Cause of Cleopatra’s Death: Suicide. But How?

We thought we knew – by a bite of an asp.

Impossible!, says Christoph Schaefer, professor of history at the University of Trier. Cleopatra must have understood that a bite of the cobra is not always fatal and that on the occasions when it does work it takes hours of pain and anguish. (The asp is also known as the Egyptian cobra.) She died in August in 30 BC when the temperature was extremely high and no snake would have had the energy to bite. (No snake has been in Toronto this week.)

The historic truth is that Cleopatra died from drinking a mixture of poisons. A predecessor of Professor Schaefer, the Roman historian Cassius Dio, wrote two hundred years after the event that Cleopatra died “a quiet and pain-free death.”

We have not heard whether the organizers of this summer’s exhibition in Philadelphia, Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt, have heard of the findings of either Cassius Dio or Christoph Schaefer. At any rate, the bartenders in the City of Brotherly Love have not heard of them. They offer a liquid tribute to her called The Viper. Other concoctions: Cleopolitan (vodka with Goldwasser-soaked watermelon cubes topped with gold dust), or a Nefertini (raspberry vodka, Chambord and pomegranate topped with prosecco and a rosemary sprig).

A highlight of the exhibition is a sphinx representing Cleopatra’s father, Ptolomy X11, discovered underwater.

Source: The Globe and Mail