explaining topic to a friend

So I'm doing a national history day project for my english and social studies classes, and the topic had to have something to do with rights and responsibilities, which is a bit aggravating. I apparently could not make my brain process while choosing topics, so my project is on Cleopatra's responsibilities to Egypt. When we started research I wasn't sure whether I thought there was a surprising amount of resources or if I thought there would be more. I guess I didn't think that the Romans were writing stories down.
At first I thought that Cleopatra would turn out to be a ruler that didn't think much about Egypt, and just did whatever to stay in charge and powerful (which is true to a point) but I had no idea she made the efforts she did to be closer to the Egyptians than her ancestry, who did not actually originate in Egypt. She was the first in her family to learn to speak Egyptian, and as a result of some of her endeavors, Egypt managed to gain enough riches to go from being a weak country to a strong one that the Romans eventually asked for financial and navy aid. Though her methods for getting power and making "allies" was unseemly, it did work for a long time.
Rome was a rapidly expanding empire, and if it hadn't been for Cleopatra, I don't think Egypt would have been around as long as it was, and it's eventual fall to Rome seems almost impossible.