Retard kings of old

[Solmyr]

Hey, they produced Cleopatra.

[Drakken]

Hey, they produced Cleopatra.

Cleopatra wasn't exactly a retard at birth. She ruthlessly killed her own siblings and played two Roman top leaders and politicians like they were fools.

In fact, she's the proof that inbreeding doesn't always produce morons.

[Solmyr]

That's what I meant. Even if the Lagids were all fatasses, clearly they did something right with Cleo.

[Drakken]

That's what I meant. Even if the Lagids were all fatasses, clearly they did something right with Cleo.

All accounts of the time, and her face on the coins, point that she wasn't specially physically attractive either. She had the Lagid protruding eyes and thick neck as well.

[Fireblade]

Wait, the future Queen of Sweden has Downs?

[Grey Fox]

Wait, the future Queen of Sweden has Downs?

Who knows, she was born today.

[Ideologue]

Truth be told, I think there's more to Carlos II lack of mental and physical health than simple result of inbreeding, although it surely didn't help.

Compare with the Lagid dynasty in Egypt, whose inbreeding was much worse, literally among siblings and other close parents. And yet most of the known defects in the Ptolemies were only physical and most of them could rule on their own - if they survived the cutthroat nature of their family relationships.

A number of the Ptolemaic dynasty are described as being extremely obese, whilst sculptures and coins reveal prominent eyes and swollen necks. Familial Graves' disease could explain the swollen necks and eye prominence (exophthalmos), although this is unlikely to occur in the presence of morbid obesity.

In view of the familial nature of these findings, members of this dynasty likely suffered from a multi-organ fibrotic condition such as Erdheim–Chester disease or a familial multifocal fibrosclerosis where thyroiditis, obesity and ocular proptosis may have all occurred concurrently.[6]

You get what you put in.  Ultimately, every life form on Earth is inbred.  Iirc, the problem with close relatives producing offspring is that it increases the chances of deleterious recessive traits coming to the fore and over long periods developing new deleterious recessive traits.  That is, in theory, if you had ideal humans with no problematic recessive traits, you could have them reproduce indefinitely, and other than novel mutations, their descendants would be okay.

[Ideologue]

Hey, they produced Cleopatra.

Cleopatra wasn't exactly a retard at birth. She ruthlessly killed her own siblings and played two Roman top leaders and politicians like they were fools.

In fact, she's the proof that inbreeding doesn't always produce morons.

And sometimes it produces hot bitches.

Oh is it not safe for work, huh?  If your boss don't understand art, you don't need that job.  Though maybe you should be more productive.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Cleopatra_and_Caesar_by_Jean-Leon-Gerome.jpg

[Sahib]

That's what I meant. Even if the Lagids were all fatasses, clearly they did something right with Cleo.

All accounts of the time, and her face on the coins, point that she wasn't specially physically attractive either. She had the Lagid protruding eyes and thick neck as well.

Modern reconstruction:

[Ideologue]

People always look like shit on ancient coins.

She was also supposed to have a beautiful voice iirc.

[Ed Anger]

That cunt was the worst thing to happen to Mark Antony. THINK WITH THE BIG BRAIN.

[Ideologue]

Lol, I googled "Cleopatra VII modern reconstruction" ('cause I want to see where the photo is from, and determine if there's a good reason why that necklace is so badly photoshopped on), and one of the first hits is this about.com article:

That Cleopatra was an African queen is certain -- Egypt is, after all, in Africa -- but was Cleopatra black?

Yeah.  OK.

My dad knew some African Studies professor back in the 70s who claimed that Hannibal was black.  See, back then, you didn't actually have to know shit to be a professor.  Oh, how times have... changed?

I want to read the companion articles, "Was Ivan Grozny Japanese?" "Was Hernan Cortez an Australian aborigine?", "Was Ronald Reagan an alien from Nebula Space Hunter M?", and "Was Franklin Roosevelt an angel sent by God?"

[Sahib]

Lol, I googled "Cleopatra VII modern reconstruction" ('cause I want to see where the photo is from, and determine if there's a good reason why that necklace is so badly photoshopped on), and one of the first hits is this about.com article:

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=What%20Did%20The%20Julio%20Claudians%20Really%20Look%20Like%20%20Reconstructions-%20Joe%20Geranio

[Ideologue]

Marcus Agrippa looks like Moose from Archie.

So I guess the explanation is "Fuck it, this has to be done by 5."

[HVC]

What's with nero's neck beard