04-27-2012, 07:06 PM
The idea of smuggling in something the size of a cobra without anyone suspecting seems a stretch. I've always heard it was an asp. I still lean toward the idea that Octavian having her done in. She was not one to just give in and kill herself, she was a schemer. As long as she was alive, there was a risk she might find yet another patsy to become her tool. I'm sure Octavian would have loved to parade her in his triumph, but he was also a pragmatic man as well, leaving her to plot and scheme against him would have been foolish and he was not a foolish man. He had already shown that he subscribed to the policy that a dead enemy is a safe enemy, this was no different. I think its quite possible suicide was only the official story, the reality being so to speak, she didn't jump, she was pushed. If Octavian wanted her alive, he could have easily prevented anything so obvious as an asp or a vial of poison from getting in, let alone someting the size of a cobra. Cleopatra was not leaving Egypt alive one way or another. Murder would have ended any further threats to Octavian's rule.
Caesar audieritis hoc
