CLEOPATRA VII AND CAESAR'S NILE CRUISE IN THE CONTEXT OF POLITICAL STRATEGY

Abstract

Cleopatra VII, who struggle for the throne with her brother Ptolemy XIII after the death of Ptolemy XII, went on a cruise on the Nile River with her Roman ally Caesar, with whom she had personal and political rapprochement, immediately after the Battle of Alexandria, which emerged as a civil war. The couple visited the settlements, mineral resources, quarries and trade centers in Upper Egypt and ended the cruise before reaching Aethiopia. The fact that the cruise, which is not mentioned in contemporary sources, is mentioned in the works of non-contemporary authors such as Suetonius, Appian, Athenaeus and Lucan has led to controversy, and this situation has brought along the views that defend/doubt that the cruise took place. The main focus of this study is the purpose, scope and political and strategic objectives, especially the discussions about the Nile cruise. The study, which evaluates archaeological data, literary sources and modern views together, reveals that the cruise, which we have no information about because it is not included in contemporary ancient sources, was a discovery journey with political goals rather than a romantic honeymoon trip, and that it included more than what is described in ancient sources.

Keywords

• Ancient Egypt
• Ptolemies
• Cleopatra VII
• Caesar
• Nile Cruise

SİYASİ STRATEJİ BAĞLAMINDA VII. KLEOPATRA VE CAESAR’IN NİL SEYAHATİ

Abstract

XII. Ptolemaios öldükten sonra, erkek kardeşi XIII. Ptolemaios ile egemenlik mücadelesine giren VII. Kleopatra, bir iç savaş olarak ortaya çıkan İskenderiye Savaşı’nın hemen ardından şahsi ve siyasi yakınlaşma içinde olduğu Romalı müttefiki Caesar ile birlikte Nil Nehri üzerinde seyahate çıkmıştır. Yukarı Mısır’da bulunan yerleşimleri, maden yataklarını, taş ocaklarını ve ticaret merkezlerini ziyaret eden çift Aethiopia’ya ulaşmadan seyahati sonlandırmıştır. Çağdaş kaynaklarda bahsi geçmeyen seyahatin Suetonius, Appian, Athenaeus ve Lucan gibi çağdaş olmayan yazarların eserlerinde yer alması tartışmalara yol açmış, bu durum seyahatin gerçekleştiğini savunan/şüpheli bulan görüşleri beraberinde getirmiştir. Nil seyahati ile ilgili tartışmalar başta olmak üzere amacı, kapsamı ve siyasi ve stratejik hedefleri bu çalışmanın ana odağını oluşturmaktadır. Arkeolojik veriler, edebi kaynaklar ve modern görüşlerin bir arada değerlendirildiği çalışma, çağdaş antik kaynaklarda yer verilmediği için bilgi sahibi olamadığımız seyahatin romantik bir balayı seyahatinden ziyade siyasi hedefleri olan bir keşif seyahati olduğunu ve antik kaynaklarda anlatılanlardan fazlasını içerdiğini ortaya koymaktadır.

Keywords

• Antik Mısır
• Ptolemaioslar
• VII. Kleopatra
• Caesar
• Nil Seyahati

References

1. Adamson, P. B. (1982). “Consanguineous Marriages in The Ancient World”, Folklore, 93/1.
2. Appian. Roman History (Historiae Romanae), Volume III: The Ciwil Wars, Books 1-3.26. Translated by Horace White. Loeb Classical Libraray 4. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913.
3. Arrianos. İskender’in Seferi (Alexandrou Anabasis), (Çev: F. Akderin), Alfa Yayıncılık, İstanbul. 2004.
4. Ashton, S. A. (2008). Cleopatra and Egypt, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.
5. Athenaeus. The Learned Banqueters (Deipnosophists), Volume I: Books 1-3.106e, (Ed. and trans. S.Douglas Olson), Loeb Classical Library 204. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
6. Balsdon, J. P. V. D. (1967). Julius Caesar and Rome, English Universities Press, London.
7. Bennett, C. (2002). “The Chronology of Berenike III”, Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik, 139, 143-148.
8. Brazil, W. (2014). “İskenderiye: Eski Dünya’nın Merkezi”, İskenderiye Kütüphanesi: Antik Dünyanın Öğrenim Merkezi, (Ed: R. Macleod), Dost Kitabevi, Ankara, 53-81.

9. Burstein, S. M. (2004). The Reign of Cleopatra, Greenwood Press, London.
10. Caesar. Alexandrian War. African War. Spanish War, (Trans. A. G. Way), Loeb Classical Library 402. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1955.
11. Caesar. İç Savaş (Commentarii de Bello Civili), (Çev: F. Akderin), İstanbul, 2007.
12. Callegaro, M. (2019). “Houseboating in Ancient Times: Thalamegos, Lusoriae, Cubiculae and the Nemi Ships as Ancestors of Nowadays Floating Houses Trend”, Progress in Marine Science and Technology, Volume 3: Nautical and Maritime Culture, from the Past the Future, 59-69.
13. Cicero. Letters to Atticus (Epistulae ad Atticus), Volume III. (Ed. and trans: D. R. Shackleton Bailey), Loeb Classical Library 97. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
14. Curtius. History of Alexander (Historiae Alexandri Magni), Volume I: Books 1-5, (Trans: J. C. Rolfe), Loeb Classical Library 368. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1946.
15. Delaney, A. E. (2014.) “Reading Kleopatra VII: The Crafting of a Political Persona”, The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research, 3(1):1-9.
16. Dio Cassius. Roman History, Volume IV: Books 41-45. (Trans: E. Cary, H. B. Foster), Loeb Classical Library 66. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1916.
17. Diodorus. Library of History, Volume I: Books 1-2.34, (Trans: C. H. Oldfather), Loeb Classical Library 279. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1933.
18. Fantham, E. (2009). “Caesar as an Intellectual”, A Companion to Julius Caesar, (Ed: M. Griffin), Blackwell Publishing.
19. Florus. L. A. Epitome of Roman History (Epitome Rerum Romanarum), (Trans: E. S. Forster), Loeb Classical Library 231. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1929.
20. G. Grimm, G. (2003). Alexandria in the Time of Cleopatra, in S. Walker ve S. A. Ashton (ed.), Cleopatra Reassessed, The British Museum Occasional Paper, London.
21. Gelzer, M. (1968). Caesar: Politician and Statesman, Oxford.
22. Grant, M. (2011). Cleopatra, Hachette Publishing, Oxford.
23. Habe, Y. (2020). “Floating Palace on the Nile: A Study on the Luxury Ship of Ptolemy IV Philopator”, Japan Studies in Classical Antiquity 4: 53-70.
24. Hankey, J. (2001). A Passion for Egypt. Arthur Weigall, Tutankhamun and the “Curse of the Pharaohs”, Tauris Publishers, London.
25. Herodotos. Herodot Tarihi, (Çev: M. Ökmen), İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, İstanbul: 2004.
26. HGV pGrenf II 38. Heidelberger Gesamtverzeichnis Der Griechischen Papyrusurkunden Ägyptens http://aquila.zaw.uni-heidelberg.de/hgv/43916 (Erişim Tarihi 26.9.2023).
27. Hillard, T. W. (2002). “The Nile Cruise of Cleopatra and Caesar”, The Classical Quarterly, 52(2), 549–554.
28. Hölbl, G. (2001). A History Of The Ptolemaic Empire, (Çev. Tina Saavedra), Routledge, London.
29. Hughes-Hallett, L. (1990). Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams and Distortions, London.
30. Josephus. Flavius Josephus. The Works of Iosephus: New Updated Edition, Translated by A. M. William Whiston, New York: 1998.
31. Keyser, Paul T. (2014). “Kallixeinos of Rhodes (627)”, Brill’s New Jacoby, (Ed: I. Worthington), Brill Online.
32. Kleiner, D. E. E. (2005). Cleopatra and Rome, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
33. Lewis, N. (1986). Greeks in Ptolemaic Egypt, Classics in Papyrology: Vol. 2, Oxford University Press.
34. Lord, L. E. (1938). “The Date of Julius Caesar’s Departure from Alexandria”, The Journal of Roman Studies, 28, 19–40.
35. Lucan. Lucan. The Civil War (Pharsalia), (Trans: J. D. Duff), Loeb Classical Libraray 220. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1928.
36. Meier, C. (1982). Caesar, Severin und Siedler, Berlin.
37. Mond, R. ve Myers, O. H. (1934). The Bucheum, 3 vols, Egypt Exploration Society, London.
38. Nielsen, I. (1999). Hellenistic Palaces: Tradition and Renewal, Aarhaus University Press. OGIS 111 https://www.attalus.org/docs/ogis/s111.html (Erişim Tarihi: 24.10.2023)
39. Paterson, J. (2009). Caesar The Man, A Companion to Julius Caesar, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, (Ed: M. Griffin), Oxford, 126-140.
40. Pausanias. Description of Greece (Periegesis), Volume I: Books 1-2 (Attica and Corinth), (Trans. W. H. S. Jones), Loeb Classical Libraray 93. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1918.
41. Peek, C. M. (2011). “The Queen Surveys Her Realm: The Nile Cruise of Cleopatra VII”, The Classical Querterly, 61(2), 595-607.
42. Pfrommer, M. (1999). Alexandria. Im Schatten der Pyramiden, Zaberns Bilderbande zur Archaologie, Mainz.
43. Plinius. Natural History (Naturalis Historia), Volume III: Books 8-11 (Trans: H. Rackham), Loeb Classical Library 353. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1940.
44. Plutarkhos. Lives: Agesilaus and Pompey. Pelopidas and Marcellus, (Trans: B. Perrin), Loeb Classical Library 87. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1917.
45. Plutarkhos. İskender&Caesar, (Çev: F. Akderin), Alfa Yayıncılık, İstanbul, 2007. Plutarkhos. Plutarkhos. Marcus Antonius, (Çev: M. Özaktürk), TTK Basımevi, Ankara, 1992.
46. Ray, J. (2003). Cleopatra in the Temples of Upper Egypt: The Evidence of Dendera and Armant, Cleopatra Reassessed, The British Museum Occasional Paper, (Eds. S. Walker ve S. A. Ashton), London. 9-12.
47. Roller, D. W. (2010). Cleopatra. A Biography, Women in Antiquity Series, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
48. Southern, P. (2001). Julius Caesar, Tempus.
49. Stephens, S. (2005). “Lessons of The Crocodile”, Symposium: Imperial Trauma, Common Knowledge, 11(2), 215-239.
50. Strabo. Geography (Geographica), (Trans: H. L. Jones), Loeb Classical Library, Vol. 8, Book 17 and General Index, Harvard University Press, 1967.
51. Suetonius. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, On İki Caesar’ın Yaşamı, (Çev: F. Telatar-G. Özaktürk), Türk Tarih Kurumu, Ankara, 2008.
52. Tarn, W. W. (1936). “The Bucheum Stelae: A Note”, The Journal of Roman Studies, 26, 187–189.
53. Tyldesley, J. (2008). Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt, Basic Books, London.
54. Volkmann, H. (1958). Cleopatra. A study in Politics and Propaganda, (Trans: T. J. Cadoux), New York.
55. Walker, S. ve Higgs, P. (2001). Cleopatra Of Egypt: From History to Myth, Princeton University Press, Princeton.