Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt, by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Basic Books, c. 2025

From Clarement Review of Books, Winter 2024 / 2025, page 62: "Age Cannot Wither Them," The Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt, by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Basic Books, c. 2025, 384 pages, $34.

The lede: "Ptolemaic Egypt is a paradox. The kingdom was founded by Ptolemy, one of Alexander the Great's generals. It lasted for about three centuries -- roughly the length of the Hellenistic period that followed Alexander's death in 323  B.C.
To the victor went the spoils. In this case, to Alexander the Great -- the victor -- the spoils went to his three generals. General Ptolemy got "Egypt."

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