Safiria, thanks for picking up that point! - and it rather meshes with another question I'd love to explore.

I was reading something last night that nudged my memory - that Cleo spent at leat a year in Rome (some say arrival in 46, some say 45 BC). Now, how on earth could a reigning monarch leave her kingdom - especially a PTOLEMY kingdom - for a year to go live in Rome?

In fact, it makes me realize that we haven't really pursued the implications of this long stay in Rome IN CAESAR'S VILLA, and the effect/impact it must have had on the Romans. NOT to mention how they'd feel about an image of the Egyptian queen in the Temple in Caesar's Forum?

I've always wondered how Caesar got away with that. Time to go check the original sources. If Cleopatra gifted the statue to Caesar - well, I wonder how much that religious connection with Isis would have resonated. If HE put it up of his own volition - could it have had something to do with Rome's informal 'protectorate' over Egypt? And if so (as Safiria noted), it must have had more significance than a mere kudo to a former lover, if it remained there for centuries?

All VERY puzzling!