Cleopatra the Great by Joann Fletcher

Author:Joann Fletcher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

PART FIVE

Chapter 9

The Inimitable Life: Antonius and Conspicuous Consumption

In 41 BC Marcus Antonius, Triumvir, Imperator and victor of Philippi, requested the presence of the Egyptian pharaoh Cleopatra Thea Philopator in the ancient city of Tarsus. His envoy, the effete Quintus Dellius, was ushered into the royal presence in Alexandria and, after formally greeting the twenty-eight-year-old ruler enthroned before him, ‘set himself at once to pay his court to the Egyptian . . . advising her to go to Cilicia in her best attire’.

Although responding with her usual ‘adroitness and subtlety in speech’, Cleopatra as an independent monarch was in no hurry to respond to Antonius’ request despite ‘many letters of invitation from him and his friends’. Yet she also recognised a real possibility of forming a new alliance with Rome in the person of Antonius, Caesar’s closest supporter. He was a man she had known for some fourteen years, and his desire to emulate both Caesar and Alexander, combined with his well-known love of Greek culture, good living and forthright women, augured well for the future. So, regardless of her delaying tactics, Cleopatra decided she would visit Antonius in Tarsus — but in her own time, on her own terms and in her own inimitable style.

As ‘she made great preparations for her journey, of money, gifts, and ornaments of value, such as so wealthy a kingdom might afford’, she would use the Ptolemies’ legendary love of show to transform a mundane summit meeting into a spectacular showcase of political intent. Yet the most potent weapon in Cleopatra’s political armoury remained her understanding of the male ego. Fully aware of Antonius’ recent declaration that he was to be addressed as Dionysos, a god identified with the Egyptian Osiris, Cleopatra would take him at his word, nattering his divine identity by appearing as his consort Isis-Aphrodite. Although she had already established her public image as the Living Isis, she would use her appearance to issue a subtle invitation to a union on both the divine and human level.

Having previously worked her magic on Caesar, Cleopatra ‘was to meet Antony in the time of life when women’s beauty is most splendid’, a beauty enhanced by a veritable army of dress designers, cosmeticians, perfumiers and hairstylists. Capable of transforming the woman into the goddess of beauty personified, the mysterious art of female adornment was traditionally regarded with some suspicion by men. It could certainly have a devastating effect when employed upon the political stage, and while some Republicans claimed that Cleopatra’s face ‘was painted up beyond all measure’, Roman poets admitted that ‘a careful toilet will make you attractive, but without such attention, the loveliest faces lose their charm, even were they comparable to those of the Idalian goddess herself, Aphrodite.

In her preparations for her meeting with Antonius Cleopatra could have drawn on all manner of cosmetic products, ranging from ‘oesy-spum’, an oily lanolin preparation extracted from sheep’s wool, to face powder made from lupin seeds or iris root. The popular white lead foundation

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