Cleopatra

I'm reading Stacy Schiff's book on Cleopatra.  It is fascinating.  I love history, so learning about the people Cleopatra had contact with is helping me connect the dots on some church history.

For example, I learned that Cleopatra spoke Hebrew (among 9 total languages she spoke), and that she had a habit of hiring Judean soldiers as mercenaries.  But the most interesting information is about her relationship, or hostile one, with Herod.  I forget that Herod and Cleopatra were contemporaries, but she was the driving force behind his building fortresses across his country.

Cleopatra was given by Rome (via Mark Anthony) the vast majority of shoreline from Libya through Palestine.  She was also given the palm date concession at Jericho, which shorted Herod a prime source of money.  Cleopatra visited Herod and he reportedly thought of assassinating her, but was talked out of it by his advisers.