Which royal headband appears on many portraits and coins of Cleopatra? The answer is the diadem.
A diadem was a narrow royal headband, often shown as a plain band encircling the ruler’s head. In Hellenistic monarchies, it signaled kingship and connected Cleopatra VII to the Macedonian Greek Ptolemaic dynasty founded by Ptolemy I Soter.
Cleopatra’s surviving coin portraits commonly show her with a diadem and her hair drawn back in a distinctive braided style. Marble portraits associated with her, including the Berlin and Vatican heads, also depict the same royal symbol. The coins are especially valuable because they are among the clearest contemporary images of Cleopatra.
The diadem is easy to confuse with the Egyptian nemes headdress or with a laurel wreath, which signified honor or victory. Cleopatra could also be represented in Egyptian religious imagery, but her standard Hellenistic royal portrait used the diadem.