Antony's affair with Queen Cleopatra of Egypt led to a permanent and irreconcilable break between the two triumvirs, Octavian accusing Antony of repudiating his Roman birthright to pursue an adulterous liaison with the Egyptian queen, and Antony accusing Octavian of usurping power that rightfully belonged to Ptolemy Caesar, also known as Caesarion, the illegitimate son of Caesar and Cleopatra.

Vrettos's Cleopatra is unlike some other portraits of the last Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt: she is a cunning woman hopeful first of uniting the Hellenistic and Roman worlds in the person of her and Julius Caesar's son, Caesarion, then determined to insure the continuation of her dynasty through the assistance of her second Roman lover, Mark Antony.