Unearthly Alter Egos: Octavian's War Against Cleopatra

Cleopatra has been called “the most powerful woman in the ancient world's first century B.C.” ¹ Her physical beauty was nothing remarkable, yet “the contact of her presence, if you lived with her, was irresistible; the attraction of her person, joining with the charm of her conversation, and the character that attended all she said or did, was something bewitching.” ² She was a formidable figure in her own right—an accomplished, poised woman who consistently seemed to know what she wanted and how to get it. She was, however, a woman living in a man's world; her life and accomplishments are inextricably linked with men of great power—such as Julius Caesar and Mark Antony— and her authority was validated through the children that resulted from her romantic affairs. Her impact on the ancient world was not just a by-product of her choice in lover, though. Cleopatra's public image was bolstered by the continued association with the goddess, Isis, and it was this divine persona that made her accessible to the structure of Roman religion. As the cult of Isis gained a stronger foothold on Roman culture, Cleopatra's divine alter-ego provided Octavian, ever desirous of power, with the ammunition needed to subvert the “inimitable couple” that was Cleopatra and Antony.

From a young age, it would appear that Cleopatra was primed to be a goddess among mortals. Indeed, the “Ptolemaic dynasts were one with the pantheon of Egyptian gods and therefore shared with them the interior space of the temple,” ³ meaning that Cleopatra was considered a goddess from birth. By the time of Cleopatra's reign, the cult of Isis had been spreading across the Mediterranean and to solidify her position, much like other queens before her, Cleopatra desired to merge her identity with Isis. She appeared at times in the garb of the goddess. During a parade in 34 B.C., for instance, “Cleopatra, splendidly outfitted as Isis, was ensconced on a gilded throne, from which she received territorial gifts for herself and her children.” ⁴ This particular event demonstrates her influence over Antony and the force of her Isis persona: “rather than presenting his spoils to Capitoline Jupiter as was proper, he gave them to Cleopatra as she sat on a throne in the garb of Isis.” ⁵

Although her divinity was accepted wholeheartedly in Egypt, it was some time before it was accepted elsewhere. The cult of Isis had been gaining popularity in West because of Isis's appeal to merchants and sailors throughout the Mediterranean. It's possible that this acceptance of Isis throughout the Mediterranean aided the eventual acceptance of Cleopatra as the goddess's reincarnation. Indeed, in the years after 50 B.C., “she likely made the goddess fashionable among the glitterati of Rome. Isis was the ideal women's goddess—the guardian of women, marriage, maternity, fertility, and children.” ⁶ Following Cleopatra's example, Antony, likewise, associated himself with a divine entity. Much like the Ptolemies, the Romans knew how to effectively weave their personal histories with the stories of their gods and goddesses. He “now posed with Cleopatra for paintings and statues, he representing Osiris or Dionysus and she Isis.”⁷

However, as much as the association with divine counterparts was beneficial to themselves, it also had some negative repercussions. Their divinity quickly became a tool through which Octavian could wage a propaganda war against them. Egypt was an important asset to Rome because of its wealth and plentiful grain supply, and, as such, Octavian sought to triumph over Cleopatra and Antony. His attempt to do so was framed in the context of a military struggle against Cleopatra herself, rather than a civil war between rival Roman factions.

He demonstrated that the Roman state was still open to foreigners—to Egyptian culture and religion—by restoring the temples that were dedicated to Isis, while also using religion to draw a distinct line between foreign and Roman cults. He portrayed himself as the defender of Roman gods and goddesses, as well as the defender of Italy. Although he did continue to encouraged worship of Isis (as long as it was outside the pomerium), he utilized the difference between “Roman” and “non-Roman” to construct a discernible Roman identity. Octavian's actions came at a pivotal time for the Roman Republic; after being devastated by fifty years of civil war, the Roman identity had been shattered and, thus, “the significance of his actions lies in the need for clear boundaries in order to establish and maintain group identity.” ⁸

Furthermore, Octavian believed, like others during his time, that Rome's rise to world power was directly related to the exemplary virtue of the forefathers and that the political division and civil war of the late Republic was born from rapid moral decline. Defending the religion of the forefathers and restoring the superiority of Roman religion over foreign cults fell in-step with the prevailing view of morality. Naturally, “the idea that the state religion represented the foundation of the public order led to the practical conclusion that the politics of change had to start with the gods if a moral renewal in the image of Rome's forefathers was to succeed.” ⁹ Cleopatra's and, by extension, Antony's divine alter egos provided the perfect backdrop against which Octavian could draw his lines between Roman and non-Roman, enabling him to triumph over the couple and restore a Roman group identity. With a clear sense of “Romanness,” it was assumed that the wounds of the Roman Republic could then began to heal.

Endnotes and Bibliography

Endnotes

1Diana E. Kleiner, Cleopatra and Rome (Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2005), 184, Kindle.

2“Plutarch on Antony and Cleopatra, the Last of the Ptolemies,” Plutarch on Antony and Cleopatra, the Last of the Ptolemies, December 13, 2014, http://www.shsu.edu/his_ncp/AntCleo.html.

3 Diana E. Kleiner, Cleopatra and Rome (Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2005), 239, Kindle.

4Diana E. Kleiner, Cleopatra and Rome (Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2005), 1230, Kindle.

5Sharon Kelly Heyob, The Cult of Isis among Women in the Greaco-Roman World (Leiden: Brill, 1975), 20.

6Diana E. Kleiner, Cleopatra and Rome (Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2005), 1834, Kindle.

7Sharon Kelly Heyob, The Cult of Isis among Women in the Greaco-Roman World (Leiden: Brill, 1975), 20-21.

8Eric M. Orlin, “Octavian and Egyptian Cults: Redrawing the Boundaries of Romanness,” American Journal of Philology 129, no. 2 (2008): 243, accessed September 28, 2014, http://muse.jhu.edu/.

9Klaus Bringmann, A History of the Roman Republic (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2007), 314.

Bibliography

Bringmann, Klaus. A History of the Roman Republic. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2007.

Heyob, Sharon Kelly. The Cult of Isis among Women in the Graeco-Roman World. Leiden: Brill, 1975.

Kleiner, Diana E. Cleopatra and Rome. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005.

Orlin, Eric M. "Octavian and Egyptian Cults: Redrawing the Boundaries of Romanness." American Journal of Philology 129, no. 2 (2008): 231-253. http://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed September 28, 2014).

"Plutarch on Antony and Cleopatra, the Last of the Ptolemies." Plutarch on Antony and Cleopatra, the Last of the Ptolemies. Accessed December 13, 2014. http://www.shsu.edu/his_ncp/AntCleo.html.