# Lyndsey Marshal- Rome **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2005, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyndsey-marshal-rome/326547 "2005-10-17T02:08:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyndsey-marshal-rome/326547/1 "2005-10-17T02:08:03Z")
The girl who just played Cleopatra in tonites new Rome epi- any decent Bio’s out there? I can get a list of a few films, etc from IMDB, but nothing like where & when she was born, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyndsey-marshal-rome/326547/2 "2005-10-17T02:21:32Z")
Lots of info and links here: > **[What Do We Really Know about Cleopatra?](https://www.thoughtco.com/cleopatra-p2-117787)** > > Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt was a historical queen and the last pharaoh of Egypt whose image and history has been distorted in countless ways. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyndsey-marshal-rome/326547/3 "2005-10-17T02:24:24Z")
I am appalled at the portrayal of Cleopatra as a duggie slut, but the actress did quite well with the role. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyndsey-marshal-rome/326547/4 "2005-10-17T02:36:14Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Lots of info and links here: > > [Queen Cleopatra VII: Last Pharaoh of Egypt](http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/cleopatra/a/Cleopatra.htm) The actress **Baker** , the _actress_! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyndsey-marshal-rome/326547/5 "2005-10-17T03:21:16Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > I am appalled at the portrayal of Cleopatra as a duggie slut, but the actress did quite well with the role. That little move she made when she met Caesar won his heart, didn’t it? Lady’s got style, when she feels like showing it. What was her relationship with little Ptolemy? Brother and sister? Husband and wife? Both? I know nothing of Roman history, so I’m enjoying every second of the show. No worries about the timelines or whether the writers are getting it right. And it looks great. Many scenes look like old paintings from my Bible school picture books. Especially the headwear. Not sure if that’s accurate either, but it looks like nothing else I’ve seen in ancient Roman or Egyptian movies, so I’m thinking they did their research. Awesome show. The hour passes so fast! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyndsey-marshal-rome/326547/6 "2005-10-17T03:22:35Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > What was her relationship with little Ptolemy? Brother and sister? Husband and wife? Both? Both. Quite common among the Egyptian royal family. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyndsey-marshal-rome/326547/7 "2005-10-17T03:34:11Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > I am appalled at the portrayal of Cleopatra as a duggie slut, but the actress did quite well with the role. Why are you appalled? From what I’ve read that’s a pretty accurate portrayal. She was rumored to have used opium (and to have used it on her paramours) and it’s also true that she used sex for political advantage. Her stunt of offering herself as a “gift” to Caesar really happened. I was actually kind of glad to see a portrayal that was fairly close to how Cleopatra is really described at that time. She was young and spoiled and sexually aggressive, and the opium use does have some historical support. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyndsey-marshal-rome/326547/8 "2005-10-17T03:41:29Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > The actress **Baker** , the _actress_! :smack: Oops! Mea maxima culpa. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyndsey-marshal-rome/326547/9 "2005-10-17T03:54:42Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Why are you appalled? From what I’ve read that’s a pretty accurate portrayal. She was rumored to have used opium (and to have used it on her paramours) and it’s also true that she used sex for political advantage. Her stunt of offering herself as a “gift” to Caesar really happened. Most of those rumors were deliberately spread by her enemies to slander her. There is no evidence that Cleopatra ever had a lover other than Ceasar and Marc Antony. Opium may have been available to her, and perhaps she used it recreationally or in ceremonies, but Cleopatra seems to have been a very smart woman who would not spend her time rolling on a bed, stoned, when she needed her wits about her in a crisis. Actually, what I’ve read of her indicates that she lived a pretty chaste and sober life. She was a remarkable queen, by all acounts, who seems to have cultivated an image of respectability (coins featuring her show a “Roman matron” type. She probably grew up very cogniscent of her bloodline and duty to it. I seriously doubt the incarnation of Isis and a decendant of Alexander the Great would have selected a Roman soldier at random to father her child. Yes, she slept with both Ceasar and Antony and used those relationships to further her interests, but I think that’s a far cry from the portrayal of her as hedonistic and wanton. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyndsey-marshal-rome/326547/10 "2005-10-17T04:16:10Z")
She wasn’t a descendant of Alexander, she was a descendant of Ptolemy, one of Alexander’s generals. You’re talking about what she would or wouldn’t do but you don’t really know. There’s no reason she [icouldn’t\* have used opium (and in the show, her opium use is in the context of exile and depression. It also seems to imply that she quit it when she realized she would need her wits about her. Her sexual liasons were cynical and self-serving. She began her affair with Antony because she thought he was going to win the war after Caesar’s assasination. You can talk all you want about her awareness of her lineage but she clearly didn’t mind sleeping with power to keep power. That doesn’t mean she was a bad queen. She was still very young (22) when she began her affair with Caesar and she still has time (in the context of the show) to grow and mature. These are the equivalent of her college years right now. You wouldn’t expect her to be the same as she was at 35. And in the show, she wasn’t shown having sex with Pullo out of “sluttiness” but out of a calulated desire to become pregnant, It was a tactic that the real Cleopatra used with both Caesar and Mark Antony. As for Pullo being the real father of Caesarion- well, the show is entitled to _some_ dramatic license. ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2005, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyndsey-marshal-rome/326547/11 "2005-10-17T11:37:51Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > The girl who just played Cleopatra in tonites new Rome epi- any decent Bio’s out there? I can get a list of a few films, etc from IMDB, but nothing like where & when she was born, etc. Getting away from Cleopatra and back to the OP, [this page](http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/newbritishtalent/story/0,15594,1363543,00.html) from the **Guardian** says that she was born in Manchester, England, and was 26 years old as of the print date (December 1, 2004), so there’s a very good chance that she was born in 1978.