The most famous Egyptian pharaoh in history was not Egyptian by blood, and her reputation as a love-crazed seductress is one of the most durable political smear campaigns ever run. Cleopatra VII belonged to the Ptolemaic dynasty, descended from a Macedonian Greek general who took Egypt when Alexander the Great's empire was carved up. For roughly 275 years her family ruled from Alexandria, spoke Koine Greek, ran the courts in Greek, and never bothered to learn the language of the people whose labor and taxes sustained them. Cleopatra broke that streak. She was the first Ptolemaic ruler on record to learn Egyptian, and according to Plutarch she spoke at least eight other languages besides, which meant she could negotiate with neighboring powers directly rather than through interpreters who slowed everything down and leaked what they heard.

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