The Egyptian queen, shown here in a 19th-century engraving, sneaked back from exile and surprised Julius Caesar ... Cleopatra and Antony retreated to Alexandria. After prolonged negotiation ...

In the middle of the civil war that would bring him to power, Julius Caesar spent the winter of 48 BC in Egypt. There he met Cleopatra, the woman who would set Roman nerves on edge for most of the ...

and Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Holland's conclusion: though the lady played fast and loose with Julius Caesar (by whom she claimed to have had a child) and Mark Antony (the father of ...