Addenda

[shipperx]

I've mentioned before our office-wide addiction to audiobooks  (if you draw for a living, you tend to listen to a lot of music and/or books)).  Anyway, due to interest in Rome, a general interest in history, and a growing love of biographies, I'm currently listening to Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor and have reached the point in the story where the historian discusses Cleopatra.  He mentioned a wide range of representations of her on coins "from the witch-like to the radiant" which, of course, brought to mind the article I posted last week about the Cleo/Antony coin .   The historian goes on to mention a bust of Cleopatra in the Berlin Museum.   (Yay, for Google which can find damn near anything.) So here is an alternative representation of Cleo .

Comments

[sp23.livejournal.com]

Well, that's certainly a more attractive representation. :)

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Well, she looks a lot better here than on that coin. But who knows if any of these are accurate.

[mlgm.livejournal.com]

Have you tried the The 12 Byzantine Rulers series? It's a series of podcast giving the history of Rome East. I've been working my way through and enjoying it greatly.

[deborahc.livejournal.com]

I've been an audiobook addict for years. At any given time there's one in the car and another in the boombox in my kitchen, so I have my stories going while I'm driving and at home doing kitchen chores.

Have you ever heard of Lindsey Davis? She writes the Falco detective series set during the reign of Emperor Vespasian. You can get most of them on audiobook (fortunately my library carries them).

Falco is a born Plebeian, former soldier and professional informer (private detective) whose girlfriend/commonlaw wife is the daughter of a Senator. Eventually he rises out of poverty to a more respectable middle class rank, but that doesn't happen until well into the series. His commissions and adventures explore many different aspects of everyday life in rich detail, not only in Rome but throughout the empire. The stories are driven on plot and carried along with lots of lively dialog, so, really fun to listen too.

For a while her readers were looking forward to a BBC series based on her books over which she had negotiated strict creative control, but after some early progress development apparently fizzled and her contract with them expired. Turns out that the BBC lost interest in developing a new series after buying the rights to show and already made and ongoing series about ancient Rome (ROME, no doubt). Too bad - I love her characters and would have enjoyed seeing a worthy dramatization of her books. But I quite like ROME, so, I'll not complain about it over much.

Anyway, if you enjoy ancient Rome and like listening to audiobooks, you might give Lindsey Davis' Marcus Didio Falco series a try.

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

Hm. She sort of looks like Queen Victoria in this representation. Not a raving beauty, but marginally better than the image on the coin.
I guess force of personality meant more in the olden days.