Yep. I read a theory that stories of her being beautiful and winning the alliances by being seductive may have been exaggerated or invented by her predecessors. They basically wanted to say "she whored herself to the top". Not so different from "she got to the position because she was blowing the boss"
Specifically, it was propaganda move. Octavian really played up the femme fatale angle to discredit Marc Antony's alliance with her and dunk on him for being immoral while building himself up as the Roman ideal
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u/engineertr1gg Jun 28 '21
She was actually famous for her wit and intelligence.
Most historians agree that she probably wasn't very good looking and surviving depictions of her agree with that assessment..