ABSTRACT
Cleopatra was the last of the regnant Ptolemaic sovereigns of Egypt, and was the seventh Egyptian Queen of her name; in hieroglyphs the name reads Klcopadra. It is a Greek name, meaning 'Glory of her Race' in her person all the rights and privileges of that extraordinary line of Pharaohs being vested. Ptolemaic Alexandria was to some extent the birthplace of the sciences of anatomy, geometry, conic sections, hydrostatics, geography, and astronomy, while its position in the artistic world was most important. Representations of Cleopatra or other sovereigns of the dynasty dressed in Egyptian costume are probably simply traditional. Cleopatra's father, Ptolemy XIII, who went by the nickname of Auletes, 'the Piper', was a degenerate little man, who passes across Egypt's political stage in a condition of almost continuous inebriety. The frontier fortress of Pelusium fell to his brilliant generalship, and soon the Roman legions were marching on Alexandria.
