A memória de Cleópatra VII, através do discurso de Suetônio na obra, a vida dos doze Césares (I a.C.)

Abstract

Cleopatra VII is a personality whose notoriety makes her odd and known since antiquity itself, as a great statesman, and above all as the unofficial consort of Roman generals in the 1st century BC, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. In addition, she is attributed a stunning beauty and a captivating inventive ability, such as the self-propagated "legend" that would have entered julius Caesar's palace in Alexandria, hidden within a carpet, being revealed only in the presence of the Roman general, who would have been captivated by his intelligence, being definitively present in the social imaginary of antiquity and contemporaneity, in addition to his condition of nobility , as a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The protagonist was even portrayed in several works of art, sometimes from a romantic perspective, sometimes from a political perspective, ranging from the plays, such as shakespeare's most classic, to works of cinema, each having a singular appropriation of the biography written about Cleopatra, especially in the biography written by Suetonius, which underscribes the constitution of his memory. And as it is repeated in virtually all the published works concerning her memory, the silence persists around the fact that the protagonist was the Priestess of Isis. In this matter and in the intricacies underlying this silence and sublimation around the aspects pertinent to it, crossing the spheres of a Roman society, in frank transformation and where foreign cults were assimilated as the territorial expansion of Rome took place. The fact that the cult of Isis, being the largest and most widespread Eastern cult of mysteries, contributed decisively to the success of the protagonist in acting equally before the Roman magistrates, and this element is sublimated by Suetonius. From what we have seen, cleopatra's presence in such a position definitely challenges the Mos Maiorum, and reveals the dynamics of the strong cultural circularity, which provided the protagonist, to project herself on an equal level towards Roman magistrates, since they exercised simultaneously the administrative and priestly roles, presiding over the main civic and liturgical ceremonies of the Urbs, and administering provincial territories , which in the case of Cleopatra, is equivalent to the role of a proconsul. However, we will focus on the underlying reasons for Suetonius' silence around the protagonist's priesthood, and the relations of this phenomenon, with the uniqueness measured by the cult of Isis in Greek and Roman territory, and the unspoken way in which the Hellenistic monarchs, Cleopatra ahead, have become the models of governance for the principality, since this cult , influenced decisively in the construction of roman identity.