Cleopatra in a 19th century painting by Alexandre Cabanel
The Latin writer Pliny the Elder Cleopatra called “ queen meretrix ", A strong expression and anything but friendly, there is no doubt.
But was she really the last of the Ptolemies, that is, an unscrupulous woman inclined to the most unbridled lust?
Historically proven is the political ability of Cleopatra, who tried by all means to save the autonomy of Egypt, her culture and the ability, not all of them at the time, to be able to speak fluently many languages, characteristics from which it is all too easy to deduce that she was quite a stupid or banal woman.
More than her physical beauty, perhaps more legendary than real, it must have been her strong personality that attracted Cesare first, Marco Antonio then; without excluding, especially with regard to the first, that there must have been a certain political calculation at the basis of the relationship, however we have no reason to doubt the sincerity of the love and passion that Cleopatra felt for both of them, from which moreover she had well four children (https://www.pilloledistoria.it/3873/storia-antica/i-figli-cleopatra-quale-sorte-ebbero).
The fact that Cleopatra has represented for centuries the very emblem of lasciviousness and the most murky eroticism, is largely due to the Roman side historiography opposed to her ; the reason for the hatred and contempt that the Romans never failed to show towards the Egyptian queen was almost certainly due to the imposition of her, judged overbearing and arrogant, of her by Caesar.
In addition to that, a certain kind of inevitable male prejudice did the rest (Photo gives:www.tuttartpitturasculturapoesiamusica.com).