Did Cleopatra really arrive rolled in a carpet?

VERDICTRUMOR

Not a carpet. Plutarch, writing about 150 years later, says she landed at the palace at dusk with one friend, Apollodorus the Sicilian, lay down inside a bed-sack, and was tied up and carried in to Caesar. He adds that this ‘device’ is how Caesar was first captivated. Plutarch is the only source for the sack. The carpet arrived much later, with painters and Hollywood.