Following Odysseus Not the end of the world Amarna city of light ...

9108calculated, would drive Antonyto suicide. She was right. But evena successful suicide was beyondAntony’s capabilities. Injured, hewas taken to Cleopatra, hauled upon a rope into her own half-finishedmausoleum, in which she hadtaken refuge. About what happenednext,we can but speculate.Tradition tells how, cradled inCleopatra’s arms, he died of his selfinflictedwounds. Perhaps he did.Yet she must have known that hewas now more valuable to her deadthan alive. For her to be found nursinga maimed, yet living, Antonywould have wrecked any chanceshe might yet have had to negotiatesuccessfully with Octavian. If,in the privacy of the mausoleum,Cleopatra was moved to expediteher former lover’s death, shemay simply have believed herselfto be fulfilling the terms of a privateunderstanding with Octavian.To ‘keep her kingdom undisturbed’had, after all, been at the forefrontof her policies all along.Whatever the truth, with Antonydisposed of, Cleopatra spent thenext 10 days negotiating withOctavian. No records of theirconversations remain, and thetwo accounts that have survived(by Plutarch and Dio) diverge sowildly from each other that it isnot unlikely that they are both fictitious.No doubt Cleopatra tried towin Octavian over, as she had oncewon over Antony and Caesar beforehim; but the icy Octavian was altogethermore calculating than eitherof those hot-blooded conquerorshad been. In the end, Cleopatra wasfound dead.How she died remains a mystery.Plutarch recounts several versions:‘It is said that, following Cleopatra’sinstructions, an asp was brought into her, hidden under the leaves ina basket of figs, so that the snakemight bite her without her knowing.Others say that the asp wascarefully enclosed in a water-jarand that, as Cleopatra provoked itwith a golden spindle, sprang upand fastened on her arm. No-onereally knows the truth: there is evenanother version that she carriedpoison with her in a hollow hairpinwhich she kept hidden in herhair.’ We do know that no rash or119. Pair of gold snakebracelets. 1st centuryBC-1st century AD.10 Earthenware tileby John Moyr-Smith,showing Shakespeare’sAntony and Cleopatrac. 1875. H. 15cm. W. 15cm.11. Portrait of Antonyengraved on Romanred jasper intaglio setin a gold ring. Circa40-30BC. H. 1.4cm.Images on these pagescourtesy of the Trusteesof the British Museum.any other sign of poison showedon her body. As Plutarch says, ‘noonereally knows the truth’ – exceptperhaps Octavian. Cleopatra wouldnot be the last enemy of the statewhose death would be less troublesomethan her continued living.Almost immediately the Romanpropaganda-machine went intooverdrive, painting Cleopatra asa wanton seductress, a witch whohad corrupted and ensnared Rome’sfine upstanding son, Mark Antony.As the years went by, romantic fictionswamped cold fact. Cleopatra,the brilliant politician, gave way toCleopatra, the scheming siren andso, in 1934, when Cecil B DeMilleoffered Claudette Colbert the roleof the infamous Egyptian queen,he is said to have asked her: ‘Howwould you like to play the wickedestwoman in history?’ n• 31BC Antony, Cleopatra andthe Fall of Egypt by David Stuttardand Sam Moorhead is published inpaperback by The British MuseumPress at £9.99.• Cleopatra: The Search for theLast Queen of Egypt is on showat the California Science Center(www.californiasciencecenter.org)until 31 December 2012.Minerva November/December 201221