Portrait of Pablo Picasso Painting by Amedo Modigalini

‘Beaux Yeux’ in French means a pretty woman and Cleopatra has been for ages regarded as a goddess of beauty. Actually, ‘Cleopatra’ was a title with which queens and princesses were addressed in ancient Egypt. Amongst them the familiar woman exceedingly beautiful is Cleopatra VII. She was the eldest born of Ptolemy XI and as such was heir to his throne.

She succeeded as queen sharing the throne with her brother Ptolemy XII. She and her brother quarreled incessantly and eventually Ptolemy drove Cleopatra out of Egypt after the defeat of Pompey and arrived to find the civil war still going on. Cleopatra was trying to come back and had herself smuggled into Caesar’s presence, rolled up in a carpet, it was said so that she could appeal to him for help in her cause.

It may be mentioned that apart from being a famed beauty, Cleopatra had a strong personality besides being very clever. Caesar was immediately enamored of her. She won him over whether by her charms or by obvious logic that she would be a better ruler than her brother-one can’t say. Caesar helped her to defeat Ptolemy who was drowned at the end of a battle.

Cleopatra fell in love with Antony, a friend of Caesar, later. Cleopatra’s fate was again in doldrums following Caesar’s demise. The Roman empire was divided. Finally, Antony was defeated, and out of shame. committed suicide. When Cleopatra heard of his catastrophe, she also embraced death by taking poison.