Cleopatra (ENFJ), is the classic tale of an Egyptian queen who bewitched some of the most powerful men in history to protect her country. She's the symbol of feminine power, the woman who conquered conquerors, and thereby nations with beauty instead of the sword. But that's just the legend told by her great enemy Augustus Caesar.

The real story starts in 69 BC in Alexandria, the capital of ancient Egypt. It was a large city with wide boulevards, big marble temples, a beautiful royal palace, the greatest library in the world, and of course the great lighthouse one of the 7 ancient world wonders. It was the home of mainly the Greek nobility of Egypt, who had formed some kind of new Greek-Egyptian culture.

All this beauty and greatnes covered up a lot of problems. The Greek Pharaoh Ptolemy XII father of Cleopatra was a terrible ruler, who couldn't keep in power and had to bribe Rome for protection. Rome at that time wasn't the beautiful marble city as we know it today. It was a huge overpopulated city with narrow alleys and ugly brick buildings and with a ruthless violent culture of expansion and fighting. The moment Egypt would stop paying Rome, an army would crumble this defenseless city, which could barely hold its head above the water from the high taxes to pay off Rome.

Under these conditions the young Cleopatra grew up in Alexandria. She loved the library where her family had one hundred years before tried to collect all the knowledge of the world. She was a smart ambitious girl, who was the first of her whole dynasty to study the language of the people they ruled, and she spoke about 8 other languages, which was very unusually at that time. Except from that, she probably had a standard Greek education, where she learned the works of Plato and Aristotle. Not much more is known about her until at an age of 17, when her father died. In his will he made Cleopatra and her younger brother queen and ruler of Egypt.

Cleopatra unlike her father tried to change and improve things, however the rest of the family and especially their advisers didn't like her power. So they tried to get Cleopatra killed. This was quite normal in Greek royal families at that time. She escaped and flees the city. Instead of leaving the political scene and using her riches to live a luxurious life, she raised an army. So now a 17 year old girl was leading an army on her own initiative. It was a serious army, which kept most of the normal Egyptian army occupied.

Around that same time the mighty conqueror Julius Caesar had just beaten his rival Pompey the great in a roman civil war. The desperate Pompey had always been close with the Egyptian royal family and hoped to somehow get support from them. So without an army he arrived in Egypt begging for help. But Cleopatra´s family was preoccupied with fighting Cleopatra and thought they could win Julius Caesars support against her if they killed Caesar´s enemy Pompey. So Julius Caesar arrived in Egypt chasing Pompey, to find out his rival was killed. But more important he found a government so fragile that it couldn't even deal with one rebellious 17 year old girl, and that government had just killed an important Roman citizen, so he had an excellent excuse to attack it. In other words, Egypt seemed an easy prey for the experienced conqueror.

What happened next was an action by Cleopatra almost as bold as Hannibal's crossing of the Alps. She sneaked into Egypt's royal palace and appeared in Caesar's room. If she got caught by her families guard, she would be killed,and she gave Julius Caesar the option to finish the Egyptian civil war just by arresting her on the spot. But she also created the single opportunity to demonstrate to the person who was going to decide about the future of Egypt that she had the character to rule it. Whether that was her motivation, or whether her motivation was to seduce him, and to win her crown by winning his heart will probably never be certain. Yet most probably the action had a double effect on Caesar, who had never quite seen a woman like Cleopatra before. She was smarter and more sophisticated than any woman he had ever met, he must have respected her rebellion (a few years before he had been a rebel too), and he must have been particularly impressed by having achieved all that on such a young age (Caesar was a late bloomer). So Caesar fell in love with her and made her queen of Egypt.

The Egyptian army didn't agree with this move and started a war against Caesar, who only had an army powerful enough to arrest Pompey with him. So he had to use guerilla tactics from the palace, and wait for reinforcements to arrive from Rome. With a lot of effort and nearly getting himself killed, he managed to win the conflict, and Cleopatra had her title of queen of Egypt. And perhaps even better, she had both a child and the love from Caesar, the dictator of the Roman republic. This love could be seen in Caesar's next action, a cruise with Cleopatra over the Nile, while he was about to lose the power in Rome. But other than Cleopatra's future husband, Caesar had the strength to keep himself on the right path, even though he was in love. So shortly after the cruise Julius Caesar returned to Rome, to take his position as dictator of Rome.

Cleopatra was now ruler of Egypt and she did a superb job. She improved the administration and there was incredible economic growth. She had created a secure future for Egypt because she had the one child of the supreme dictator of the greatest threat to Egypt. There was however only one problem, Caesar hadn't officially accepted the child, and the child certainly was in no way his successor. So Cleopatra set out with her newborn child for Rome, to conquer or defend the heart of Julius Caesar. Again it is unclear whether her motivation was love for Caesar, or love for her country..

In Rome she got a comfortable villa to stay in, Caesar was visiting her often and he accepted the child as his own, but didn't made him his successor. This was impossible as Cleopatra's future husband proved, because the roman public didn't liked Cleopatra or any other foreigner. So foreign blood ruling Rome was no option. This was made particularly clear when Caesar lost some popularity after he placed a bust of Cleopatra in one of his temples. She had a stable life in Rome, and while she was the girlfriend of the most influential person in the world, she, her child and her country had a great future.

But on March 15, 44 BC everything changed when Julius Caesar got killed. As the streets of Rome were revolting against the senators who murdered Caesar, the beautiful Egyptian queen left for Alexandria, hoping that the new Roman regime wouldn't change its Egyptian policy. Back in Egypt she was getting ready for war and started building a fleet. Yet Rome had no time for Egypt, they first had to fight out a civil war, in which Cleopatra didn't take part.

Caesar's former second in command Mark Anthony allied with Caesar's nephew and official successor, Augustus Caesar. Together they had beaten Caesar's killers who had rallied a vast army. They would rule together now even though they never really trusted each other.

Back in Egypt things were finally going well for the country. They still had to pay Rome, but they could rule themselves and had enough resources left to build their own army up again. Until Queen Cleopatra got an official invitation to meet Mark Anthony in Judea for a meeting between all the eastern provincial leaders. But Cleopatra didn't showed up, even though she and Anthony already were friends from her time as Caesars lover. This probably was a message too Anthony that Egypt wasn't a roman province, and that Cleopatra couldn't just be summoned whenever Rome wanted. Anthony pushed and sent another invitation and eventually Cleopatra set out to meet him, however under her conditions. She would stay on her unusual beautiful ship, and Anthony had to come on board if he wanted to meet her. After their meeting on the ship Anthony came to Egypt with Cleopatra, and they spend the entire winter together and had twins.

Anthony went back to Rome for negotiations to divide the empire between him and Augustus. Anthony would get the east and would start with an invasion of Rome's biggest enemy in the Middle East, Parthia. To make sure this wouldn't turn out in a new civil war, Mark Anthony married the sister of Augustus, in a strictly political marriage. Before he started the campaign he went to Egypt to get financial support from Cleopatra. The invasion didn't go well, because before one battle was fought Parthia destroyed Anthony's siege weapons. Unable to admit that he wouldn't be able to take cities without his siege weapons, he went on. He besieged the first city, but he couldn't take it. Unable to admit that the campaign was failing, he decided to just besiege the next city. That of course also wasn't working out, and his army couldn't get food supplies this deep into Parthia. Now without food he had to retreat in the direction of Egypt, and he sent a message begging for food supplies to Cleopatra. She saved Anthony and his army and they went back to Alexandria.

Back in Alexandria Anthony wasn't the great general anymore, and the balance in his relationship was turning to Cleopatra's side. She got Anthony to officially marry her, even though he had a roman wife. She even went further and had Anthony make the eastern roman provinces part of Egypt. She didn't even made Anthony ruler of Egypt, but herself and her eldest son with Caesar. Yet around this time she got another child from Anthony, and Anthony and Cleopatra were spending all day together. But Cleopatra wanted more for her kids, and had Anthony put in his will that after his death, all Roman territory would be split up between Cleopatra's four children.

Augustus clever as he was, sent his sister, Anthony's wife to join her husband in Egypt. Cleopatra felt threatened by this and wanted her sent back to Rome. Anthony gave in and sent her back. Now Augustus had an excellent excuse to attack Anthony, and he sold it to the roman people like Anthony didn't choose Cleopatra over his sister, but like he had chosen Egypt over Rome. And it got worse when he found out that Anthony had split up the Roman Empire between Cleopatra's children in his will. Anthony was very popular, so Augustus didn't blame him; he said Cleopatra had bewitched him, he said the real Anthony was gone and Cleopatra had him under her complete control. So Rome should go to war with Cleopatra and her slave Anthony. The roman people bought it, and Augustus declared war on Anthony and Cleopatra.

Anthony still had 100 000 soldiers and along with the Egyptian navy they had 330 big ships together. Both outnumbered Augustus, but Anthony's superior commanding skills were more useful on land. Yet Cleopatra wanted the Egyptian navy to take part, and decided Anthony should attack by sea. He gave in, and so on September 2, 31 BC the battle of Actium was fought. The battle was going fairly well for Anthony and Cleopatra, until Cleopatra all of a sudden left the battle. Here Anthony made his fatal mistake, and decided to run after her. With the commander on the run all his forces panicked and either deserted or were defeated.

Because of these actions by Anthony, most of his regular army deserted too, they started to accept that there once beloved commander had indeed turned into a slave of the Egyptian queen. Now Anthony and Cleopatra were together in Alexandria and it wouldn't take long before Augustus was there along with an army, because there simply was no army to stop him. As Augustus was surrounding the city, Anthony and Cleopatra were in a fight because Anthony blamed Cleopatra for everything that had happened. Therefore Cleopatra had locked herself up in a palace tower and refused to speak to Anthony. To stir up some emotions in Anthony she even had a messenger tell him that she had committed suicide (that was a very honorable way to die at that time). Upon hearing that Anthony really committed suicide by stabbing himself with his own sword. Dying he was brought to Cleopatra's tower and there he died in her arms.

Augustus captured the city without a fight, and had a negotiation with Cleopatra about Anthony's body. Cleopatra made a deal with Augustus that if she was allowed a funeral for Anthony, she would go with Augustus to Rome as a prisoner and walk in chains in his victory march. But Augustus expected she would attempt to commit suicide anyway and set a guard by her beautiful palace room. She was still somehow able to sneak in a cobra, and committed suicide by having the animal bite her in her breast.

Augustus killed Cleopatra's son Caesarion. Because he was Julius Caesar's real son, and could one day give him political trouble. The three kids by Anthony were taken to Rome and raised by his own family. Augustus used the beautiful Egyptian capital as model for Rome, and would spend the next 30 years changing Rome from a brick city into a marble one. The might of Rome combined with beauty and knowledge of Alexandria would for the next 400 years be the middle point of the world, and always remain the foundation of western culture.

The relation between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra
I think they were actually in love. Julius Caesar was a powerful man of high status, who offered Cleopatra protection and stability. They were both very ambitious with plans for conquest, very bright and they both had a strong desire to attain their goals. There was probably nobody in the world at that time who could understand the things they were both going through. Another indication is that there are several records of Cleopatra trying to get some ambition for conquest into Anthony, and that she was kind of looking for a Caesar in him. Another point is that Caesar was unusually smart with a lot of experience with women (he was known for sleeping with the wives of his political enemies), so it's unlikely that a young inexperienced girl like Cleopatra would be able to use him. The final point is that modern psychology has found that a woman is likely to fall in love from the feeling of protection, and from going through strong emotional experiences with a man. Both were the case in the first months of their relationship, because they were together stuck in a besieged palace. These theories don't take away that there were huge advantages in the relationship for Cleopatra, so it's still likely that her first intentions still were to use him.

The relationship between Mark Anthony and Cleopatra
The picture painted by Augustus Caesar's propaganda of Anthony being Cleopatra's slave was perhaps a bit extreme, but it was pretty clear that the relationship was out of balance. Anthony was working extremely hard to impress Cleopatra and ruined his life for his love for Cleopatra. At the same time she was trying to find a Caesar in Anthony, which just wasn't in there. She was trying to get the best out of him, but he lacked ambition and didn't had the superb talents of Caesar. He was a good, fun, popular and loyal guy, but Cleopatra just wanted more. Even though he once was the best commander alive, that wasn't enough for the perfect Cleopatra. She wanted a Julius Caesar or an Alexander the Great, not a man who just liked to party and have fun. Some historians believe that's partly why she named a son after Caesar, another after Alexander the Great, another got her standard male family name Ptolemy and the last got her own name. But she didn't name any of the kids after Anthony, while three of them came from Anthony. The one named after Alexander should logically have been named after Anthony, so some historians think she did this as a symbolic act to show Anthony who he should be.

Cleopatra as femme fatal
Augustus Caesar created an image of Cleopatra as a dangerous woman, who coldly seduced men to use them. He created an image of her as a whore, whose price was a man's life. She became the symbol of the danger a woman could be to a man, and for some people prove that women shouldn't be educated. After the death of Cleopatra it lasted over 2000 years before woman again were educated and seen at the same level as men. Cleopatra's story was certainly not the only factor that influenced this, but she had a big influence on Rome, where after her tragic death, she was portrayed as a threat comparable to Hannibal. I think she wasn't an evil femme fatal, maybe a woman who went pretty far in getting the absolute best for her kids, but I think that drive is natural in women. There also is no historical evidence that she ever had any kind of intimate relationship to a man other than Anthony and Julius Caesar.

Bringing Cleopatra back to life using modern psychology (mbti):
To gain more insight into the character of Cleopatra I used the Myers Briggs personality type indicator to determine her personality type. In the next paragraphs I have my argument for assigning her to the ENFJ personality group.

Determining Cleopatra’s Myers Briggs type is difficult, because there is really very little known about her and what is known about her is mostly propaganda.  Her temperament is clear though, her long time idealistic almost dreamlike vision of Egypt as world power makes NF very likely, and leaves me without a doubt about the N part. The whole fight just before Anthony died and the fake suicide message is an extra sign that she was a F. That combined with the fact that NT women are very rare convinces me that she was a NF.

ENFx or INFx
She was known for her great social skills and one of her qualities was vivacity. These are two strong signs that she was an E.

ENFJ or ENFP
ENFJs are like Cleopatra known as great communicators who understand emotional needs of people like none of the other types. They are also good leaders and great organizers while ENFPs are less likely to take the lead and are far less likely to jump into action. Cleopatra took the lead in Egypt directly after her father’s death, and improved the organization of the whole country. These are all only vague signs based on very limited knowledge about her, but together they convinced me that Cleopatra was an ENFJ.

Learn more about ENFJ people.

Learn more about the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator

Do you have the same personality as Cleopatra?