| 12 The Book of Famous Queens
tion of rounded limb, and unstudied naturalness of action. The agile litheness of the Greek is combined with the oriental voluptuous indolence of the Egyptian; which combination explains the otherwise unaccountable allurements of face and form which history, romance, and poetry have accorded to her.
"Cleopatra was by birth an Egyptian," says one writer. "By ancestry and descent she was a Greek. Thus, while Alexandria and the delta of the Nile formed the scene of the most important events and incidents of her history, it was the blood of Macedon which flowed in her veins. Her character and action are marked by the genius, the courage, the originality, and the impulsiveness pertaining to the stock from which she sprang. The events of her history, on the other hand, and the peculiar character of her adventures, her sufferings, and her sins, were determined by the circumstances by which she was surrounded, and the influences which were brought to hear upon her, in the soft and voluptuous clime where the scenes of her early life were laid."
Great attention was paid by ladies and men of rank to their dress, and they wore jewels lavishly. Women wore many rings, richly ornamented necklaces, and heavy bracelets. Their dresses consisted of a loose, flowing robe or shirt reaching to the ankles, fastened round the neck with a string, over which they wore a petticoat, secured at the waist by a girdle. This petticoat or gown, among ladies of rank, was made of richly colored stuff in a great variety of patterns. The most expensive of these figured materials were reserved for the robes of the deities and queens. Slaves
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