Colour Blind Casting

[Rev. Rye]

Even worse, she lacked the hooked nose and round face seen on cleopatra’s own coins.

For what it’s worth, there’s a LOT of controversy about her features. The controversy over whether she was even all that attractive, as pushed by Augustan propaganda and perpetuated by a Plutarch, aside, there are several contemporary portraits with very radically different approaches: ones where she’s presented as the epitome of Greek femininity (not too hard to imagine why one would want that, honestly) and ones where she looks, well, like a cross-dresser (the latter basically as a way of signifying her power, acting as a [very much metaphorical and not literal] phallic symbol.) And, frankly, given the radically different approaches that could have both been easily exaggerated for propaganda, I’m not terribly convinced either one is accurate.

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And, frankly, if you want stories of great queens who were far more likely POC than Cleopatra, there’s actually quite a few other cases: I mentioned Hatshepsut earlier, Nefertiti’s probably more famous, and, a bit more obscure but likely more badass, Amanirenas, queen of Kush (modern-day Ethiopia), who beat back the Roman Empire in the early days of Augustus’ reign.