The Forum of Caesar, with its Temple of Venus Genetrix, the ancestress of the Julian family to which Caesar belongs, is built among many other public works.

Cleopatra VII, Macedonian queen of Hellenistic Egypt, has been in Rome since late 47, accompanied by her husband-brother Ptolemy XIV, and a golden statue of her has been placed by Caesar's orders in the temple of Venus Genetrix.

Cleopatra and Caesar had become lovers during his stay in Egypt between 48 and 47, despite the thirty years separating the two.

On June 23, 47, Cleopatra had given birth to a child, Ptolemy Caesar (nicknamed "Caesarion" which means "little Caesar").

Cleopatra had claimed Caesar was the father and wished him to name the boy his heir, but Caesar has refused, choosing Octavian instead.

Caesar installs her in a villa that he owns beyond the Tiber.

Famed for her beauty, Cleopatra reputedly bathes in ass's milk and uses henna to increase the redness of her hair.

Fated to become Egypt's final Ptolemaic queen and the last Pharaoh, she is separated from the red-haired pharaoh Ramesses II by nearly twelve hundred years.