"Cleopatra": Sex and sovereignty in the ancient world:
In 34 BC, at the height of her power, Cleopatra VII joined her consort and ally, Mark Antony, atop a pair of golden thrones in an eye-popping, kingdom-dispensing (and ultimately ill-advised) extravaganza that would later become known as the Donations of Alexandria. The couple were, in the words of the 20th century historian Grace Harriet Macurdy, "the two most magnificent people in the world." So while it's true that the Cleopatra of history differs quite a bit from the Cleopatra of popular imagination -- as embodied by femme fatale Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 film -- there are stubborn similarities, as well. Antony and Cleopatra, like Taylor and her adulterous consort, Richard Burton, were theatrical, scandalous and fabulous.