August 12, 30 BC: Cleopatra VII commits suicide
On this day in 30 BC, Cleopatra VII committed suicide, effectively ending the Ptolemaic dynasty.
Cleopatra was the last active pharaoh of Egypt. She was formally married to her brother (as per Egyptian custom) yet had a son with Julius Caesar named Caesarion. She later married Marc Antony in opposition to another of Caesar’s [adopted] sons, Octavian, who would later rebrand himself Augustus.
Antony committed suicide after losing the Battle of Actium to Octavian, and Cleopatra joined her husband in the afterlife by inflicting a bite from an asp. Caesarion briefly became pharaoh, but was killed two weeks later by Octavian’s troops.
Cleopatra was not particularly beautiful; instead, she was known for her wit and intellect. She has been celebrated in many works of stage and screen, including:
- Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
- Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw
- the opera Cléopâtre by Jules Massenet, from which the image above is taken
The 1963 epic Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor was one of the biggest flops in history, nearly causing 20th Century Fox to go bankrupt.
Image: French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) as Cleopatra (1891). Photograph by Napoleon Sarony.