Q 01/05

Cleopatra VII belonged to which Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt?

A) The Attalids

B) The Ptolemies

C) The Seleucids

D) The Antigonids

Answer · why

B) The Ptolemies

She was the last active Hellenistic pharaoh; after her death Egypt became a Roman province.

Q 02/05

The founder of Cleopatra's dynasty, Ptolemy I Soter, had been a general and companion of which conqueror?

A) Alexander the Great

B) Pyrrhus of Epirus

C) Philip II of Macedon

D) Cyrus the Great

Answer · why

A) Alexander the Great

Through her father she was also descended from Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid Empire.

Q 03/05

What was Cleopatra's first language?

A) Aramaic

B) Ancient Egyptian

C) Latin

D) Koine Greek

Answer · why

D) Koine Greek

Her Roman contemporaries would have preferred to speak with her in it rather than in Latin.

Q 04/05

Cleopatra is the only ruler of her dynasty known to have learned which language?

A) Persian

B) Egyptian

C) Latin

D) Hebrew

Answer · why

B) Egyptian

Plutarch implies she also spoke Ethiopian, Hebrew or Aramaic, Arabic, Syriac, Median and Parthian.

Q 05/05

What does the Greek name Cleopatra mean?

A) She who rules the sea

B) Daughter of the Nile

C) Glory of her father

D) Beloved of Isis

Answer · why

C) Glory of her father

Her adopted title Thea Philopatora means goddess who loves her father.