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Cleopatra
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Cleopatra VII
Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ
Bust of Cleopatra VII from the Shershell in Algeria (Berlin Antique Collection).
Cleopatra is wearing a royal tiara and a headband on her hair.
The Queen of Egypt
69 BC -30 BC Corulers: Ptolemy XIII (51-47 BC),
Ptolemy XIV (47-44 BC),
Ptolemy XV Caesarion (44 — 30 BC) Predecessor: Ptolemy XII Successor: title abolished
Birth: November 2, 69 BC (-069-11-02)
Alexandria Death: August 12, 30 BC(-030-08-12) (38 years)
Alexandria Birth: Ptolemy Father: Ptolemy XII Mother: Cleopatra VI Husband: Mark Antony Children: Ptolemy XV Caesarion[1], Alexander Helios[2], Ptolemy Philadelphia[3], Cleopatra Selena II[4]
Cleopatra VII on Wikimedia Commons
There are articles on Wikipedia about other people with the name Cleopatra.
Cleopatra VII Philopator — the last queen of Hellenistic Egypt from the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty (Lagids).
She became famous thanks to the dramatic love story of the Roman commander Mark Antony.
During her reign, Egypt was conquered by Rome, Cleopatra herself committed suicide in order not to become a prisoner of the first Roman emperor Octavian Augustus.
Cleopatra became one of the most popular ancient characters in films and literary works.
Content
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1 General information 2 Origin 3 Identity 3.1 Name
4 The Way to the Throne 5 Cleopatra and Caesar 6 Stay in Rome 7 Sovereign Rule 8 Cleopatra and Antony 8.1 Meeting with Mark Antony 8.2 Restoration of the Lagid Empire 8.3 Children of Antony and Cleopatra
9 The Wreck 9.1 The Battle of Actium 9.2 The Death of Antony and Cleopatra
10 Cleopatra in art 10.1 Cleopatra in cinema
11 Cleopatra in Astronomy 12 Notes 13 Literature 14 References
General information[edit / edit wiki text]
Cleopatra VII ruled Egypt for 21 years consecutively in co government with her brothers (they are traditionally formal husbands) Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV, then in actual marriage with the Roman general Mark Antony.
She was the last independent ruler of Egypt before the Roman conquest and is often, although not quite correctly, considered the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.
She became widely known thanks to her love affair with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
She had a son by Caesar, two sons and a daughter by Antony.
Sources on Cleopatra — Plutarch, Suetonius, Appian, Dion Cassius, Josephus.
For the most part, ancient historiography is unfavorable to her; since "History is a policy turned to the past," there is an opinion that the denigration of Cleopatra was carried out by the victor of Egypt, Emperor Octavian Augustus and his entourage, who sought to denigrate the queen with all their might, presenting her not just as a dangerous enemy of Rome and the evil genius of Mark Antony.
An example is the judgment of the fourth century Roman historian about Cleopatra.
Aurelia Victor: "She was so depraved that she often prostituted herself, and had such beauty that many men paid with their death for possessing her for one night"[5].
Origin[edit / edit wiki text]
Marble bust of Ptolemy XII Auletes.
The Louvre Museum.
Paris
Cleopatra was born on November 2, 69 BC (officially the 12th year of the reign of Ptolemy XII), apparently in Alexandria.
She is one of the three (known) daughters of King Ptolemy XII Auletes, possibly by a concubine, since, according to Strabo, Ptolemy Auletes had only one legitimate daughter, Berenice IV, a queen in 58-55 BC.
Nothing is known about Cleopatra's childhood and youth.
Undoubtedly, she was greatly impressed by the turmoil of 58-55 BC, when her father Ptolemy XII was overthrown and expelled from Egypt, and his daughter (Cleopatra's sister) became the queen Berenice.
Restored to the throne by the forces of the Roman governor of Syria, Gabinius, Ptolemy XII throws himself into a massacre, repression and murder (Berenice also fell a victim).
As a result, he turns into a puppet, remaining in power only thanks to the Roman presence, burdening the country's finances.
The troubles of her father's reign taught a lesson to the future queen, who used all means to get rid of opponents and everyone standing in her way — like, for example, from her younger brother Ptolemy XIV in 44 BC and later from her sister Arsinoe IV.
Personality[edit / edit wiki text]
The true appearance of Cleopatra is not easy to see because of the romantic flair surrounding her and numerous films; but there is no doubt that she had a sufficiently courageous and firm character to bother the Romans.
There are no reliable images that accurately, without idealization, would convey her physical appearance.
A damaged bust from the Shershell in Algeria (the ancient city of Caesarea Moorish), created after the death of Cleopatra on the occasion of the marriage of Cleopatra Selena II, her daughter by Mark Antony, with King Juba II of Mauretania, conveys the appearance of Cleopatra in her last years; although sometimes this bust is attributed to Cleopatra Selena II, daughter of Cleopatra VII.
Cleopatra VII is credited with Hellenistic busts depicting young attractive women with typically Greek faces, but the persons from whom the bust was made are not precisely identified.
It is believed that the busts depicting Cleopatra VII are kept in the Berlin Museum (see the screensaver) and the Vatican Museum, but the classic appearance makes one suspect the idealization of the image.
Egyptian statue of Cleopatra VII made of basalt
The profiles on the coins show a woman with wavy hair, large eyes, a protruding chin and a hooked nose (hereditary features of the Ptolemies).
On the other hand, it is known that Cleopatra was distinguished by a powerful charm, attractiveness, perfectly used it for seduction and in addition had a charming voice and a brilliant, sharp mind.
As Plutarch writes, who saw the portraits of Cleopatra: For the beauty of this woman was not what is called incomparable and strikes at first glance, but her address was distinguished by an irresistible charm, and therefore her appearance, combined with a rare persuasiveness of speeches, with a huge charm that was evident in every word, in every movement, was firmly embedded in the soul.
The very sounds of her voice caressed and pleased the ear, and the language was like a multi stringed instrument, easily tuned to any mood — to any dialect…
While the Greeks usually neglected the upbringing of their daughters, even in royal families, Cleopatra clearly had a good education, which, superimposed on her natural mind, gave excellent results.
Cleopatra became a real polyglot queen, owning, in addition to her native Greek, Egyptian (the first of her dynasty made efforts to master it, perhaps only with the exception of Ptolemy VIII Fiscon), Aramaic, Ethiopian, Persian, Hebrew and the language of the Berbers (a people who lived in the south of Libya).
Her linguistic abilities did not bypass Latin, although enlightened Romans, like, for example, Caesar, themselves perfectly mastered the Greek language.
Name[edit / edit wiki text]
Name type Hieroglyphic spelling Transliteration
"Choral name"
(like a chorus)
[7] wr(t) nb(t)-nfrw ȝḫ(t)-zḥ.
[8] wrt twt n jt.s.
"Personal name"
(as the son of Ra)
[9] qlwpdrt Ep.
nṯrt mr(t)-jt.s. (Κλεοπάτρα θέά φιλοπάτωρ)  [10]
qlwpdrt Ep.
nṯrt mr(t)-jt.s. (Κλεοπάτρα θέά φιλοπάτωρ)
Epithet
[10] nṯrt mr(t) jt.s.
[11] nṯrt mr(t) jt.s.
The Path to the throne[edit / edit wiki text]
The will of Ptolemy XII, who died in March 51 BC, transferred the throne to Cleopatra and her younger brother Ptolemy XIII, who was then about 9 years old, and with whom she was married formally, since according to the Ptolemaic custom, a woman could not reign independently.
She ascended to the throne under the official titleαΑ Φιλοπάτωρ (Thea Philopator), that is, the goddess who loves her father (from the inscription on the stele from 51 BC).
The first three years of her reign were not easy due to a 2 year crop failure caused by insufficient flooding of the Nile.
With the accession of the co rulers, an underlying struggle of the parties immediately began.
Cleopatra first ruled alone, having removed her young brother, but then the latter took revenge, relying on the eunuch Pothinus (who was something like the head of the government), the commander Achilles and his tutor Theodotus (a rhetorician from Chios).
In a document dated October 27, 50 BC, the name of Ptolemy appears underlined in the first place.
In the summer of 48 BC , Cleopatra, who fled to Syria and recruited an army there, at the head of this army set up a camp on the Egyptian border, not far from the fortress of Pelusium; her brother also settled there with an army, blocking her way into the country.
The turning point was the flight of the Roman senator Pompey to Egypt and his murder by Ptolemy's supporters.
Cleopatra and Caesar[edit / edit wiki text]
"Cleopatra and Caesar".
Painting by the artist Jean Leon Jerome (1866)
At this moment, Rome intervenes in the struggle.
Pompey, defeated by Julius Caesar at Pharsalus, appears at the Egyptian coast in early June 48 BC and asks the Egyptian king for help.
The young Ptolemy XIII, or rather his advisers, hoping to get generous favors from the victors, give the order to kill the Roman.
This was done, barely Pompey stepped on the land of Egypt, in the eyes of his entourage (July 28, 48 BC).
But the king miscalculated: Caesar, who, in pursuit of Pompey landed in Egypt two days later, angry that violence and buried the head of Pompey the walls of Alexandria, where he erected the sanctuary of Nemesis.
Once in Egypt, Caesar tried to replenish his treasury with the help of debts that Ptolemy XII had made to the Roman banker Rabirius during his efforts to restore him to the throne, and which Caesar now recorded on his account.
Suetonius writes that Caesar "did not dare" to turn Egypt into a Roman province, "so that some enterprising governor would not be able to rely on it [a province with huge resources] for new troubles."
However, Caesar announced his intention to act as an arbitrator in the dispute of the kings.
Ptolemy XIII was already the de facto ruler, moreover, recognized by Pompey; therefore, Caesar was interested in Cleopatra, who could become a puppet who owed him power.
Soon after his arrival, he calls Cleopatra to his house in Alexandria.
Getting into the capital, guarded by Ptolemy's men, was not an easy task; Cleopatra was helped to do this by her admirer, the Sicilian Apollodorus, who secretly smuggled the queen in a fishing boat, and then carried her to Caesar's chambers, hiding her in a large bed bag (and not in the carpet, as it is prettily depicted in the films, see Cleopatra's Carpet).
From this fact, we can conclude about the fragile physique of the queen.
Throwing herself at the feet of the Roman dictator, Cleopatra began to complain bitterly about her oppressors, demanding the execution of Pothinus.
The 52 year old Caesar was captivated by the young queen; moreover, the return to the will of Ptolemy XII corresponded to his own political interests.
When the next morning Caesar announced this to the 13 year old king, he ran out of the palace in a rage and, tearing off his diadem, began to shout to the assembled people that he had been betrayed.
The crowd was indignant; but Caesar managed to calm it down at that moment by reading the tsar's will.
However, the situation became more complicated for Caesar.
The detachment that accompanied him numbered only 7 thousand soldiers; supporters of the murdered Pompey were gathering in Africa, and these circumstances aroused in Ptolemy's party the hope of getting rid of Caesar.
Pothinus and Achilles summoned troops to Alexandria; the execution of Pothinus by Caesar could no longer stop the uprising.
The troops, supported by the townspeople, outraged by the extortion and self will of the Romans, received a leader when Ptolemy XIII and his sister Arsinoe fled to them.
As a result, in September 48 BC, Caesar was besieged and cut off from reinforcements in the royal quarter of Alexandria.
Caesar and Cleopatra were saved only by the approach of reinforcements led by Mithridates of Pergamum.
The rebels were defeated on January 15, 47 BC at the Mareotian Lake, while fleeing King Ptolemy drowned in the Nile.
Arsinoe was captured and was then held in Caesar's triumph.
This was followed by a joint journey of Caesar and Cleopatra on the Nile on 400 ships, accompanied by noisy celebrations.
Cleopatra, formally combined with her other young brother Ptolemy XIV, actually became the undivided ruler of Egypt under the Roman protectorate, which was guaranteed by the three legions left in Egypt.
Shortly after Caesar's departure, Cleopatra gives birth to a son on June 23, 47 BC, who was named Ptolemy Caesar, but who went down in history under the nickname Caesarion given to him by the Alexandrians[12].
It was claimed that he was very similar to Caesar in both face and posture.
Stay in Rome[edit / edit wiki text]
Caesar fought with the king of Pontus Pharnaces, then with the last supporters of Pompey in Africa; immediately after the end of the wars, he calls Cleopatra and her brother to Rome (summer 46 BC), formally to conclude an alliance between Rome and Egypt.
Cleopatra was allocated a villa of Caesar in his gardens on the banks of the Tiber, where she received noble Romans who hurried to pay their respects to their favorite.
This caused extreme irritation among the Republicans and became one of the reasons that accelerated the death of Caesar.
There was even a rumor (transmitted by Suetonius and indicative of the general mood) that Caesar was going to take Cleopatra as his second wife and move the capital to Alexandria.
Caesar himself ordered to place a gilded statue of Cleopatra at the altar of Venus the Progenitor (Venus as the mythical ancestor of the Julian family, to which he belonged).
Nevertheless, Caesar's official will did not contain any mention of Caesarion, whom he thus did not dare to recognize as his son.
Sovereign rule[edit / edit wiki text]
Caesar was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy on March 15, 44 BC .
A month later, in mid April, Cleopatra left Rome and arrived in Alexandria in July.
Soon after, the 14 year old Ptolemy XIV died.
According to Josephus, he was poisoned by his sister: the birth of a son gave Cleopatra a formal co ruler.
In this situation, the growing up brother was completely unnecessary for her.
In 43 BC, a famine struck Egypt and the Nile did not flood for two years in a row.
The queen was primarily concerned with the supply of her capital, which was prone to rebellion.
The three Roman legions left by the late Caesar rampaged until their withdrawal in 43 BC.
The war between the assassins of Caesar, Cassius and Brutus on the one hand, and on the other hand — his heirs Antony and Octavian, required the queen to be resourceful.
The East was in the hands of Caesar's assassins: Brutus controlled Greece and Asia Minor, and Cassius settled in Syria.
The governor of Cleopatra in Cyprus, Serapion, helped Cassius with money and a fleet with the undoubted consent of the queen, no matter what feelings she had for the murderers of her Roman patron.
Later, she officially repudiated Serapion's actions.
On the other hand, Cleopatra equipped a fleet, allegedly, as she later claimed, to help the Caesarians.
In 42 BC, the Republicans were defeated at Philippi.
The situation for Cleopatra immediately changed.
Cleopatra and Antony[edit / edit wiki text]
Meeting with Mark Antony[edit / edit wiki text]
Cleopatra is on a luxury ship heading to Antony.
A shot from the film "Cleopatra", 1963
Cleopatra was 28 years old when she met a 40 year old Roman general in 41 BC.
It is known that Antony, as the head of the cavalry, participated in the restoration of Ptolemy XII to the throne in 55 BC, but it is unlikely that they met at that time, although Appian cites a rumor that Antony was attracted to the 14 year old Cleopatra back in that period[13].
They may have met during the queen's stay in Rome, but before their meeting in 41 BC, they apparently did not know each other well.
When the Roman world was divided after the defeat of the Republicans, Antony got the East.
Antony decides to implement Caesar's project — a big campaign against the Parthians.
Preparing for the campaign, he sends the officer Quintus Dellius to Alexandria to demand Cleopatra to his Cilicia.
He was going to accuse her of helping Caesar's murderers, apparently hoping to get as much money from her as possible for the campaign under this pretext.
Jan de Bray, The Feast of Antony and Cleopatra, 1669
Cleopatra, having found out through Dellius about the character of Antony and, above all, about his amorous nature, vanity and love of external brilliance, arrives on a ship with a gilded stern, purple sails and silver plated oars; she herself sat in the dress of Aphrodite, on both sides of her stood with the boys plowed in the form of eros, and the maids in the robes of nymphs ran the ship.
The ship moved along the river Kidn to the sounds of flutes and kitharas, shrouded in the smoke of incense.
Then she invites Antony to her house for a luxurious feast.
Antony was completely charmed.
The queen easily rejected the prepared accusations, stating that Serapion acted without her knowledge, and she herself equipped a fleet to help the Caesarians, but this fleet, unfortunately, was delayed by contrary winds.
As a first act of kindness to Cleopatra, Antony, at her request, ordered the immediate execution of her sister Arsinoe, who had sought refuge in the temple of Aphrodite in Ephesus.
Thus began a ten — year romance, one of the most famous in history even though we cannot judge what was the share of political calculation in the relationship with Antony, which was necessary for Cleopatra to carry out her plans.
For his part, Antony could only support his huge army with the help of Egyptian money.
Restoration of the Lagid Empire[edit / edit wiki text]
Antony, leaving the army, followed Cleopatra to Alexandria, where he spent the winter of 41-40 BC, indulging in drinking and entertainment.
For her part, Cleopatra tried to tie him as tightly as possible.
Plutarch tells:
together with him, she played dice, drank together, hunted together, was among the spectators when he practiced with weapons, and at night, when he wandered and loitered around the city in the dress of a slave, stopping at the doors and windows of houses and showering his usual jokes on his masters — people of ordinary rank, Cleopatra was also next to Antony, dressed to match him.
One day, Antony, having planned to impress Cleopatra with his fishing abilities, sent divers who constantly put a new "catch"on his hook; Cleopatra, having quickly figured out this trick, for her part sent a diver who planted dried fish for Antony.
Portraits of Cleopatra VII on coins
While they were having fun in this way, the Parthian prince Pacorus went on the offensive, as a result of which Rome lost Syria and the south of Asia Minor with Cilicia.
Antigonus Mattathias, a prince hostile to the Romans from the Hasmonean (Maccabean) dynasty, was confirmed by the Parthians on the throne of Jerusalem.
Mark Antony had a short counter attack of tyre, but was then forced to return to Rome, where, after a collision between his wife Fulvia and supporters of Octavian peace agreement was signed in Brandisii (October 40 BC).
The collision was caused by the fault of Fulvia, who, according to Plutarch, hoping thus to tear Antony from Cleopatra.
At this time, Fulvia died, and Antony was married to Octavian's sister, Octavia.
At the same time, in 40 BC , Cleopatra gave birth to twins from Antony in Alexandria: a boy, Alexander Helios ("The Sun") and a girl, Cleopatra Selena ("The Moon").
For 3 years until the autumn of 37 BC, there is no information about the queen.
When Antony returns from Italy, the lovers meet in Antioch in the autumn of 37 BC, and from that moment a new stage in their politics and their love begins.
The legate of Antony, Ventidius, expelled the Parthians; Antony replaces the Parthian proteges with his own vassals or direct Roman administration.
Thus, the famous Herod, with his support, becomes the king of Judea.
Something similar is happening in Galatia, Pontus and Cappadocia.
Cleopatra directly benefits from all this, since her rights to Cyprus, which she actually owned, as well as to the cities of the Syrian and Cilician coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, the kingdom of Chalkidiki in present day Lebanon are confirmed.
Thus, she managed to partially restore the power of the first Ptolemies.
Cleopatra ordered to count from this moment a new era of her reign in the documents.
She herself took the official title ΘΕα Vεωτερα Φιλοπατωρ φιλοπατρις (Thea Neotera Philopator Philopatris), that is, "the younger goddess who loves the father and the fatherland".
The title was intended for the attached Syrians, who already had a queen (the elder goddess) of Ptolemaic blood Cleopatra Thea in the II century BC, the title also indicated, according to historians, Cleopatra's Macedonian roots, which was a weighty argument for the Greek Macedonian ruling class of Syria.
Children of Antony and Cleopatra[edit / edit wiki text]
In 37-36 BC , Antony launched a campaign against the Parthians, which turned into a disaster, mainly due to the harsh winter in the mountains of Armenia and Media (north west of present day Iran).
Anthony himself barely escaped death.
Cleopatra remained in Alexandria, where in September 36 BC she gave birth to her third child by Antony, Ptolemy Philadelphus.
In Rome, they begin to consider the alliance of Antony and Cleopatra as a threat to the empire and to Octavian personally.
The latter, in the early spring of 35 BC, sent his sister Octavia, the legitimate wife of Antony and the mother of his two daughters (Antonia the Elder, the future grandmother of Emperor Nero, and Antonia the Younger, the future mother of Germanicus and Emperor Claudius), so that she would join her husband.
However, as soon as she reached Athens, Antony ordered her to immediately return back.
This happened with the participation of Cleopatra, who threatened Anthony with suicide if he took a wife.
Antony wanted to take revenge for the defeat in the war with the Parthians: in 35 BC, he captured the king of Armenia Artavazd II, concluded an alliance with another Artavazd — the king of Media Atropatena and celebrated a triumph, but not in Rome, but in Alexandria with the participation of Cleopatra and their common children.
A little later, Caesarion receives the title of king of kings; Alexander Helios is proclaimed king of Armenia and the lands beyond the Euphrates, Ptolemy Philadelphus receives (nominally, since he was about 2 years old) - Syria and Asia Minor, and finally Cleopatra Selena II Cyrenaica.
Not all of the granted territories were under the real control of Anthony.
Josephus claims that Cleopatra also demanded Judea from Antony, but was refused; however, this report is questioned.
The news of the distribution of lands caused the strongest indignation in Rome, Anthony clearly broke with all Roman traditions and began to play the Hellenistic monarch.
Crash[edit / edit wiki text]
The Battle of Actium[edit / edit wiki text]
Main article: The Battle of Actium
Antony still enjoyed considerable popularity in the senate and the army, but with his antics in the Eastern Hellenistic spirit, which challenged Roman norms and traditional ideas, he himself gave Octavian a weapon against himself.
By 32 BC, it came to a civil war.
At the same time, Octavian declared it a war of the "Roman people against the Egyptian queen".
The Egyptian woman who enslaved the Roman commander with her charms was depicted as the center of everything eastern, Hellenistically royal, alien to Rome and "Roman virtues".
On the part of Antony and Cleopatra, a fleet of 500 ships was prepared for the war, 200 of them Egyptian.
Antony led the war sluggishly, indulging in feasts and festivals together with Cleopatra in all the passing Greek cities and giving Octavian time to organize the army and navy.
While Antony was gathering troops to the western coast of Greece, intending to cross to Italy, Octavian himself quickly crossed to Epirus and imposed a war on Antony on his territory.
Cleopatra's stay in Antony's camp, her constant intrigues against everyone in whom she saw her detractors, served Antony a bad service, prompting many of his supporters to defect to the enemy.
The story of an ardent follower of Antony, Quintus Dellius, is characteristic, who was nevertheless forced to defect to Octavian, because he was warned that Cleopatra was going to poison him for a joke that she considered offensive to herself.
The defectors informed Octavian about the contents of Anthony's will, it was immediately removed from the temple of Vesta and published.
Anthony officially recognized Cleopatra as his wife, her sons as his legitimate children, and bequeathed to bury himself not in Rome, but in Alexandria next to Cleopatra.
Antony's will completely discredited him.
Octavian, who was not a major military commander, found in the person of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa a competent commander who successfully waged war.
Agrippa managed to drive the fleet of Antony and Cleopatra into the Gulf of Ambracia and blocked it.
Their troops began to feel a lack of food.
Cleopatra insisted on a sea breakthrough.
At the military council, this opinion prevailed.
The result was the naval battle of Actium on September 2, 31 BC .
When Cleopatra was afraid that victory was slipping away, she decided to flee with her entire fleet, trying to save something else.
Antony ran after her.
His defeated fleet surrendered to Octavian, and after that the demoralized land army surrendered without a fight.
The Death of Antony and Cleopatra[edit / edit wiki text]
The Death of Cleopatra, painting by Reginald Arthur, 1892
Antony returned to Egypt and did nothing to continue the struggle with Octavian.
However, he did not have any real resources left for this.
He wasted his strength in drinking and lavish celebrations, and announced together with Cleopatra the creation of a" Union of Suicide Bombers", whose members swore to die together.
Their entourage had to join this alliance.
Cleopatra tested poisons on prisoners, trying to find out which poison brings a faster and more painless death.
Cleopatra was concerned about saving Caesarion.
She sent him to India, but he then returned back to Egypt.
She herself at one time was running around with plans to escape to India, but when trying to drag ships by dragging through Suez the Arabs burned them down across the isthmus.
These plans had to be abandoned.
The Death of Cleopatra, a painting by the Hungarian artist Dula Benzura, 1911
In the spring of 30 BC , Octavian moved to Egypt.
Cleopatra tried to protect herself from treason by cruel measures: when the commandant of Pelusium, Seleucus, surrendered the fortress, she executed his wife and children.
By the end of July, Octavian's troops appeared near Alexandria itself.
The last parts that remained with Antony, one by one, passed to the side of the winner.
On August 1, it was all over.
Cleopatra, with her trusted maids Irada and Charmion, locked herself in the building of her own tomb.
Antony was given false news about her suicide.
Antony threw himself on his sword.
Soon, dying, the women dragged him into the tomb, and he died in the arms of Cleopatra, who sobbed over him.
Cleopatra herself, holding a dagger in her hand, demonstrated her readiness for death, but she entered into negotiations with Octavian's envoy, allowed him to enter the building of the tomb and disarm her.
Apparently, Cleopatra still retained a faint hope to seduce Octavian, or at least to negotiate with him, and keep the kingdom.
Octavian was less susceptible to female charms than Caesar and Antony, and the charms of a woman over thirty and a mother of four children may have weakened somewhat.
The last days of Cleopatra are described in detail by Plutarch according to the memoirs of Olympus, her doctor.
Octavian allowed Cleopatra to bury her lover; her own fate remained unclear.
She claimed to be ill and made it clear that she would starve herself to death — but Octavian's threats to kill the children forced her to accept treatment.
A few days later, Caesar (Octavian) himself visited Cleopatra to console her in some way.
She was lying on the bed, depressed and dejected, and when Caesar appeared at the door, she jumped up in her chiton and threw herself at his feet.
Her hair, which had not been tidied up for a long time, hung in shreds, her face was wild, her voice was trembling, her eyes were dim.[14]
The death of Cleopatra.
Painting by Jean André Rixens (1874)
Octavian greeted Cleopatra with encouraging words and left.
Soon, the Roman officer Cornelius Dolabella, who was in love with Cleopatra, informed her that in three days she would be sent to Rome for the triumph of Octavian.
Cleopatra ordered to give Tom a pre written letter and locked herself in with the maids.
Octavian received a letter in which he found complaints and a request to bury her together with Antony, and immediately sent people.
The messengers found Cleopatra dead, in a royal headdress, on a golden bed.
Since a peasant had previously passed by Cleopatra with a pot of figs, which did not arouse suspicion among the guards, it was decided that a snake had been carried in the pot to Cleopatra.
It was claimed that two light bites were barely visible on Cleopatra's hand.
The snake itself was not found in the room, as if it had immediately crawled away from the palace.
According to another version, Cleopatra kept the poison in a hollow hairpin.
This version is supported by the fact that both of Cleopatra's maids died with her.
It is doubtful that one snake killed three people at once.
According to the historian Dion Cassius, Octavian tried to revive Cleopatra with the help of the Psylls, an exotic tribe that could suck out poison harmlessly for themselves.
The death of Cleopatra on August 12, 30 BC deprived Octavian of a brilliant captive at his triumph in Rome.
Only her statue was carried in the triumphal procession.
Caesar's adopted son Octavian executed Caesar's own son by Cleopatra Ptolemy XV Caesarion in the same year.
Children from Anthony were in chains at the triumphator parade, then they were brought up by Octavian's sister Octavia, Anthony's wife, "in memory of her husband".
Subsequently, Cleopatra's daughter, Cleopatra Selena II, was married to the Moorish king Yuba II, thanks to which a bust of Cleopatra from Shershell appeared.
