Everyone can name a couple made up of famous, rich, or powerful partners, who cultivate a joint media image which is stronger than either of their individual identities. Since the 1980s they have been known as "power couples". Yet while the term is recent, the concept is not. More than 2,000 years ago, Greeks and Romans became aware of the media potential of couples and used it as an instrument to reinforce political power. Notable examples are Philip II of Macedonia and Olympias, Cleopatra and Mark Antony, or the Emperor Augustus and his wife Livia. Power Couples in Antiquity brings together the reflections of ten specialists on Greek and Roman power couples from the fourth century BCE to the first century CE. It is focused on the birth and the development of the "ruling couple" in the Hellenistic Greek kingdoms and in Rome between the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire. By taking some emblematic cases, this book analyses the redistribution of public and private roles within these couples, examines the sentimental bonds or the relations of domination established between partners, explores how these relationships played out in private, and highlights the many common points between ancient and contemporary power couples. This book offers a fascinating insight into power dynamics in the ancient world, exploring not only the subtleties within these often complex relationships, but also their relationships with their subjects through the cultivation and manipulation of their joint public image.

Everyone can name a couple made up of famous, rich, or powerful partners, who cultivate a joint media image which is stronger than either of their individual identities. Since the 1980s they have been known as "power couples". Yet while the term is recent, the concept is not. More than 2,000 years ago, Greeks and Romans became aware of the media potential of couples and used it as an instrument to reinforce political power. Notable examples are Philip II of Macedonia and Olympias, Cleopatra and Mark Antony, or the Emperor Augustus and his wife Livia. Power Couples in Antiquity brings together the reflections of ten specialists on Greek and Roman power couples from the fourth century BCE to the first century CE. It is focused on the birth and the development of the "ruling couple" in the Hellenistic Greek kingdoms and in Rome between the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire. By taking some emblematic cases, this book analyses the redistribution of public and private roles within these couples, examines the sentimental bonds or the relations of domination established between partners, explores how these relationships played out in private, and highlights the many common points between ancient and contemporary power couples. This book offers a fascinating insight into power dynamics in the ancient world, exploring not only the subtleties within these often complex relationships, but also their relationships with their subjects through the cultivation and manipulation of their joint public image.

Cet ouvrage traite de deux figures royales majeures dans l'histoire du pouvoir en Egypte ptolemaique: Cleopatre I qui inaugura le systeme du regne conjoint avec un partenaire masculin et Cleopatre II qui participa a six regnes conjoints et fut la premiere femme a occuper seule le trone d'Egypte, a Alexandrie. L'ensemble des sources disponibles (inscriptions, ostraca et papyrus grecs ou egyptiens, reliefs de temples et statues, monnaies, sources litteraires grecques et romaines) est examine en respectant la progression chronologique, de 194 a 115 av. J.-C. L'originalite de cette etude reside dans la confrontation systematique des documents d'origines culturelles et linguistiques differentes; elle cherche ainsi a cerner au mieux la maniere dont ces figures royales se presentaient a leurs sujets greco-macedoniens et indigenes, comment ceux-ci les percevaient et quel fut leur impact sur la scene internationale. Ces reines marquent une etape dans la conception du pouvoir royal feminin, qui influencera celles qui leur succederont, jusqu'a la celebre Cleopatre VII.