The caption on this 1903 image reads: Cleopatra before Julius Caesar from painting by Gerome. It appeared in the book History of Egypt by French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero. Aware that Caesar's diplomatic intervention could help her regain the throne. The year was about 48 B.C. From her brother Ptolemy XIII, Cleopatra hatched a scheme to sneak herself into the palace at Alexandria where Julius Caesar was at the time preparing for a conference to bring the warring siblings to an agreement. She wanted an audience with Caesar. She persuaded her servant Apollodoros to wrap her in a carpet (or, according to some sources, a sack used for storing bedclothes), which he then presented to the 52-year old Roman. Jean-Leon Gerome (1824 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism.