ANTONY & CLEOPATRA

ANTONY & CLEOPATRA~STAR CROSSED LOVERS

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Cleopatra watched despondently, as the combined naval fleets of Egypt and Mark Antony, were decimated by Augustus' forces at the Battle of Actium.

While Augustus consolidated power in Rome, the ill-fated lovers fled back to Alexandria.

With most of her Roman allies abandoning her, Cleopatra knew her reign was coming to an end.

Cleopatra began erecting her own mausoleum, in Alexandria.

Around 1st August 30 BC. Antony and Augustus battled on the outskirts of Alexandria, but Antony's army was no match for his opponent's.

Antony's men, knowing they were doomed, deserted him, and joined Augustus.

Antony had no choice but to surrender.

When word of this reached Cleopatra, she fled to her mausoleum.

She decided to fake her own death by sending a note to Antony, believing he would understand, follow suit.

When the letter about Cleopatra's death reached Antony, he was devastated.

As the Greek historian Plutarch tells it, Antony spoke these words:

"O Cleopatra, I am not distressed to have lost you, for I shall straightaway join you, but I am grieved that a commander as great as I, should be found to be inferior to a woman in courage"

He then stabbed himself in the stomach, with his own sword.

The self-inflicted wound did not end Antony's life.

When word of his condition made it to Cleopatra, she had her injured lover brought to the mausoleum.

Soon after, Antony took his last breath in the arms of his beloved Cleopatra.

Without her companion, Cleopatra worked many angles to win Augustus's favor.

It's clear the would-be Roman emperor only cared about one thing: obtaining Cleopatra's wealth, which she had stockpiled in her mausoleum.

Nearly two weeks transpired between the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra.

While popular lore often excludes this detail, Augustus granted Cleopatra permission to tend to Antony's body.

Antony was either embalmed, inhumed, or cremated, according to Egyptian customs.

This funerary ritual may have filled Cleopatra with a sense of foreboding and dread, as she was well aware that a similar destiny awaited her.

Augustus made it clear to Cleopatra, that her only option was to return to Rome with him, where she would be paraded around like a conquest.

But this powerful, female ruler would rather take her own life than be subjected to ridicule.

Nobody knows exactly how Cleopatra ended her life, on or around August 12.

Museums around the world are full of paintings depicting a scantily clad Cleopatra, grasping a venomous snake.

As the story goes, Cleopatra lured a cobra or viper into her chamber, which promptly bit her.

The snake's venomous bite brought Cleopatra's 39 years of life, to an abrupt end.

Many historians believe Cleopatra either poisoned herself, or was assassinated by Augustus.

Two of Cleopatra's closest maidservants stayed by her side, Iras and Charmion.

In multiple chronicles and works of art, the women lay with the lifeless body of Cleopatra, having succumbed to the same plight as their Queen.

If this is true, it's even less likely that one venomous snake, could be responsible for three fatalities.

Its more likely the women came into contact, or imbibed, a lethal concoction or poison.

Honoring Cleopatra's final wishes, Augusts allowed them both the honor of a burial, and in the same tomb, giving orders that the mausoleum which they had begun should be finished.

Augustus buried the dead queen next to Antony in a large splendid tomb, somewhere around Alexandria.

The two lovers were reunited in their final rest.

Cleopatra and Antony did have children together.

Twins, one female, the other male, and a young son.

After their parents perished, the children were sent to Rome and put under the care of Octavia, Antony's former wife.

The daughter, Cleopatra Selene, went on to live a full life.

The boys, Alexander Helios and Ptolemy Philadelphus, eventually disappeared without a trace.

What happened to them remains shrouded in mystery.

Cleopatra had also previously given birth to a son named Caesarion, whose father was allegedly Julius Caesar.

When she lost the Battle of Actium, Cleopatra sent the 17 year old Caesarion away, convinced he would be assassinated by Augustus's army.

Caesarion and part of his mother's royal treasury sailed up the Nile River, where he hoped to eventually make it all the way to India.

Unfortunately, the 17-year-old Caesarion was caught along the way, and was presumably murdered, as he was never seen again.

Even though Cleopatra was given the title Queen of Egypt, she was not ethnically North African.

Her royal family, the Ptolemaic Dynasty were all Macedonian Greeks, who controlled Egypt for nearly 300 years.

The kingdom came crashing down when Cleopatra perished, and what remained of it was eventually absorbed into the Roman Empire....

So, one question remains....

Where is the fabled tomb that contains the remains of Cleopatra and Antony?

One recent theory is that her tomb lies 30 miles outside of Alexandria, in the ancient temple site of Taposiris Magna.

Scientists have searched far and wide in and around Alexandria for clues, but the hunt continues for the elusive queen of Egypt and her Roman lover.....

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