Cleopatra VII Was Not Native Egyptian — Here Is the Story of Her Unique Family Lineage

Cleopatra had two great-grandparents, normal people have eight

A facial re-creation of Cleopatra based on a bust of Cleopatra. Created by Panagiotis Constantinou. Source: worldhistory.org

Everyone knows the tragic story of the fated last Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII. Her love affairs with Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony are legendary, as is the fact that she took her own life by killing herself with snake poison, and all to stop the all-powerful soon-to-be first Roman Emperor Octavian from parading her in Rome as his prize after conquering Egypt.

She even famously told Octavian bluntly, “I will not be led in a triumph.” He planned to parade her anyway. She made sure that never happened.

However, what is not well known about Cleopatra, who was born in Alexandria in the year 70 BC (or thereabouts), is that she was not of native Egyptian heritage, she was of Greek Macedonian descent, with the belief being that she likely had very little if any native Egyptian blood in her.

A posthumous painted portrait of Cleopatra VII of Ptolemaic Egypt from Roman Herculaneum, made during the 1st century AD. Source: By Ángel M. Felicísimo from Mérida, España — Retrato femenino; also this scan from Fletcher, Joann. (2008). Cleopatra the Great: The Woman Behind the Legend. New York: Harper. ISBN 978–0–06–058558–7. Plates between pp. 246–247., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51255049

What makes this especially crazy is that Cleopatra’s ancestors first moved to Egypt well over 200 years before her birth.