ABUSIR, Egypt (CNN) -- Today, I met Cleopatra's lawyer. Well, not her lawyer but someone who is determined to defend the legendary queen against centuries of bad publicity.



Kathleen Martinez, an archaeologist from the Dominican Republic, wants to mend Cleopatra's tattered reputation.



Kathleen Martinez is a young archaeologist from the Dominican Republic who has toiled for three years on a barren hillside overlooking the coastal highway linking Alexandria with the Libyan border. According to the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, it's here, at a spot known as Abusir, that the tomb of Marc Antony and Cleopatra might be located.



I met Martinez in a dusty tomb full of bones at the excavation site. She recounted to me that, as a young girl, she listened in on a scholarly discussion in her father's library about Cleopatra.



"They were speaking very badly about her and about her image," she recalled. "I got very upset. I said I didn't believe what they are saying, that I needed to study more about her."



Martinez went on to earn a law degree but continued to be fascinated by the saga of Cleopatra. Four years ago, she managed to convince Zahi Hawass, the untiring director of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, to allow her to start excavating at Abusir.



Her fascination with -- and admiration for -- Cleopatra is intense. The last queen of Ancient Egypt, she told me, "spoke nine languages, she was a philosopher, she was a poet, she was a politician, she was a goddess, and she was a warrior."



In short, Martinez believes, Cleopatra was a woman way ahead of her times.



And given that history is written by the victors -- in Cleopatra's case, the Romans -- her press was somewhat less than complimentary. It was "bad propaganda," in Martinez's words. For that reason, she told me, "I want to be Cleopatra's lawyer."



With Hawass, Martinez is now working on a book about Cleopatra to repair all that damage.



The tale of Antony and Cleopatra has fueled the popular imagination for centuries. Ill-fated lovers were a favorite theme for William Shakespeare, and the Roman noble and the Egyptian queen certainly fit the bill.



Marc Antony was a no less fascinating character than Cleopatra. In his youth, he led a life of heavy drinking and womanizing. According to the Roman historian Plutarch, Antony accumulated debts of 250 talents, the equivalent of $5 million, before reaching 20.



To escape his creditors in Rome, he fled to Greece, where he studied with the philosophers of Athens, before being called to join the Roman legions in the east, then serving under Julius Caesar.



After Caesar's assassination, Marc Antony became embroiled in a series of power struggles and eventually ended up in Egypt.



Egypt was the enemy of his former ally, Octavian, who would go on to become the Emperor Augustus, the first emperor of Rome.



Octavian defeated Antony's forces at the battle of Actium in 30 B.C. Shortly afterward, Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, he by his own sword, she by a poisonous asp.



Octavian, according to Plutarch, allowed them to be buried together "in splendid and regal fashion." But no one knows where.



The sudden focus on Antony and Cleopatra has also reignited an old debate over the latter's looks. Was Cleopatra a stunning beauty a la Elizabeth Taylor, or somewhat less spectacular?



Researchers from Newcastle University in England claimed in 2007 that, based upon coins found from the period, she was quite homely, with "a shallow forehead, long, pointed nose, narrow lips and a sharply pointed chin."  See gallery of tomb that might be Cleopatra's »



The same researchers didn't have a very flattering assessment of Marc Antony either, saying he had "bulging eyes, a large hooked nose and a thick neck." No Richard Burton.



This does contradict Plutarch's description of Marc Antony as having "a noble dignity of form; and a shapely
What was martinez looking for in Egypt? For how long has Martinez toiled? Who was Marc Antony's lover? Was she actually a poet? What is the number of languages Cleopatra spoke? What was the name of her lover? How many languages did Cleopatra speak?
the tomb of Marc Antony and Cleopatra three years Cleopatra a nine Marc Antony nine
question: What was martinez looking for in Egypt?, answer: the tomb of Marc Antony and Cleopatra | question: For how long has Martinez toiled?, answer: three years | question: Who was Marc Antony's lover?, answer: Cleopatra | question: Was she actually a poet?, answer: a | question: What is the number of languages Cleopatra spoke?, answer: nine | question: What was the name of her lover?, answer: Marc Antony | question: How many languages did Cleopatra speak?, answer: nine