and Julia, even though Julia was only fourteen. No one knows exactly why or what the urgency was, though some have conjectured that Octavianus’s illness in Spain spurred him to solidify the line of succession. Marcellus died in 23 BCE from an unknown illness.

• After Marcellus’s death, Octavianus forced his daughter, Julia, to marry Agrippa, who was older than Octavianus himself, for the sake of preserving succession. Years later, he made Julia divorce Agrippa and marry Tiberius in order to secure Tiberius as heir, even though Tiberius was her stepbrother.

• Octavianus later exiled Julia — his own daughter — for having numerous sexual affairs. The one that most horrified him was the passionate affair she carried on with another one of Antonius’s sons not mentioned in this novel (again to reduce confusion and streamline the many characters in this story) — Iullus Antonius, who was also brought up in Octavia’s compound.

• Tiberius, Livia’s eldest son, ruled Rome as Octavianus’s successor — the second emperor of Rome — until his death in 37 CE.

First, I want to thank my husband, Bruce, and my kids, Matthew and Aliya, for putting up with my forgetfulness and distractedness during the long and intense process of writing this book. How could I ever have gotten through it without your laughter?

I also want to thank my friend and bookseller, Diane Capriola, who, when I told her I was thinking about writing Cleopatra Selene’s story, grabbed me by the shoulders and said, “You
must
write it. Do you hear me? You have to.” I am also grateful for my good friend Elizabeth O. Dulemba, who supported my efforts from the beginning, as did our dear departed friend, book illustrator Liz Conrad. I must also thank my fabulous, ever-patient, and always encouraging agent, Courtney Miller-Callahan.

I am deeply indebted to Carol Lee Lorenzo, leader of my writing group, for encouraging me not to give up when I discovered another novel on the same topic had been released. “Just write,” she told me. “Tell
your
story, your way.” And, of course, to my fellow writers in the group: Leslie Muir, Sandy Fry, Nancy Calix, Sheri Dillard, Karen Strong, and Kelly Williams; as well as the members of my Java Monkey writer group: Ricky Jacobs, Gail Goodwin, and Georgia Dzurica. I am also deeply grateful to Krista Greksouk for reviewing the Latin usage in the novel.

I also cannot forget my irrepressible and wonderful brother, Michael Alvear, who always believed in me no matter what I believed about myself.

Most of all, I want to thank my editor, Cheryl Klein, who, with endless gentle questions, teased out a far better, richer story from me than I thought I was capable of writing. I have been honored and humbled to receive guidance and direction from such a brilliant editor.

Vicky Alvear Shecter has been fascinated by the ancient world since she was ten, when photographs of classical sculptures like the Spear Bearer and the Venus de Milo led her to wonder about the cultures that created such transcendent beauty.

She has written two nonfiction books for young readers:
Alexander the Great Rocks the World
, a VOYA Honor Pick for Nonfiction, and
Cleopatra Rules! The Amazing Life of the Original Teen Queen
. This is her first novel.

Vicky lives in Atlanta with her husband and two children. Visit her at www.vickyalvearshecter.com.