2016-01-27 Wed

Cleopatra was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a family of Macedonian Greek origin that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great's death during the Hellenistic period, around 31 BC. This fascinating personality has been the subject in numerous works of art. Apart from that, dramatizations of incidents from her life in literature and other media, including William Shakespeare's tragedy Antony and Cleopatra, George Bernard Shaw's play Caesar and Cleopatra, Jules Massenet's opera Cléopâtre and the 1963 film Cleopatra, have all made her even more popular.

In February 2007 a small coin in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle changed the perception that people generally had about her. Although, there are plenty of coins with Cleopatra’s portrait on them, and they generally repeat the same features like a prominent nose, sloping forehead, sharp and pointed chin, thin lips, and hollow-looking eye sockets, the audience and journalists were in shock!

For those who have always had an image of a beautiful lady when they think of this historical sensation, these features of her would definitely be a big disappointment. They might as well want to believe that these unconvincing portraits were the work of unskilled artists. But in reality, there is no reason to think that way. During that era, a warts-and-all approach to portraiture was in fashion and those features of Cleopatra were the most recognisable attributes of the individual being portrayed.

The coins were minted in a variety of places in the eastern Mediterranean, from Alexandria in Egypt to the port of Patras in Greece. Mark Antony bestowed on Cleopatra a number of eastern cities and territories, and coins were issued in those places in the name of the new ruler. It’s also likely that they were copying an official image that the queen herself had approved – nose and chin included.