ABSTRACT
The relationship which bound together Antony and Cleopatra seemed quite different from the union between the queen and Caesar. Cleopatra’s strategy was the clearest, and Augustus used propaganda to blacken Antony’s reputation. The exact purposes of each member of this couple are difficult to understand because Antony and Cleopatra staged their own acts using it as a communication medium with the population they ruled. The union of Antony and Cleopatra required the increased collaboration of two administrative functions and two political systems, known by each other for a long time, but fundamentally foreign one to another. The whole history of Antony and Cleopatra has to be understood in the light of the fundamental ambiguity of Roman policy at the end of the Republic. Cleopatra was summoned to provincial territory, which was intended to remind her of her subordination to Rome. The couple Antony and Cleopatra was based on a thought and a calculated contractual political relationship.
