Denarius of Mark Antony and Cleopatra

Description

This extraordinary coin shows Cleopatra and Antony looking remarkably similar. Antony was said to remind people of the Greek hero Herakles in paintings and sculptures, with '... a very good and noble appearance; his beard was not unsightly, his forehead broad, and his nose aquiline' (Plutarch, Life of Antony, 4). However, here his portrait seems to have picked up Ptolemaic features, specifically the strong projecting chin of Ptolemy I, the founder of Cleopatra's dynasty, and the hooked noses of Cleopatra and her father Ptolemy XII.