Elite leaders, pfff. Same as it ever was. See Cleopatra, issue # 3. Here we see The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra, 41 BC, as painted in...
Elite leaders, pfff. Same as it ever was. See Cleopatra, issue # 3.
Here we see The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra, 41 BC, as painted in 1885 by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. An apprehensive and innocent-looking Antony climbs aboard the Egyptian queen�s barque as she passes a sly, knowing glance towards the viewer. But who was Cleopatra, really?
The Augustan court poets fed the tabloid frenzy around her. Porpertius dubbed her a �whore queen�. Horace considered her �a deranged queen plotting the destruction of the Capitol and the Empire�, her followers �a decadent, diseased mob�. A few decades later, Lucan described her as �the shame of Egypt, the lecherous demon who was to become the bane of Rome�. In recent years, there have been attempts to �rehabilitate� the queen, as a strong feminist icon. However, let�s not forget the truth.
Cleopatra was, first and foremost, an elite dictator. Then as now, let us look beyond her celebrity, to the serious substance of class-based inequality writ large. To discover more, read the full feature in issue #3 (September 2021) of our magazine.
