Although Cleopatra surrendered her Egyptian empire to the Romans after her suicide, she had unwittingly created one of the most recognizable empires in ancient history thanks to her seductive appearance, her personality, and her ability to manage an empire successfully. Throughout ancient Egyptian history, most pharaohs and rulers were men. Cleopatra VII was a descendant of Ptolemy I, a popular general of Alexander the Great, who founded the Greek Ptolemaic kingdom that would rule Egypt for nearly three centuries. Before Cleopatra's father Auletes became pharaoh, there were many power struggles throughout the empire. Initially there was an Egyptian escape fight involving Cleopatra's family. Ultimately, Auletes won the battle for power and ruled Egypt for twenty-five years. When Auletes died in 51 BC, Cleopatra VII and her younger brother, Ptolemy XIII, were to rule together as Auletes requested before he died. Although Cleopatra came to power shortly after Auletes' death, she was only eighteen and Ptolemy XIII was only ten. Due to Ptolemy's age, he needed a regent to advise him in political decisions. The regent assigned to work with Ptolemy made Cleopatra very unpopular among the Egyptians because of the way she presented her thoughts, ideas, and goals. A revolt began in 49 BC and forced Cleopatra to flee to Alexandria where she befriended Julius Caesar. Gaining Caesar's trust, he also began to regain power in Egypt. Cleopatra and Caesar arranged the killing of Ptolemy XIII and his regent so that Cleopatra would become the sole ruler of Egypt. After her suicide, Cleopatra became known as “the last queen of Egypt.” In the years following his death, historians and... middle of paper... taxes were paid on crops grown by the natives, such as wheat or papyrus. From there they were stored and sold to other empires such as Rome. All the money and profits raised from taxes were spent wisely to pay the queen's army, guardians and servants and to build museums, libraries and marble palaces (p45 Value). He realized that he could use Egyptian grain and money as leverage on other empires. Eventually, he gave his financial support to Antony in exchange for Coele-Syria and Judea, two territories bordering Egypt (p57 Nardo). In some situations, he remained neutral towards the different empires and simply watched them deteriorate on their own (p20 Nardo). The Egyptian people saw that Cleopatra knew what she was doing and saw the results after only a few years of her reign. Food shortages turned into surpluses, Egypt became a wealthy nation,