Coin Shows Cleopatra's Ugly Truth

BBC ^ | 2-14-2007

[blam]

Coin shows Cleopatra's ugly truth

The images of Antony and Cleopatra are less than flattering

Antony and Cleopatra, one of history's most romantic couples, were not the great beauties that Hollywood would have us believe, academics have said. A study of a 2,000-year-old silver coin found the Egyptian queen, famously portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor, had a pointed chin, thin lips and sharp nose.

Her Roman lover, played by Richard Burton, had bulging eyes, thick neck and a hook nose.

The tiny coin was studied by experts at Newcastle University.

The size of a modern 5p piece (18mm or 0.7in), the artefact from 32BC was in a collection belonging to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, which is being researched in preparation for the opening of a new Great North Museum.

Clare Pickersgill, the university's assistant director of archaeological museums, said: "The popular image we have of Cleopatra is that of a beautiful queen who was adored by Roman politicians and generals.

"Recent research would seem to disagree with this portrayal, however."

The university's director of archaeological museums, Lindsay Allason-Jones, said: "The image on the coin is far from being that of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

"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.

The Hollywood couple may have perpetrated a Hollywood myth

"The image of Cleopatra as a beautiful seductress is a more recent image."

The silver denarius coin would have been issued by the mint of Mark Antony.

On one side is the head of Mark Antony, bearing the caption "Antoni Armenia devicta" meaning "For Antony, Armenia having been vanquished".

Cleopatra appears on the reverse of the coin with the inscription "Cleopatra Reginae regum filiorumque regum", meaning "For Cleopatra, Queen of kings and of the children of kings".

The university hopes more forgotten treasures will come to light before the Great North Museum opens in 2009.

The Roman coin is on display in Newcastle University's Shefton Museum from 14 February.

[Riverman94610]

I watched Virginia Wolfe as a teenager and I think its why I never got married.
Seriously.

[stylecouncilor]

ping

[Ditter]

As Mr. Ditter's mom used to tell him (before I came along and swept him off his feet)

"I met a nice girl for you, she has a good personality and she makes her own clothes".

[oh8eleven]

Holymoly!

[Verginius Rufus]

The Secret History is by Procopius, a contemporary of Justinian and Theodora (who supposedly was a courtesan before she married Justinian). Petronius, the author of the Satyricon was much earlier, a contemporary of Nero.

[Verginius Rufus]

I read something a while back by a classics professor who is black...she believes Cleopatra is black despite the lack of evidence because her grandmother told her that was true.

Some, but not all, ancient Egyptians would qualify as "black" as the term is used in modern America, but there is no definite evidence that Cleopatra had any Egyptian ancestors...there was an awful lot of inbreeding in the Ptolemaic dyansty (brother-sister marriages imitating the native Egyptian practice).

Then there's Hannibal and St. Augustine, both claimed as black by some Afrocentrists.

[Physicist]

So we're judging the details of what the ancients "really looked like" by their depictions on coins?

In that case, I submit that Emperor Constantine was frighteningly pie-eyed, and had pupils so dilated that he was probably blind in the daytime.

[Riverman94610]

I have heard the Hannibal and Saint Augustine theories as well.Both of them were NORTH African and unlikely of Negroid ancestry.However,Hannibal recruited his army from many areas south of Carthage.I think I read many of his archers were from what is now Mauritania.

[RobbyS]

The most attractive thing about Cleopatra was her kingdom which was then the breadbasket of the Mediterranean.

[exit82]

Yikes--is that the Sphinx before or after 3500 years of sandstorms?

[Verginius Rufus]

I think there is a passage somewhere in one of St. Augustine's writings where he refers to black people as if he doesn't include himself in that description. There may have been some blacks in north Africa in antiquity but most of them seem to have been "Mediterranean" like the inhabitants of the other countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

St. Paul was mistaken for an Egyptian by a Roman tribune (Acts 21.38), who clearly didn't assume that all Egyptians were black.

[Marie]

Or, it could've been a poorly made coin...

[darkwing104]

Or, it could've been a poorly made coin...

Most likely

[afraidfortherepublic]

but the contact of her presence, if you lived with her, was irresistible;

Yeah. Didn't she have her brother killed?

[FreedomCalls]

We know what Antony looked like. There are plenty of portrait busts of him still remaining. Here's two. The one on the right is from when he was a little older and a little heavier than the one on the left.

[Dustbunny]

Geeze, another fact blown to smithereens.

[Jezebelle]

How do we know that was supposed to be Cleopatra? Maybe she had a coin cast in the image of her mother or somebody else close to her.

[Chode]

you prolly aren't alone...

[colorado tanker]

Wow, Cleo was no looker. She must have had, er, uh, other talents.

[ozzymandus]

The guy who made the coins probably never saw either of them. If this dumbass writer really thinks these coins are a true likeness of Anthony and Cleopatra, he's in the wrong business.