Cleopatra

by Stacy Schiff

She nonetheless survives as a wanton temptress, not the last time a genuinely powerful woman has been transmuted into a shamelessly seductive one.

I don't quite agree with this. I've read several biographies of the Last Pharaoh that make it perfectly clear she was an intelligent, accomplished statesman.

A Roman could not pry apart the exotic and the erotic;

Gosh, this sounds like an American.

Cleopatra’s asp is the cherry tree of ancient history, a convenience, a shorthand, most of all a gift to painters and sculptors through the centuries.