The truth about Queen Cleopatra: Both beautiful and fluent in 8 languages

Cleopatra VII (69 - 30 BC) was Queen and last ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, Egypt. She was famous for her love affairs with Mark Antony and Julius Caesar, so the Romans quickly propagated that Cleopatra was no different than a girl who faked her identity to seduce powerful men.

Cleopatra is considered one of the wisest.

Cleopatra and Caesar (1866). The painting was painted by Jean-Léon Gérôme

Cleopatra was a powerful and successful ruler, but is not featured in historical documents. This makes her achievements somewhat blurred and her mistakes greatly exaggerated. The general view of Cleopatra in ancient Roman texts and in the modern media is one of scheming women who used her body for political gain.

In fact, she was one of the greatest intellectuals of the time. This is something that the ancient documents do not mention. She was educated by leading Greek scholars and attended the Mouseion School in Alexandria, home to the famous Library of Alexandria. Here she was imparted knowledge of geography, history, astronomy, philosophy, international diplomacy, mathematics, alchemy, medicine, zoology and economics.

Cleopatra was the only person of that time who could speak Ancient Egyptian and read hieroglyphs. In addition, she knew Ancient Greek and the languages ​​of the Parthians, Jews, Medes, Trogodyatae, Syrians, Ethiopians, and Arabs.

It is known that Cleopatra VII spent a lot of time in an ancient laboratory. She has done several works on herbs and aesthetics. But all of these works were lost in a fire in 391 AD, when the Library of Alexandria was destroyed. Later, the famous doctor Galen studied those works and successfully implemented some of the recipes she created.

One of the drugs he often recommends to his patients is a cream that works to help men regrow hair. Her contributions to science and medicine were well known even in the first century of Christianity. In a world of powerful people, Cleopatra is considered one of the wisest. After her death, Egypt became part of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the second Greek state since Alexander's reign.