Cleopatra's Final Act: Egypt's Last Pharaoh Dies
Cleopatra VII, the last pharaoh of Egypt, died on August 12, 30 BC, probably by poison rather than the legendary asp bite. She was 39. Her death ended the Ptolemaic dynasty that had ruled Egypt since Alexander the Great's general Ptolemy I seized the throne in 305 BC. Cleopatra had gambled everything on her alliance with Mark Antony to resist Roman expansion, and when his forces collapsed at Actium and Alexandria, she chose death over the humiliation of being paraded through Rome in Octavian's triumph. Egypt became a Roman province, its grain feeding the empire's capital. The country would not have another native ruler until the 20th century.
August 12, 30 BC
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