the throne in his place. Together they ruled Egypt, and
the Roman Senate recognized the royal pair in 42 B.C.E.
A year later, Marc ANTONYwas in Alexandria, marry-
ing Cleopatra VII after she bore him twins, ALEXANDER
HELIOS and CLEOPATRA SELENE. Another son, PTOLEMY
PHILADELPHOS, was born in 36 B.C.E. Marc Antony also
issued a document called “the Donation of Alexandria”
that divided parts of the Roman Empire between Cleopa-
tra VII and her children. This roused Octavian (the future
AUGUSTUS), who declared war on Cleopatra VII in 32
B.C.E. The battle of ACTIUMensued, and Cleopatra VII and
Marc Antony committed suicide.
Cleopatra VII was a brilliant woman who was skilled
in political rule. Fluent in many languages, she also
learned to speak ancient Egyptian, the only Ptolemaic
ruler to have knowledge of the tongue. A Greek marble
portrays her as beautiful, a contradiction to her depiction
on her own coins. She was memorialized in PHILAEand in
a colossal carving at DENDEREH, where she is shown with
Ptolemy XV Caesarion. Skilled in statecraft and history,
Cleopatra VII received a gift of 200,000 volumes for the
LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA from the ruler of Pergamum,
occupied by Marc Antony.
Suggested Readings:Chauveau, Michel, and David Lor-
ton, transl. Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra: History and Soci-
ety Under the Ptolemies.Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
Press, 2000; Grant, Michael. Cleopatra.London: Phoenix
Press, 2000; Holbl, Gunther, and Tina Saavedra, transl. A
History of the Ptolemaic Empire.New York: Routledge,
2000; Mysliwiec, Karol, and David Lorton, transl. The
Twilight of Ancient Egypt: 1st Millennium B.C.Ithaca, N.Y.:
Cornell University Press, 2000; Rowlandson, Jane, and
Roger Bagnall, eds. Women and Society in Greek and
Roman Egypt: A Sourcebook.Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
University Press, 1998; Walker, Susan, and Peter Higgs,
eds. Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth.Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Cleopatra Selene(fl. first centuryB.C.E.)Royal woman
of the Ptolemaic Period
Cleopatra Selene was a daughter of CLEOPATRA VII(r. 51–30
B.C.E.) and Marc ANTONY. She was the twin sister of ALEX-
ANDER HELIOSand was made queen of Cyrenaica and Crete.
Cleopatra Thea(fl. second century B.C.E.) Royal
woman of the Ptolemaic Period
She was a daughter of PTOLEMY VI PHILOMETOR (r.
180–164, 163–145 B.C.E.) who was given in marriage to
ALEXANDER BALAS, the Seleucid usurper. She married
three Seleucid rulers in succession as a result of untimely
deaths and political upheavals.
clocks The time indicators used in ancient Egypt,
introduced around 3500 B.C.E. Known as a gnomon, this
measure of time was formed by a vertical pillar used to
cast a shadow and so indicate the time of day. The sun-
dial, invented by the 8th century B.C.E., is represented by
an Egyptian green schist form, the earliest such device
surviving. The sundial had a straight base with a raised
crosspiece at one end. Inscribed time divisions were
intersected by the shadow of the crosspiece.
Water clocks also date to the New Kingdom Period
in Egypt. AMENHOTEP III(r. 1391–1353 B.C.E.) used them,
and the Greeks adopted the timepieces, calling them
clepsydras(from kleptein,“to steal,” and hydor,“water”).
The water clocks were fashioned out of sloping vats,
filled with water and containing a small hole. Pressure
reduced as water escaped, but it still served its purpose in
darkness.coffins The mortuary regalia that appeared in Egypt in
the Old Kingdom (2575–2134 B.C.E.), designed to protect
the remains of the deceased, such boxes were placed
inside of MASTABAS, which were large enough to provide
chapels and chambers for offerings. The coffins were
painted on their sides to make them resemble the walls of
the royal palaces, and doors, windows, and even patterns
of hanging reed mats were fashioned as designs for these
receptacles.
Illustrations of the TUAT, or the Underworld, were
often painted inside the coffins for the benefit of the
deceased, and other maps, mortuary texts, and symbols
were placed on the outside, with magical spells included
for protection. Anthropoid coffins appeared in the Seven-
teenth Dynasty (1640–1550 B.C.E.) as large, wooden
boxes. The CARTONNAGEstyle used the external pattern of
bandages with prayers and the name of the deceased.
Collars and AMULETSwere part of the design. By the
Twentieth Dynasty (1196–1070 B.C.E.) the coffins had a
yellow base coat with painted designs. Some had low
reliefs that included headdresses, carved wooden hands,
head collars, and braces.
Cartonnage masks were developed in the First Inter-
mediate Period (2134–2040 B.C.E.) but were extended in
later dynasties to cover the entire mummified remains.
Both the inner and outer coffins were fashioned in carton-
nage, with idealized masks of the deceased along with the
usual mortuary incantations. The anthropoidal coffins
were elaborately painted, dressed in the robes of HORUSor
in the feathers of the goddess NEKHEBET. The RISHI PAT-
TERNor feather design was popular in the Seventeenth
and early Eighteenth Dynasties (1640–1400 B.C.E.).
See also MORTUARY RITUALS.Coffin Texts These were inscriptions placed inside the
coffins of Egyptians, containing spells and incantations
intended to help the deceased on their journeys to the
hereafter. Developed in HERAKLEOPOLIS MAGNA in the
First Intermediate Period (2134–2040 B.C.E.), these textsCoffin Texts 85