2016-03-08 Tue

Cleopatra was the legendary queen of Egypt who seduced two of the most powerful men which changed the history of Rome. One was Rome's first emperor, Julius Caesar—30 years her senior—and she bore him a son. The other was a tragic relationship with Antony, with whom she had three children. Both Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide after their defeat by Octavian in 31 B.C. Legend says that Cleopatra chose to die by an asp's bite.

On one side the coin shows the Egyptian ruler with a shallow forehead, long nose, narrow lips, and a sharply pointed chin. On the other side, her longtime lover, the powerful Roman general and politician Mark Antony, is depicted with a large hooked nose and thick neck.

Looking at her portraits it is very hard to believe that she was as beautiful as she is depicted in the fictional works of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, a movie and a TV series about her life.

Roman writers have stated that Cleopatra was intelligent and charismatic, and that she had a seductive voice but, they never talk about her beauty, like the way she is portrayed in fictional works.