The year is 29 BC. C. and Rome is splendid. Its streets, packed, roar with the clamor of thousands of citizens who show their support for the protagonist of a very Roman celebration. Octavian, promoted to Augustus by virtue of his skill, leads a triumph that commemorates his victory over the traitor Antony and that wicked woman rich in tricks, Cleopatra.
The parade, which lasts for hours, has as its climax the appearance of the body, albeit in effigy, of Cleopatra, whom Augustus's propaganda has turned into a prostituted African sorceress. The reaction of the Romans to the image of their enemy differs greatly from that which they give to their paternalistic leader Augustus when he appears, magnificent, on a chariot. In front of him advance, covered in gold chains, three small figures: the children of Antony and Cleopatra.
The two oldest, twins, a boy and a girl, were dressed as the sun and the moon. The girl, who shares a name with her mother, does not yet know that her traumatic entry into Rome, a prisoner and parade of defeat, will end up becoming a success story.
Cleopatra, who was given the nickname Selene in honor of the moon, was born in Alexandria in the year 40 BC. C. along with her brother Alexander, who was also designated with a nickname, Helios, as a reference to the sun.
As a result of the love that united Mark Antony and Cleopatra, the twins must have received an education in accordance with their status, and it is likely that they accompanied their mother on one of the diplomatic trips she made through the Mediterranean. Furthermore, Cleopatra Selene was named queen of Crete and Cyrenaica (a region located in present-day Libya) at the age of six, probably with the idea that, following in her mother's footsteps, she would end up reigning alongside her half-brother Caesarion, the son of Julius. Caesar and Cleopatra.
The battle of Actium, in 31 BC. C., broke that future imagined for Cleopatra Selene. Augustus's victorious troops scared off the little resistance that Antony could offer and what came next is a well-known historical tragedy. Antony committed suicide by throwing himself on his sword and Cleopatra did the same, according to tradition, by allowing herself to be bitten by an asp.
Augustus, already master of Egypt, then faced a dilemma. What to do with the descendants of Cleopatra. For some, like Caesarion, the decision had been made for a long time. That son of Julius Caesar was seen by Augustus as an adversary when it came to claiming the inheritance of his great-uncle, so he murdered him. The same fate befell Marco Antonio Antilus, son of Marco Antonio and Fulvia, the second wife of the four that the mythical Roman general had.
Three children remained in the Egyptian court. Cleopatra Selene and Alejandro Helios, ten years old, and Ptolomeo Filadelphus, six years old. Augusto decided that those little ones were not a threat. Furthermore, he considered that the dynasties that flooded his blood would be beneficial for his diplomatic tricks. So he chose to take the three to Rome and transform them into slaves to his will.
The children were welcomed in the luxurious Palatine, in the home of Octavia, sister of Augustus and abandoned wife of Antony. There, the plan was for them to grow up with the rest of Antonio's legitimate children, being re-educated and Romanized. However, both Alexander Helios and Ptolemy Philadelphus soon died, probably of some illness, and Cleopatra Selene was left alone, surrounded by pure-blooded Romans.
And alone she had to face her new training as a Roman lady and the insults to her parents, which were a constant part of Augustus's propaganda, interested in cursing everything Egyptian and in promoting the damnatio memoriae that he had launched against his rival Antony. But the one who took the worst part was, without a doubt, Cleopatra. A figure that fascinated and terrified the Romans alike, and she ended up being branded a nymphomaniac queen and a prostitute.
Cleopatra Selene survived that climate so hostile to her origins, becoming a woman with an alert mind, capable of adapting to her new circumstances, showing unwavering loyalty to Rome and to Augustus himself, who in 25 BC. C. decided to marry her to another servant reeducated in Roman virtues. Juba, son of a former enemy of Augustus who had been king of Numidia.
Juba had also been part of Augustus's triumphal parade, and was united to Cleopatra by the memory of parents tainted by Augustan propaganda and the passion for culturalization. Juba, in fact, was a scholar from an early age, while Selene demonstrated lively intelligence and great management skills. An ideal couple that made Augustus send them to Numidia and Mauretania to put in order those chaotic lands that he aspired to turn into a prosperous client kingdom.
Cleopatra Selene and Juba landed in Numidia, but there they soon clashed with the local population, who did not welcome them, considering them too Romanized rulers. To avoid problems, the couple moved to Mauritania with the aim of undertaking an extensive reform program.
In that territory, which occupied areas of present-day Morocco and Algeria, the monarchs established their residence in the city of Iol, which they renamed Iol Caesarea in honor of Augustus. The enclave, next to the sea, was strategically located to quickly obtain help from the Romans if necessary, in addition to being a port, it would facilitate the commercial concerns of Cleopatra Selene and Juba.
In their new capital they made the stonemasons' clubs vibrate, building a lighthouse in imitation of the one in Alexandria, a palace with Roman, Greek and Egyptian prints, as well as a forum and a Greek-style theater. Cleopatra Selene, who did not forget the glory of her dynasty, also promoted temples in honor of the Egyptian deities.
But, apart from renovating the Mauritanian capital and building new cities, the couple wanted to take advantage of the products of their kingdom, promoting exports to Hispania and Italy. Mauritania was then rich in fish, grapes, grains and pearls, and Cleopatra Selene and Juba distributed those goods along with a more luxurious good, purple dye, extracted from shellfish and which was used to dye, among other things, the tunics of the senators. A commercial movement that they combined with the sending of embassies to distant lands, which even reached the Canary Islands, from where an expedition returned with exotic gifts, as Pliny the Elder would relate.
The new kings executed their reforms so well that, as archaeological remains show us, they significantly increased the value of the local currency. Something that undoubtedly contributed to his court, with its well-stocked coffers, being a refuge for intellectuals, highly appreciated by both the scholar Juba and the restless Cleopatra Selene.
The success of Cleopatra Selene and her husband was total. The kingdom was going well, it did not cause problems for Rome and it was growing towards the modernity of the ancient world. And that is precisely the reason why Cleopatra Selene is an almost unnoticed character today, as historian Jane Draycoot argues in Cleopatra's daughter. Egyptian princess, roman prisoner, african queen (2022).
The fact that Cleopatra Selene was a great manager made her life seem unattractive to narrate for those Romans of the time, who only found morbidity for their pens in characters dangerous to the country, such as Cleopatra Selene's mother had been or Boudica would be. .
However, archeology has contributed to resurrecting that forgotten figure, and today we can see coins from Mauritania with inscriptions such as “Queen Cleopatra daughter of Queen Cleopatra”, which show both the power of that woman and that Selene never denied her origins.
Coins that also draw attention to a fact: in the sexist Roman world, Cleopatra Selene always ruled alongside her husband, never below him. We find the proof in those coins in which both appear equally, or in commemorative medals that display them as well-matched kings.
The couple managed to found a dynasty, leaving three children: Cleopatra, Ptolemy and Drusilla. It is likely that a fourth heir was on the way when Cleopatra Selene died around 6 AD. C. The date varies according to the legend, since it has always been said that she died during a lunar eclipse, which has led historians to propose two other dates for her death: March 23, 5 a.m. . C. and May 4, 3 d. c.
Whatever the case, Cleopatra Selene died and was probably buried in the so-called Juba Mausoleum, leaving behind a husband who would remember and honor her for years.
His memory practically went out with Juba. For almost two thousand years, Cleopatra Selene was forgotten despite offering us an alternative vision of Rome, where a foreign and pariah woman ended up becoming an example of success and good government.
