What you didn’t know about Cleopatra! From conniving with Caesar behind her brother’s back to her theatrical tendencies


6. Betrayals

You probably know by now that Cleopatra wasn’t innocent when it came to the game of ancient politics, and she’d do just about anything to retain her throne. It was pretty much a Ptolemaic tradition to defeat family members to gain power. Ptolemy XIII passed away after she and Caesar gained control during their civil war. Plus, Cleopatra had her sister, Arsinoe, taken care of when she posed a threat to her rule and got rid of her younger brother, Ptolemy XIV, as we already discussed. These cruel events were extremely prevalent at that time.

5. Most Expensive Movie

Cleopatra was one of the most famous women that ever lived, and after she passed away, multiple films were made in her legacy. One of these movies was 1963’s Cleopatra, perhaps the most well-known take on the young queen’s life. The feature starred Elizabeth Taylor in the title role and was as dramatic as Cleopatra herself. From the time filming started, there were several problems with production and the script, which ended up costing much more money than was intended. A budget of just two million dollars quickly became forty-four million, two hundred thousand of which was just for Elizabeth Taylor’s costumes. At the time it came out, Cleopatra was the priciest movie ever made, and it almost caused the studio to go bankrupt.

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