Caesar Augustus' Lost Painting of Cleopatra in Encaustic

The year was 1818. The location was ruins of the Roman Emperor Hadrian's Villa outside Rome. The wealthy owner of the estate grounds on which the ruins lay had his head groundskeeper engaged in a general cleanup and renovation of the site. Since there was a considerable amount of usable scrap lumber on the estate, the lumber was collected from around the very large complex and sold in a lot to a dealer.

The lumber merchant found, among the scrap, a large wooden crate. From the aged wood and antique iron nails, it appeared to be of very ancient origins. The crate had been found in an underground cellar at the Emperor's Villa. The crate was carefully opened. Inside was a broken slate tablet with an overlay of dimly visible colors underneath a thick and dust-encrusted varnish. It was difficult to discern the image, but the 16 pieces fit together like a puzzle.

Painters were called in to remove the thick, mottled layers of varnish. Colors with an amazing brilliance and polished finish began to emerge. The astonishing picture slowly revealed a figure of a young, beautiful woman clad in a crimson tunic, with a jeweled golden crown. Matching the crown were a set of earrings, necklace and pendant on her forehead that were inlaid with rubies and emeralds, and the jewelry had fine pearls mounted on the edges. A gold armband with pearls suspended on gold chains and a bracelet of gold were on her right arm.

The jeweled necklace had an intriguing feature- the individual gold segments resembled oval-shaped Egyptian cartouches with hieroglyphics embossed on their surfaces.

But the painting had another, more startling aspect- the young woman had a serpent coiled around her left forearm, and it was in the very act of striking her on the exposed left breast. A pair of puncture marks from a previous strike seeped blood. Her expression was one of profound grief and turmoil. Tears flowed from her sorrowful, upturned eyes. The parted lips revealed the tongue pressed forward between the teeth, as if the serpent's poison was swiftly taking effect.