Cleopatra and Antony’s Eastern Empire

She reclined beneath a canopy, dressed as Aphrodite, with attendants costumed as Cupids

and Graces. The entire city turned out to witness the spectacle. Antony,

a man of grand appetites and theatrical flair, was utterly won over—not by mere beauty,

but by her mastery of statecraft and Egypt’s immense strategic value. What followed was

not just a romance, but a geopolitical realignment. From 41 to 33 BCE, Cleopatra and Antony

formed a de facto eastern empire. At the Donations of Alexandria in 34 BCE,

Antony publicly declared Caesarion the true heir of Julius Caesar and distributed Roman-controlled

territories in the East to Cleopatra and their three children—Alexander Helios,