Although there have been many books written about the most famous Cleopatra, this is the first study in English also devoted to her less well known but equally illustrious namesakes. Cleopatras looks at the lives and careers of the most important royal women of that name beginning with those of early Greek mythology. John Whitehorne next considers the Macedonian queens and princesses called Cleopatra, including the last wife of Phillip II of Macedon and the sister of Alexander the Great, before tracing the careers of the many Cleopatras of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and exploring the political importance of their marriages to the Seleucid kings of Syria. After a reappraisal of current views about Cleopatra VII's suicide, Whitehorne concludes his account of these fascinating and important figures with Cleopatra Selene of Mauretania, Cleopatra's daughter by Mark Antony who was the last of the Ptolemaic line.
By adopting a primarily biographical approach Whitehorne is able to elucidate the evolving nature of royal power in this period and the place of dynastic marriage in the Macedonian and Hellenistic monarchies, and to trace the growing political importance of royal women in the Hellenistic age.