Cleopatra used a lavish staging to seduce Mark Antony

Cleopatra arrived at her meeting with Mark Antony in 41 BC on a ship with a gilded stern and purple sails. Knowing the vanity of the Roman officer, the Queen of Egypt surrounded herself with a crew disguised as nymphs, Nereids and Cupids under a canopy of gold. This staging marked the beginning of a ten-year affair, one of the most famous in history.