The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer brings to life the most intriguing woman in the history of the world: Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt. Her palace shimmered with onyx, garnets, and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. Ultimately she dispensed with an ambitious sister as well; incest and assassination were family specialties. Cleopatra appears to have had sex with only two men. They happen, however, to have been Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, among the most prominent Romans of the day. Both were married to other women. Cleopatra had a child with Caesar and -- after his murder -- three more with his protégé. Already she was the wealthiest ruler in the Mediterranean; the relationship with Antony confirmed her status as the most influential woman of the age. The two would together attempt to forge a new empire, in an alliance that spelled their ends. Cleopatra has lodged herself in our imaginations ever since. Famous long before she was notorious, Cleopatra has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons. Shakespeare and Shaw put words in her mouth. Michelangelo, Tiepolo, and Elizabeth Taylor put a face to her name. Along the way, Cleopatra's supple personality and the drama of her circumstances have been lost. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order. Rich in detail, epic in scope, Schiff 's is a luminous, deeply original reconstruction of a dazzling life.

She was the last ruler of the Macedonian dynasty of Ptolemies who had ruled Egypt for three centuries. Highly educated (she was the only one of the Ptolemies to read and speak ancient Egyptian as well as the court Greek) and very clever (her famous liaisons with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony were as much to do with politics as the heart), she steered her kingdom through impossibly taxing internal problems and railed against greedy Roman imperialism. Stripping away preconceptions as old as her Roman enemies, Joyce Tyldesley uses all her skills as an Egyptologist to give us this magnificent biography.

Cleopatra VII Philopator was a well-known queen of ancient Egypt who gained worldwide fame for her beauty, intelligence, and political acumen. She ruled over Egypt from 51 BC until her death in 30 BC, and was the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes, and she became queen at the age of 18. During her time as queen, she had relationships with two of the most powerful men in ancient Rome: Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Her involvement with these two men led to her downfall and ultimately, her death. Cleopatra was known for her intellectual curiosity and her ability to speak multiple languages. She was also a skilled diplomat, and was able to maintain her power by forming alliances and negotiating with other leaders. Her reign saw the growth of Egypt's economy and a resurgence of its cultural and artistic traditions. Cleopatra was also a patron of the arts, and was known for her love of music, poetry, and literature. Despite her many accomplishments, she was viewed by many of her contemporaries as a dangerous woman who used her beauty and intelligence to manipulate those around her.

Few other civilizations rival Ancient Egypt in its power to capture the modern imagination, and Cleopatra VII, monarch at the end of the Ptolemaic period, has always been preeminent among its cast of characters. Coming to power just before the unstable state was about to be absorbed into an autocratic empire, Cleopatra oversaw not only Egypt's progress as an influential regional power but also the fragile peace of its ethnically mixed population.Michel Chauveau looks at many facets of life under this queen and her dynasty, drawing on such sources as firsthand accounts, numismatics, and Greek, Demotic, and hieroglyphic inscriptions. His use of such sources helps to free the narrative of dependence on later (and usually hostile) Greek and Roman historians. By taking up such subjects as funeral customs, language and writing, social class structure, religion, and administration, he affords the reader an unprecedented and comprehensive picture of Greek and Egyptian life in both the cities and the countryside.Originally published in French in 1997, Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra fulfills a long-standing need for an accessible introduction to the social, economic, religious, military, and cultural history of Ptolemaic Egypt.

It was a blustery April morning on the Thames Embankment in London when Anne Mustoe set out on a phenomenal lone cycle ride - to the original site of Cleopatra's Needle at Heliopolis in Egypt. Leaving behind home comforts, she set herself the challenge of travelling close to water wherever possible - via the Seine and the Rhone, then alongside the Burgundy canal, the Po and the Venetian Lagoon. Before she would reach her final waterway - the evocative Nile - Ms Mustoe would encounter the dusty yet beguiling Near East: Turkey, Syria, the Lebanon and finally Egypt itself. Anne Mustoe weaves a story of exquisite detail laced with the understated humour that has become her hallmark.

DA VINCI CODE meets MISSION IMPOSSIBLE in this multi-award-winning standalone thriller from international bestselling author Avanti Centrae. It's a fast-paced bombshell of a story about royal secrets and epic lies. Born a goddess, Cleopatra died a prisoner. But the cobra's deadly kiss was just the beginning... Global Thriller First Place Winner — Chanticleer International Book Awards Runner Up — Paris Book Festival Bari, Italy, present day. Think tank Special Ops leader Timothy Stryker and his wife Angie, a self-made CEO, haven’t exactly been seeing eye-to-eye. They take a much-needed Italian holiday, but it comes to a shocking end when Angie and their daughter are kidnapped. Still raw from the death of their infant son, Stryker is desperate to rescue Angie and reconcile their differences. As he works to locate the captors’ lair, he discovers the kidnappers are behind a string of recent assassinations and attempting another high-profile hit in only seven days. But when he learns their plans for his only remaining child, the scab on his heart tears open and blood begins to spill. Working from inside her brutal captors’ high-security compound, Angie realizes the cabal is hiding an ancient secret using modern propaganda techniques. And as Stryker races hitmen across India, Egypt, and Greece to thwart the next assassination and save his family, he has to connect a series of deadly dots tracing all the way back to the time of Cleopatra. Ultimately, the estranged pair must shake the deeply buried pillars of western civilization to save their four-year-old daughter from an unspeakable fate. Fascinating, provocative, original, and timely, Cleopatra's Vendetta is a sizzling novel that paints a disturbing picture of some of the most intricate issues that have plagued humanity’s past…challenges that color our days and provide the blueprint for our future. “Action, adventure, and suspense! A juicy thriller.” —Robert Dugoni, New York Times & International bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite Series "A fascinating look at the 2000-year culture clash between male and female power systems." —Katherine Neville, New York Times, USA Today, and #1 Internationally bestselling author “Race-against-time, action-packed adventure. This is a thriller that will captivate its audience from the first page.” —Manhattan Book Review "An adventure that will appeal to fans of Dan Brown. It's one of those rare birds: a thriller that will have you turning the pages and leave you thinking." —Debbi Mack, New York Times bestselling author of the Sam McRae and Erica Jensen mysteries “If you like your modern global threats to have a dash of ancient mystery and mysticism, you’re going to find yourself with some sleepless nights while reading Cleopatra’s Vendetta.” —Kevin Tumlinson, bestselling and award-winning author of The Coelho Medallion "Dangerous and intoxicating." —Audrey Wilson, screenwriter, producer, and award-winning author of Wrong Girl Gone