First exhibition about lovers Caesar and Cleopatra opens in the Palatinate
The Historical Museum of the Palatinate is now dedicating a special exhibition to the most famous lovers of antiquity – Caesar and Cleopatra. « For the first time ever, a large cultural -historical exhibition focuses on the relationship between Caesar and Cleopatra, » said museum director Alexander Schubert in Speyer on Thursday.
The exhibition can be seen from Sunday and until October 26th. The show illuminated « Myths and legends around the legendary love affair » in the first century BC, said Schubert. But it is also about a look at this « dramatic time of the fall of the Roman Republic, the end of the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt and the rise of the first Roman emperor Augustus ».
In the middle of this eventful time, the story of the Roman general Gaius Julius Caesar (100 to 44 BC) and the last ruler of Egypt and Pharaonin Kleopatra VII (69 to 30 BC): « The power of Rome bundled with the wealth of Ptolemaic Egypt. »
According to curator Lars Börner, the exhibition created in two years shows 245 objects from 8 countries of 31 lenders, including the Louvre in Paris and the Capitoline museums in Rome. The exhibits – including numerous portrait heads and historical coins – not only told the life story of Cleopatra and Caesar, but also illustrated the political, social and cultural change of this « decisive era in world history » – before the turn of the time through Christ’s birth.
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Caesar’s murder in March 44 BC not only meant the end of a love story, but also initiated the transition from the Roman Republic to the Empire, said Börner. Cleopatra, who allies in the conflict around Caesar’s legacy with the Roman politician Marcus Antonius, was defeated in the struggle for the rule of her adversary Octavian. « While Octavian was the first emperor in Rome under the name Augustus, Kleopatra and Marcus Antonius chose suicide, » said Börner.
The Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer can be reached from Luxembourg by car in about two and a half hours. The exhibition « Caesar and Cleopatra » runs from April 13 to October 26, 2025. Further information and tickets can be found at www.museum.speyer.de.
