Cleopatra seduced the Romans with her irresistible . . . mind

The Times (U.K.) ^ | March 14, 2005 | Ben Hoyle

[nickcarraway]

LONG before Shakespeare portrayed her as history’s most exotic femme fatale, Cleopatra was revered throughout the Arab world — for her brain.

Medieval Arab scholars never referred to the Egyptian queen’s appearance, and they made no mention of the dangerous sensuality which supposedly corrupted Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Instead they marvelled at her intellectual accomplishments: from alchemy and medicine to philosophy, mathematics and town planning, a new book has claimed.

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

“They admired her scientific knowledge and her administrative ability,” the book’s author Okasha el-Daly, who is based at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at University College London, said.

In Egyptology: The Missing Millennium he writes that “Arabic sources often refer to Cleopatra as ‘the virtuous scholar’ and cite scientific books written by her as the definitive works in their field”. She was also regarded as a great builder, he claims, responsible among other things for a canal to supply Alexandria with Nile water.

Cleopatra was born in 69BC, the last of the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great’s invasion in 332BC. The few images of her that survive suggest that 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.

European scholars finally learned to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1822 with the help of the Rosetta Stone. But Dr el-Daly believes that a ninth-century Arabian alchemist, Ibn Wahshiyah, got there first, opening up original Egyptian sources to medieval Arab writers.

“There has always been a snobbery which suggested that medieval Arab scholars only cared about science and engineering,” he said. “They wrote about everything they found interesting. I even found one medieval scholar who had written a book on sex.”

Kate Spence, a lecturer in Egyptology at Cambridge University’s Faculty of Oriental Studies, described Dr el-Daly’s work as very important.

“Everybody has known that these Arab sources were around for ages.” she said, “but most of us working in this field don’t know enough Arabic to use them properly.”

[The Great Yazoo]

Cleopatra was African-American...

She was experientially African-American in that she was a victim of Western imperialism, put down by Whitey, placed into bondage for the benefit of dead white men, who, but for that Asp bite, would have been sold off into slavery, transported to the "New" World, and forced to pick cotton on the banks of the Ocmulgee River for the Man.

[nopardons]

WRONG!

The Pharaohs married their sisters;the last Cleopatra ( there were quite a few before that one,BTW) was pure GREEK.

[cibco]

"I know a real African-American. Born in Rhodesia, now lives in Arizona. He's a white guy. 8~)"

R Noel?

[The Great Yazoo]

Our Cleo was Number 7.

[speedy]

Thank you both for your insights into Cleopatra and her various consorts.

[real saxophonist]

Yes, he's a good friend.

[nopardons]

I think you're right. :-)

[FreedomCalls]

Curiously, part of one of the letters to Octavian (Augustus) written in 33 B.C. by Mark Antony about his relationship with Cleopatra has survived. Here's a part of it:

What's upset you? Because I go to bed with Cleopatra? But she's my wife and I've been doing so for nine years not just recently. And anyway, is Livia your only pleasure? I expect that you will have managed, by the time you read this, to have hopped into bed with Tertulla, Terentilla, Rufilla, Salvia Titisenia, or the whole lot of them. Does it really matter where, or with what women, you get your excitement?

Cool huh?

[nopardons]

You're most welcome.

[Polybius]

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.

So, was she hot, or was she not?

*************************

We do have some idea of what Cleopatra looked like from the portraits on her coins.

So, what do you think?

A one bagger or a two bagger?

[The Great Yazoo]

Add "lookist" to the list of crimes against Mother Nature to which conservatives are heir.

[cibco]

Cool...

[Thinkin' Gal]

[null and void]

[FreedomCalls]

[Billthedrill]

Egad! The poor woman had no nose!!

[The Great Yazoo]

Gratuitous posting of salacious material. Do you have any more?

[real saxophonist]

So Cleopatra was actually Lebanese? 8~)

[SaltyJoe]

Don't forget that Cleopatra was RICH (there was a story of her dissolving a priceless red pearl in a glass of wine to prove that she'll throw the most lavish of feasts).

Antony needed someone to bankroll his ambition. Maybe he dumped his wife the same way that Kerry dumped his 1st wife for a bigger bank account. I've also heard that Cleopatra was just as power hungry and wanted her child sired by a Roman to become a Roman emperor. Antony was just the guy to do it. They were made for each others' downfall. Perhaps that's also why they probably had genuine feelings for each other in spite of their incredible selfishness (similar to Bill and Hillary?).

[The Great Yazoo]

Before her dailiance with Mark Antony, Cleo had already been impregnated by Julius Caesar, who acknowledged Cleo's son as his own (even Caesar couldn't get his wife to allow him to marry Cleo, although he considered passing a law that would allow him to marry Cleo notwithstanding his wife's objection).