This was really interesting! All I knew about Cleopatra prior to this was from the Shakespeare play, and he's always dodgy when it comes to history so I took a lot of that with a grain of salt. In this book, however, Schiff uncovers a more accurate portrait of the most powerful woman of her day, although she is careful to let readers know when her sources are limited. History is written by the victors, and the most interesting part of this book, for me, was the critical assessment of the (primarily Roman) historians who wrote about Cleopatra during her life and after her death. They were pretty universally condemnatory, but Schiff concentrates on peeling back the layers of their prejudice - they were, after all, creating a narrative which almost required villainy on Cleo's part - to give a more nuanced perspective. It is a perspective that is unmistakeably marked by gender; Cleo would be roundly criticised by her contemporaries for flaws that were easily excused in her male contemporaries, particularly when those flaws were perceived to be sexual in nature. Schiff's biography is somewhat of a corrective, then, but isn't that what objective historians should be doing for the subjects of their work? Critically assessing contemporary sources for accuracy, no matter who they are? Schiff does a fine job of that, I think, and if occasionally the narrative dragged a little for my taste this is still an enjoyable and very intelligent biography of an exceptionally clever woman.