Cleopatra & Julius
Cleopatra is best-known for her relationship with Mark Antony because that love affair has taken centre-stage in representations such as Shakespeare’s play or HBO’s television series, Rome. However, Cleopatra also had a long relationship with Julius Caesar and a son, Caesarion, by him. She was staying at Caesar’s villa near Rome at the time of his assassination. The novel focuses on the affair with Caesar but also aims to show more of the Egyptian queen than her ability to seduce Romans.
Courtney points out that Cleopatra is nearer the iPhone, in time, than she is to the building of the pyramids. Giza was built in 2,500 BC and Cleopatra took the throne in 52 BC. The descriptions of the two great cities of Alexandria and Rome are vivid: substantial research clearly underpins this book. Nevertheless, I missed a sense of distance in time and of alien cultures. There are some wonderfully described scenes, such as Cleopatra and her father deliberately greeted by Cato as he sits on the latrine, and Cleopatra’s father climbing a ladder over a villa wall to enter a Roman party to avoid crossing the line around Rome that cannot be traversed by a royal.
The story is primarily told from the women’s point of view. Cleopatra is fourteen at the beginning of the novel, and her voice initially feels naïve and a little cloying. The plot thickens once Cleopatra becomes queen and her political manoeuvrings are enacted. The author’s portraits of the Roman players—Brutus, Servilia, Porcia, Cato, Pompey—and the depiction of their interactions with Cleopatra are potent. Courtney effectively portrays a complex weave of the erotic and the political in Cleopatra’s relationship with Caesar.
