Cleopatra Was a Dog

Really. Well, lets be more kind and say she didn't exactly look like Elizabeth Taylor. And, to be fair, her Roman lover Mark Anthony was no Richard Burton.

A coin from 32 BC showing the couple's likenesses was recently found in a col­lec­tion of the So­ci­e­ty of An­ti­quar­ies in England. They're shown on ei­ther side of a sil­ver coin about the size of a penny.
To refresh your memory, Cle­o­pat­ra was the last rul­er of Egypt be­fore its con­quest by the Ro­mans in 30 BC. For 2,000 years she's been portrayed in art, plays and movies as a beautiful temptress and Mark An­tho­ny, her Roman paramour, has been depicted as a dashing figure.

“Actually, Ro­man writ­ers tell us that Cle­o­pat­ra was in­tel­li­gent and char­is­mat­ic, and that she had a se­duc­tive voice but, tell­ing­ly, they do not men­tion her beau­ty," said Allison Jones of the Antiquities Society.

Because the coin was from Cleopatra's time, it's probably an accurate likeness. Besides, who would fake a "puss" like that?


PB