Was Cleopatra Beautiful?

"For her beauty, as we are told, was in itself not altogether incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her; but converse with her had an irresistible charm, and her presence, combined with the persuasiveness of her discourse and the character which was somehow diffused about her behaviour towards others, had something stimulating about it. There was sweetness also in the tones of her voice; and her tongue, like an instrument of many strings, she could readily turn to whatever language she pleased..."

Plutarch, Life of Antony (XXVII)

And yet Plutarch does remark in an earlier passage that "judging by the proofs which she had had before this of the effect of her beauty upon Caius Caesar and Gnaeus the son of Pompey, she had hopes that she would more easily bring Antony to her feet. For Caesar and Pompey had known her when she was still a girl and inexperienced in affairs, but she was going to visit Antony at the very time when women have the most brilliant beauty and are at the acme of intellectual power" (XXV; cf. "a woman who was haughty and astonishingly proud in the matter of beauty," LXXIII.1).

Cassius Dio agrees.

"For she was a woman of surpassing beauty, and at that time, when she was in the prime of her youth, she was most striking; she also possessed a most charming voice and a knowledge of how to make herself agreeable to every one. Being brilliant to look upon and to listen to, with the power to subjugate every one, even a love-sated man already past his prime, she thought that it would be in keeping with her rôle to meet Caesar, and she reposed in her beauty all her claims to the throne. She asked therefore for admission to his presence, and on obtaining permission adorned and beautified herself so as to appear before him in the most majestic and at the same time pity-inspiring guise. When she had perfected her schemes she entered the city (for she had been living outside of it), and by night without Ptolemy's knowledge went into the palace" (XLII.34).

And it was there that the young Ptolemy XIII found them early the next morning, aghast that Caesar already had been seduced by his half-sister. Plutarch, in his Life of Caesar, provides the famous description of Cleopatra being smuggled into the palace in a bedroll, which, if nothing else, argues that she was at least petite.

"So Cleopatra, taking only Apollodorus the Sicilian from among her friends, embarked in a little skiff and landed at the palace when it was already getting dark; and as it was impossible to escape notice otherwise, she stretched herself at full length inside a bed-sack, while Apollodorus tied the bed-sack up with a cord and carried it indoors to Caesar. It was by this device of Cleopatra's, it is said, that Caesar was first captivated, for she showed herself to be a bold coquette..." (XLIX).

Florus (II.13.56), too, comments on the beauty of Cleopatra, and Appian remarks on her "beautiful statue" (II.102) in the Temple of Venus Genetrix, placed there by Caesar, and her winning the heart of Antony "the moment he saw her" (V.1, 8). Cicero, who could have provided a contemporary description when Cleopatra was in Rome, does not mention her appearance but instead declares in a letter to Atticus (XV.15) his dislike of the arrogant queen and complains petulantly that he did not receive a promised gift from her.

The so-called "Berlin Cleopatra" shown above is likely of Italian provenance and may have been made either when Cleopatra was in Rome or possibly brought with her. She wears the royal diadem, a ribbon of cloth tied around the hair that first had been worn by Alexander the Great and came to symbolize Hellenistic kingship.

The marble bust on the right, which is in the Vatican Museums, is one of the few other portraits thought to represent the queen. It, too, has the broad band of the diadem and, although it is impossible to say, may be a copy of the gilded bronze statue of Cleopatra in the Temple of Venus Genetrix, the first time that an image of an individual had been placed next to that of a god. The knot on her head may be the remnant of a crown or some other attribute, or even a knotted lock of hair. The nose is missing, which makes it difficult to judge the beauty of the queen.

Numismatic evidence, however, suggests an aquiline, slightly hooked, nose and prominent chin, a depiction that actually may have been influenced by portraits of her father. Here, the characteristic "melon" hairstyle, the hair pulled back in waves, leaving space above the forehead for short curly bangs, is more apparent. Such an elaborate hairstyle, likely introduced by closer contacts between Rome and Egypt and the visit of the queen in 46 BC, was stigmatized after the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BC. A more austere and modest hairstyle was adopted, one more consistent with the image of women dictated by the new moralism of Augustus.

In the Pensées, Pascal remarks "Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed" (180). Ironically, what he means is that, had her nose been smaller, she would have lacked the dominance and strength of character which, in the physiognomy of the seventeenth century (or, indeed, the nineteenth century), a large nose symbolized. It is a salutary reminder that the aesthetics of beauty change over time and place.

Both pictures come from the British Museum exhibition catalog by Walker and Higgs (2001). The silver tetradrachm is from the Freeman & Sear Fixed Price List XII (Winter 2006/2007, Item 115). Circa 36 BC, it provides an exceptional portrait of Cleopatra, who is shown with a diadem and pearl necklace. On many coins, the appearance of the queen is distorted due to wear.

Reference: Plutarch's Parallel Lives (1916) translated by B. Perrin (Loeb Classical Library); Dio Cassius: Roman History (1916) translated by Earnest Cary and Herbert B. Foster (Loeb Classical Library); Appian: The Civil Wars (1996) translated by John Carter (Penguin Classics); Cicero: Letters to Atticus (1999) translated by D. R. Shackleton Bailey (Loeb Classical Library); Florus: Epitome of Roman History (1929) translated by Edward Seymour Forster (Loeb Classical Library); Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth (2001) edited by Susan Walker and Peter Higgs.

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