Ethnicity of Cleopatra

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The ethnicity of Cleopatra VII, the last active Hellenistic ruler of the Macedonian-led Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, has caused debate in some circles. There is a general consensus among scholars that she was predominantly of Macedonian Greek ancestry and may have had minor Iranian descent (Sogdian and Persian). Others, including some scholars and laymen, have speculated whether she may have had additional backgrounds. For example, the article "Was Cleopatra Black?" was published in Ebony magazine in 2002. Mary Lefkowitz, the professor emerita of Classical Studies at Wellesley College, traces the main origins of the Black Cleopatra claim to the 1946 book by Joel Augustus Rogers called World's Great Men of Color, although noting that the idea of Cleopatra as black goes back to at least the 19th century. Lefkowitz refutes Rogers' hypothesis, on various scholarly grounds. The black Cleopatra claim was further revived in an essay by Afrocentrist author John Henrik Clarke, chair of African history...

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