Release date is 2025-05-15

Tuula Temonen

"Kleopatra : Kleopatran, Egyptin kuningattaren elämä ja aika" by Weigall is a historical biography written in the early 20th century. It presents a reassessment of Cleopatra VII, challenging Roman-derived caricatures and focusing on her statecraft, personality, and role in the Mediterranean power game alongside Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. The opening of the book sets out to correct biases in ancient sources, arguing that Cleopatra has been maligned by her enemies and should be judged as a capable, ambitious, and often admirable ruler. It sketches her likely appearance and powerful charm (especially her voice), emphasizes her multilingual intelligence, political resolve, and courage, and portrays her private life as centered on two major unions (with Caesar and Antony) and devoted motherhood rather than licentiousness. Her religiosity, taste for arts and sciences, and occasional ruthlessness are placed in the norms of her violent age. The narrative then shifts to a vivid portrait of Alexandria—its geography and climate, monumental harbors, Pharos lighthouse, palaces, Museum and Library, grand avenues, and the Serapeum—before characterizing its cosmopolitan, sharp-tongued, pleasure-loving yet commercially vital populace and the city’s pivotal place in the grain trade and Mediterranean world. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Helsinki: Kust.Oy Kirja, 1927