page_title: Death of Cleopatra
hierarchical_section_title: Death of Cleopatra
caption_attribution_description: English: A Roman wall painting from the House of Giuseppe II (Casa di Giuseppe II), Pompeii, Italy; it is dated to the first quarter of the 1st century AD and was first discovered in 1769. It is now located in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy. It was originally thought to depict Sophonisba, the noble Carthaginian woman loved by the Numidian King Massanissa, who sent her poison during the Second Punic War so that she could commit suicide rather than allowing the Romans to capture her. However, more recent analysis strongly identifies the reclining woman wearing the royal diadem as Cleopatra VII of Egypt, consuming poison as her son Caesarion, also wearing a royal diadem, stands behind her. A male attendant in front of her holds the mouth of a crocodile, perhaps not a real one but merely an extension of a large, elaborate tray handle. Duane W. Roller (2010: 178-179) questions the theory about Sophonisba, saying that it was more likely a Roman audience of the time would have identifies the woman as Cleopatra than a more obscure figure such as Sophonisba, who lived two centuries prior to the creation of the painting. Roller also highlights the fact that Masinissa was an associate of Cleopatra's ancestor Ptolemy VIII, and that Cleopatra's own daughter Cleopatra Selene II married the Numidian prince Juba II, king of Mauretania. One of the bystanders also appears to be a Roman man, while the double doors high up on the rear wall (outside the view of this close-up scene) suggest the entrance of Cleopatra's tomb in Alexandria where she likely committed suicide and was buried alongside Mark Antony. There is no asp depicted in the painting, but Roman historiography contains contradictory accounts of Cleopatra's cause of death, with some saying it involved a venomous snake and others claiming it was from needle injections shooting poison into her arm or even a poisonous ointment (Roller, 2010: 147-149). Source: Duane W. Roller, Cleopatra: a biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN&#160;978-0-19-536553-5, pp. 178-179.
context_page_description: The death of Cleopatra VII, the last ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, occurred on either 10 or 12 August, 30 BC, in Alexandria, when she was 39 years old. Strabo, who provides the earliest historical account on the death, says Cleopatra committed suicide either by allowing an asp to bite her or by a toxic ointment, for example with a sharp implement such as a hairpin. Primary source accounts are derived mainly from the works of the ancient Roman historians Strabo, Plutarch, and Cassius Dio. Modern scholars debate the validity of ancient reports involving snakebites as the cause of death and if she was murdered or not. Some academics hypothesize that her Roman political rival Octavian forced her to commit suicide in the manner of her choosing. The location of Cleopatra's tomb is unknown. It was recorded that Octavian allowed for her and her husband, the Roman politician and general Mark Antony, who stabbed himself with a sword, to be buried together properly.
  Cleopatra's death effectively ended the final war of the Roman Republic between triumvirs Octavian and Antony, in which Cleopatra aligned herself with Antony, father to three of her children.
context_section_description: The death of Cleopatra VII, the last ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, occurred on either 10 or 12 August, 30 BC, in Alexandria, when she was 39 years old. Strabo, who provides the earliest historical account on the death, says Cleopatra committed suicide either by allowing an asp (Egyptian cobra) to bite her or by a toxic ointment, for example with a sharp implement such as a hairpin. Primary source accounts are derived mainly from the works of the ancient Roman historians Strabo, Plutarch, and Cassius Dio. Modern scholars debate the validity of ancient reports involving snakebites as the cause of death and if she was murdered or not. Some academics hypothesize that her Roman political rival Octavian forced her to commit suicide in the manner of her choosing. The location of Cleopatra's tomb is unknown. It was recorded that Octavian allowed for her and her husband, the Roman politician and general Mark Antony, who stabbed himself with a sword, to be buried together properly.
  Cleopatra's death effectively ended the final war of the Roman Republic between triumvirs Octavian and Antony, in which Cleopatra aligned herself with Antony, father to three of her children. Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt following their loss at the 31 BC Battle of Actium in Roman Greece, after which Octavian invaded Egypt and defeated their forces. Committing suicide allowed her to avoid the humiliation of being paraded as a prisoner in a Roman triumph celebrating the military victories of Octavian, who would become Rome's first emperor in 27 BC and be known as Augustus. Octavian had Cleopatra's son Caesarion (also known as Ptolemy XV), rival heir of Julius Caesar, killed in Egypt but spared her children with Antony and brought them to Rome. Cleopatra's death marked the end of the Hellenistic period and Ptolemaic rule of Egypt, as well as the beginning of Roman Egypt, which became a province of the Roman Empire.
  The death of Cleopatra has been depicted in various works of art throughout history. These include the visual, literary, and performance arts, ranging from sculptures and paintings to poetry and plays, as well as modern films. Cleopatra featured prominently in the prose and poetry of ancient Latin literature. While surviving ancient Roman depictions of her death in visual arts are rare, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Modern works are numerous. Ancient Greco-Roman sculptures such as the Esquiline Venus and Sleeping Ariadne served as inspirations for later artworks portraying her death, universally involving the snakebite of an asp. Cleopatra's death has evoked themes of eroticism and sexuality, in works that include paintings, plays, and films, especially from the Victorian era. Modern works depicting Cleopatra's death include Neoclassical sculpture, Orientalist painting, and cinema.
caption: Roman painting from the House of Giuseppe II, Pompeii, early 1st century AD, most likely depicting Cleopatra VII, wearing her royal diadem, consuming poison in an act of suicide, while her son Caesarion, also wearing a royal diadem, stands behind her[1][2]
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