The historical Cleopatra had a very rocky life as most royals of the time do. She came from the Ptolemic dynasty which was plagued by incest, war, and assassination. It comes as no surprise when these elements are constant factors in the life of Cleopatra. Early in her life, her father, Ptolemy, was removed from the throne by her older sister and shortly after, that sister was assassinated after her father bribed Pompey to restore him to the throne. At the time, there is a civil war raging in Rome between Pompey and Julius Caesar. After Ptolemy was restored to the throne, he died shorty after of illness. He left the crown to his children, Cleopatra and her brother, Ptolemy. The two of them married, as per Egyptian tradition, and became Sibling-Loving Gods. Somewhere in the next few years, Cleopatra starts to push for the throne herself, which angers Ptolemy, who begins to recruit backers against his sister. Cleopatra makes a political misstep and Ptolemy uses this chance to arrange a coup. Cleopatra flees the capital with her followers and takes refuge in the desert. Pompey comes to Egypt but Ptolemy decides to kill him in order to get in favor with Caesar. 

​

The movie starts a little bit before this in Rome, with Caesar discussing Egypt and the Ptolemies. Caesar arrives in Egypt with his crew and meets with Ptolemy, who promptly delivers Pompey's head to Caesar. In the movie, Caesar responds with displeasure as he was friends with Pompey before the civil war. While this is not recorded in history, it is plausible that Caesar would have acted this way. In this first meeting, Ptolemy acts very cold to Caesar which is very unrealistic as Caesar was one of the heads of the biggest power in the world, at the time. Egypt was the richest country, but Ptolemy was hosting Caesar and did not treat him with the respect that a consul would have had. In the real meeting between Caesar and Ptolemy, it would have been much more formal but it was dramatized for the sake of a good movie. 

​

The next decisive scene is the first meeting between Cleopatra and Julius Caesar. In the movie, Cleopatra is carried in in a rug by a servant who has remained loyal to her after she fleed the capital. Cleopatra dramatically falls out of the rug in front of Caesar and introduces herself to him. It is recorded that this first meeting between Cleopatra and Caesar did not involve a rug, bug a sack in which Cleopatra was carried by her servant. Both in the movie and in history, Cleopatra used her charms in order to secure her position as Queen of Egypt. She regained her position next her brother as queen. This specific detail is not shown in the movie, they instead show her as spying on Caesar throughout the palace and eventually, she regains her position as royal. During the scene in which Cleopatra is spying Caesar, Caesar begins to have a seizure and she runs out to save him. This tiny detail, which may be insignificant to some people, adds to the historical accuracy of the film. Caesar had epilepsy, which is a physical condition in which a person has seizures, and this detail further accentuates the accuracy of the film. One of the last big scenes with Caesar is when Cleopatra enters Rome in a great processional parade. Cleopatra enters Rome with dancers and she is in a gold dress on a gold float. Her entrance into Rome is very dramatized. In Rome, Caesar and Cleopatra's relationship would be closely scrutinized and if Cleopatra made an opulent appearance, she would have lost the favor of the Roman public. In actuality, she was there to watch Caesar's parade, discreetly. Of course, one of the most important scenes from the first half of the movie is the assassination of Caesar. Just as in history, the movie shows Caesar being assassinated by Brutus and Cassius. The movie shows Caesar being stabbed multiple times which is accurate according to the history that is written. The movie then cuts to Antony burying Caesar and rallying Rome to fight against the Republicans, the political group with which the assassins and conspirators were from. The speech which Antony says to the public is taken from Shakespeare's play about Caesar. This speech was a rally cry for the people of Rome and they backed Antony. 

​

After this, there is a time skip until the audience sees Cleopatra again. In the meantime, there is a scene between Antony and Octavian, Caesar's nephew. The two of them make up two-thirds of the triumvirate who are currently in a war against the republicans. Antony comes to Egypt to ask for Cleopatra's help, in other words, her money. Cleopatra was the wealthiest person on the planet, being the Queen of the wealthiest country. Antony summons her in the movie multiple times and each time, Cleopatra refuses and she wants to establish dominance by meeting him on her terms. This is also recorded in history and she sends word that she will meet him in Tarsus, which is in modern-day Turkey. The meeting between Antony and Cleopatra was nothing short of opulent. Cleopatra arrived on a barge in the guise of Venus so as to appeal to Antony, who was Roman. Cleopatra's attendants invite Bacchus, Antony, to dine with Venus and being a man who would not deny women and alcohol, he accepts. The elements of this meeting are perfectly portrayed in the movie. The set is opulently decorated with gold, rugs, and every color imaginable. Antony is dressed in leopard print so as to show his relation to Bacchus and Cleopatra in a light pink dress to show her relation to Venus. The next scenes in the movie display Antony and Cleopatra's relationship which is not actually written in history so these scenes definitely take creative liberty. They do talk about the war and politics which is not unfounded as that is what both Rome and Egypt are dealing with at the time. The movie Cleopatra relates Antony to Alexander the Great and while this isn't recorded in history, it makes sense as Cleopatra wanted to maintain her status and her country. It fits in well with the portrayal of Cleopatra in the movie as they portray her as a Queen who wants to maintain that title and keep her country's status. 

​

One of the last scenes of the movie is the dual suicides of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. This is one of the most accurate scenes in the movie, probably due to its mysticism and the way it captivates people. Two of the most powerful people on the planet happen to die by their own hands on the same day. It has captivated people since the day it happened. As it was recorded in history, Octavian declares war against Egypt and, in one last hope, Cleopatra locks herself in her recently built mausoleum with all goods that have wealth to them. Octavian had been fighting against Antony for quite some time and had racked up a huge list of debts and would need Cleopatra's riches to pay them off. Cleopatra sends word to Antony that the end is near and she is going to die. Antony's only reason to live at this point is Cleopatra and hearing word that she is dead, he commits suicide, except he missed both his heart and lungs so did not immediately die. Antony is brought to a window in Cleopatra's mausoleum, which is shown in the movie. According to Plutarch, Antony is lifted up to the window by Cleopatra's attendants and in seeing her dying lover, she breaks down in grief. Antony ends up dying in Cleopatra's arms and shortly after this, Cleopatra commits suicide. In the movie, the story follows the myth that Cleopatra committed suicide by snake venom, which is more likely made up by Octavian, who was fighting Egypt, as a dramatized story to tell. In reality, the historians of the time didn't even believe the story. Even Plutarch wrote that no one knows the truth of the matter. On top of that, the poison of an asp, which is said to be the snake that Cleopatra used to commit suicide, is a tool of a slow death and a queen would not be likely to choose a slow death, especially Cleopatra who would have been educated on poisons as a Ptolemy. 

​

In terms of points that are not historical accurate, the main one is Cleopatra's children. In the movie, it shows her only having one child by Caesar, Caesarion. The truth is that Cleopatra had three children by Antony as well. Those children were her twins, Cleopatra Selene II and Alexander Helios, and her youngest child, Ptolemy Philadelphus. Caesarion is the only child that she is shown to have in the movie and that is done because having the other three children might have made the plot more complex than it needed to be. The other main inaccuracy in the movie are the costumes. None of the costumes really follow what clothes would have looked like in that age. The costume designers get close with the armor of Caesar, Antony, and other Roman officials, but as the main character, Cleopatra's costumes are definitely not accurate. This is the one creative freedom that the movie takes and somehow it manages to work despite the inaccuracy. Plunging necklines and beehive hairstyles were not a thing of Ancient Egypt, but it helped the audience to relate to Cleopatra and adds to the watchability of the movie.