‘I wanted to shift the focus to other members of her dynasty’

Glenda Ainsworth asks What was the inspiration for telling the story from a sibling’s perspective?

Emily Holleman replies We are so often presented with Cleopatra through the eyes of the Romans — as the eastern seductress unfurled from the carpet before Caesar, or as the pearl-bedecked Venus sailing to meet Mark Antony. This makes sense — after all, the extant chronicles of Cleopatra’s reign — Caesar’s, Plutarch’s, Cassius Dio’s — were written under the auspices of Rome. My desire to write this novel from the perspective of her sisters was to flip that notion of Cleopatra as the “exotic” paramour on its head. Instead of examining the Egyptian queen from the perspective of her lovers, I wanted to shift the focus to the other members of her flagging dynasty.

Deborah Choit asks Although Arsinoe’s impulsive actions are realistic for her age, why

did you give an 8-10 year old the perspicacity of an adult?

Emily Holleman replies Arsinoe lived in a very different world than we do. Growing up, she would have been familiar with stories of how Alexander the Great interrogated Persian dignitaries at the age of seven, how at eleven, he broke an untamable horse. Apocryphal or not, these accounts were widely accepted as true, suggesting that children of the ancient world were expected to have a level of independence and perception that we don’t presume today. As a member of an often-embattled royal family, Arsinoe would have felt these pressures all the more acutely. She had to be shrewd to survive Berenice’s rule — she didn’t have the luxury of being any other way.

Sharon Chisholm asks Why are the time lines so murky? Ptolemy XII Auletes was out of Egypt for 7 years, but the story reads as if it was only

two or three. I understand that historical records for the lesser Ptolemys are scant, but there seems to be some missing pieces with which to tie the entire narrative a bit tighter.

Emily Holleman replies The historical records on the lesser Ptolemys can be murky, but the parts that intersect with Rome are — per usual — fairly clear: Ptolemy XII was almost certainly out of Egypt for a span of only two or three years. Cassius Dio’s Roman History (see book 39, chapters 12-16 and 55-60) places Auletes’ arrival in Rome in early 57BC and his return — with Gabinus’s aide — to Alexandria in 55BC. Modern scholars (see Goldsworthy’s Antony and Cleopatra, p. 96104, Schiff’s Cleopatra, 49-51 and Wilkinson’s The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, 467-468) generally agree that Ptolemy XII left Egypt somewhere in the latter part of 58BC and was restored to the throne within the first six months of 55BC.

Leeanne Bolch asks I felt this was more a book about Berenice. Why did you describe Arsinoe as the main character and the forgotten sister?

Emily Holleman replies Great question. They are both forgotten sisters — and the title is plural for that reason: it refers to both Arsinoe and Berenice. The notion also extends to the other “shadows” we encounter in later books — including their petulant, power-hungry brother Ptolemy, who serves as Arsinoe’s foil in the second novel. My initial idea, though, was — and remains — to write a historical quartet that traces Arsinoe’s rise and fall, which is why I am more inclined to describe her as the forgotten one. However, the more that I wrote from Berenice’s perspective in Cleopatra’s Shadows, the more I realized that — in many ways — this first book does belong to her. Laura Bowley asks Why did you choose for Arsinoe to have visions? The story could have gone along without them!

Emily Holleman replies Dreams were held in much higher regard in Arsinoe’s time than they are in ours. Not only do visions play in an enormous role in the various works of literature that would have informed Arsinoe’s worldview (The Iliad and The Odyssey, as well as the plays of Euripides, Sophocles and Aeschylus), they also influenced interpretations of contemporaneous events. As I was reading ancient accounts of the period, I was struck by how historians related visions with the same gravitas as they would facts. Appian of Alexandra, in particular, puts a great deal of stock in dreams (in his Civil Wars, he chronicles visions from Sulla, Caesar, Pompey and Octavian). When conceiving of Arsinoe as a character, I tried to imagine her entire world, and one aspect of that world concerned dreams, omens and divinations. I thought about how a well-read girl with an active imagination — a girl who undergoes a great deal of trauma and who has very little power over her current circumstances — might internalize some of the more mystical elements of her culture.

Carolyn McLarty asks Are you inspired by any contemporary authors who write historical fiction?

Emily Holleman replies Absolutely. I find Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell Trilogy very inspirational. I was also extremely impressed by Nicola Griffith’s Hild. And I loved Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles.