and legend, one of history's great heroin's cleopatra, queen of egypt lover of jewel yas caesar, mark antony. subject of shakespeare, shaw and of course the cinema. >> the queen has come to the people of rome. >> it would not occur to me to look to you for instruction. >> which is have you have come back chained like a slave. >> slave? >> and with such an exquisite set of chains, so softly spoken, so virtuous. >> brown: but it turns out the real cleopatra was perhaps if anything far more interesting and certainly more complex. her story is told in a new biography, cleopatra, a life. the author is pulitzer prize winning writer stacy shiff. welcome to you. >> thanks, jeff. >> brown: this is one of the women who have had the busiest after life in history. what made you want to write about her? >> the roman propagandaists who put her on the map. this is one of those cases where your enemies make you into something you were greater than you were in your lifetime. you have this inflated idea of who this egyptian queen was in the first place. history takes over. the idea of this powerful woman is e

powerful women, and you have caesar, mark antony. that. you have a woman who is authoritative, accomplished, ambitious. she gets slaughtered by history. this is wrong me i'm having ourit is a strange little moment of billing and catching my car right now not but i do not on have to go through this again and then be told a recall them and the rewind and reese book, we are talking about a started time in egypt where women could inherit property, initiate lawsuits, enter into marriages on their own. it was astonishing. tavis: what period does this text cover? >> this is her entire life. she is born until she commits its my her connections relationships, how she manages it's just kept myshe is hands down the wethiest woman. tavis: not to give anything away -- >> she dies in the end. tavis: following his two speed skating medals, apollo has won more medals than anybody in history. good to have you on the program. do you have no regrets? >> one i chose the title of the book, i was not saying that i have no regrets. it was saying that i have a pa