Question 1: Describe the education of Cleopatra VII Cleopatra VII was remarked as the final great leader of Egypt where her skills and character were pronounced through her effective diplomacy as Pharaoh. However, her rule was inarguably a result of her driven nature and penchant for deep learning and understanding from her education. Cleopatra intelligence learnt In the Ptolemaic courts as a child has become somewhat of a legend.
In what was not an egalitarian society, Cleopatra VII and other Ptolemaic daughters were educated In the amen program as boys; an ancient ‘pharaoh’ curriculum that placed emphasis on royal education and individual, moral, Intellectual and culture development. This was most likely because of Egyptian tradition of having women ruling alongside their brother-husbands.
True to the Greek cultural predominance of Alexandria under the Bottomless, Cleopatra knowledge was refined by the stories of Homer, poems of Hissed, histories of Herodotus and the dramas of Meander by the teachings of the best scholars from all over the Greek-speaking world at the Alexandria Museum and Library. In addition to literature and the moral teachings that she would have gained from a Grecian education, Cleopatra was educated in arithmetic, geometry, medicine, astronomy, music and religion.
A youth spent in the culturally rich civilization of Alexandria would have provided Cleopatra with the advanced Egyptian attributes in scientific and medicinal knowledge, such as healing and cosmetics. However, even more pronounced of Cleopatra intelligence was her impressive linguistic talents which Plutarch remarks was “like an instrument of many strings, she could pass from en language to another”.
Amongst these languages was the native tongue of her quondam; Egyptian, which few members of the Ptolemaic dynasty even bothered acquiring therefore demonstrating her learnt ability to surpass barriers of culture and language. This shows how Cleopatra ambition and intellect significantly exceeded others as she provided herself with a comprehensive education as a young woman. The nature of her rearing in the Ptolemaic court provided Cleopatra VII with an experience based education in politics and ruling.
The cruelty and insidious inning that the Ptolemy dynasty was built on would have no doubt educated Cleopatra in plotting and mercenary politics, especially with the reckoning power of Rome a threat to Alexandria autonomy particularly during her father’s, Ptolemy XII, rule. In addition to her official education, this would have developed Cleopatra understanding of Egyptian politics, foreign policy, political strategy and diplomacy which many later review to have attributed to the greatness of her reign. Cleopatra education was comprehensive and thorough.
Historians have been able to detract any of the misconceptions of her character, such as the evil seductress learnt In lurid acts and deducted that she was a scholar, a philosopher and ultimately an Intellect driven by her ambition and Interests to learn and be educated above the level of her forbearer. It is undoubted that she was a great Pharaoh of Egypt who was skilled in her diplomacy’s and naval commandeering, a fantastic linguist and an ambitious, intelligent woman; all attributes to the deduction and experience she would have learnt as a child in the Ptolemaic court.
