Portrait of a Nude Woman As Cleopatra

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Caesar was already married and had children, but Cleopatra asked him to make their son Caesarian his heir and successor. His reaction was utterly heartless. He refused Cleopatra, and to add insult to injury, he named his grand-nephew Octavian—who ruled under the name Augustus—as his successor instead. As a result, Caesar seized the Egyptian capital and instilled himself as arbiter between the opposing claims of Cleopatra and Ptolemy XII to the Egyptian throne. With this, Cleopatra knew what she had to do, and began to form her devious plan.

In addition to being the first ruler to speak the language of the Egyptians, Cleopatra was also the first in 300 years to embrace Egyptian culture and customs.In 33 BC, Rome declared war on Egypt. Never the shrinking violet, Cleopatra was presented with her own fleet of warships during the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. She personally led her fleet of over a dozen ships alongside Antony’s own. Alas, they were outnumbered, and after losing the battle were forced to flee to Egypt. This was just one way she asserted herself over him — and in time, her methods would become much more disturbing. They stood together as partners against Egypt’s enemies, and were married in an Egyptian ceremony—despite the fact that Antony already had a wife in Rome. Hulton Archive, Getty Images 34. The Couple That Drinks Together…

Cleopatra’s arrival in Rome with her lover, Caesar, caused quite a stir. In addition to the affair setting tongues wagging, Cleopatra became a fashion and beauty icon amongst Roman women. She wore the hairstyle of her Greek ancestors, with her hair braided into a bun. Upon her arrival, this hairstyle was adopted by Roman women along with Cleopatra’s makeup and signature pearl jewelry. Despite two marriages (to her brothers) and an affair with a man 31 years her senior, it was when Cleopatra met Mark Antony that she found true love. The pair became lovers in 41 BC and returned to Alexandria together. They were inseparable—they hunted together, drank together, played dice together, and she watched while he performed military exercises. There's speculation to this day about the way that Cleopatra took her own life. She'd been known for her penchant for poison, so it's generally agreed upon that it played a role, with one rumor claiming she'd poisoned herself. One of the most generally accepted stories is that she induced an asp (an Egyptian cobra) to bite her. That doesn't mean some ancient people didn't notice differences across cultural groups, Draycott said. After the death of Ptolemy XIII, there was just one heir eligible for the Egyptian throne left —another younger brother, this one named Ptolemy XIV. So, she married him—after all, it had worked with the last brother. But as we know, Cleopatra wasn't interested in sharing the throne with anyone, and one again, the wheels began turning in her mind.

Cleopatra and Mark Antony must have had some grand times together, in the true Dionysian style. The pair even started a drinking club—the society of “Inimitable Livers”—which indulged in feasts and wine-binges, and engaged in elaborate games and contests. According to lore, Cleopatra and Mark Antony enjoyed dressing up in disguise and wandering Rome while playing pranks on its unwitting citizens. Cleopatra and Mark Antony had three sons together. First came twins named Cleopatra Selene and Alexander Helios (that’s right, twins named Sun and Moon). But it gets even weirder. They had another son they named Ptolemy Philadelphus. Yes, that's Ptolemy the brother-lover. Named after his mother, I guess. Octavian was furious that the symbol of his victory was gone, but nevertheless, he consented to let Cleopatra be buried side by side with her love Mark Antony —but mysteries still abound about her death and final resting place. Even today, no one knows exactly where the tomb that houses the bodies of Cleopatra and Mark Antony is. Archaeologists continue to search for it. Sporting a size 73 bra, Chesty Morgan is clearly the biggest girl in movies. The Polish-born, Israeli-raised Ilona Wilczkowski brought a great deal from the Land of Milk and Honey (emphasis on the milk) to her cult movie appearances in Doris Wishman’s “Deadly Weapons” and “Double Agent 73,” where she played characters who asphyxiated men by smothering them with her breasts. Federico Fellini saw the surreal aspects to these supersized jobs and included her in his over-the-top “Casanova.” Alas, her scenes were cut from the final print, but the jettisoned footage has found a new life on YouTube (though we wonder if Chesty Morgan will ultimately sink YouTube’s bandwidth). Cleopatra was the first Ptolemaic ruler who learned to speak and write in Egyptian. For 300 years, her family spoke only Greek, so court documents, including the Rosetta stone, were bilingual—written in both in Greek and Egyptian. That means that for those 300 years, the person ruling the Egyptians didn’t even speak their language.