*cheers* At last an essay that isn't about Antony and Cleopatra.
Essentially their relationship was an enormous prpoagamda weapon for the boni/optimates because:
*They could portray Cleopatra as an eastern barbarian who corrupted Caesar
* Caesar was keeping Roman legions abroad and fighting in the Egyptian civil war, which wasn't really Rome's business: good Roman men were dying for no good reason
* All this fighting costs money and the Romans weren't to pleased at their tax dollars being spent on Egypt.
Of course the big problem was that while Ceasar was away in Egypt, he wasn't in Rome. It might sound silly, but it's the really obvious point that most people ignore. This gave the boni, Cicero, Pompey and anyone else who was anti-Caesarian an advantage in that Caesar couldn't rebut their speeches in the senate, his tribunes of the plebs could stiil be vetoed by the boni tribunes and he couldn't call on his tame pebs to pass laws in the Plebian Assembly, thus avoiding the patrician movement in the senate.
When he returned to Rome, Cleopatra eventually came too. (I thought Caesar was an intelligent man!) I think one aspect you might like to mention is Caesarion, since he was *not* Roman, therefore Caesar did not (legally) have an heir and had to adopt a Roman in his will (which turned out to be his great-nephew.) More propaganda and posturing ensued, but as soon as Caesar died Cleoppatra had to flee Rome as quickly as possible. The loss of her major Roman ally put her in a precarious political position: she had to find a replacement, which turned out to be Antony, and things went downhill from there.
There are two ways to structure your essay, depending on which pioints you feel most comfortable with using. The easiest way is to go through things chronologically, but you might want to consider splitting the essay into their military, political and social relationships and the consequences.
I hope this helps: my latin culture and history is a bit rusty!
