Editing Cleopatra (section)

=====Coinage portraits=====
{{further|Ptolemaic coinage|Roman currency|Ancient Greek coinage}}
[[File:Cleopatra Tetradrachm Antiochia.jpg|thumb|Cleopatra and [[Mark Antony]] on the [[obverse]] and reverse, respectively, of a silver [[tetradrachm]] struck at the [[Antioch]] mint in 36 BC, with Greek legends: BACIΛΙCCA KΛΕΟΠΑΤΡΑ ΘΕΑ ΝΕωΤΕΡΑ ([[Basilissa]] Kleopatra [[Theia#Etymology|thea]] neotera – Queen Cleopatra younger goddess), ANTωNIOC AYTOKPATωP TPITON TPIωN ANΔPωN (Antonios [[autokrator]] triton trion andron – Antony [[imperator]] for the third time [[Second Triumvirate|triumvir]])<ref>{{Cite web |title=Online Scholarly Catalogues at the Art Institute of Chicago |url=https://publications.artic.edu/roman/reader/romanart/section/510 |access-date=19 May 2024 |website=publications.artic.edu}}</ref>]]

Surviving coinage of Cleopatra's reign include specimens from every regnal year, from 51 to 30 BC.{{sfnp|Roller|2010|pp=182–186}} Cleopatra, the only Ptolemaic queen to issue coins on her own behalf, almost certainly inspired her partner Caesar to become the first living Roman to present his portrait on his own coins.{{sfnp|Fletcher|2008|p=205}}<ref group="note">{{harvtxt|Fletcher|2008|p=205}} writes the following: "Cleopatra was the only female Ptolemy to issue coins on her own behalf, some showing her as Venus-Aphrodite. Caesar now followed her example and, taking the same bold step, became the first living Roman to appear on coins, his rather haggard profile accompanied by the title 'Parens Patriae', 'Father of the Fatherland'."</ref> Cleopatra was the first foreign queen to have her image appear on [[Roman currency]].{{sfnp|Roller|2010|p=107}} Coins dated to the period of her marriage to Antony, which also bear his image, portray the queen as having a very similar [[aquiline nose]] and prominent chin as that of her husband.{{sfnp|Grout|2017b|}}{{sfnp|Jones|2006|pp=31, 34}} These similar facial features followed an artistic convention that represented the mutually-observed harmony of a royal couple.{{sfnp|Grout|2017b|}}{{sfnp|Sabino|Gross-Diaz|2016|}}

Her strong, almost masculine facial features in these particular coins are strikingly different from the smoother, softer, and perhaps idealized [[Ancient Greek sculpture|sculpted images]] of her in either the Egyptian or Hellenistic styles.{{sfnp|Sabino|Gross-Diaz|2016|}}{{sfnp|Kleiner|2005|p=144}}{{sfnp|Fletcher|2008|p=104}} Her masculine facial features on minted currency are similar to that of her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes,{{sfnp|Roller|2010|pp=18, 182}}{{sfnp|Fletcher|2008|p=96}} and perhaps also to those of her Ptolemaic ancestor [[Arsinoe II]] (316–260 BC){{sfnp|Sabino|Gross-Diaz|2016|}}{{sfnp|Roller|2010|p=185}} and even depictions of earlier queens such as [[Hatshepsut]] and [[Nefertiti]].{{sfnp|Fletcher|2008|p=104}} It is likely, due to political expediency, that Antony's visage was made to conform not only to hers but also to those of her [[Macedon|Macedonian Greek]] ancestors who founded the Ptolemaic dynasty, to familiarize himself to her subjects as a legitimate member of the royal house.{{sfnp|Sabino|Gross-Diaz|2016|}}

The inscriptions on the coins are written in Greek, but also in the [[nominative case]] of Roman coins rather than the [[genitive case]] of Greek coins, in addition to having the letters placed in a circular fashion along the edges of the coin instead of across it horizontally or vertically as was customary for Greek ones.{{sfnp|Sabino|Gross-Diaz|2016|}} These facets of their coinage represent the synthesis of Roman and [[Hellenistic culture]], and perhaps also a statement to their subjects, however ambiguous to modern scholars, about the superiority of either Antony or Cleopatra over the other.{{sfnp|Sabino|Gross-Diaz|2016|}} [[Diana Kleiner]] argues that Cleopatra, in one of her coins minted with the dual image of her husband Antony, made herself more masculine-looking than other portraits and more like an acceptable [[Patronage in ancient Rome|Roman client queen]] than a Hellenistic ruler.{{sfnp|Kleiner|2005|p=144}} Cleopatra had actually achieved this masculine look in coinage predating her affair with Antony, such as the coins struck at the [[Ascalon]] mint during her brief period of exile to Syria and the [[Levant]], which [[Joann Fletcher]] explains as her attempt to appear like her father and as a legitimate successor to a male Ptolemaic ruler.{{sfnp|Fletcher|2008|p=96}}{{sfnp|Roller|2010|p=182}}

Various coins, such as a silver [[tetradrachm]] minted sometime after Cleopatra's marriage with Antony in 37 BC, depict her wearing a royal diadem and a [[Greco-Roman hairstyle|'melon' hairstyle]].{{sfnp|Grout|2017b|}}{{sfnp|Roller|2010|p=182}} The combination of this hairstyle with a diadem is also featured in two surviving sculpted marble heads.{{sfnp|Walker|Higgs|2017|}}{{sfnp|Anderson|2003|p=36}}{{sfnp|Fletcher|2008|p=195}}<ref group="note">For further information, see {{harvtxt|Raia|Sebesta|2017}}.</ref> This hairstyle, with hair braided back into a bun, is the same as that worn by her Ptolemaic ancestors Arsinoe II and [[Berenice II]] in their own coinage.{{sfnp|Grout|2017b|}}{{sfnp|Fletcher|2008|p=87}} After her visit to Rome in 46–44 BC it became fashionable for [[Roman women]] to adopt it as one of [[Roman hairstyles|their hairstyles]], but it was abandoned for a more modest, austere look during the conservative rule of Augustus.{{sfnp|Grout|2017b|}}{{sfnp|Walker|Higgs|2017|}}{{sfnp|Fletcher|2008|p=195}}