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Cleopatra in Rome history
Essay on the reign of cleopatra
Essay on the reign of cleopatra
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Cleopatra has done to Marc and Julius, both women have the power to seduce men and get what they wanted. Empress Wu next move was to challenge Confucian beliefs against rule by women, Wu began a crusade to elevate the position of women. She had scholars write biographies of famous women and raised the position of her mother's clan by giving her relatives high political posts. Empress Wu’s belief was that an ideal ruler was one who ruled like a mother does over her children.
In 690, Wu's youngest son divorced himself from the throne, and Wu was avowed emperor of China. Additionally, Empress Wu’s leadership style made her one of the most effective leaders of the Tang Dynasty. In contrast, Pharaoh Cleopatra was from a royal family because of
Lessons for Women was written by Ban Zhao, the leading female Confucian scholar of classical China, in 100 C.E. It was written to apply Confucian principles to the moral instruction of women, and was particularly addressed to Ban Zhao’s own daughters. As her best remembered work, it allows the reader insight into the common role of a woman during this fascinating time-period. The work starts off by Ban Zhao unconvincingly berating herself, and claiming how she once lived with the constant fear of disgracing her family. This argument is rather implausible, for the reader already knows the credibility of Ban Zhao, and how important her role was in ancient China.
Ban Zhao wrote Lessons for a Woman around the end of the first century C.E. as social guide for (her daughters and other) women of Han society (Bulliet 167). Because Zhao aimed to educate women on their responsibilities and required attributes, one is left questioning what the existing attitudes and roles of women were to start with. Surprisingly, their positions were not automatically fixed at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Ban Zhao’s own status as an educated woman of high social rank exemplifies the “reality [that] a woman’s status depended on her “location” within various social institutions’ (167). This meant that women had different privileges and opportunities depending on their economic, social, or political background. Wealthier noble women would likely have access to an education and may have even been able to wield certain political power (167). Nevertheless, women relinquished this power within the family hierarchy to their fathers, husbands, and sons. Despite her own elevated social status, Ban Zhao still considered herself an “unworthy writer”, “unsophisticated”, “unenlightened’, “unintelligent”, and a frequent disgrace to her and her husband’s family (Zhao). Social custom was not, however, the only driving force behind Zhao’s desire to guide women towards proper behavior.
Her unfazed attitude towards society’s expectations of women shocked the country – from marrying more than one man to killing her child to poisoning her family – she became a figure no one else would ever replace. Only her legacy will live on, as well as all the effort she has put into pushing away the boundaries and limits for women, in order to show the world, that women can be just as cruel. Historian C.P. Fitzgerald wrote, “Without Wu there would have been no long enduring Tang dynasty and perhaps no lasting unity of China,” and just with this simple quote, it can be observed that throughout her shocking tactics she used in order to become emperor of China, she indeed succeeded and showed the entire country just how dangerous and cruel a woman can be – completely opposite to the stereotypical expectations in their
Because they did not have a traditional role in government, women had work their way around the system to gain any type of political leverage. Empress Lu violated every cultural and social norm by retaining power as a regent throughout the reins of her son, grandson and adopted grandson. Tradidtionaly regents ruled from behind the scenes while the emperor himself was unable to make decisions, usualy due to age or heath complications, however Empress Lu eradicated any competitors for the thrown. As the end of her reign was nearing, she expected her nephews to succeed her. Even as the first empress, not unfamiliar with disrupting tradition, she left the emperorship to the next male in her bloodline (Doc. 5) not a female. Though Empress Lu defied all expectations of women, her power as an Empress was still undisputed due to the Mandate of Heaven, an idea originating in the Shang dynasty....
In the patriarchal, Confucian influenced, Han dynasty, a woman’s role and social status was far from equal to that of a man. In Ban Zhao’s work Lessons for a woman she depicted the role of a woman, as a lower-class member of society. Hidden beneath the stereotypes of what a woman was supposed to be, Ban Zhao was a rarity of her time as she excelled as a historian and teacher.
Empress Wu’s rise to power was due to her unwavering determination and ruthless spirit. She first entered the palace as a thirteen year old concubine and from an early age she realized the importance of raising her status. Wu was ‘not just another imperial consort… she was very much a political fig...
No other woman in the Early Han held the same amount of influence as Empress Lü throughout her various titles as Empress, Empress Dowager, and then Grand Empress Dowager. Stories recounting her manipulative nature paint a picture of a scheming empress using her imperial power to bestow favors and political positions to her own clan. This essay argues that Empress Lü used the lack of precedence for her position as Empress Dowager to manipulate court officials into granting power to her clan, which caused political unrest late in her life and resulted in the destruction of the Lü clan. To support this claim, this essay will discuss the exceptional nature of Empress Lü's power and the extent of her ability to manipulate the court, and then this paper will provide evidence of a Lü clan extermination after the death of the empress that held power for fifteen years after her husband died – in a nation with no precedence for this kind of rule.
Throughout ancient civilizations, women were lower than men. In some civilizations like Mesopotamia society, women were below slaves. It is not shocking that they would still not be equal to men. In Roman society, women had more independence and people were more encouraging of women being educated in philosophy. In the Hans society, women did not have any freedom. They were required to follow what the men told them. By examining Gaius Musonius Rufus’ essay and Ban Zhao’s essay, the views of women were different. Woman in Roman society had more freedom and women in the Han’s society were required to fulfill her responsibilities.
Wu Zhao is a fiercely ambitious woman emperor, she made use of many different opportunities to accumulate power gradually. Religion was one of the most important tools she used in her political career. From the three major religions in China, Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, Wu Zhao chose to use Daoism and Buddhism to provide ideological and political support for her accession to the throne. During her reign, she used state ritual sacrifices, Daoism and Buddhism to justify and legitimize her sovereignty.
Cleopatra. Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Perf. Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Rex Harrison. Twentieth Century Fox Productions, 1963.
Men have always ruled over everything from tribes to countries but there have been some women who held great powers. Most great women leaders only held these powers because of family connections or no male heirs were available. China and Egypt are two countries who had extraordinary women leaders who would stop at nothing to keep their throne. Empress Wu Zetian of China and Pharaoh Cleopatra of Egypt are two great women leaders who were not afraid to do things their way to get what they want. These two women ruled very differently yet they had a lot of similar qualities. Empress Wu and Pharaoh Cleopatra both used their beauty for their advantage in taking control and keeping control of their countries.
Ancient times are known for having ruling emperors and barbaric men. There are millions of stories and books about the conquerers and the soldiers who fought bravely in their successes. But, what about women in ancient times? Did they sit around and take care of children while they waited for their men to return home? There is one women in the ancient world who captivated the men of her time and is still admired today for her beauty. In The Search For Cleopatra, Michael Foss tells the story of Cleopatra VII. He tells us about her remarkable legacy from hundreds of years before she was born all the way to her death, as well as, the historical circumstances surrounding her life.
From the early years of her life, Cleopatra learned that to gain the thrown in the dynasty of the Ptolemies it took a lot more then sheer knowledge. She did however have a very good education in which she knew how to speak seven different languages and was the only Ptolemy to have know how to speak Egyptian and Greek ("The Unsolved Death of Cleopatra"). It is clear that even from such a young age Cleopatra was driven to succeed. It appears that it wasn't enough for her to just be educated, but to surpass her siblings and quite possibly her own parents. This was soon proven to be so once she inherited the throne and problems began to ensue. With the title of pharaoh came the marriage to her younger brother, though neither one was willing to share that power together. Soon after taking the throne her brother was found murdere...
Around 69 B.C, one of the most famous female rulers ever known was born, she was Cleopatra. She was the descendent of the Egyptian ruler, Ptolemy XII, and she would eventually become the queen of ancient Egypt herself. She was known for being extremely intelligent and very charming, and because of this many romans feared her and viewed her as a threat. When her father died the throne of Egypt was left to her and her brother, Ptolemy XIII, and rivalry formed between the two, making her even more determined to become the sole ruler of Egypt. Cleopatra had trained all her life to be the successor of Egypt, and she hungered for power.
Cleopatra is the definition of feminine power. She can very well be one of the first notable women in history. She was a very powerful woman; she knew what she wanted very early in life. Cleopatra life storey is not how powerful she became for a woman in her time, but what she did for love; the love of Egypt and the love of a man.