You don’t have to be a historian to know who Cleopatra was, but here’s a quick rundown anyway. Cleopatra was actually Cleopatra VII (who ruled from 51-30 BC), the Queen of Egypt and its sole ruler until the Romans conquered it in 30 BC. Cleopatra was part of the family known as the Ptolemies, Macedonian Greeks who ruled Egypt from 305-30 BC.
There’s a lot to talk about with the Ptolemies, like how they institutionalized incestuous marriage. But we’ll save that for another book!
For now, let’s talk about how Cleopatra died. If you’ve seen the 1963 film Cleopatra (starring Elizabeth Taylor in the lead role) or the more recent series Rome on HBO, then you might think that Cleopatra died from a snake bite after her lover, Mark Antony, took his life in dramatic Roman fashion. Both of these are fictionalized accounts, but, like any good work of historical fiction, they are based on a fair amount of historical facts.
Based on the accounts of the Greek and Roman historians, we know that Mark Antony and Cleopatra fled to the palace in Alexandria, Egypt after losing the Battle of Actium to Octavian in 31 BC. We also know that Octavian led his forces to Egypt a few months later and that Mark Antony literally fell on his sword, as any good Roman solider would have done in a similar situation. We also know that Cleopatra died, but the details of her death are a little unclear, which perhaps adds more to her already alluring legend and personality.
Some of the fictionalized accounts have her trying to make a deal with Octavian that would have spared her life. When she realizes that the future Roman emperor is not going to listen, she lets an asp bite her. How much of that is true?
It is unknown if she tried to make a deal with Octavian, but it certainly wouldn’t have been out of the realm of possibility. Cleopatra was shrewd—some would say conniving. It was truly a man’s world, so the young queen had to be just as cold-blooded as the men she was around. After marrying her brother for political reasons, she later had him killed. She may have had a deep affection for Mark Antony, but she wouldn’t have let her feelings for him get in the way of saving her own life. On the other hand, Octavian (who later changed his name to Augustus) was equally shrewd and would have had no use for a living Cleopatra, especially after he decided to make Egypt a Roman province. Octavian would have had Cleopatra brought back to Rome where she would have then been paraded in chains at a triumph dedicated to his victory. Afterwards, she would have been ritually strangled.
But what about that thing with the asp?
Well, the theory that she died from an asp began with the first-century BC Greek historian and geographer Strabo. In a passage about the history of the Roman Civil War, Strabo wrote:
“Augustus Caesar honoured this place because it was here that he conquered in battle those who came out against him with Antony; and when he had taken the city at the first onset, he forced Antony to put himself to death and Cleopatra came into his power alive; but a little later she too put herself to death secretly, while in prison, by the bite of an asp or (for two accounts are given) by applying a poisonous ointment; and the result was that the empire of the sons of Lagus, which had endured for many years, was dissolved.”
So, the idea of death by snakebite was born, along with the theory of death by topical poison. Which one is correct?
The first-century AD Greek historian Plutarch echoed Strabo’s account but added some more detail. He wrote that the asp was actually two cobras – a traditional symbol of Egyptian kingship – and that they were secretly delivered to the queen in a basket. The second-century AD Roman historian Cassius Dio also related the death by snakebite story.
So, it appears that this is one time when the movies actually do get it right.