Duane W. Roller

saw her suicide as an act of supreme courage. It was 10 August 30 b.c.,
and she was 39 years of age. 86
Olympos’s account of these events makes no mention of what became
the most famous aspect of Cleopatra’s death, the asp, or Egyptian cobra,
and in fact gives no cause of death. Plutarch discussed the asp only aft erward,
when it seems that he was no longer following Olympos’s report,
although the matter is introduced in such a way that Plutarch expected
the reader to know about it. Yet the discussion is full of reservations
and alternative versions, not only about the asp itself but the manner of
death, suggesting poison in some hollow implement, a more reasonable
but less romantic method. Th e word Plutarch used for the implement,
κνηστίς (knestis), is rare—an indication that it might be diction from
an accurate version of the queen’s death—and has the connotation of
something scratching. 87 Dio’s word is βελόνη (belone), a needle, which
to some extent confi rms Plutarch’s account. 88 Dio further noted that the
only marks on her body were pricks, also suggesting a needle or pin.
It is not diffi cult to see these marks evolving into asp bites. It was also
recorded that no one ever found the asp, but that Octavian and others
saw minuscule puncture wounds on her arm, 89 something not incompatible
with a pin or a needle. Th e curious basket of fi gs was seen as the
way of introducing the asp, but without any rational explanation about
its sudden appearance, and this account ignores the fact that the basket
would have been very large (the Egyptian cobra is several feet in length)
and that Cleopatra’s guards would not likely have been asked to help
themselves if an asp had been hidden in it. Yet it may be that the fi gs
provided the nucleus for the asp story.
One must also consider the prevalence of snakes in Egyptian lore.
Yet no source discusses the diffi culty of bringing the asp into Cleopatra’s
quarters and getting it to perform exactly as wished. Th ere would have
needed to be expert snake handlers on hand. Th e Egyptian cobra can
be fatal, but only if its venom is injected into a vital spot: otherwise the
victim is more likely to make a full recovery. 90 But the eff ects of such
a bite had been an object of study in Egypt since at least the New
Kingdom, and Cleopatra allegedly did her homework on the topic. Yet
all evidence is that it would be a complex method of death with little
certainty of success. Th e earliest extant historical account, Strabo, who
was in Alexandria at the time or very shortly thereaft er, writing with
no ideological bias, emphasized the divergent reports, suggesting either
the asp or a poisonous ointment. 91 But a few years later the Augustan
148 Cleopatra