Can you answer a few questions about Cleopatra for me please?

Question

1. was she beautiful or downright ugly? (i've heard both)

2. was she an albino? (saw it on the internet but wasnt sure if it was true.)

3. was she meant to be quite the s**t? (i heard she seduced lots of guys.)

Answer 1

Cleopatra was 17 or 18 when she became the queen of Egypt. She was far from beautiful, despite her glamorous image today. She is depicted on ancient coins with a long hooked nose and masculine features. Yet she was clearly a very seductive woman. She had an enchantingly musical voice and exuded charisma. She was also highly intelligent. She spoke nine languages (she was the first Ptolemy pharaoh who could actually speak Egyptian) and proved to be a shrewd politician.

No one will ever be sure just what skin color she had. Many movies have depicted her as very fair-skinned and a few have shown her with darker skin tones. Although most historians believe that she did have tanned skin due to the heat and weather condition of ancient Egypt. In order to retain her position as Queen of Egypt, she aligned herself with two of the most powerful men of her time, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. She seduced Julius Caesar by smuggling inside an oriental rug. When the rug was unrolled, Cleopatra tumbled out. It is said that Caesar was bewitched by her charm, and became her lover that very night. After the assassination of Caesar, she started to seduce Mark Antony to secure her throne.

Antony summoned Cleopatra, and she  arrived in style on a barge with a gilded stern, purple sails, and silver oars. The boat was sailed by her maids, who were dressed as sea nymphs. Cleopatra herself was dressed as Venus, the goddess of love. She reclined under a gold canopy, fanned by boys in Cupid costumes. Antony, an unsophisticated, pleasure-loving man, was impressed by this blatant display of luxury, as Cleopatra had intended. Cleopatra entertained him on her barge that night, and the next night Antony invited her to supper, hoping to outdo her in magnificence.

Answer 2

Most of the information we have about Cleopatra was written by Roman historians, and these men were prejudiced because Rome was the enemy of Egypt and Cleopatra, Recent discoveries of ancient Coptic Egyptian writings about Cleopatra give us a more fair and balanced picture of this most famous Egyptian queen.

There are two very good biographies using the latest information: "Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams and Distortions" by British historian Lucy Hughes-Hallett and "Cleopatra" by Michael Grant.

1. Was Cleopatra beautiful? According to the two most famous Roman sources, historians Tacitus and Suetonius (both lived nearly a century after Cleopatra died), Cleopatra was an average looking person you wouldn't give a second look. A third Roman historian, Deo (quoted in the book "The Judgement of Caesar") disagreed and stated that she was quite beautiful. What about those coins minted during Cleopatra's reign? Portraiture on coins was crude and we can discern very little what a person looked like from coins of that era. Besides, we know that Cleopatra ordered the coins to depict her as a mature, matronly, austere monarch and not as a crowned queen.  Actually we have a good idea what Julius Caeser. Mark Antony, and even Cleopatra looked like because there were skilled sculptors at that time and we have in museums portrait busts of these people. The most famous bust of Cleopatra is in the Vatican Museum and we can see a photo by looking up Cleopatra VII on wikipedia. Members of the Ptolemy family tended to have prominent noses, it's true. I believe Cleopatra had a large nose, Standards of beauty were differant 2,000 years ago. The bust in the Vatican museum shows a lovely woman with a Greek style chignon hairstyle, prominent nose notwithstanding.

Consider this: Julius Caesar and Mark Antony were the two most famous and powerful men, not forgetting their stupendous wealth, in the ancient Mediterranean world. They could have had any woman - even any queen or princess - but they both fell in love with Cleopatra.

She was intellectually brilliant - spoke 9 languages!

She was an astronomer and mathematician.

It was said her voice was so lovely that it would sound like a perfectly tuned string instrument.

She was so regal and her poise and demeanor so elegant one would be captivated by her.

She was a shrewd politician and stateswoman.

A couple of fun facts about Cleopatra:

A. "Cleopatra", is Greek for "The Glory Of Her Father"

B. She was a Macedonian, NOT an Egyptian.

C. Her favorite gemstone was emerald, of which she owned many.

D. Her daughter, Cleopatra Selene, married King Juba of Mauritania and she became the Queen of Mauritania.

2. She was not an albino.

3. She was not a s**t (I think you are confusing her with Catherine The Great of Russia).

Answer 3

Phillibud answered the question(s),without needing to resort to electronic encyclopedia.

That is what this type of exchange involves.

Answer 4

No she was not ugly, according to well documented material (coins, letters and her adveraries) she was of average looks. She was stated to be extremely intelligent, spoke seveal different languages (first of the known Ptolomaic Pharoahs to speak Egyptian, Greek being the main language)Her above average intelligence was said to impress men (Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony).

2) I have never heard about her being albino.

3)No she was not a s**t. It has never been proven that she was promiscuous.  However she did enjoy the game of politics and the future of her kingdom. She was married to Julius Caesar and by all accounts a happy one until his assassination. Marriage to Mark Anthony was I believe just as political but without the love she had for Caesar. I suppose Mark Anthony appeared at the time as being more powerful than Octavian but they both fell to Octavian at the battle of Actium. Retreated to Alexandria were legend has it He committed suicide and her by an Asp.