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Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics Podcast
Cleopatra

Cleopatra

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics vor 2 Jahren

Brilliant politician, ruthless leader, massive brain-box: Cleopatra, queen of Egypt.

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27:52

Natalie Haynes returns with a new series of sparkling stories
from the ancient world which shed light on the world today.

Cleopatra was a brilliant politician, a ruthless leader and a
massive brain-box, who spoke nine languages. The Queen of Egypt
had charisma to burn, but she probably didn't look like Elizabeth
Taylor. Her intelligence and magnetism were more than enough to
attract the attentions of the world's most powerful men, and to
keep her in power - in a notoriously lethal dynasty - for over
twenty years.

Guests Jane Draycott and Llewelyn Morgan join Natalie to make
sense of the Ptolemaic family naming system, to discover what it
took to stay at the top for so long in dangerous times, and to
find out just how besotted Mark Antony was with the Egyptian
Queen. Cleopatra knew exactly how to make an impression: she
entertained the war-weary Antony on a gold-covered luxury barge,
fragrant with burning spices, decked out with fairy lights. She
made him rub her feet at a banquet for losing a bet and he
famously wandered out of an important lecture because Cleopatra
was passing and he preferred to talk to her. 'Rock star
mythologist’ and reformed stand-up Natalie Haynes is obsessed
with the ancient world. Here she explores key stories from
ancient Rome and Greece that still have resonance today. They
might be biographical, topographical, mythological or epic, but
they are always hilarious, magical and tragic, mystifying and
revelatory. And they tell us more about ourselves now than seems
possible of stories from a couple of thousand years ago.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery