Misrepresentation Of Cleopatra And Boudica

History is told by the victors, thereby in many instances the sources and evidence surrounding significant figures are biased or incorrect by omission. Two examples of such misrepresentation are the last Egyptian pharaoh, Cleopatra VII Thea Philopater and Queen of the Iceni tribe, Boudicca. Prejudice is obvious in various Roman sources surrounding these women. This is due to the texts being written by men whose view of women was tainted by their culture; as a result, these women were represented with lies and misogyny. This has shaped the negative way in which modern society views Cleopatra and Boudicca. Women ruling or in a place of power was far removed from the Roman way of life, so the Romans immediately believed both Boudicca and Cleopatra

Due to biased Roman sources, the way in which modern society views both Cleopatra and Boudicca is far removed from the entire truth. Cleopatra is portrayed today as a physically beautiful harlot and the fact that her story is impossibly intertwined with both Julius Caesar’s and Marc Antony’s provide a source for gossip. She is also misrepresented through various plays and films including William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra and Elizabeth Taylor’s portrayal of Cleopatra in Cleopatra (INCLUDE A PIC ON MY POWERPOINT!!! ALSO DESCRIBE THIS). Many of the false claims surrounding Cleopatra stem from Octavian’s propaganda during his civil war with Marc Antony. Octavian’s campaign of slander was successful as by the end of the civil war, the Roman’s viewed “Cleopatra as a woman whose beauty clouded men’s minds” (Roberts, R 1999:82).

In Roman society a woman’s place was to care for children and the home, this was drastically different to the Celtic and Egyptian views of women’s which was far more equal (document called ancient_egypt(1) in downloads). In Celtic society women could rule, fight, inherit property, be a part of legal cases, divorce and chose who they married (although political marriages were still popular) (that sick pdf file ms newtos gave me). Similarly to this ancient Egyptian society a woman could refuse a marriage proposal, get a job, own a business, buy and sell property and women could also request a divorce (Donn L). Therefore through this one instance it has been shown that Roman’s society’s view of women was vastly different from both Celtic and Egyptian society and thus this is a reason for the Roman sources to have such a negative reaction to women such as Cleopatra and Boudicca ruling their people. Boudicca united the Iceni tribe along with various other tribes that surrounded her own. This is considered to be a good testament to her leadership skills as in Celtic culture one would generally prefer individual glory to army or group glory (pdf file ms newtos gave me). Similar to this Cleopatra showed her leadership skills through her ability to create alliances with powerful cities such as Rome