When did Cleopatra die?
Theodore Cressy Skeat deduced the 12th of August 30 BC as the date of death based on contemporary records. An alternative date of the 10th of August 30 BC is supported by other scholars.
Theodore Cressy Skeat deduced the 12th of August 30 BC as the date of death based on contemporary records. An alternative date of the 10th of August 30 BC is supported by other scholars.
No surviving records indicate an exact cause of death for Cleopatra VII. Strabo believed she committed suicide via asp bite or poisonous ointment while Plutarch described alternatives like a hairpin used to scratch open skin.
Cleopatra's personal physician Olympos mentioned neither cause of death nor an asp bite in his report. Cassius Dio noted small puncture wounds found on her arm instead of confirming a snake attack.
Caesarion reigned as Ptolemy XV for only eighteen days before being captured and executed on the 29th of August 30 BC. This execution followed advice from Arius Didymus who warned that two rival heirs could not share the world together.
Octavian paraded an effigy of Cleopatra with an asp clinging to her in his triumphal procession at Rome in 29 BC. Poet Propertius noted the image contained multiple snakes biting each arm during this event.