Today's Read: Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff

MizB at Should Be Reading hosts Teaser Tuesdays. Here's how it works: Grab your current read; let the book fall open to a random page; and share 2 “teaser” sentences from that page. For more teasers, click on through to MizB's blog.

I absolutely love biography (even though I haven't blogged about it very often), and when the subject is someone as fascinating as Cleopatra, who can resist? Here is a longish teaser to stimulate your interest in this powerful woman:

A capable, clear-eyed sovereign, she knew how to build a fleet, suppress, an insurrection, control a currency, alleviate a famine. An eminent Roman general vouched for her grasp of military affairs. Even at a time when women rulers were no rarity she stood out, the sole female of the ancient world to rule alone and to play a role in Western affairs. She was incomparably richer than anyone else in the Mediterranean world. And she enjoyed greater prestige than any other woman of her age. . . . She nonetheless survives as a wanton temptress, not the first time a genuinely powerful woman has been transmuted into a shamelessly seductive one. (p. 2)

—From Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff (Hachette / Little, Bown, 2010)

Cleopatra at an Indie

Cleopatra at Powell's

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