Roman Conquest of EgyptEgypt · 30 BCE“The keepers of the atlas wrote this one down so the fire would not forget it.”Cleopatra VII was the last of three centuries of Ptolemies, and the ablest — a queen who spoke Egyptian as her Greek ancestors had not bothered to, and who played Rome's strongmen against each other because a country that fed Rome could never simply be left alone. With Caesar she held the game; with Antony she lost it at Actium's sea-fight.