Books: Clcopatriot

CLEOPATRA—Emil Ludwig—Viking ($3-50).

According to popular legend, Cleopatra nearly vamped the Roman Empire to death. But if Cleopatra had been half as lucky in historians as she was in love, her reputation would now be very different. Such, at least, is the thesis of Biographer Ludwig's Cleopatra. A by-product of Ludwig's The Nile (TIME, Feb. 22), Cleopatra adds no new data to the little there is to go on: three lines from a letter of Antony's, one authentic bust. But Author Ludwig reopens the 2,000-year-old Cleopatra Case on the grounds that all contemporary evidence,...

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