These heads sheltered by umbrellas be they of Zeb-un-Nisa, or Catherine of Cleopatra or Fenichka live with their own stories

So I learned two things that night, and the next day, from him: the perfection of a moment, and the fleeting nature of it.

THOMASINA:But then the Egyptian noodle made carnal embrace with the enemy who burned the great library of Alexandria without so much as a fine for all that is overdue!

I choose freedom.

I knew that a man was not only himself but also who he wished to be.

The curves of his smile become the waves in my ocean.

They’ll try to make you forget who you are or try to make you ashamed. But you mustn’t forget and you mustn’t be ashamed.

Selene’s life is a lesson to us that the trajectory of women’s equality hasn’t always been a forward march. In some ways the ancients were more advanced than we are today; there have been setbacks...

The personal inevitably trumps the political, and the erotic trumps all: We will remember that Cleopatra slept with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony long after we have forgotten what she accomplished in doing so, that...

I really don’t remember much about Cleopatra. There were a lot of other things going on.

The shadows of twilight grow,And the tiger’s ancient fiercenessIn my veins begins to flow.

Not romantic,” she disagreed. “To me it would be romantic if Antony properly fell on his sword and kicked the bucket and Cleopatra escaped and lived a lovely life sailing along the Nile without him...

Conformity is deformity