parenting is an exercise in unintended consequences.

Power has for so long been a male construct that it distorted the shape of the first women who tried it on, only to find themselves in a sort of straitjacket.

As always, an educated woman was a dangerous woman.

Here you have an incredibly ambitious, accomplished woman who comes up against some of the same problems that women in power come up against today. Cleopatra plays an oddly pivotal role in world history as well; in her lifetime, Alexandria is the center of the universe, Rome is still a backwater.

parenting is an exercise in unintended consequences.

And in the absence of facts, myth rushes in, the kudzu of history.

Ancient history is oddly short on incorrect omens.