The Last Ptolemaic Queen of Egypt Who Killed Herself at Alexandria in August 30 BCE With Either an Asp or a Mixture of Hemlock, Aconitum, and Opium
Cleopatra VII killed herself at Alexandria on approximately 10 August 30 BCE, eleven days after her partner Mark Antony's suicide and three weeks after the city's fall to Octavian. The conventional account of the Egyptian cobra concealed in a basket of figs is first attested by Plutarch a century later. A 2010 reanalysis by Christoph Schaefer argued for a self-administered poison mixture as the more plausible cause of death.
Read the story →