A silver coin (dated 32 B.C.) with an image of the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra: a sharp-nosed, thin-lipped woman with a shallow forehead and protruding chin. Plus (as contemporaries say) a fetid odour from the mouth. At the same time, Marc Antony had bulging eyes, a hooked nose and a thick neck... So possibly he loved Cleopatra for her wisdom and humor sense, rather than for her beauty...

"Roman writers tell us that Cleopatra was intelligent and charismatic, and that she had a seductive voice but, tellingly, they do not mention her beauty," Newcastle University's director of archaeological museums says. "The image of Cleopatra as a beautiful seductress is a more recent image."

Newcastle University's assistant director of archaeological museums believes Shakespeare and Hollywood have much to answer for by misrepresenting Cleopatra and Antony: "Shakespeare wrote his tragedy in 1608, while the Orientalist artists of the 19th century and the modern Hollywood depictions, such as that of [Elizabeth] Taylor and [Richard] Burton, have both added to the idea that Cleopatra was a great beauty."

The coin, however, is contemporary to Antony and Cleopatra, and would have been issued by the mint of Marc Antony. On one side is the head of Antony bearing the caption "Antoni Armenia devicta" ("For Antony, Armenia having been vanquished"). Cleopatra appears on the reverse of the coin with the inscription "Cleopatra reginae regum filiorumque regum" ("For Cleopatra, queen of kings and of the children of kings").

Over the centuries, Cleopatra has actiually been the first female model in history, grown from the legend.

Roman historian and writer Plutarch in the Life of Antony, composed a century after the great Mark--Cleopatra romance, said of Cleopatra: "Her actual beauty, it is said, was not in itself so remarkable that none could be compared with her."

"But the contact of her presence, if you lived with her, was irresistible; the attraction of her person, joining with the charm of her conversation, and the character that attended all she said or did, was something bewitching. It was a pleasure merely to hear the sound of her voice..."

Chaucer, writing in the 14th century, described her as "fair as is the rose in May."

Shakespeare was even more delighted: "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety; other women cloy the appetites they feed, but she makes hungry where most she satisfies."