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Cleopatra herself was, first and foremost, a Ptolemy. The very best of ancient Greek and Egyptian cultures lay at her feet. She received her education from the best scholars in Egypt. Servants fulfilled her smallest whim. She lacked for nothing, and there was little she could have wanted that would not have been granted her. But life during that period, as Ptolemy XII knew, was not perfect. Beneath the outward glamour and elegance, Egypt and the Ptolemy line were in grave danger. A self-indulgent king, Ptolemy XII watched as the Egyptians became increasingly restless and dissatisfied with his leadership. Moreover, the kingdom had been split when his brother became king of Cyprus, and when the Egyptians discovered that Ptolemy XI, his father, had left a will that ceded Egypt to Rome, Ptolemy XII found himself on unstable ground indeed.

The exiled queen first traveled to the Roman province of Syria, where she found backers to help her raise her own army in return for offering to share Egypt's wealth once she was restored to the throne. Cleopatra began to face the fact that Rome, not Egypt, was the central power of the Mediterranean world. Therefore, she reasoned, would it not make sense to ally herself with Rome rather than fight it?

By 48 B.C., Cleopatra had raised a substantial army. Determined to regain the throne, she led the army to Pelusium in northern Egypt in preparation for fighting her brother and his regents for control of the kingdom. Cleopatra knew that the Ptolemy dynasty was not as powerful and influential as it had once been. The glorious days of Egypt's ascendancy were gone, and Rome was now the world's great power. But the queen held a burning desire to restore Egypt to its former splendor and influence. She was convinced that she would be the one ruler who could honor her ancestors by renewing the Ptolemaic reign, and she was determined to do so by whatever means were necessary. Cleopatra VII did not know, as she readied her forces for battle, that the two Romans with whom she would cast her lot during this struggle would change her life forever--and secure her place in world history.