The narrative shies away from too much speculation about Cleopatra’s inner life. Indeed, she skims over the surface of Cleopatra’s life like some a lotus on the Nile. If there’s any weakness to this excellent biography, it’s that. In all, Cleopatra: A Life covers the subject in enough depth that one or two little tidbits were actually new to me, but she’s never bogged down in the history. She suggests that, at most, Octavian my simply have decided to allow an already suicidal Cleopatra to finally have her way.)

However, she also cautions against the modern habit of insisting that Octavian must have killed his enemy. Though ancient evidence suggests otherwise, Schiff doesn’t believe Cleopatra died by serpenticide. (One exception to this is the manner of Cleopatra’s death. Instead, she explores each side of the argument, seldom throwing her weight behind anything that can’t be proved. Schiff’s tone is easy and breezy–injecting humor and modern comparisons into this survey of the queen’s life. I appreciated the thoughtful analyses of the more hotly debated aspects of the queen’s life and Schiff very wisely refrains from taking a side. However, I believe that this book would appeal even to those who don’t have an obsession with Egypt’s most famous monarch. Given that I’ve spent the past few years of my life working on a trilogy about Cleopatra’s daughter, I admit a ready bias in favor of Stacy Schiff’s new biography.

I couldn’t be more pleased about the resurgence of interest in Cleopatra VII of Egypt.

Cleopatra biography stacy schiff