The Library › Reel II · The Queen Bee

Did Cleopatra die from the bite of an asp?

That is the famous version, but the ancient writers hedged. Plutarch gives the asp hidden in a basket of figs, then an asp in a water jar, then poison in a hollow comb, and says plainly that ‘the truth of the matter no one knows.’ No snake was found in the room. Cassius Dio says the only marks were slight pricks on her arm.

The receipts

1. Plutarch, Life of Antony, 85-86 (Loeb translation), LacusCurtius, University of Chicago
2. Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book 51, 14, LacusCurtius, University of Chicago

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