Let me guess, Assassin's Creed: Origins question? :-P

Basically, no. Not even possibly, not even according to rumour or propaganda. The only accounts we have of her life are Roman histories and it is true that this gives us a very strong bias against her but these accounts still only claim that she slept with two men in her entire life. These would be Gaius Julius Caesar and, later in life, Marcus Antonius.

Given what we know of Cleopatra this seems most likely as aristocratic women did not, and could not, compromise their reputation as it was inextricably linked to social standing. Royal women in the Hellenistic world were powerful and political beings in their own right but they were also viewed as valuable commodities by the society they inhabited. Their reproductive capabilities, their sexual allure, and their modesty was guarded by those around them but none more so than themselves because this was an important factor in the value of an aristocratic woman whereas courage and masculinity might be deciding factors in the value of their male counterparts. Of course there are exceptions to this, and many women did seek out extramarital affairs like the Roman Empress Messalina or Augustus' daughter Julia, but even these women's lives and actions were magnified through the lens of a society which openly accepted male promiscuity while firmly scrutinising and suppressing female sexuality.

It should then therefore be no wonder that Cleopatra's only sexual interactions were politically motivated and monogamous. Indeed, even this was enough for hostile Roman poets to posthumously dub her with such illustrious and dignified titles as the "whore of Canopus". We can find allegations of Cleopatra engaging in witchcraft and the use of options and poisons. We can find allegations that she wished to take over the Roman Republic and rule over the world. We can find allegations that she seduced Caesar and Antony, completely robbing them of their wits in pursuit of her political agenda. All of these things and more are to be found in ancient accounts. But of orgies, macabre propositions, and excessive lust?

All of these stories are modern, borne out of a literary tradition that is as ancient as the "discovery" of the Americas by Western European empires. The Roman authors who chronicled fragments of her life were every bit as misogynistic as premodern playwrights and every bit as eager for lurid tales but we do not find any such stories in Dio, Plutarch, or Appian.

This particular myth comes from an extremely anachronistic poem by Théophile Gautier, Une nuit de Cléopâtre. In this poem Egypt is portrayed as a dead, stifling, oppressive country and Cleopatrra as a depraved pleasure seeker. The crux of the story revolves around Meïamoun, son of Mandouschopsh, a beautiful and extremely skilled lionhunter who fell in love with Cleopatra. After he sneaks into the palace grounds to meet her, she offers to spend a night with him in revelry on the condition that he drink poison the following dawn which Meïamoun readily accepts. As agreed he prepares to drink the deadly contents of a goblet at the end of a feast but Cleopatra stops him at first, only to change her mind and let him drain its contents upon hearing the early approach of Marc Antony. All in all, it is a well written poem but about as historically accurate as a French poem from the turn of the 19th Century (oh wait).

Frankly, as compelling as the story appears to be, it is quite silly. Not only would Cleopatra have had a hard time getting away with this but I find it doubtful that so many men would be willing to die just to have sex with Cleopatra for a single night.

There is one anecdote from Plutarch regarding an issue of jealousy between Antony and Cleopatra, but even this does not imply any actual infidelity

[Octavian] Caesar would not listen to the proposals for Antony, but he sent back word to Cleopatra that she would receive all reasonable treatment if she either put Antony to death or cast him out. He also sent with the messengers one of his own freedmen, Thyrsus, a man of no mean parts, and one who would persuasively convey messages from a young general to a woman who was haughty and astonishingly proud in the matter of beauty.

This man had longer interviews with Cleopatra than the rest, and was conspicuously honoured by her, so that he roused suspicion in Antony, who seized him and gave him a flogging, and then sent him back to Caesar with a written message stating that Thyrsus, by his insolent and haughty airs, had irritated him, at a time when misfortunes made him easily irritated.

This dramatic anecdote has a lot behind it, particularly given it's context at a time when the two were somewhat divided as to how to escape the predicament they found themselves in after the disaster at Actium. But even if we were to take this on face value, ignore the political background of these events, overlook Antony's reputation for often erratic behaviour, and assume all the worst, it is a far cry from the kinds of tropes we see in modern portrayals of Cleopatra.

Overall Assassins' Creed: Origins does a solid job of portraying Ptolemaic Egypt but its portrayal of Cleopatra is ludicrous. Watching her introductory cut scene left me surprised, incredulous and, I do not feel ashamed to say, disappointed. Her first spoken line is "Where is my opium pipe?" Opium pipes were not invented until the 16th Century and there is no reason to think she had any issues with substance abuse.

Her wardrobe is also quite inaccurate we see her wearing, among other things, a kind of midriff bare robe and kid gloves. Her historical self would more likely be found wearing a himation and chiton or the sacred robe of Isis in religious contexts (see an example of this knotted robe on a statue of Isis) and a diadem, usually with a head covering and possibly a veil like we can see on this coin featuring her ancestress Arsinöe II (who also happens to have her hair styles in the same manner as Cleopatra). That said, the entire purpose of Cleopatra's altered wardrobe is to boost sex appeal and give her the appearance of a somewhat sexually predatory character.

The reason this trope is problematic because it degrades Cleopatra's historical value as a monarch, an intellectual and, sadly given the underlying attitudes inherent in these portrayals, as a woman. Instead of being a powerful and politically adept person she becomes essentially a "bro story". The emphasis is placed upon her appearance and sexual prowess or sexual accessibility while her other attributes are ignored. At the very same time she is painted and judged in a harsh light as promiscuous vixen, neither an example to be praised or imitated. It is not like these portrayals are at least making her out to be sexually enlightened or with a positive message for modern women when they fudge historical accuracy. She is not merely portrayed as promiscuous, she is in crude terms, portrayed as a slut and that is the entire appeal and purpose of the trope. So not only is it inaccurate, but it is actually pretty offensive all things considered. If they did have some merit outside of being a titillating, exotic fantasy then I might be less harsh but I have never seen this executed.

Contrast this with male figures who actually were promiscuous like, say Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. Both are remembered not as sleazy aristocratic men but as statesmen and generals. And tell me that if Julius Caesar were portrayed as a foppish and immaculately groomed philanderer at the expense of his political life that there would be no complaints about accuracy. It is bad enough that women are judged based on their sexuality and appeal before anything else, the last thing we need to do is perpetuate this in the here and now.

Now for the record this is not an indictment against Ubisoft or Assassins Creed in particular, it is directed at the entire modern literary tradition that the game's portrayal was based on. The fact that premodern and modern Western culture conflates female power with sexual inhibition is unfortunate but true, which makes the invention of, and fixation on, Cleopatra's sexuality all the more worrying. We can not avoid the fact that modern literature felt the need to treat her as either an Orientalised victim of Roman politics and desire or as a conniving harlot until about 30-40 years ago but we can decide to set this and the entire system of values that it entails aside for more authentic and empathetic narratives.

For the developers of the game I imagine that they included it for the same reason as many of their most apparent anachronisms, because it was familiar and iconic. I would personally have preferred that they took the initiative and used the opportunity provided in the game to break popular myth and convention but at the same time that may be too much to ask from a AAA game studio that is out to sell games not give a history lesson.

I actually talked about the history behind the making of Cleopatra's mythical role as a sexual tyrant here if you are interested in further reading.