Caesar, Antony, and Roman Power

Cleopatra’s alliance with Julius Caesar restored her position and produced a son, Caesarion. After Caesar’s assassination, she allied with Mark Antony, with whom she had three children and pursued a dynastic eastern Mediterranean strategy.

Roman accounts often reduced these alliances to seduction, obscuring Cleopatra’s role as a sovereign trying to preserve her kingdom. Yet Egypt’s options were constrained by Roman military power and by conflicts among Roman leaders.