#Cleopatra and julius caesar interracial skin
#Cleopatra and julius caesar interracial series

Hulton Archive/Getty Imagesįor example, she is often depicted with a long, aquiline nose and a pointed chin.

If we look at the images of Cleopatra created during her own lifetime – in statuary, on temple walls, and on coins – she does not necessarily conform to modern ideals of beauty.Īn ancient carving of Cleopatra. Why do you think her looks have been foregrounded? But centuries of royal precedent suggest she too would have been of Macedonian Greek descent.īecause of Cleopatra’s remarkable achievements during her lifetime and her lasting reputation down the ages, it is understandable that different groups want to claim her as their own. There is some doubt about the identity of Cleopatra’s mother. She came from a long line of Greek-speaking kings, but her family had lived in Egypt for 300 years. There is no evidence that Cleopatra’s ethnicity was a matter of debate or interest during her own lifetime.

#Cleopatra and julius caesar interracial skin

According to my knowledge of ancient Egyptian custom, skin colour was much less important than culture: if you lived like an Egyptian, adopting Egyptian cultural practices, then you were considered an Egyptian, whatever your ethnic background. It tells us more about the preoccupations of our own time than about what was considered important in Cleopatra’s age. What do you make of the controversy over her ethnicity? In a very real sense, the reign of Cleopatra marks the final flourishing of ancient Egyptian culture.Ĭleopatra – or Cleopatra VII to be precise: there were six earlier queens with the same name – was the last monarch of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a family of Macedonian Greek origin which ruled Egypt from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC until the country’s conquest and occupation by Octavian (later Emperor Augustus) in 30 BC. Who was Cleopatra and why is she so important? We asked him to shed some light on the past. Historian Toby Wilkinson is an Egyptologist and author of the award-winning book The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt: the History of a Civilisation from 3000 BC to Cleopatra. The fuss has provided an opportunity to look at her role in history and how she has been portrayed over time.

#Cleopatra and julius caesar interracial series

In the Netflix series she’s played by a black actress. Much debate has raged about her ethnicity.

Cleopatra, queen of Egypt in the years 51-30 BC, is back in the news thanks to a controversial docudrama series on Netflix called Queen Cleopatra.