Rome - Was Cleopatra just a sex kitten whose love affairs rocked the Roman world or a canny politician whose wily schemes saved Egypt?
A dazzling exhibit opening on Thursday shows Cleopatra as one of antiquity's most powerful rulers, an enthralling woman whose impact on the Roman Empire went well beyond star-crossed romances with Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony.
"She was a very calculating queen, using her femininity to gain the privileges of men," said the exhibition's curator, Susan Walker of the British Museum in London.
When Cleopatra became queen in 51 BC at the age of 18, Egypt was ripe for a takeover by Rome.
Seducing Rome's rising stars, bearing their children, Cleopatra clung to power for nearly two decades, until Octavian (the future Augustus) conquered Egypt in 30 BC
"So many have heard of Cleopatra, but is the context Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton or the rise of the Roman Empire?" asked John McCarter, president of the Field Museum in Chicago.
It's definitely the latter Cleopatra - proudly Egyptian, cleverly manipulative, hugely influential - that emerges from the exhibit, not the Hollywood version portrayed by Taylor.
The exhibit is at Palazzo Ruspoli through February 25, the British Museum from April to August 2001, and the Field Museum from October 2001 to March 2002.
The installation recreates the cavernous, mysterious ambiance of the interior of a pyramid to display about 350 works of art from Cleopatra's era loaned by museums worldwide.
Major contributors include the British Museum, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, Egypt.
One of the most striking exhibits is a small black statue inside a reconstruction of a richly carved, golden room that depicts Cleopatra staring intensely ahead, her fists at her sides, her mouth grim.
It is a grand political statement: the three cobras on her headgear represent lower and upper Egypt - as well as the lands restored to her by Caesar and Anthony.
Walker said Cleopatra the seducer was largely an invention of Augustus, who wanted to discredit both Egypt and the queen's lovers, whom he defeated in his rise to emperor.
"The story of Cleopatra as a serious political figure has been suppressed," she said.
Illustrating the gap between the Roman-constructed myth and political reality, portraits in the sensual Hellenistic style square off with stern Egyptian sculptures throughout the galleries, culminating in a glowering bronze head of Augustus staring across the room at a painting of Cleopatra on her deathbed.
The Palazzo Ruspoli version of the exhibition includes a number of works showing Cleopatra's influence on Rome, where she lived as Caesar's mistress.
Her flamboyant presence made all things Egyptian a fad. Egyptian religious cults took hold and the walls of Roman villas were decorated with Nile River scenes. - Sapa-AP