The Nymphet Archetype Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra on the set ‘Caesar and Cleopatra’ by Cecil Beaton, 1944, via the National Portrait Gallery, London

Cause of death: Took her own life, possibly with poison. Legend has it that she encouraged a snake to bite her. The persistent western oversexualization and, indeed, fetishization of Cleopatra is inherently tied to two major factors: gender and ethnicity. Cleopatra was a politically powerful woman in a time when women were expected to be quiet, demure, and submissive. Turning her into a hyperactive sexpot is a way of making her fit into a patriarchal framework by converting her from the powerful and dangerous woman she really was into a mere object of male desire.The first three years of Cleopatra’s reign were tough. When Cleopatra took the throne, Egypt was already beset by a terrible drought—low Nile flooding meant that crops failed, trade suffered, people went hungry, and less money was made. Political unrest caused by the bad conditions made a coup against Cleopatra almost inevitable —but as always, she had an ace up her sleeve. Overview of the fall of Egypt, with a detailed discussion of Cleopatra's relationship with Mark Antony. (more) See all videos for this article

As we mentioned earlier, while in Egypt, Cleopatra had fancied herself the reincarnation of the Greek goddess Isis. After leaving Egypt for Rome, she allied herself with Venus, the Roman goddess of love. Going along with her shenanigans, Caesar commissioned a gold statue of Cleopatra which was erected in the temple of Venus in Rome. Cleopatra's time in Rome was officially up. After the terrifying spectacle, many would've kept a low profile —but not Cleopatra. In Gautier’s story, Meïamoun is already going to be executed and Cleopatra’s offer to spend the night with him is one last attempt on her part to get a little amusement out of him before he has to die. In Assassin’s Creed Origins, it makes absolutely no sense why Cleopatra would just randomly announce to a whole crowd of partiers that she will have sex with any of them, but only if they agree to be executed.

4. But Don’t Just Take Our Word For It

It's generally agreed upon that Cleopatra was responsible for his death, and that she poisoned him —which seemed like something of a habit for her. For those keeping tally, she had a hand in the deaths of three of her siblings. I was calling Kristen [Wiig] and I was like, ‘Listen, I want to do this thing,’ ” Gadot told the outlet. “The pandemic was in Europe and Israel before it came here [to the US] in the same way. I was seeing where everything was headed. But [the video] was premature.” Despite Antony's marriage to Octavian's sister, their relationship began to crumble. Not only was Antony was declared a traitor, he was also ridiculed in Rome for “going native”—adopting Egyptian customs which Rome deemed uncivilized. Cleopatra was smeared by Octavian as a scheming seductress who had used her feminine wiles to entrap one-third of the Triumvirate.

The special will follow experts’ meticulous archaeology and the cutting-edge technology to reveal the secrets of Cleopatra’s life. Their findings revolutionize our understanding of who she was and how she lived. Octavian returned to Italy where he became the first Emperor of Rome, while Cleopatra and Anthony were buried in Egypt. Throughout history, western Europeans, including the ancient Romans, have envisioned so-called “eastern” lands as places of sensual delights ruled by hypersexual despots. The image of Cleopatra as a hypersexual eastern queen is therefore part of an ancient and ingrained Orientalist fantasy. In turbulent times, three Romans find their way to one another. Language: English Words: 47,047 Chapters: 8/? Comments: 21 Kudos: 47 Bookmarks: 3 Hits: 1,047Messalina, the wife of Claudius Caesar, thinking this a palm quite worthy of an empress, selected, for the purpose of deciding the question, one of the most notorious of the women who followed the profession of a hired prostitute; and the empress outdid her, after continuous intercourse, night and day, at the twenty-fifth embrace.” Outside Europe, in Africa and in Islamic tradition, she was remembered very differently. Arab writers refer to her as a scholar, and 400 years after her death a cult statue of Cleopatra was being honoured at Philae, a religious centre that also attracted pilgrims from further south, outside Egypt. As a result, Caesar seized the Egyptian capital and instilled himself as arbiter between the opposing claims of Cleopatra and Ptolemy XII to the Egyptian throne. With this, Cleopatra knew what she had to do, and began to form her devious plan. Though Cleopatra’s only recorded lovers are Mark Antony and the famous Julius Caesar, her sexuality has become something of renown. This is because her lovers were public but privately selected by the queen herself. A typical royal romance in Egypt was arranged between the siblings for the purpose of keeping the bloodline pure. However, Cleopatra birthed heirs only from Roman men who served her political gains—unlike her brothers. She was ruthless in her pursuit of power, inspiring scholars and creatives for thousands of years.

Kanopos was a city in the Nile River Delta that had a reputation among the Romans in the first and second centuries CE as a place of untrammeled debauchery and sexual perversion. By describing Cleopatra as a “whore queen” of Kanopos, Propertius is trying to portray both the queen herself and the kingdom she ruled as sexually depraved and therefore deserving of conquest by the Romans. ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commonsof a Roman bust in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence believed by some to depict Messalina, the wife of the emperor ClaudiusIn Egypt, on the edge of the Nile delta, a massive archaeological dig is underway as experts search for the tomb of Egypt’s most famous pharaoh. A new theory about Cleopatra’s burial ground introduced by archaeologist Dr. Kathleen Martinez, suggests her tomb may be found in a place known as Taposiris Magna. Built over 2,000 years ago, the grounds of Taposiris Magna are honeycombed with hidden passages and tombs. When experts astonishingly uncover an undisturbed tomb decorated in gold leaf, it could be the answer to the 2,000-year-old mystery of Cleopatra’s final resting place.