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Cleopatra was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 69 BC.
Her family came from Greece, and it had ruled Egypt for almost three hundred years.
Cleopatra was highly intelligent.
People said she spoke nine languages,
and she was the first person in her family who learned Egyptian, the language of her own people.
She became queen at eighteen, together with her younger brother.
But her brother's men pushed her out of the palace, and she had to run for her life.
Cleopatra did not give up.
A famous legend says that she came back hidden inside a rolled carpet,
which was carried into the rooms of Julius Caesar, the Roman leader.
Caesar became her ally, and with his help she took back her throne.
After Caesar died, Cleopatra joined with another Roman leader, Mark Antony.
Together they ruled the rich lands of the East, and together they dreamed of a great empire.
But Rome saw them as a danger.
In 31 BC, the Roman navy defeated their ships in a great sea battle near Actium.
The next year, Roman soldiers entered Egypt, and Antony died.
Cleopatra did not want to be shown in Rome as a prisoner.
One story says she let a small snake bite her arm, though nobody knows exactly how she died.
She was thirty-nine years old.
With her death, Egypt lost its last queen and became part of Rome.
For two thousand years, people have told stories about Cleopatra — in plays, in paintings, and in films.
Many of those stories talk only about her beauty.
But the real Cleopatra was famous for something more:
her sharp mind, her nine languages, and her long fight to keep her country free.
