What Did Cleopatra Look Like?

 

Cleopatra continues to fascinate after two millennia. What did she look like, this fabled woman who seduced not only Julius Caesar but also Mark Antony, and bore them both children? Was she beautiful?

Popular imagination and the halcyon silver screen portray Cleopatra as a seductively winsome Egyptian Queen in the style of Luxor or Giza. In today's enlightened and decolonized movies she's depicted like this:

such idiocy

Who knows, maybe Julius Caesar was attracted by her glittery Ukrainian eye makeup, perhaps Mark Antony was captivated by the Nubian side of things. But no, hardly. Cleopatra, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ, "Cleopatra the father-beloved" was Greek, a Macedonian Ptolomy, and she looked like this:

bust portraits of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, 1 C AD (Berlin)

Beautiful? Not conventionally, but she had power, you'll note her diadem. In that vein, she was utterly ruthless and didn't shy scared of having family members assassinated, much less waging war itself. 

This went badly for her, Κλεοπάτρα (Glory of the Father) took poison and died on learning of her lover Antony's defeat at Actium. She played for the highest stakes and lost.

Just ask the monkey,

LSP

UK Plans To Axe Marines

The UK's Commons Defence Committee has delivered a scathing attack on Whitehall's National Security Capability Review (NSCR), slamming plans to scrap Great Britain's amphibious capability and reduce the size of the Royal Marines. MP's called the cost-cutting plans "militarily illiterate."

“The world is changing and the Royal Navy and Royal Marines need to change with it.

“However, if the price of such change is the sacrifice of this country’s amphibious capability, we can only conclude this to be a short-sighted, militarily illiterate manoeuvre totally at odds with strategic reality,” stated the Defence Committee's report.

If Whitehall's cuts go ahead, HMS Bulwark and Albion will be retired along with 2000 Marines, effectively ending the UK's ability to conduct amphibious operations.

The NSCR proposals are part of an ongoing series series of cuts which have seriously weakened the UK's armed forces. According to General Sir Richard Barrons, former head of Joint Forces Command, the UK is unable to defend itself against a rival professional land-force, let alone attack by air or sea.

From the comparative safety of the Compound, it appears that the UK is gambling on the probability of never having to fight another conventional war again.

I'd think twice before wagering my fighting monkey on those odds. Thanks, LL, for the tip.

Per Mare Per Terram,

LSP