Mind-Benders of Ancient Egyptian History
The first Greek ruler of Egypt to learn Egyptian
According to the ancient biographer Plutarch, Cleopatra VII was the first ruler of her Greek-speaking Ptolemaic dynasty — after nearly three centuries on the Egyptian throne — to actually learn the Egyptian language. Plutarch writes that she spoke many tongues and rarely needed an interpreter, whether with Egyptians, Arabs, Hebrews, Ethiopians, or others.
How we know
Cleopatra VII (r. 51–30 BCE), last of the Macedonian-Greek Ptolemaic dynasty (founded 305 BCE by Ptolemy I); per Plutarch, Life of Antony 27, the first Ptolemy to learn the Egyptian language, reputedly fluent in many tongues.
One of many fact-checked wonders across eight traditions at The Spring of Wisdom.