Today marks 2,056 years since Cleopatra VII took her own life on August 12, 30 BC, choosing death over the humiliation o...

Today marks 2,056 years since Cleopatra VII took her own life on August 12, 30 BC, choosing death over the humiliation of being paraded through Rome as a conquered prize in Octavian's triumph. She was the last pharaoh of Egypt and the final ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek royal line that had governed Egypt since 323 BC, the year Alexander the Great died. Every Ptolemaic ruler before her spoke only Greek. Cleopatra was the sole member of the dynasty who learned Egyptian, and she presented herself to her subjects as the living embodiment of the goddess Isis. Her political instincts were as sharp as her reputation. When Julius Caesar arrived in Egypt in 48 BC chasing Pompey, she moved immediately to secure his alliance, and he backed her in Egypt's civil war, restoring her to power. Together they had a son, Ptolemy XV Caesarion, born in 47 BC. After Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, she returned to Alexandria. By 41 BC she had formed both a political alliance and a love affair with Mark Antony, who was fighting Octavian for control of Rome. The two joined forces at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and lost decisively. Octavian seized Alexandria the following year. Antony, abandoned by his army, killed himself first. Cleopatra attempted to win Octavian over as she had the others. When that failed, she died by snakebite, according to ancient tradition, placing an asp against her chest. Modern historians debate whether that account is accurate. The Roman historian Cassius Dio summed up her life in a single line: "She captivated the two greatest Romans of her time, and because of the third she destroyed herself." #Cleopatra #AncientHistory #GreekHistory