Cleopatra meets Anthony

The Roman writer Plutarch's gift for detail positively dazzles in his portrayal of the meeting of the Roman statesman Antony and the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra:

From The Lives:
"She was to meet Antony in the time of life when women's beauty is most splendid, and their intellects are in full maturity.

"... She came sailing up the river Cydnus in a barge with gilded stern and outspread sails of purple, while oars of silver beat time to the music of flutes and fifes and harps. She herself lay all along, under a canopy of cloth of gold, dressed as Venus in a picture, and beautiful young boys, like painted Cupids, stood on each side to fan her. Her maids were dressed like sea nymphs and graces, some steering at the rudder, some working at the ropes. The perfumes diffused themselves from one vessel to the shore, which was covered with multitudes, part following the galley up the river on either bank, part running out of the city to see the sight.

"... Her actual beauty, it is said, was not in itself so remarkable that none could be compared with it ... but the contact of her presence, if you lived with her, was irresistible; the attraction of her person, joining with the charm of her conversation, and the character that attended all she said or did, was something bewitching. It was a pleasure merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an instrument of many strings, she could pass from one language to another, so that there were few of the barbarian nations that she answered by an interpreter..."