05-19-2008, 03:18 AM
All you say is true, barristers. :wink:
We have left the original thesis, though, and if Augustus had put Cleopatra to death, or ordered it so, I think he'd just have said so. It was normal enough in those days to kill the defeated monarch, particularly one with whom he had personal differences, and was the mother of Caesar's son, a potential trouble for later times. That would have been no shame for him, although I suspect he'd rather have her ritually killed in a public spectacle at a triumph after the reconquest of Egypt.
I still don't see why it's so hard just to accept that she committed suicide by venomous snake. That's what the ancient accounts seem to agree about, and it's not the least farfetched, though in similar circumstance, I think I'd go with something quicker that was administered either orally or by steel. Any of the three were honorable ways out at that time.
Whether the queen knew how to mix and formulate poisons, cosmetics, or egg omelettes isn't really the important question, as she had numerous people to do things like that, and probably didn't get her hands dirty in the garden, either, planting leeks. She more likely relied on those under her authority to do mundane tasks, like other monarchs of her day.
We have left the original thesis, though, and if Augustus had put Cleopatra to death, or ordered it so, I think he'd just have said so. It was normal enough in those days to kill the defeated monarch, particularly one with whom he had personal differences, and was the mother of Caesar's son, a potential trouble for later times. That would have been no shame for him, although I suspect he'd rather have her ritually killed in a public spectacle at a triumph after the reconquest of Egypt.
I still don't see why it's so hard just to accept that she committed suicide by venomous snake. That's what the ancient accounts seem to agree about, and it's not the least farfetched, though in similar circumstance, I think I'd go with something quicker that was administered either orally or by steel. Any of the three were honorable ways out at that time.
Whether the queen knew how to mix and formulate poisons, cosmetics, or egg omelettes isn't really the important question, as she had numerous people to do things like that, and probably didn't get her hands dirty in the garden, either, planting leeks. She more likely relied on those under her authority to do mundane tasks, like other monarchs of her day.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
