Queen Cleopatra (2023) s01e01 Episode Script

1
[light music]
[narrator] There was a time long ago
when women ruled with unparalleled power,
as warriors, queens, mothers of nations.
[screams]
They bowed to no man.
Their actions echoing
unapologetically throughout history.
And there was none among them more iconic
than Cleopatra.
Vixen or strategist?
Collaborator or maverick?
Her legend has been retold for millennia.
[screams]
But few know the real woman. Her truth.
I am Isis!
[Cleopatra] I am a God!
[man screams]
[narrator] Worshipped and feared by Egypt,
courted and reviled by Rome,
a leader of undeniable power
that no one could afford to ignore.
I would die for Egypt.
[Cleopatra] What would you die for?
[narrator] She loved deeply,
fought courageously,
outsmarting her rivals.
Cleopatra walked through
the sandstorm of history
and left footprints so deep
that no man could ever erase them.
[theme music]
[gentle music]
[Shelley] My grandmother
was the inspiration for me.
I would come home and I would tell her
about what I was learning.
You know,
"Oh, we're learning about the Greeks,
and we're learning about the Romans.
And today we learned about Cleopatra."
And I remember clear as day,
her saying to me,
"Shelley, I don't care
what they tell you in school,
Cleopatra was Black."
[narrator] Since 323 BC,
a family originally from Macedonia,
the Ptolemies,
have ruled Egypt,
but now, a sudden shift of power
will change the life
of one teenage girl forever.
[Shelley] Cleopatra was first
and foremost, a scholar.
She was a scientist.
She was a linguist.
Those things mattered to her
just as much, if not more, than politics.
[Debora] The Library of Alexandria
was important to Cleopatra
because she was very learned.
She studies the Egyptian language,
and the Ptolemies before her
did not see a value
in learning the language.
[Islam] When she went
to the library as a kid,
she would've been reading
about the female queens of Egypt.
That would've made her aspire
to be a queen.
I'm not done yet.
It's time.
[tense music]
[sighs]
It's a very bittersweet moment.
[Shelley] As is true for any monarch.
In order for them to rule,
their parents must die.
The spy is never turning ♪
The skies are burning ♪
They can't conquer ♪
As we won't be broken ♪
[Ptolemy XII groans]
[breathing heavily]
[servants crying]
Enough with the sniffling.
[Ptolemy XII exhales sharply]
Is everything ready?
Yes, Father.
[Shelley] The Ptolemies had been
in power now
since roughly 323 BCE.
So we're now talking about
a good 200 years later.
Where are you?
[Colleen] Cleopatra's family
becomes rulers of Egypt
because the very first Ptolemy
is a general of Alexander the Great,
who conquered Egypt
and kicked out the ruling Persian dynasty.
[Shelley] The Ptolemies were ruthless.
They weren't warm and fuzzy.
[gasps]
I don't trust any of them.
[coughs]
If I may.
Go! Go away!
[coughs]
[Ptolemy XII breathing heavily]
You keep your head on you.
These goons will wipe away
everything I've done.
[Colleen] Cleopatra
is not the eldest daughter
of Ptolemy XII.
He had, in fact,
already executed her older sister
[chuckles]
because she had dared usurp the throne.
[Colleen] It seems, however,
Cleopatra was his favorite,
and in his will, he intended for Cleopatra
to rule alongside her brother,
Ptolemy XIII.
Our legacy is safe with me.
[Ptolemy XII] When I look at you
I see me.
[Ptolemy XII gasping]
[sobbing]
[Cleopatra and servants crying]
Cleopatra was either 17 or 18 years old
when her father died.
[Colleen] So upon his death,
Cleopatra now has virtually
a crisis on her hands.
[Cleopatra and servants crying]
[sobbing quietly]
[Colleen] She has three living siblings.
Two brothers named Ptolemy
and a sister named Arsinoe.
Cleopatra had every reason to be afraid
of what her siblings were capable of
even though they were younger than her.
My father has ascended.
[servants crying]
Obviously, I will take care of everything,
Your Highness. I
We'll be doing things differently
from now on.
What did
[sighs]
What does she mean?
[Islam] Cleopatra's brother
is very much affected
by this eunuch Pothinus,
who has raised him, really.
And Arsinoe similarly
has a eunuch who has raised her,
so a lot of the decisions
that are made by Cleopatra's siblings
are not necessarily their own.
You may love your sibling,
but you also understand that your sibling
will stab you in the back.
And so, I think that that is kind of
the relationship she had with Arsinoe.
There was a long history
in the Ptolemy dynasty
of them fighting with each other,
exiling one of their siblings,
murdering one of their siblings.
Growing up a Ptolemy
means that you are engaged
in constant family warfare.
You are looking to kill each other
and hoping to not be killed in return.
It was a very Game of Thrones
kind of environment.
[Colleen] The coronation in Memphis
would've attracted
the highest administrators and priests.
It was a time
when the Ptolemaic rulers became part
of a 3,000-year-old tradition
of Egyptian kingship.
[crowd cheering]
[sniffs]
[Charmion] They've started gathering.
Pothinus is welcoming everyone.
I'm not surprised.
[sighs]
[Iras] Sit.
He's just being helpful.
More like helping himself.
Uh, careful with that.
I'm not done working on it yet.
You should be a scholar.
And leave Egypt in the hands of idiots?
[Paserenptah] Mind what you say.
I could've been Pothinus.
No.
He shuffles when he walks.
It is time to present you to the people.
The people already know me.
They can present the boy.
I know it's tedious.
But it is tradition.
And people find comfort in traditions.
It's time for some new traditions.
Come on.
Let's get the boring stuff over with
so you can focus on the fun stuff,
like the drought and our debt to Rome.
[Shelley]
In addition to her male advisors,
Cleopatra also has two female advisors,
Charmion and Iras.
They were with Cleopatra
since she was a child,
and often, scholars don't realize
how important
these two women were to Cleopatra.
[sighs]
Let it begin.
[upbeat music]
Unfortunately for Cleopatra,
in her father's will,
Cleopatra is supposed to rule Egypt
alongside her brother, Ptolemy XIII.
[Debora] You could eliminate
the competition through murder
or you could marry.
That doesn't mean that they didn't murder,
but they chose to marry first.
Ready, little brother?
Children of Egypt,
we are here at this time
to witness Thea Philopator Cleopatra
and Ptolemy Theos Philopator.
[Shelley] There has to be
a male and female pharaoh
because Isis and Osiris
were the major gods in Egyptian religion,
and since the male and female pharaohs
are also gods,
they have to reflect Isis and Osiris.
Gods marry their brothers
and their sisters.
That's what gods do.
And so, this was considered
completely proper behavior.
And certainly for a Ptolemaic ruler
who wanted to support
traditional religion,
that was absolutely the way.
I present to you
Osiris and Isis reborn.
[Colleen] Because her brother-husband
Ptolemy was only a child,
Cleopatra had a definite advantage
in terms of her strategic position.
But Ptolemy has very powerful advisors
at court.
[Shelley] His main advisor is Pothinus.
[crowd cheering]
Pothinus wants to be the real power.
Cleopatra stands in the way.
[crowd applauding]
[Shelley] Once Cleopatra succeeds
to the throne,
one of her first acts
is to undertake a pilgrimage
to cement her relationship
with the Egyptian people.
[indistinct chatter]
[chuckles softly]
[Arsinoe] Stinks.
Will you behave yourself, please?
These are our people. They're watching.
Sorry.
Hi.
[indistinct chatter]
[Debora] I think that her wanting
to learn more about the Egyptian people
was a way to try to integrate herself
more into the country.
[lively music playing]
[Jacquelyn] There were three primary
populations in Egypt as a whole.
Of course, we have native Egyptians.
We have the Greek peoples,
who came in with the Ptolemies,
and then we also have
a very sizable Jewish population.
All three of these populations
did not like each other,
but they were all unified
in the fact that they didn't like Rome.
[Shelley] For the most part,
the Ptolemies separated themselves
from the indigenous Egyptian people.
Come on, that's beautiful.
Look at the colors.
We have those colors at home.
[Shelley] Cleopatra's affinity
for the Egyptian people
was looked at askance
by people like Pothinus,
who thought that this was just
a silly gesture by a silly girl.
But the indigenous people
saw this as a mark of leadership.
[celebratory music playing]
[Colleen] The very first recorded event
of Cleopatra's reign
is her celebration of the installation
of the new Buchis bull.
[bull whines]
The earthly embodiment of the god Montu,
a very ancient god in Egypt.
And this is really remarkable,
for Cleopatra
to travel deep into upper Egypt
to celebrate this ritual,
signifies that she wants to be
an Egyptian queen,
not just a Ptolemaic queen.
[Shelley] Cleopatra feels very close
to the Egyptian people.
Cleopatra learned the Egyptian language.
She practiced the Egyptian religion.
[Shelley] She wants to be remembered
as Egyptian.
We don't know her exact racial heritage.
We don't know who Cleopatra's mother was.
There's been a lot of research
to prove that her mother was Egyptian,
but we can't know for sure.
[Sally-Ann] It's also uncertain
who Cleopatra's grandmother was.
Cleopatra's father was given a nickname,
which was illegitimate,
so people recognized that his mother
had probably been somebody
who was at the royal court.
It's possible that she was an Egyptian.
Ancient Egyptians would've had
a variety of different complexions,
um, as we find
in other African cultures today.
Skin color ranged
from black to pale brown,
much like the people of South Sudan
to modern-day Egypt.
Given that Cleopatra
represents herself as an Egyptian,
it seems very strange that we insist
on depicting her as a wholly European.
[Debora] If you look at her depictions,
she looks different
depending on who it is
that's depicting her.
So her representations change,
her perceptions change.
So she's almost like this chameleon.
The appeal of Cleopatra
is that we imagine her,
that everyone
can imagine her in their own way.
I imagine her to have curly hair like me
and a similar skin color.
[celebratory music playing]
[tense music]
[Debora] Some of the challenges
that Cleopatra faces
where she's taking power
after her father's death
is that he left this huge debt.
[Debora] Egypt was a client state
of, of Rome at the time.
And the Ptolemies were fighting
desperately to maintain independence.
[Shelley] Rome is the emerging power.
Rome understands
that Egypt is the breadbasket
of the Mediterranean.
But Egypt
is in a very precarious situation.
[Shelley] The Nile,
which had to flood every year
in order to produce crops,
has not flooded
at the same level for several years.
Now, this isn't Cleopatra's fault.
Natural occurrences never are.
[Shelley] But it did put Cleopatra
in a little bit of a tricky situation.
[bird squawking]
[brays]
I should've come sooner.
You're here now.
Open the royal grain stores.
Let's get these people fed.
And we should build a temple.
A place for hope.
They'll remember this.
So will I.
I'm glad I came.
[horses braying]
[tense music]
So there's a civil war going on in Rome.
[civilians screaming]
Once again, it's about power.
Um
It's two men.
Julius Caesar, representing "the people,"
and Pompey the Great,
representing the Optimates or upper class.
[Shelley] Cleopatra's father,
Ptolemy XII, had borrowed heavily,
mainly from Pompey.
Egypt's relationship to Rome is basically
that of a poor cousin.
[Shelley] This is a very tricky time
for Cleopatra.
She knows that her brother, Ptolemy XIII,
is being hoodwinked by Pothinus.
She's for diplomacy.
She is for working with Pompey,
to at least find out what he wants.
But Pothinus and Ptolemy XIII
have other plans.
Why did you reject Pompey's request?
He's losing the war. Right?
So abandoning our allies
in their time of need is a new policy?
After everything he did
for Father in exile,
where is your honor?
With all due respect,
we sent him soldiers when he first asked,
which clearly didn't help.
His Highness
is making a prudent calculation.
It would be unwise
to send good Egyptian soldiers
into a bad Roman war.
Father worked hard to ensure that Egypt
became the hand that feeds Rome,
not just a mere colony.
This prudent calculation you're making
Feeding Rome has left Egyptians
with nothing to eat.
Which brings us to the matter
of the storehouses left open down south.
What is there to eat in Alexandria?
It would be dangerous
to get mixed up in Roman politics.
We are already mixed up
in Rome's politics, Pothinus.
[Sally-Ann]
The people who were advising Ptolemy XIII
were really in control at this point.
And, and their main aim
was to kill Cleopatra.
[tense music]
[Shelley] Pothinus is able to get
a faction of the Alexandrians on his side.
And they stage a palace coup.
This forces Cleopatra and Arsinoe to flee.
[Shelley] She knows she has the support
of the people
living in Memphis and Thebes.
All of these people
were loyal to her father.
[Shelley]
And she flees first to Upper Egypt.
I'm going back to fight for my throne.
[chuckles]
With whose army?
How many soldiers
can we amass from southern Egypt?
Not enough.
And ones you can trust, even less.
[Cleopatra chuckles]
Achillas will be commanding
your brother's army.
You'll need men
who will not cower to his past glories.
I didn't think Pothinus
would move that quickly.
You underestimated him.
But it's hard to see a viper
in the tall grass
unless you're a bird.
I'll go east to Syria.
My father still has friends there.
Friends that know you to be his true heir.
[chuckles]
[Islam] Cleopatra is raised in Alexandria.
It's part of her.
So being exiled was probably
quite a hurtful experience for her.
And she would've been looking
to return as swiftly as possible.
[Sally-Ann] Certainly, Cleopatra
isn't the kind of person who gives up.
She's very much a fighter.
[Shelley] Cleopatra is in Syria
for two years.
In that time, she's able
to put together her own army.
[Shelley] As long as she's alive,
this seems the most strategic thing to do.
She has the support
of the Egyptian people.
She has the support
of the people in Syria.
[Cleopatra grunts]
- [Syrian soldier grunts]
- [swords clink]
[Cleopatra yelling]
She's probably feeling defiant.
[both grunting]
[Colleen] Ever since Cleopatra
is forced to flee Egypt,
we can imagine her scheming
about how to get back on the throne.
[Colleen] And she is given
the perfect opportunity.
In the Roman civil war,
there's been a major battle
at Pharsalus in Greece.
[Shelley] Julius Caesar
has defeated Pompey,
his former son-in-law.
Pompey flees to Egypt to ask for help.
And Julius Caesar follows not long after.
[Colleen] So Cleopatra returns to Egypt.
If we target these northern defenses,
do we leave ourselves vulnerable
at our eastern points?
Not if we station regiments here and here.
Okay.
That idiot Pompey
is headed to Ptolemy's war camp.
If Caesar follows,
he'll be sure to bring Rome's civil war
straight to our shores.
That would be political suicide.
Well, what if he wants to avenge
our earlier support of Pompey?
[Arsinoe] So?
Then we kill Pompey.
We're not killing Pompey.
It's the easiest way
to prove our allegiance to Caesar.
We're not killing Caesar's son-in-law.
[Ammonios] Your Highness.
[Cleopatra] We need to rebuild this part.
[Colleen] The stakes are incredibly high.
If Cleopatra does not gain
the favor of Julius Caesar,
she might be exiled from Egypt forever,
and permanently lose her throne.
[tense music]
Pompey lands.
And he is stabbed in the back.
[Shelley] Pothinus has orchestrated this
and Pothinus also arranges
to have Pompey decapitated.
Pothinus has persuaded Ptolemy XIII
that this will put them
in the good graces of Julius Caesar.
But they misunderstood
the Roman sense of honor.
You tell me
who did this?
Huh?
[Caesar breathes heavily]
[Shelley] Pothinus and Ptolemy XIII
are not prepared
for Julius Caesar's reaction.
He is outraged that they would kill
someone who had been a statesman,
someone who had been a co-leader
of the Roman Republic,
and who was his former son-in-law.
[birds chirping]
Julius Caesar's arrival in Alexandria
provides Cleopatra
with the perfect opportunity
for a new stratagem.
How do we play this?
Unless you can resuscitate the dead,
I'm at a loss.
I need an audience with him.
That's a very dangerous idea.
He's a grieving general,
weary from battle,
in need of an easy victory.
I'm going to give him one.
I'll figure something out.
Thank you.
[suspenseful music]
[Islam] Caesar isn't just anybody.
Caesar's the biggest celebrity
in the world.
So when he arrives, it's big news.
He makes himself at home
in the royal palace in Alexandria,
so we've immediately got
all of the siblings really worried
that Caesar has arrived
and made himself at home
in their palace, in their city.
It's Cleopatra
who deals with it by saying,
"I'll get back into my own palace.
Maybe I can make an alliance with him."
[knocking]
Enter.
[approaching footsteps]
What is this?
[Cleopatra] I apologize for the ruse,
but it was the only way
to get an audience with you.
[Jacquelyn]
Julius Caesar's interaction with Cleopatra
is one of the more famous historic events
that's ever been recorded.
But the exciting story
of her being smuggled
in a carpet, uh, is very unlikely.
Even if Cleopatra was smuggled in,
it would've been more likely
perhaps in a bag.
The source for the story
is a Greek historian, Plutarch,
who lived 150 years after Cleopatra died.
He doesn't know.
There was a a propaganda attempt
to sway the Roman public
away from Cleopatra.
So she now is this temptress, uh,
as opposed to being this beautiful woman
that everybody was attracted to.
There has to be something
mystical about her.
There has to be something seductive,
and seductive in a kind of evil way.
Leave us.
Well, you have your audience.
On behalf of my late father and I,
the great Ptolemy Auletes
please accept my deepest, deepest sympathy
for the sad passing of the great Pompey.
He and my father were dear friends
which made him like a father to me.
He showed us great kindness
while we were in exile in Rome.
And you repaid that kindness
with his death.
If I had been on Egypt's throne,
he would still be alive today.
I risked your wrath for him.
We served Rome with our own soldiers.
It was not a move against you
or ill towards Rome,
but a sign of my love and respect
for a man who was dear to me
like my father.
I had planned
to bring him back home to Rome.
Pardon him
in honor of his late wife.
My daughter.
[Cleopatra] You'll remember
we've met before.
I do not recall.
I was only a little girl then.
Not the ruler that stands before you now.
[laughs]
Last I heard,
you'd been ousted from your throne.
Maybe.
But my father's will
names me co-ruler of Egypt.
Then tell me this
Cleopatra
how do you hope to rule
when the Alexandrians oppose you?
The Senate opposed you.
And yet, here we are.
[smirks]
[Colleen] Julius Caesar,
used to running the affairs of Rome,
meets Cleopatra,
and it's it's truly a meeting
of, of two great minds.
[Islam] Cleopatra is this really
confident woman with great charisma.
She was obviously a diplomat,
and actually,
she's not bowing down to him.
She's kind of shifting the power dynamic.
[Sally-Ann] Julius Caesar is presented
with this young woman, who is strong.
She was intelligent
and she was an African woman
who saw herself not only as a ruler
but as a goddess as well.
So she would've been very different
to any other woman
that Julius Caesar would've met in Rome.
[Caesar]
And that is my understanding of it.
[laughs]
No.
[chuckles]
Yes.
If you want to understand that text,
you need to read it
in the original language.
I'm afraid I don't have the gift
of languages that you do.
[laughs]
Mm.
Mm.
[chuckles]
[Colleen] Unlike Roman women,
who, traditionally,
are expected to stay home
and not take part in political affairs,
Cleopatra was a world leader.
[Colleen] And Julius Caesar can speak
to her of his military campaigns,
of literature, of philosophy
on almost equal terms.
[slow sensual music]
We can imagine that it was true love,
that it really was a meeting
of both mind and heart.
On the other hand,
much of the relationship
might've been tempered by strategy.
Julius Caesar had something to gain
by assisting Cleopatra,
and Cleopatra certainly
had much more to gain
by allying herself with Julius Caesar.
[suspenseful music]
[Shelley]
Cleopatra wants Ptolemy XIII gone.
She wants Pothinus gone,
and she wants Arsinoe
kept under a very close watch.
But mostly, she wants to be
on the throne by herself.
[Shelley] Pothinus fears Cleopatra.
He fears her ability
to make people loyal to her.
And that includes Julius Caesar
and the Romans.
Caesar seems to have wanted
to come and calm the situation down
and try and, and put
the appropriate rulers on the throne.
[crowd shouting]
I don't really think
that Julius Caesar was ready
for, for what met him
when he got to Alexandria.
It's possible that the family
was more dysfunctional
than he could ever have possibly imagined.
Noble citizens of Egypt
I know I speak for all
when I say it is time for peace.
I am the harbinger of that peace.
So in accordance
with the last will and testament
of Ptolemy Neos Dionysus
Rome acknowledges his daughter,
Cleopatra Thea Philopator
and his eldest son,
Ptolemy Theos Philopator
as co-rulers of Egypt.
[Shelley] Caesar is a master diplomat.
He decides that he is going to
follow the instructions
of Ptolemy XII's rule.
He restores Cleopatra
to the throne
as co-pharaoh with Ptolemy XIII.
He gives some dominions to Arsinoe.
In addition to this
and as a sign
of our unending love for you,
Rome also bestows
on his youngest daughter, Arsinoe,
and youngest son, Ptolemy XIV,
the region of Cyprus.
Be grateful.
[Caesar] Rome loves you.
Caesar also reduces the debt
that Egypt owes Rome.
[Sally-Ann] We're not quite sure
how Cleopatra managed to do this,
but actually, I would suggest
that she was strategically
aligning herself with men
who have considerable amount of power.
He seems too familiar.
[laughs]
- Happy?
- Very.
Are you bedding my wife?
[Ptolemy XIII breathes angrily]
And there I was thinking
the Senate had all the theatrics.
- [laughing]
- [chuckles softly]
[sighs]
You're laughing at me.
Disrespecting me in my own home.
Calm down.
Don't tell me to calm down!
This is my home! Mine!
And I call upon the people of Egypt
to riot against you and Rome!
Well?
[Caesar laughing]
[tense music]
Caesar.
[Colleen] Unfortunately for Julius Caesar,
his plans come to naught.
In fact, a civil war breaks out.
The so-called Alexandrian War.
[Colleen] On one side,
you have Julius Caesar and Cleopatra.
On the other, the eunuch Pothinus,
Ptolemy XIII, and her sister, Arsinoe.
[Jacquelyn] The city of Alexandria,
during this four-month period
of these terrible wars,
would've been very frightening.
We have not only
professional soldiers engaging,
but we also have guerrilla warfare.
We have rioting.
We have Romans
burning big chunks of the city.
This would have been catastrophic
and terrifying for pretty much everyone.
[Ammonios] We've lost count of the dead
on the streets of Memphis and Alexandria.
The riots have spread south to Thebes.
And the storehouses,
which were left unguarded,
have been emptied.
If we do not increase taxation
in Alexandria,
we'll not be able to sustain this siege
and Egypt will collapse.
[Colleen] One of the greatest losses
is the burning
of the library of Alexandria.
[Sally-Ann] This library
had taken 300 years to build up.
So we lost this huge resource effectively
because of sibling rivalry.
[Colleen] During the course
of this conflict,
Cleopatra's sister Arsinoe
marshals her own forces.
Arsinoe?
She's taken control of the Egyptian army.
Well, that's impossible. Someone's lying.
She ordered the death of Achillas
and declared herself ruler.
She has the support of the Alexandrians.
[groans]
Come. Come.
[Cleopatra groans]
[Cleopatra retching]
[Cleopatra groans]
- [Charmion] Oh.
- [retches]
[Cleopatra grunts]
[breathing heavily]
Could I be
I'll bring some water.
[panting]
[Cleopatra gasps]
The timing couldn't be more perfect.
[Jacquelyn] Cleopatra is aware
that having a child with Julius Caesar
is an ace in the game of poker
that she's trying to play with Rome.
Cleopatra carries within her womb
the potential to unite Egypt and Rome.
[Islam] It's an unimaginably
powerful child.
These are two
of the greatest civilizations,
two of the greatest cities in the world
embodied in a single human being.
And that is momentous.
[Shelley] Meanwhile,
the Alexandrian war was a disaster
for Ptolemy XIII and Arsinoe.
When Arsinoe joins forces
against Julius Caesar
and loses,
she's captured
and imprisoned in the palace.
Ptolemy was dressed in gold armor
and is aboard a ship.
[Shelley] He either falls overboard
or he's pushed,
and the weight of the armor
causes him to drown.
[Ammonios] We have searched
the breadth of the Nile.
We have to accept
that he's been swept out to sea.
I don't know.
Couldn't he have been rescued
by a loyalist?
No.
Your Highness, you have to stop this.
He's no longer a threat.
[pensive music]
[Shelley] Cleopatra has won.
And she knows that
as long as she's alive,
she is the pharaoh.
Did you lose your way?
No.
You?
What do you want?
To understand why.
Why not?
[Arsinoe] You didn't think
I deserved to rule, did you?
Little Arsinoe,
easily dismissed by everyone.
I deserve it just as much as you,
if not more.
Rome gave you Cyprus
But I wanted Egypt!
Not some small province
floating out at sea.
I want my birthright.
[Arsinoe] Your Caesar's taking me to Rome.
To put you to death.
I always thought it was better to die,
knowing you were meeting death
than to wake up
in the afterlife surprised.
[scoffs]
- You betrayed me.
- You need a thicker skin!
Stop interrupting me.
I'm sorry.
I didn't realize
you were the one short on time.
If I had the chance
I'd do it again.
You won't have the chance.
As Julius Caesar departs for Rome,
Cleopatra is nearly seven months pregnant.
She is the undisputed queen of Egypt.
[Colleen] Unfortunately for Cleopatra,
she has another brother named Ptolemy.
And when Julius Caesar leaves for Rome,
she is indeed married
to another younger brother,
with whom she is expected
to share the throne of Egypt.
I've left you a big stick
in case he steps out of line.
Hm.
Come back and see your son soon.
This is goodbye, sister.
[gasps]
Maybe.
There's a lot of distance
from here to Rome.
[Shelley] Cleopatra has exacted a promise
from Julius Caesar
that he will execute Arsinoe
as a traitor to Rome.
That doesn't happen.
[closing theme music]