英语听力：自然百科 埃及艳后
时间：2014-04-22 07:27:46
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（单词翻译）
Her name is synonymous with beauty, power, intrigue1 and ultimately tragedy. In 69 BC, Cleopatra was born into Egypt's Ptolemaic Dynasty, a dynasty in decline and under the protection of Rome. At the age of 18, she assumed the throne along with her younger brother as husband, Ptolemy XIII, according to Egyptian royal custom. But these royal siblings2 were hostile to each other, and Cleopatra was soon forced from power.
Down but not out, Cleopatra waited for the right opportunity to prove her political cunning. That opportunity came when Julius Caesar, the newly minted victor in Rome Civil War, arrived in Alexandria, Egypt in pursuit of a renegade Roman general. As legend has it, Cleopatra
smuggled3 herself into his inner sanctum, rolled up inside a rug. Caesar was captivated and they soon fell in love. He took arms against Cleopatra's rivals and restored her to the throne. Shortly after, she gave birth to a boy, Caesarian, whom she claimed was Caesar's son.
Egypt was a vastly wealthy country, and Cleopatra sought to keep it independent of Rome. Her affair with Caesar kept the Romans from taking direct control of Egypt, but his
assassination4 made her status and that of her country uncertain.
Searching for allies among Rome's new leaders, she was delighted when Mark Antony, one of Caesar's heir apparents, sent for her. Mark Antony fell head over heels for the Egyptian queen and her richness. Together they set up court in Alexandria, an arrangement that elevated Cleopatra from protected sovereign to a
fully5 independent
monarch6.
Cleopatra and Antony shared a
legendary7 love matched by their insatiable appetite for empire. They eventually married and became the “Power Couple” of the eastern
Mediterranean8. Antony tried to bring some Roman territories under her
domain9 and he declared Cleopatra's son Caesarian to be the son and rightful heir to Julius Caesar. That infuriated Mark Antony's Roman rival Octavian, who went to war against them. Antony and Cleopatra were quickly defeated at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC.
Legend tells us that Cleopatra spread false
rumors10 of her death. Consumed by grief over her death, Antony stabbed himself. But word came she was still alive, and Antony's
followers11 carried him to Cleopatra, where he died in her arms.
After 22 years as queen, Cleopatra's fortunes were fast unraveling. She tried in vain to make peace with Octavian. Rather than be
humiliated12 by the Romans in defeat, she took hold of an asp, permitting it to
inflict13 a poisonous and mortal wound.
With her death, the fate of the Ptolemaic Dynasty was sealed and Egypt fell firmly into Roman hands. Although her ambitions were never realized, Cleopatra has achieved
immortality14 through her personal story of love and tragedy.
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