Cleopatra and Berenice: The Perception and Presentation of Two Queens

This paper focuses on two queens who lived and ruled on the periphery of the Roman world: Cleopatra and Berenice. Cleopatra, the last Ptolemaic queen, lived in the mid-first century BCE, while Berenice, the last Herodian queen, lived in the mid-first century CE. My project analyzes the ancient and modern texts about them in order to determine how they are perceived and presented in texts in terms of their power and agency. While there are similarities between the two queens, there are also important and telling differences in the ways ancient authors discuss them that continue to have implications for how they are perceived.