Just like her tumultuous life , the death of Cleopatra VII has become the stuff of legend . So the level goes , the Queen of the Nile withdraw her own life by forcing an asp ( aka an Egyptian cobra ) to sting her on either August 10 or 12 , 30 BCE , after suffer a crushing defeat against the Romans at the naval Battle of Actium in Greece .
That ’s one of the most popular retellings of her tragic luck , perhaps because it became cemented in the public imagination through William Shakespeare ’s tragedyAntony and Cleopatra . While this play is n’t the first mention of the deadly Naja haje bite , there are some other version of the report where there ’s no reference of Snake River venom .
How did Cleopatra die, according to Roman historians?
A number of contemporary author write account of the Egyptian queen ’s destruction . Many do say the suit of death was suicide by snakebite , but some mention the use of a toxic unguent or poison apply with a hairpin .
papistical historiographer Dio Cassius ( 155 to 235 CE)describedthe death like so : “ No one knows clearly in what way she cash in one’s chips , for the only marks on her body were slight whoreson on the arm . ”
“ Some say she go for to herself an Egyptian cobra which had been brought in to her in a water - jarful or perhaps hidden in some heyday . Others declare that she had smeared a pin , with which she was wo nt to fasten her hair , with some toxicant possessed of such a property that in average circumstance it would not wound the body at all , but if it came into contact with even a drop of roue would destroy the consistence very quietly and painlessly , ” he explain .
The Death of Cleopatra (created 1645–55) by Italian painter Guido Cagnacci. Image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art/Public Domain
Oddly , Dio total that two of her handmaidens died at the same time , although it ’s not open how .
As for her fan , the Romanist general Mark Antony , it ’s wide agreed that he stabbed himself with his sword after mistakenly believing that Cleopatra had already died . Upon realizing she was still animated , he attempted to stand , but fall to the undercoat in a pool of blood , dying in Cleopatra ’s arms .
Cleopatra then took her own animation and the doomed pair were lay to rest together in the same grave .
Is this the culprit? Image credit: Ghorayr/WikimediaCC BY-SA 4.0
" Thus Antony and Cleopatra , who had caused many evils to the Egyptians and many to the Romans , made war and gather their death in the personal manner I have described ; and they were both embalmed in the same fashion and buried in the same grave , " Dio writes .
Egyptian Cobra: the snake that bit Cleopatra
Certainly , it is potential an asp was affect . The Egyptian cobra , aka the Egyptian cobra ( Ouraeus ) , is one of the most venomous snakes in North Africa , and would have easily been found slide around the metropolis of Alexandria where the suicide is thought to have go on .
However , it ’s equally possible that the ophidian is symbolical , intended to portrayCleopatraas an “ alien ” seductress . Cleopatra has been repeatedly sexualize in art and media across the centuries , perhaps as a resultant role of her fabled honey amour with the papistic superior general Mark Antony . Somehave arguedthe serpent was a poetic gadget used to chime into this prototype of her as a mysterious femme fatale from a distant res publica .
what is more , the asp was often used as a symbolic representation on the crown of the pharaohs . Perhaps there ’s no nifty irony that she used this symbolization of her own power to finish her own aliveness .
Where is Cleopatra buried?
Another mystery of Cleopatra ’s expiry is where her body was buried . Over 2,000 years have pass , but the tomb of Antony and Cleopatra hasstill not been receive . Since there are no known strong-arm remains of her , there are currently no scientific method that could be used to help discover out her cause of death .
That said , some archeologists such as Dr Zahi Hawass are hoping they areclose to a discovery . In 2022 , a separate squad identified a 1,305 - meter ( 4,281 - foot ) long burrow just west of Alexandria that they speculatedcould lead to Cleopatra ’s tomb . For now , however , the enigma of the grave stay on .
