Just before Christ, a Roman artist created an “emblema,” a raised wall relief, enshrining Selene, the only daughter Cleopatra had with Marc Antony. Selene is shown wearing an elephant headdress with tusks and ears drooping around her face. Fashioned from a single silver sheet adorned with diamonds, the piece sold for $2.55m at Christie’s Antiquities and Ancient Jewelry auction in New York.
After Octavian (later, Caesar Augustus) defeated Cleopatra’s parents and they committed suicide, he took in Selene and her brothers. She was betrothed to Juba II, African king of Numidia. She was said to be beautiful and strong willed like her mother, and became known as Cleopatra VII of Egypt. A private collector consigned the piece.
