It's impossible to talk about Cleopatra without addressing her legacy. How did the Queen become so well known that nearly every person knows about her today despite having lived several thousand years ago? We have her enemy to thank, Octavian. In setting himself as the first Roman Emperor, he used Cleopatra as a foil, and immortalized her. And when the Renaissance came along, William Shakespeare picked her story back up and used it as the basis for one of his most famous plays. Cleopatra never needed to build monuments. We built them for her.