Friday, June 18, 2010

Mangled History: Cleopatra Was MACEDONIAN GREEK, Not African

Get it straight, people. I already knew this, and so did Hyacinth Girl. Folks who want to think Cleo was black are, I am sorry to say, displaying their utter ignorance of historical reality. And NO, it is not racist of me to say so.

For the record, Cleo (actually Cleopatra VII Philopator) was the last member of the Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled Egypt since the 300s BC. The first Ptolemy (Ptolemy I Soter) was one of Alexander the Great's generals, and he took over Egypt (conquered by Alexander in the 330s BC) after the death of that famous conqueror in 323 BC. Ptolemy took the title of pharaoh around 304 BC.

Anyway, try reading this by a prominent scholar of the ancient world.

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