DoG

      Trysts were only one aspect of this powerful female ruler's life. Cleopatra was the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt. Cleopatra VII, often simply called "Cleopatra," was the last of a series of rulers called the Ptolemies who ruled ancient Egypt for nearly 300 years. Cleopatra ruled an empire that included Egypt, Cyprus, part of modern-day Libya and other territories in the Middle East. Modern-day depictions of Cleopatra VII tend to show her as a woman of great physical beauty and seductive skills — indeed, her romantic involvements with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony have been immortalized in art, music and literature for centuries. However, a number of ancient records, and historical research, tell a different story. These records describe Cleopatra as an intelligent, multilingual, female pharaoh who affirmed her right to rule Egypt and other territories. Her "own beauty, as they say, was not, in and of itself, completely incomparable, nor was it the ...