The Roman emperor Augustus gave his name to the age he dominated, from the latter half of the first century BC until the second decade of the following century. Yet he shared the age with several royal women who ruled parts of the Mediterranean world, in a symbiotic relationship with Rome. This book is the first detailed portrait of these remarkable women. Previous accounts of the period have centered on Augustus or Rome's allied kings, with scant attention to the women who ruled as their partners or on their own.
The most famous of these is Cleopatra Selene, the daughter of the great Cleopatra VII of Egypt and her partner, the Roman magistrate Marcus Antonius. Her very survival following Roman victory over her mother's forces is itself noteworthy but she went on to rule Mauretania (northwest Africa) with her husband for more than twenty years. She even attempted to reconstitute her mother's legacy in this remote region and, like her mother, was an ardent patron of the arts and scholarship. Other women of note included in this book are Pythodoris of Pontos, who ruled northern Asia Minor for forty years, and Salome of Judaea, the sister of Herod the Great, who, while never queen, exercised significant power for nearly half a century. These and others—Glaphyra of Cappadocia, Dynamis of Bosporos, Abe of Olbe, and Mousa of Parthia-were all part of the interrelated dynasties of the Augustan Age. Their values and attitudes toward rule directly affected the emergent Roman imperial system, and their legacy survived for centuries through their descendants and the goals of the royal women of Rome, such as Livia and Octavia, the wife and sister of Augustus. Assimilating all of the historical and archaeological evidence, Cleopatra's Daughter recovers these extraordinary women from the dim shadows of the ancient past.
ISBN-13: 9780197604151
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Date: 10-01-2021
Pages: 222
Product Dimensions: 9.50(w) x 6.30(h) x 0.60(d)
Series: Women in Antiquity
Duane W. Roller, Professor Emeritus of Classics at The Ohio State University, is an ancient historian, archaeologists, and classicist. He is a four-time Fulbright scholar, and the author of numerous scholarly articles and over a a dozen books, including Cleopatra: A Biogragphy (Oxford 2010), Eratosthenes' Geography, and Ancient Geography (London 2015).
Table of Contents
Preface
List of Illustrations
Genealogical Chart
Introduction
Chapter 1: Queens and Royal Women
Chapter 2: Cleopatra's Daughter
Chapter 3: Glaphyra of Cappadocia
Chapter 4: Salome of Judaea
Chapter 5: Dynamis of Bosporos
Chapter 6: Pythodoris of Pontos
Chapter 7: Abe of Olbe and Mousa of Parthia
Chapter 8: Royal Women and Roman Women
Appendix 1: A Note on Flavius Josephus and Nikolaos of
Damascus
Appendix 2: The Girl Who Danced for the Head of John the
Baptist
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
List of Passages Cited
Index
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