[speedy]

So Julius Caesar and Mark Antony were seduced by her for her mind? Yeah, I really believe that. Even 2,000 years ago, things weren't that different.

[Noachian]

“They admired her scientific knowledge and her administrative ability,”

So, was she hot, or was she not?

This post makes her sound like a career power lawyer in a business suit.

[Xphantasos]

Sounds to me like they are describing HRC... /sarcasm.

[Oztrich Boy]

Even Elizabeth Taylor, who famously played the title role in the 1963 epic Cleopatra, would have struggled to inject sex appeal into this queen.

Huh?

"Smart chicks are so hot!"

[Petronski]

Cleopatra seduced the Romans with her irresistible . . .

[Veto!]

Arab writers depict Cleopatra’s court as a place of intellectual seminars and scholarship rather than the more traditional vision of kohl-rimmed eyes and hedonistic intrigue..... Kate Spence, a lecturer in Egyptology at Cambridge University’s Faculty of Oriental Studies, described Dr el-Daly’s work as very important.

Hog wash. Limited, either-or thinking about women is characteristic of Arabic men and feminist women, and has no basis in the real world where beautiful, intelligent women are rising to the tops of corporations and governments.

[oyez]

Well, If you say so.

[The Great Yazoo]

She was also regarded as a great builder, he claims, responsible among other things for a canal to supply Alexandria with Nile water.

Which is kinda like crediting George Washington for building a canal to supply Mount Vernon with Potomac water.

Did he mention that Cleopatra was black?

[Fast1]

Allegedly she was a dog in appearance they found coins with her image.

[Billthedrill]

Julius Caesar maybe - he was aged and she 22 and glamorous rather than beautiful by all reports. Antony, though - that sounded a lot more like love on both sides. She risked a good deal to pull him, wounded, up the battlements on ropes, and he was, on his part, reportedly agitated until he was assured of her safety and died shortly thereafter.

She was the last Egyptian Pharoah, the scion of a high Greek house, and a thoroughly formidable woman by any account. I do not know if hagiography is in order here, but she certainly wasn't a stupid Hollywood bimbo.

[Rudder]

Oh yeah, baby! What a mind...what a mind.

[El Gato]

she was not a great beauty by modern standards. Despite this she succeeded in seducing Caesar and his former ally Mark Antony, who left his Roman wife Octavia for her.

Modern standards don't count. Tastes change. Besides which their is much more to sexiness than great beauty.

[laredo44]

From what I've read, Cleopatra was the Monica Lewinsky of her day. She popularized the use of lipstick which was originally used by Egyptian prostitutes who specialized in oral sex.

[Cincinatus]

This article misses the real point of both Caesar's and Antony's dalliance with Cleopatra -- Egypt was the breadbasket of the ancient world, supplying most of the grain for the eastern Mediterranean and even the whole basin during crop failures in northern Africa. Roman strongmen who controlled the grain supply controlled the Roman mob. If you controlled the mob, you controlled the state. Hence, gain Egypt and you gain the Roman world. Cleopatra was Egypt. Q.E.D.

[LiveBait]

For Antony, at least, the relationship should be seen first as a political one. Cleopatra was not just some cute bimbo, nor was she just an amazing conversationalist: she was the powerful ruler of one of the wealthiest regions in the world. Of course, it seems that Antony did develope a real love for her, and Caesar's relationship with her is open to interpretation, but Antony's original motivation for the relationship seems to have been a political/military alliance, which would allow him to further pursue his aims to the east.

[SunkenCiv]

Cleo had at least two of her siblings murdered, married at least two of her own brothers, and was an easy mark for powerful men. Herod complained that, when the servants were dismissed, she wanted to hop on right away.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[-=Wing_0_Walker=-]

"Cleopatra seduced the Romans with her irresistible . . . mind" Whenever my wife asks me something to that effect - "do you love me for my mind?... I always tell her she has a beautiful set of brains.

[Tallguy]

More speculation. Here's mine. We know that Julius Caesar & Mark Antony lived during a period when Roman Generals personally paid their armies. Don't you suppose that these 2 generals realized that to ally themselves with the Egyptian treasury meant that they could buy/coerce/conquer Rome itself? Caesar himself was the junior partner of a triumverate of more accomplished politicians & military men. He had to find a creative way to overthrow his superiors. Mark Antony may have been following his mentor's blueprint.

[Bon mots]

Cleopatra had a nice asp.