Cleopatra: the myths surrounding her are such that it is a daunting task to separate the real person from the legend. For centuries she has been protrayed as a frivolous oriental temptress who seduced first Julius Caesar and then Mark Anthony, a woman without scruples who used her sexual wiles to subvert the course of Roman rule. In this biography, Michael Foss looks through and beyond the myths, using fresh research to bring to vivid life the historical Cleopatra.

Cleopatra was a descendant not of pharaohs but of the Macedonian rulers who succeeded after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.E. The dynasty founded by Ptolemy, Alexander's crafty and seasoned general, shrewdly grafted Greek sensibilities to the ancient religions of the land it occupied. Culture and diversity thrived under the Ptolemies, but Egypt was an unruly kingdom, a complex and volatile chemistry of cultures. And the Ptolemies ran to fat. Egypt's decay coincided with the rise of Rome, and it is in the contest between East and West that Cleopatra's story unfolds.

The Romans greatly feared Cleopatra. She represented decadence and chaos, and her entanglements with Rome's mighty rulers threatened its sense of order. To the Romans, she was the Orient--intriguing, entrapping, and dangerous. Yet as Foss shows with such clarity and insight, Cleopatra played her hand in the only manner she could. Determined that her kingdom would survive, she was prepared to do whatever it took to retain power, and very nearly achieved dominance of the whole of eastern Mediterranean world. When finally she surrendered her ambitions, it was with the larger-than-life style that inspired ancient chroniclers, and Shakespeare and Hollywood alike.

Fully illusrated, impeccably documented, The Search for Cleopatra sets before us the most absorbing figure of the ancient world.