Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Cleopatra by Henry Chen


Introduction
Image result for cleopatraThink about a super wealthy, pretty, predestined for greatness girl who dies a mysterious death. That girl is Cleopatra, an Egyptian Queen, and she was the last ruler of Egypt. She ruled Egypt at a young age due to the death of her father (“Cleopatra dies by suicide”1). Apparently, she died of suicide next to her dead husband, by poison, but could her death be murder, and someone is covering up? Let’s examine the conspiracy theory of Cleopatra’s death and find out the likelihood of her death by suicide.
Character Analysis
Cleopatra was the last queen of Egypt. Her life was very interesting, and becoming the ruler of Egypt at a young age has an impact on that. Due to her lack in decision making , her life consists of a lot of fighting, and the dispute she had with her younger brother caused a civil war, the land she wanted to make her more powerful, and even the men that fought over her were fighting to get her (“Cleopatra dies by suicide”1).  Cleopatra’s life was definitely something people would really like. Her life was so fulling. The civil war with her little brother caused a huge step back for their nation, a lot of lives were lost, and a lot of money was lost. Cleopatra lived a short life, dying at a young age. Her future would have been pretty good, but sadly she died. During this time people were basically slaves to her. She had a lot of power, but being so young influences your decision-making skills, “to further her influence over the Egyptian people, she was also proclaimed the daughter of Re, the Egyptian sun god” (“Cleopatra dies by suicide” 1). Her poor decisions lead her to die next to her lover, Antony. Her decisions on the wars she fought caused her a lot of problems, on war fought resulted into the death of her little brother, by her own hands. Cleopatra would be a better ruler if she had good decision-making skill. That would have made her a better ruler of Egypt.
 Cleopatra decisions on the men she fell in love with also caused problems. Most of those men are power rulers such as Julius Caesar, Octavian, and Alexander the Great. This led to a lot of conflict between many nations.  This shows that no one really knows what happened to Cleopatra, but this might be involved. Cleopatra was a very beautiful girl; she was well known for her looks. Being the last queen of Egypt, she was very wealthy. She had a lot of power being the oldest child; even though Cleopatra is a girl, she got the title of Ruler of Egypt (Tyldesley 1). After the death of her parents, Cleopatra was named ruler. Being pretty helped her get with powerful men, meaning they gain more land and power. But her beauty backed fired on her because she was hitting on a lot of powerful men, causing disturbance in her nation. This sense of greed was unhealthy, but Cleopatra is a ruler, so it was her duty to control land. “In this story, Cleopatra never loved Antony or Julius Caesar. Antony was murdered, and Cleopatra was tortured and strangled to death” (Nuwer 1) She has been with men that helped her conquered kingdoms that she wanted. Her good looks could only help so far because Cleopatra was not a very good decision maker. Thankfully, she had a lot of power, meaning she could make mistakes without taking the full effect from it. This caused a lot of problems for her nation. She was definitely one of the best looking person in Egypt. In the old day, people really valued beauty so if you had it people would worship you. People that were really good looking tends to live a better life than people are not really good looking. People are more attracted to people that are really good looking, making Cleopatra, someone that is really good looking, have a better life.  This made a lot of people worship Cleopatra due to her amazing looks. People got on their knees and praised her. Her beauty was out of this world, making her very hard to deceive, which is why she was an okay ruler of Egypt.
Image result for egypt
Cleopatra was very powerful; she was claimed to be the most powerful in Egypt. Being the last ruler of Egypt holds a lot of power. This title is not just given to anyone. The power she had was unbelievable; she had control over soldiers, food, weapons, and basically everything in Egypt. Cleopatra was also the last ruler of Egypt meaning that she had all the power from previous rulers to work with, “cleopatra ruled Egypt from 51 to 30 B.C. and was the last pharaoh before Egypt became a Roman province” (“Poison, not snake, killed Cleopatra Scholars Says” 1). The power she had she used unwisely because there were a lot of conflicts Cleopatra started that did not need to happen. First, she had a civil war with her little brother which ultimately destroyed the nation they lived in. This caused problems and lead to the death of little brother, he was decapitated by one of the most powerful men in the world Alexander that Great because Cleopatra was unset with his civil war they had fought Therefore, she did not protect her little brother form Alexander the Great. This cause her to not only lose a family member but it cost Cleopatra all of Egypt. She lost land because she was too young for all this power. Cleopatra wanted too much. She got more than she can handle, and that lead her to lose land and power. This lead to loss of soldiers, money and other goods. The power Cleopatra had was unhealthy for only one person to carry, meaning that this could have made her suicidal and killed herself. This is only a theory though. Cleopatra was a teenager when she was given this power and she died probably in her 20’s. It is safe to assume that maybe the power she had played a role in her death. This may or may not be true.
Conspiracy Theory
Cleopatra’s death is a mystery to everyone. No one really knows how she died, but there are theories about her death, such as suicide, poison, and torture to death. All these theories many have the possibility of it being true, but no one really knows. Historians have tried to uncover this mystery through historical artifacts and other historical evidence, but there isn't enough to prove what really happened to Cleopatra and how she really died. Historians tried their hardest to uncover this mystery, but no one could uncover it. Being the Last Queen of Egypt means that after her death Egypt lost its land. Knowing all this makes the death of Cleopatra very significant because her death caused Egypt to not be a country, and the land was taken from her. There are three popular theories that may have some truth in them. These are possible ways that the Last Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra, died.
Cleopatra dies due to suicide. This theory is very likely because Cleopatra found out that her lover died, so she took her own life. This story is similar to the story of Romeo and Juliet, and how one person took their life because of their lover’s death, but it turns out that the lover didn’t die. But ultimately, they ended up committing suicide. This theory is one that is most likely going to be true because it sounds the most reasonable. She took her own life because she didn’t want to live in a world without her lover, making her commit suicide. She was also having a stressful life ruling Egypt, giving her another reason to take her own life ( Nuwer 1). She was also a teenage girl when she was given the reasonability of a queen., so her brain hasn’t fully developed, resulting to her being a bad queen because it was too much to handle (Nuwer 1).  Being young and having a teenage mindset is hard when it comes to ruling a country. There are a lot of reasonability and hard decision when it comes to becoming a queen of a country, and Cleopatra just wasn’t ready for that task. This theory is believable because Cleopatra was having a hard life.
Cleopatra dies by poison. There’s a story about a poisonous snake biting Cleopatra which causes her death, but there is a theory proving that theory wrong (Gray 1). Cleopatra didn’t get bit by a snake, but she drank poison and that caused her death (Gray 1).  Dying by a snake bite is very horrible; it takes hours of pain for the poison to really get inside of the person, even if the snake were to bite your eyes (Gray 1). It’s claimed that Cleopatra died a quick and painless death, so therefore a snake bite would not provide that, making it an incorrect theory (Gray 1). But; her death could be still caused by poison. Cleopatra could have drunk poison from a potion, leading her into a painless and quick death. This could be considered suicide, but she could have accidently drunk poison. That is believable because she died next to a table, meaning she could have been eating, and someone put poison in her drink. That could be considered murder, but poison did kill her, so it’s death by poison. We don’t know if it’s true or not, but there’s a chance of it. It may be likely that it’s true because poison deaths were common during that time (Gray 1). Poison was easy to get and could easily be used to kill someone. Therefore, Cleopatra drank poison which caused her death.
Cleopatra was murder by Octavian. Octavian was supposedly with Cleopatra when she died, making the theory that he killed her believable (Cleopatra’s Death 1). Octavian is known for killing Cleopatra’s lover, Julius Caesar (Cleopatra’s Death 1). This theory states that Octavian strangled and torture Cleopatra to death (Nuwer 1). Octavian did have a motive and that was to get more land to rule over. Cleopatra was the queen of Egypt, making her a target because she had land. The likely hood of Octavian murdering Cleopatra is very high. He was also noted to be near Cleopatra’s dead body when she was found. This confirms that Octavin could have been involved with Cleopatra’s death, being next to her during her death, and being found around her. That makes it pretty obvious that he was involved with her death. Making this theory very possible of it being true.
After looking at all the possible theories of Cleopatra’s death, what do you think happened to Cleopatra? How do you think she die? Could her life be taken by suicide? Maybe poison? Or maybe she was murdered? No one really knows the true reason of Cleopatra’s death. This makes all these conspiracies fun to look at. Cleopatra’s death is very interesting and worth the research.Image result for octavian roman
Conclusion
Cleopatra was held to a very high standard for a girl. She inherited her family’s name and became the Last Queen of Egypt. She was super wealthy, pretty, and was predestined for greatness. Cleopatra was full of power, and influence. She basically had everything. Her life was setup for her, but sadly she died a short life. How did she die? Is it by suicide? Is it by Poison? Is it by Murder? Based on the information I have gather, the conspiracy theory that matches the death of Cleopatra is that she was murder.


Work Cited
Editors, History.com. "Cleopatra Dies by Suicide." HISTORY, 9 Feb. 2010,
Gray, Melissa. “Poison, Not Snake, Killed Cleopatra, Scholar Says.” CNN, Cable News Network, 30 June 2010, http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06/30/cleopatra.suicide/index.html.

Nuwer, Rachel. “Maybe Cleopatra Didn't Commit Suicide.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 29 Mar. 2013, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/maybe-cleopatra-didnt-commit-suicide-12023891/
"Poison, Not Snake, Killed Cleopatra, Scholar Says." CNN - Breaking News, Latest News and
Tyldesley, Joyce. “Cleopatra.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 28 July 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cleopatra-queen-of-Egypt.


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