AUTHOR’S NOTES

      Cleopatra has been the subject of speculation for over two thousand years.  Her character, her loves, her personality, her appearance… we don’t really know a lot about her.  It is true, that after her death, Gaius Julius Caesar (Octavian) ordered all likenesses of her destroyed.  So, we don’t know what she truly looked like, although all indications point toward the probability that she was actually Greek and not Egyptian.   Her intelligence speaks for itself.  She was able to rule Egypt alone and command Egyptian military fleets.  It is also written that she spoke anywhere from 6 to 9 languages.  That is a clear indication that she was educated and intelligent. 

      Her charm is also legendary.  So I choose to believe that she was beautiful and that is the lens that I wrote her in.  To me, beauty just seems to go hand-in-hand with enchanting charm.    Some have speculated that her affection for Marc Antony has been overstated over the years, that their relationship was merely one of political ambition.  I don’t want to believe that, so I choose not to.  I choose to believe that Cleopatra and Marc Antony’s relationship was a love story of epic magnitude, tragic and beautiful.

      Pothinus was a real person.  He was the regent for Cleopatra’s younger brother, Ptolemy VIII, and was in fact, a eunuch.  He was decapitated at Julius Caesar’s orders in approximately 47 or 48 BC.  It has been noted that he was quite power hungry so I took literary license and made him a villain in my story.  His servant, Tehran, is entirely fictional.

      Not much is known about Charmian, except for the fact that both she and Iras were trusted confidantes who killed themselves with Cleopatra.  Charmian was adjusting Cleopatra’s diadem when Roman soldiers broke into the mausoleum and she died at their feet. Obviously, with so few facts to rely on, I have taken a great deal of literary license with her character. Historical records have indicated that Charmian was fairly spunky, so that is how I imagine that she was , which is how I wrote her. 

      Marc Antony was jovial and handsome.  It has been noted that he very much loved the attention of females and merry-making of almost every type.  By all indications, he was an honorable man who was well-liked by almost all that knew him. 

      After Antony’s death, Octavian had Antony’s son by Fulvia, Marcus Antonius Antyllus, killed. His other children survived.  Through his daughters by Octavia, Marc Antony would become the ancestor to the Roman Emperors Caligula, Claudius and Nero.  

      And Octavian, the man of many names.  Gaius Julius Caesar was in reality, not a villain.  He was simply a very ambitious man with large shoes to fill.  After his adopted father, Julius Caesar, made him his heir, Octavian wanted power.  And he worked very hard to methodically attain that power. 

      I wrote this book from the perspective of someone close to Cleopatra, so of course, it is written from the viewpoint that Octavian was a villain.  But everything is a matter of perspective.  By all reports, Octavian was a cold-blooded and matter-of-fact person.   But he also eventually restored peace to Rome.  After the deaths of Cleopatra and Antony, Rome entered a period of peace called the Pax Romana, which lasted for over two centuries. 

      Despite his rumored cold-blooded nature, Octavian allowed his sister (and Marc Antony’s ex-wife) Octavia to raise Cleopatra and Antony’s twins, Selene and Ptolemy.  He also allowed Cleopatra and Antony to be entombed together. Their tomb has never been found.