Fred became interested in Egypt history after an old trunk full of artifacts from Egypt, which his wife Joyce’s grandfather brought with him to Canada.  The contents had material from a trip to Egypt in the 1880’s.  Cleopatra”s historical records were destroyed,  so Fred’s research concentrated on the historical records of those around her.  In 51BC. Ptolemy XII died and Cleopatra became queen at age 18.  Born of mixed blood, she was very smart; good at mathematics, and mastered 8 to 12 languages by the age of 13.  She developed a trading empire based on “balanced trade” which generated  a large Egyptian fortune.  While Egypt had a barter economy, Rome was running out of money (silver).  Rome’s wars were to acquire silver and gold.