Cleopatra: A Death Called Suicide and a Tomb Lost With Rome’s Victory

At the end of August 30 BCE, Alexandria fell to Octavian. Mark Antony had died after hearing the false news that Cleopatra had killed herself. The queen was being held inside the palace complex and knew that she might be taken to Rome for a triumph. Days later soldiers broke into the room and found Cleopatra dead on her bed, with her attendants Iras and Charmion.

The familiar story says that Cleopatra placed a poisonous snake on her body and let it bite her. The surviving accounts do not agree. Plutarch wrote that no one knew the truth; Cassius Dio said that only two small marks were found and no snake was seen; Strabo recorded two alternatives, a venomous snake or a poisonous ointment. There is no surviving body, no verified instrument, and no confirmed tomb where the cause can be tested.