Introduction
Think 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.
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.
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
Cleopatra's Death, https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/miscellanea/cleopatra/rixens.html.
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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