Part I: Women and Monarchy in the Ancient Mediterranean 1. Introduction to thinking about women and monarchy in the ancient world Part II: Egypt and the Nile Valley 2. The King’s Mother in Old and Middle Kingdoms 3. Regnant Women in Egypt 4. The Image of Nefertiti 5. The God’s Wife of Amun: Origins and Rise to Power 6. The Role and Status of Royal Women in Kush 7. Ptolemaic Royal Women 8. Berenike II 9. Royal Women and Ptolemaic Cults 10. Ptolemaic Women’s Patronage of the Arts 11. The Kleopatra Problem: Roman sources and a female Ptolemaic ruler Part III: The Ancient Near East 12. Invisible Mesopotamian Royal Women? 13. Achaimenid Women 14. Karian Royal Women and the Creation of a Royal Identity 15. Seleukid Women 16. Apama and Stratonike: the first Seleukid basilissai 17. Seleukid Marriage Alliances 18. Royal Mothers and Dynastic Power in Attalid Pergamon 19. Hasmonean Women 20. Women at the Arsakid Court 21. Women of the Sasanid Dynasty (224-651 CE) 22. Zenobia of Palmyra Part IV: Greece and Macedonia 23. "Royal" Women in the Homeric Epics 24. Royal Women in Greek Tragedy 25. Argead Women 26. Women in Antigonid Monarchy Part V: Commonalities 27. Transitional Royal Women: Kleopatra, sister of Alexander the Great, Adea Eurydike, and Phila 28. Women and Dynasty and the Hellenistic Imperial Courts 29. Royal Brother-Sister marriage, Ptolemaic and otherwise 30. Jugate Images in Ptolemaic and Julio-Claudian Monarchy Part VI: Rome: Late Republic through Empire 31. Octavia Minor and Patronage 32. Livia and the Principate of Augustus and Tiberius 33. Julio-Claudian Imperial women 34. The Imperial Women from the Flavians to the Severi 35. Portraiture of Flavian imperial women 36. The Faustinas 37. Women in the Severan Dynasty 38. Women in the Family of Constantine Part VII: Reception from Antiquity to Present Times 39. Semiramis: Perception and Presentation of Female Power in an Oriental Garb 40. Tanaquil and Tullia in Livy as Roman Caricatures of Greek Mythic and Historic Hellenistic Queens 41. Roman Empresses on Screen: an Epic Failure?