Cleopatra. Kravchuk A.

Cleopatra is devoted to many books. This, written by the outstanding Polish historian Alexander Kravchuk, is one of the best. On the one hand, everything that is known about the last Egyptian queen from ancient sources is collected in it, and on the other hand, a wide historical background is given, without which it is difficult to understand the events that unfolded in the 1st century BC. e. And ended with the death of the Kingdom of the Ptolemes. Cleopatra is depicted by an outstanding woman: smart, bold, strong -willed and ready for any actions for the sake of power, who dreams of becoming no less than the mistress of the East. There is no answer to the question of whether she loved Caesar purely in a woman, and then the Mark Anthony, but it is clear that in relations with them Cleopatra saw a remedy that brings her closer to the desired goal. The book is dominated by a strictly scientific approach, and yet it sometimes looks like an adventure novel - the historian and writer in the author seem to compete with each other, and the reader wins.

Alexander Kravchuk (1922-2023) - Antikovist historian, writer, professor of the University of Jagellon in Krakow.