Robert David Simpson

Cleopatra, Queen of Exile Robert David Simpson

CLEOPATRA, QUEEN OF EXILE. Cleopatra is an Infinitely vain, highly intelligent, cunning, a gambler, seductive, queen but over underestimates her brother. When it looks like she'll soon lose her head, she gets her servants to spirit her out of her palace at night - hidden in a rolled-up rug. and loses her crown to her husband-brother, Ptolemy. Once safely on the road in the desert with a small contingent of loyal servants, she struggles to raise an army to retake her throne. Cleopatra is unused to desert life and is forced to put up with hardships and indignities her privileged upbringing has ill prepared her for. On top of that, she's forced to stoop to dealing with the lowly desert King Azar in order to find an army for her cause. Well before Cleopatra flees, Greek Oligarchy's wives, who pull the strings from behind the scenes in Rome, manipulate a Roman General, Julius Caesar, to invade Europe for their own profit and his. Caesar then takes matters into his own hands and seeks to use his new wealth to manipulate Cleopatra for his own interests posing as Cleopatra 's benefactor so that he can gain Egypt and Rome at one time. Cleopatra has her own ideas about who is going to manipulate who. After 16 months on the run and just when she succeeds in raising an army, Cleopatra learns that the Romans, led by Julius Caesar, have intervened in Egypt. Carried in the rolled-up rug, Cleopatra returns to throw herself at Caesar's mercy.