I Can’t Sleep - Cleopatra | Educational Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Relax with this calm bedtime reading about Cleopatra, created to help you drift into sleep and ease insomnia. In this soothing episode, you’ll discover the fascinating life of Egypt’s last pharaoh, known for her intelligence, diplomacy, and lasting legacy. Benjamin’s steady, peaceful narration makes history feel soft and restful, letting your mind settle while you gently learn. There’s no whispering or hypnosis—just calm, fact-filled reading designed to ease stress, anxiety, and sleeplessness. Press play, relax, and drift into rest with Cleopatra’s story. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Cleopatra, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Cleopatra. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox Media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.

With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast where I help you drift off one fact at a time. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. And today's episode is about Cleopatra. Cleopatra the seventh Theaphalopator, which in Greek means Cleopatra. Leopatra of Father-loving goddess, 70 or 69 BC to the 10th or 12th of August 30 BC,

was queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and the last active Hellenistic Pharaoh. A member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder, Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of the first Sotor, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great. Her first language was Koine Greek, and she is the only Ptolemaic ruler known to have learned the Egyptian language, among several others. After her death, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the Hellenistic period in the Mediterranean,

which had begun during the reign of Alexander, 3.36 to 3.233.233. Born in Alexandria, Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy the 12th, Alides, who named her his heir before his death in 51 BC. Cleopatra began her reign alongside her brother, Ptolemy the 13th, but falling out between them led to a civil war. Roman statesman Pompeii fled to Egypt after losing the 48 BC Battle of Farsalis against his rival Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, and Caesar's civil war. Pompeii had been a political ally of Ptolemy the 12th, but Ptolemy the 13th had him ambushed and killed before Caesar arrived and occupied Alexandria. Caesar then attempted to reconcile the rival Ptolemaic siblings, but Ptolemy the 13th forces besieged Cleopatra and Caesar at the palace. Shortly after the siege was lifted by reinforcements, Ptolemy the 13th died in the Battle of the Nile. Caesar declared Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy the 14th joint rulers,

and maintain a private affair with Cleopatra, which produced a son, Caesarian. Cleopatra traveled to Rome as a client queen in 46 and 44 BC, where she stayed at Caesar's villa. After Caesar's assassination, followed shortly afterwards by the sudden death of Ptolemy the 14th, possibly murdered on Cleopatra's order, she named Cesarian co-ruler as, stole me the 15th. In the Liberators' Civil War of 43 to 42 BC, Cleopatra cited with the Roman second triumvirate formed by Caesar's heir, Octavian, Mark Antony, and Marcus Iemilius Lepidus. After their meeting at Tarsus in 41 BC, the queen had an affair with Antony which produced three children. Antony became increasingly reliant on Cleopatra for both funding and military aid

during his invasions of the Parthian Empire and the Kingdom of Armenia. The donations of Alexandria declared their children rulers over various territories under Antony's authority. Octavian portrayed this event as an act of treason, forced Antony's allies in the Roman Senate to flee Rome, in 32 BC and declared war on Cleopatra. After defeating Antony and Cleopatra's naval fleet at the 31 BC Battle of Actium, Octavian's forces invaded Egypt in 30 BC and defeated Antony. After his death, Cleopatra reportedly killed herself, probably by poisoning, to avoid being publicly displayed by Octavian in Roman triumphal procession.

Claypatra's legacy survives in ancient and modern works of art. Roman historiography and Latin poetry produced a generally critical view of the queen that pervaded later medieval and Renaissance literature. In the visual arts, her ancient depictions include Roman busts, paintings, and sculptures, cameo carvings and glass, Ptolemaic and Roman coinage, and reliefs. In Renaissance and Baroque art, she was a subject of many works, including operas, paintings, poetry, sculptures, and theatrical dramas. She has become a pop culture icon of Egyptomania since the Victorian era, and in modern times. Cleopatra has appeared in the applied and fine arts, Hollywood films, and brand images for commercial products.

The Latinized form Cleopatra comes from the ancient Greek, Cleopatra, meaning glory of her father, from Cleos glory, and pater, father. The masculine form would have been written either as Cleopatra or Patroclos. Cleopatra was the name of Alexander the great sister, Cleopatra of Macedonia, as well as the wife of Malieager in Greek mythology, Cleopatra Al-Syani. Through the marriage of Ptolemy the 5th Epiphanes and Cleopatra I, Syria, the name entered the Ptolemaic dynasty. Cleopatra's adopted title, Thea Philopatra, means goddess who loves her father.

Ptolemaic pharaohs were crowned by the Egyptian high priest of Patah at Memphis. but resided in the multicultural largely Greek city of Alexandria, established by Alexander the Great. They spoke Greek and governed Egypt as Hellenistic Greek monarchs, refusing to learn the native Egyptian language. In contrast, Cleopatra could speak multiple languages by adulthood and was the first Ptolemaic ruler known to have learned the Egyptian language. Plutarch implies that she also spoke Ethiopian, the language of the troglodytes, Hebrew or Aramaic, Arabic, the Syrian language, perhaps Syriac, Median, and Parthian, and she could apparently also speak Latin, although her Roman contemporaries would have preferred to speak with her and her native Koenai Greek.

Aside from Greek, Egyptian, and Latin, these languages reflected Cleopatra's desire to restore North African and West Asian territories that once belonged to the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Roman interventionism in Egypt predated the reign of Cleopatra. When her grandfather, Ptolemy the 9th Lathoros, died in late 81 BC. He was succeeded by his daughter, Bernice III. with opposition building at the royal court against the idea of a sole reigning female monarch. Bernice III accepted joint rule in marriage with her cousin and stepson, Ptolemy the 11th, Alexander II,

an arrangement made by the Roman dictator Sulla. Ptolemy the 11th had his wife killed shortly after their marriage in 80 BC and was lynched soon after in the resulting riot over the assassination. Ptolemy the 11th and perhaps his uncle Ptolemy the 9th, or father, Ptolemy the 10th, Alexander I, willed the Ptolemaic kingdom to Rome as collateral for loans, giving the Romans legal grounds to take over Egypt their client state, after the assassination of Ptolemy the 11th.

The Romans chose instead to divide the Ptolemaic realm among the illegitimate sons of Ptolemy the 9th, bestowing Egypt on Ptolemy the 12th, Halidas, and Cyprus on another namesake son. Cleopatra the 7th was born in early 69 BC to the ruling Ptolemaic pharaoh, Ptolemy the 12th, and an uncertain mother, presumably Ptolemy the 12th's wife, Cleopatra the 5th, Trifina, who may have been the same person as Cleopatra the 6th, Trifina. the mother of Cleopatra's older sister, Bernice the 4th Epiphanaea.

Cleopatra Trifina disappears from official records a few months after the birth of Cleopatra in 69 BC. The three younger children of Ptolemy the 12th, Cleopatra's sister, Arsenaue the 4th, and brothers, Ptolemy the 13th, Cios Philopator, and Ptolemy the 14th, Philopator. or born in the absence of his wife. Cleopatra's childhood tutor was Philostratus,

from whom she learned the Greek arts of oration and philosophy. During her youth, Cleopatra presumably studied at the museum, including the Library of Alexandria. In 65 BC, the Roman censor Marcus Lysinius Krasis argued before the Roman Senate that Rome should annex Ptolemaic Egypt. But his proposed bill and the similar bill of Tribune, Servilius, Rulis, and 63 BC were rejected. Ptolemy the 12th responded to the threat of possible annexation by offering remuneration and lavish gifts to powerful Roman statesmen,

such as Pompeii during his campaign against Mithridates, the 6th of Pontus, and eventually Julius Caesar, after he became Roman consul in 59 BC. However, Ptolemy the 12th's profligate behavior bankrupted him, and he was forced to acquire loans from the Roman banker Gaius Riberius Posthumus. In 58 BC, the Romans annexed Cyprus. Ptolemy the 12th remained publicly silent on the death of his brother, a decision which, along with seating traditional Ptolemaic territory to the Romans, damaged his credibility among subjects, already enraged by his economic policies.

Ptolemy the 12th was then exiled from Egypt by force, traveling first to Rhodes, then Athens, and finally the villa of Triumver Pompeii in the Albin Hills, near Prenesti, Italy. Ptolemy the 12 spent roughly up to a year's on the outskirts of Rome, ostensibly accompanied by his daughter Cleopatra, then about 11. Pernice IV sent an embassy to Rome to advocate for her rule and oppose the reinstatement of her father. Ptolemy had assassins killed the leaders of the embassy, an incident that was covered up by his

powerful Roman supporters. When the Roman Senate denied Ptolemy the 12th, the offerer of an armed escort and visions for a return to Egypt, he decided to leave Rome in late 57 BC and reside at the temple of Artemis in Ephesus. The Roman financiers of Ptolemy the 12 remain determined to restore him to power. Pompey persuaded Alas Gabinius, the Roman governor of Syria, to invade Egypt and restore Ptolemy the 12th, offering him 10,000 talents for the proposed mission. Although it put him at odds with Roman law, Gbinius invaded Egypt in the spring of 55 BC by way of Hasman in Judea, where Hercanus the Sacken had Antipater the Idemian, father of Herod the Great, furnished the Roman-led

army with supplies. As a young cavalry officer, Mark Antony was under Gubinius's command. He distinguished himself by preventing Ptolemy the Twelve from massacring the inhabitants of pollution. and for rescuing the body of Archelaus, the husband of Bernice IV, after he was killed in battle, ensuring him a proper royal burial. Cleopatra, then 14 years of age, would have traveled with the Roman expedition into Egypt. Years later, Antony would profess that he had fallen in love with her at this time. Ghibinius was put on trial in Rome for abusing his authority for which he was acquitted, after his second trial for accepting bribes led to his exile.

He was recalled from exile seven years later in 48 BC by Caesar. Krasus replaced him as governor of Syria and extended his provincial command to Egypt. But Krasis was killed by the Parthians at the Battle of Kari in 53 BC. told him me the 12th had Baranese the 4th and her wealthy supporters executed, seizing their properties. He allowed Gabinius' largely Germanic and Gallic Roman garrison, the Gabiniani, to harass people in the streets of Alexandria, and installed his longtime Roman financier, Rabirius, as his chief financial officer. Within a year, Rabirius was placed under protective custody, and sent him, back to Rome after his life was endangered for draining Egypt of its resources. Despite these problems,

Ptolemy the 12th created a will, designating Cleopatra and Ptolemy the 13th as his joint heirs, oversaw major construction projects such as the Temple of Edfu and the Temple at Dendra, and stabilize the economy. On the 31st of May, 52 BC, Cleopatra was made a regent, to Ptolemy the 12th, as indicated by an inscription in the temple of Hathor at Dendera. Hiberius was unable to collect the entirety of Ptolemy the 12th's debt by the time of the latter's death, and so it was passed on to his successors, Cleopatra, and Ptolemy the 13th. Ptolemy the 12th died some time before the 22nd of March, 51 BC, when Cleopatra and her first act as queen began her voyage to Hermonthus near Thebes,

to install a new sacred Bucas bull worshipped as an intermediary for the god Montu and the ancient Egyptian religion. Cleopatra faced several pressing issues in emergencies shortly after taking the throne. These included famine caused by drought and a low level of the annual flood. flooding of an aisle, and lawless behavior instigated by the Gibiani, the now unemployed and assimilated Roman soldiers left by Gibinius to Garrison Egypt. Inheriting her father's deads, Cleopatra also owed the Roman Republic 17.5 million drachmas. In 50 BC, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, pro-consul of Syria, sent his two eldest sons to Egypt, most

likely to negotiate with the Gibbiani and recruit them as soldiers in the desperate defense of Syria against the Parthians. The Gibbiani tortured and murdered these two, perhaps with secret encouragement by rogue senior administrators in Cleopatra's court. Cleopatra sent the Gibaniioretti to Bibulus as prisoners awaiting his judgment, but he sent them back to Cleopatra and chastise her for interfering in their adjudication, which was the prerogative of the Roman Senate. Bibulus, citing with Pompeii and Caesar's civil war, failed to prevent Caesar from landing a naval fleet in Greece, which ultimately allowed Caesar to reach Egypt in pursuit of Pompeii. By August 29, 51 BC, official documents started listing Cleopatra as the sole ruler.

evidence that she had rejected her brother Ptolemy the 13th as a co-ruler. She had probably married him, but there's no record of this. The Ptolemaic practice of sibling marriage was introduced by Ptolemy II, and his sister Arsenui II. It long-held Roman Egyptian practice. It was loosed by contemporary Greeks. By the reign of Cleopatra, however, it was considered a normal arrangement for Ptolemy. rulers. Despite Cleopatra's rejection of him, Tolemy, the aides still retained powerful allies,

notably the eunuch Pothynos, his childhood tutor, regent, and administrator of his properties. Others involved in the cabal against Cleopatra included Achilles, a prominent military commander, and Theodotus of Caius, another tutor of Ptolemy the 13th. Cleopatra seems to have attempted a short-lived alliance with her brother, Tolemy the 14th. But by the autumn of 50 BC, Ptolemy the 13th had the upper hand in their conflict and began signing documents with his name before that of his sister, followed by the establishment of his first regnal date in 49 BC. In the summer of 49 BC, Cleopatra and her forces were stationed.

still fighting against Ptolemy the 13th within Alexandria, when Pompey's son, Nias Pompeius, arrived, seeking military aid on behalf of his father. After returning to Italy from the wars in Gaul and crossing the Rubicon in January of 49 BC, Caesar had forced Pompey and his supporters to flee to Greece. In perhaps their last joint decree, both Cleopatra and Ptolemy the 13th, agreed to Nias Pompeius' request and sent his father's 60 ships and 500 troops, including the Gabiniani, a move that helped erase some of the debt owed to Rome. Losing the fight against her brother, Cleopatra was then forced to flee Alexandria

and withdrawn to the region of Thebes. By the spring of 48 BC, Cleopatra had traveled to Roman Syria, with her younger sister Arsenoy the 4th, together an invasion force that would head to Egypt. She returned with an army, but her advance to Alexandria was blocked by her brother's forces, including some Gabinyani mobilized to fight against her, so she camped outside pollution in the eastern Nile Delta.

In Greece, Caesar and Pompey's forces engaged each other at the decisive battle of Farsalis on the 9th of August 48 BC, leading to the destruction of most of Pompey's army and his forced flight to tire Lebanon. Given his close relationship was the Ptolemy's, Pompey ultimately decided that Egypt would be his place of refuge, where he could replenish his forces. Ptolemy the 13th advisors, however, feared the idea of Pompeii using Egypt as his

base in a protracted Roman civil war. Tolemy the 13th arrived at Alexandria at the head of his army, in clear defiance of Caesar's demand that he disbanded and leave his army before his arrival. Cleopatra initially sent emissaries to Caesar, but upon allegedly hearing that Caesar was inclined to have affairs with royal women, she came to Alexandria to see him personally. historian Cassius Dio records that she did so without informing her brother, dressed in an attractive manner, and charmed Caesar with her wit. Plutarch provides an entirely different account that alleges she was bound inside a bed sack to be smuggled into the palace to meet Caesar.

When Ptolemy the 13th realized that his sister was in the palace, consorting directly with Caesar, he attempted to rouse the populace of Alexandria into a riot, but he was arrested by Caesar, who used his oratorical skills to calm the frenzied crowd. Caesar then brought Cleopatra and Ptolemy the 13th before the Assembly of Alexandria, where Caesar revealed the written will of Ptolemy the 12th, previously possessed by Pompeii,

naming Cleopatra and Ptolemy the 13th as his joint heirs. Caesar then attempted to arrange for the other two siblings, Arsinaway the 4th and Ptolemy the 14th, to rule together over Cyprus, thus removing the potential rival claimants to the Egyptian throne, while also appealing to the Ptolemaic subjects, still bitter over the loss of Cyprus to the Romans in 58 BC. Judging that this agreement favored Cleopatra over Ptolemy the 13th, and that the the latter's army of 20,000, including the Gibbiani, could most likely defeat Caesar's army of

4,000 unsupported troops. Posenos decided to have Achilles lead their forces to Alexandria to attack both Caesar and Cleopatra. After Caesar managed to execute Pothanos, Arsenio the fourth joined forces with Achilles, and was declared queen. But soon afterward had her tutor Ganimites kill Achilles. and take his position as commander of her army. Ganymedes then tricked Caesar into requesting the presence of their erstwhile captive,

Tolome the 13th, as a negotiator, only to have him join the army of Arsenwy the 4th. The resulting siege of the palace, with Caesar and Cleopatra trapped together inside, lasted into the following years of 47 BC. Sometime between January and March of 47 BC, Caesar's reinforcements arrived, including those led by Mithridates of Pergamon and Antipater the Idumian. Ptolemy the 13th and Arsenae the 4th withdrew their forces to the Nile, where Caesar attacked them. Ptolemy the 13th tried to flee by boat, but it capsized and he drowned. Ganymedes may have been killed in the battle.

Ciodotus was found years later in Asia by Marcus Junius Brutus and executed. Arsenio the Forus was forcefully paraded in Caesar's triumph in Rome before being exiled to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Cleopatra was conspicuously absent from these events and resided in the palace, most likely because she had been pregnant with Caesar's child since September 48 BC. Caesar's term as consul had expired at the end of 48 BC. However, Antony, an officer of his, helped to secure Caesar's appointment as dictator lasting for a year, until October 47 BC,

providing Caesar with the legal authority to settle the dynastic dispute in Egypt. wary of repeating the mistake of Cleopatra's sister, Baroness the Forrest, and have it a female monarch as sole ruler. Caesar appointed the 12-year-old Ptolemy the 14th as joint ruler, was a 22-year-old Cleopatra in a nominal sibling marriage. But Cleopatra continued living privately with Caesar. The exact date to which Cyprus was returned to her control is not known, although she had a governor there by 42. B.C. Caesar is alleged to have joined Cleopatra for a cruise of the Nile and sightseeing of Egyptian monuments, although this may be a romantic tale reflecting later well-to-do Roman proclivities, and not a real historical event. The historian Suetonius provided considerable details about the voyage, including use of

Thalamegos, the pleasure barge constructed by Ptolemy IV, which during his reigns, and he was measured 90 meters in length and 24 meters in height, and was complete with dining rooms, state rooms, holy shrines, and promenades along its two decks, resembling a floating villa. Caesar could have had an interest in the Nile cruise owing to his fascination with geography. He was well read in the works of Eritosthenes and Piscius, and perhaps wanted to discover the source of the river. but turned back before reaching Ethiopia. Caesar departed from Egypt around April 47 BC,

allegedly to confront Farnese II of Pontus, the son of Mithridates, the 6th of Pontus, who was stirring up trouble for Rome and Anatolia. It is possible that Caesar, married to the prominent Roman woman, Calpurnia, also wanted to avoid being seen together with Cleopatra when she had their son. He left three legions in Egypt, later increased to four, under the command of the freedman Rufio, to secure Cleopatra's tenuous position, but also perhaps to keep her activities in check. Caesarian, Cleopatra's alleged child with Caesar, was born sometime in 47, possibly on the 23rd of June 47 BC.

If Steeley at the Serapium of Sakara, that mentioned Scylla, King Caesar refers to him. Perhaps, owing to this still childless marriage with Copernia, Caesar remained publicly silent about Caesarian, but perhaps accepted his parentage in private. Cleopatra, on the other hand, made repeated official declarations about Caesarian's parentage, naming Caesar as the father. Cleopatra, and Ptolemy the 14th visited Rome sometime in late 46 BC. presumably without Caesarian, and were given lodging in Caesar's villa within the Horty Caesarus. As with their father, Ptolemy the 12th, Caesar awarded both Cleopatra and Ptolemy the 14th

the legal status of friend and ally of the Roman people, and, in effect, client rulers loyal to Rome. Cleopatra's visitors at Caesar's villa across the Tiber included the Senator Cicero, who found her arrogant. Socigenes of Alexandria, one of the members of Cleopatra's court, hated Caesar in the calculations for the new Julian calendar, put into effect the 1st of January 45 BC. The temple of Venus genitrix, established in the Forum of Caesar on the 25th of September 46 BC,

contained a golden statue of Cleopatra, which stood there at least until the third century, A.D., associating the mother of Caesar's child directly with the goddess Venus, mother of the Romans. The statue also subtly linked the Egyptian goddess Isis with the Roman religion. Cleopatra's presence in Rome most likely had an effect on the events at the Lupercalia festival a month before Caesar's assassination. Antony attempted to place a royal diadem on Caesar's head, but the latter refused in what was most likely a staged performance, perhaps to gauge the Roman public's mood about accepting

Hellenistic-style kingship. Cicero, who was present at the festival, mockingly asked where the diadem came from, an obvious reference to the Ptolemaic queen, whom he abhorred. Caesar was assassinated on the aides of March, the 15th of March 44 BC. A Cleopatra stayed in Rome until about mid-April, in the vain hope of having Caesarian recognized as Caesar's heir. However, Caesar's will named his grand-nephew Octavian as the primary heir, and Octavian arrived in Italy around the same time Cleopatra decided to depart for Egypt. It is suggested, based on Cicero's letter, that Cleopatra might have been pregnant at that time with her and Caesar's second child.

If so, this pregnancy ended in the loss of the baby. a few months later told me the fourteenth died allegedly poisoned by cleopatra and she elevated her son caesarian as her co-ruler