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Looks like the real face of Cleopatra

Martin Wainwright

Coin find casts doubt on legendary Egyptian queen's supposed beauty

PHOTO: AP

NEW IMAGE: Cleopatra on the coin.

London: Two of history's most famous Valentines were gently debunked on Valentine's Day by analysis of an exceptionally well-preserved Roman coin, which gives the lie to the fabled beauty of Cleopatra and the manly features of her lover Mark Antony.

Far from possessing the classical looks of Elizabeth Taylor, or the many other goddesses who have played her on stage and screen, the Egyptian queen is shown with a shrewish profile. Antony has bulging eyes, a crooked nose and a bull neck.

Debated for centuries, but with little effect against a tide of romance backed by Shakespeare, Delacroix and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the faces of the couple have the stamp of authenticity on the silver denarius found in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was coined in Antony's own mint to mark his victories in Armenia in 32 B.C., achieved with the help of Cleopatra's one undoubted attraction, her money.

"Its other distinction is that it looks as though it was minted yesterday," said Melanie Reed from Newcastle University, whose archaeology museum found the 5 pence-sized coin while researching a forgotten 18th century hoard left for years in a local bank. "The profiles in particular are in marvellously good condition. "

Coins showing the doomed pair of lovers, who were to kill themselves within two years in the face of ruin, are not uncommon, but the majority are in poor condition or have more flattering images. The Newcastle find, minted at a time when they faced internal rebellion and outside invasion, may deliberately have emphasised the reality of the pair, to deter pretenders.

The question of Cleopatra's looks has fascinated posterity, particularly during the male-dominated centuries when it was seen as the key to her hold over Antony and, before him, Julius Caesar.

She is said to have seduced Caesar in 48 B.C. by presenting herself to him rolled up in a rare and valuable Persian carpet, with nothing else on. © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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