Once again, I will play the Devil's Advocate...

Yes, it's terrible, horrible, and totally inaccurate to portray Cleopatra as a drugged-up slut. As a modern-day Paris Hilton. As an Anna Nichole clone. (And I am being sarcastic here!)

Look, she had sex with Julius Caesar for... Sorry to diss you Cleopatra fans... "political reasons." (Which is what I think the writers of "Rome" were attempting to portray.) Cleopatra not only bedded Julius Caesar for reasons beyond "romantic love" (a concept not all that popular when it came to marriage in the ancient world)... but Cleo bedded men for the same reason that prostitutes have sex in our society--she was getting money and power from the deal.

So the writers are trying to explain this kind of behavior to their viewing audience (who are not as well-read as the rest of us), within the context of explaining the entire history of Rome to an international audience who are probably unaware of a lot of these finer points...

This message probably won't get through to those of you who still worship Cleopatra on some level, especially those of you who only know her from the Elizabeth Taylor films and know nothing about history... and think that perhaps she was "in love" with Caesar or Mark Anthony...

This was prostitution on a very high level. So anyone who objects to the depiction of Cleopatra as a woman of loose morals should (IMHO) get a grip.

Check out my earlier posts about Cleopatra's drug use when you really want to hate me for being stupid and ignorant. After all, I establish that her use of opium, mandrake and other drugs were as aphrodisiacs. (Sorry to disappoint you all, but I have a lot of historical sources behind me.)

So maybe a lot of YOU use aphrodisiacs when you're not intending to have sex, but in my social circle, it's all about the sex when we take aphrodisiacs. In fact, I think 99% of human beings use aphrodisiacs when they want to have sex. So... the idea that a woman who was forced to marry her brother (which means she was forced into incest), while she preferred Caesar and/or Anthony as lovers... Well, I just would be surprised if Cleopatra did NOT have another lover or two on the side... And anyone who rejects this theory obviously hasn't had a lot of sexual experience. And must believe that pagans never took advantage of the situation (as superiors) that they enjoyed with their slaves so they could have sex with any of them... After all, Thomas Jefferson had sex with his slaves... Why wouldn't Cleopatra?

Or any other slave-owner?

On the other hand, we have yet to see where the filmmakers are going with this next season. So let's cut some slack.