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(I think this is just funny. Cleo was never thought of as a great beauty by historians, only Hollywood. That's because in Hollywood, you can't be entrancing and seductive unless you meet their standard of beauty. The historian Plutarch said that Cleopatra was smart, charismatic, and a pleasure to talk to--not to mention rich! I would have loved to meet her.)
Profiles of the Egyptian queen and her lover on a silver denari belie fabled beauty
Martin Wainwright
Wednesday February 14, 2007
The Guardian
Roman coin showing Cleopatra
Two of history's most famous Valentines are gently debunked today by analysis of an exceptionally well-preserved Roman coin, which gives the lie to the fabled beauty of Cleopatra and the manly features of her lover Mark Antony.
Far from possessing the classical looks of Elizabeth Taylor, or the many other goddesses who have played her on stage and screen, the Egyptian queen is shown with a shrewish profile while Antony suffers from bulging eyes, a crooked nose and a bull neck.
Debated for centuries, but with little effect against a tide of romance backed by Shakespeare, Delacroix and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the faces of the couple have the stamp of authenticity on the silver denarius found in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was coined in Antony's own mint to mark his victories in Armenia in 32BC, achieved with the help of Cleopatra's one undoubted attraction, her money.
( Read more... )
Descended from Alexander the Great, Cleopatra ("Father's joy") was the last independent ruler of Egypt before the Roman conquest in 30BC by Octavian, later Augustus, which ended the civil war and began the Roman empire. She killed herself with a poisonous snake shortly after the suicide of Mark Antony, Octavian's main rival in the Roman civil war, following the disastrous sea battle of Actium off the coast of Egypt.
"For her beauty, as we are told, was in itself not altogether incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her; but converse with her had an irresistible charm, and her presence, combined with the persuasiveness of her discourse and the character which was somehow diffused about her behaviour towards others, had something stimulating about it. There was sweetness also in the tones of her voice."
Plutarch, Life of Antony, 75AD
Profiles of the Egyptian queen and her lover on a silver denari belie fabled beauty
Martin Wainwright
Wednesday February 14, 2007
The Guardian
Roman coin showing Cleopatra
Two of history's most famous Valentines are gently debunked today by analysis of an exceptionally well-preserved Roman coin, which gives the lie to the fabled beauty of Cleopatra and the manly features of her lover Mark Antony.
Far from possessing the classical looks of Elizabeth Taylor, or the many other goddesses who have played her on stage and screen, the Egyptian queen is shown with a shrewish profile while Antony suffers from bulging eyes, a crooked nose and a bull neck.
Debated for centuries, but with little effect against a tide of romance backed by Shakespeare, Delacroix and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the faces of the couple have the stamp of authenticity on the silver denarius found in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was coined in Antony's own mint to mark his victories in Armenia in 32BC, achieved with the help of Cleopatra's one undoubted attraction, her money.
( Read more... )
Descended from Alexander the Great, Cleopatra ("Father's joy") was the last independent ruler of Egypt before the Roman conquest in 30BC by Octavian, later Augustus, which ended the civil war and began the Roman empire. She killed herself with a poisonous snake shortly after the suicide of Mark Antony, Octavian's main rival in the Roman civil war, following the disastrous sea battle of Actium off the coast of Egypt.
"For her beauty, as we are told, was in itself not altogether incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her; but converse with her had an irresistible charm, and her presence, combined with the persuasiveness of her discourse and the character which was somehow diffused about her behaviour towards others, had something stimulating about it. There was sweetness also in the tones of her voice."
Plutarch, Life of Antony, 75AD
