Schiff examines Cleopatra’s relationship with Julius Caesar throughout Caesar’s extended stay in Alexandria. Cleopatra and Caesar appear to form an easy accord after her unexpected arrival, and Caesar decides that Cleopatra and her brother are to rule Egypt as co-regents. The decision angers Ptolemy XIII, however, as he and his generals believe he holds enough political capital to dictate his terms. His forces lay siege to the Alexandrian palace complex, where Ptolemy is held as prisoner, and where Cleopatra and Caesar are wildly outnumbered.

To provide context for the dynastic struggle between Cleopatra and her brother, Schiff surveys the tumultuous history of the Ptolemaic dynasty, focusing on Auletes, Cleopatra’s father, who, upon losing his throne to the scheming of his eldest daughter, turned to the Romans to regain his position. Upon her father’s death, to shore up support for her own reign, Cleopatra displayed her political savviness by “appending ‘father-loving’ to her title” (53) and followed her father’s example of honoring the local Egyptian deities, going so far as to make herself an intractable presence in the installation of cult centers and major religious ceremonies.