On August 12, 30 BC, Cleopatra VII died at the age of 39 after being voluntarily bitten by an asp.
Cleopatra VII, the queen of Egypt who lived in the hearts of two legendary men: Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, was a radiant, beautiful woman and a famous female ruler in Egyptian history, even inspiring dozens of books and plays, like Dante’s Inferno or the figures of Marco Antonio and Cleopatra in the hands of William Shakespeare himself.
Born in the Macedonian dynasty in 69 BC. C., she was crowned the queen of Egypt and her brother Ptolemy VIII as king after the death of her father, King Ptolemy VII.
Cleopatra took the reins of the Egyptian empire in the year 51 a. C. after the death of her father Ptolemy XII Auletes. Although her family had spoken Greek for generations (the Ptolemies had gained control of the country when Alexander the Great’s kingdom split after her death), she did her best to learn some Egyptian so she could converse better with her. her subjects. Forced to marry her brothers according to local custom, she ruled with them separately. Using an affair with the powerful Roman general Julius Caesar, who defeated her brother Ptolemy XIII on the Nile, she managed to seize the throne.
Regarded as one of the most beautiful and cunning women in world history, Cleopatra VII ended up on the wrong side of Rome on August 12, 30 BC. C. and she committed suicide when Octavio’s legions marched towards Alexandria, the capital of Egypt. Although they had suffered a decisive defeat, almost a year passed before Octavian reached Alexandria and again defeated Mark Antony. And it is that, fearful and poorly equipped, the Egyptians ended up surrendering and abandoning Mark Antony in the field on August 1, 30 BC According to Roman tradition, the general fell on his sword in disgrace.
Although legend has it that she had an asp (symbol of divine kingship) biting into her chest after learning of her lover Mark Antony’s defeat at the Battle of Actium and subsequent suicide, there is no way of knowing for sure, although the The snake hypothesis is the one that carries the most weight. Be that as it may, what is certain is that the death of Cleopatra (which she herself tried to prevent by trying to seduce the triumphant Roman, albeit without success), opened the door for Rome to become the dominant power in the Mediterranean for centuries to come.
Octavian executed Cleopatra’s son Caesarion, annexed Egypt to the Roman Empire, and used Cleopatra’s treasury to pay his veterans. In 27 B.C. C., Octavio became Augustus, the first and possibly most successful of all Roman emperors. He ruled a peaceful, prosperous, and expanding Roman Empire until his death in AD 14. C. at the age of 75 years.
1877: Phobos and Deimos are discovered
The American astronomer Asaph Hall manages to discover the two natural satellites of the planet Mars, naming them with the names of Phobos and Deimos, which according to Greek mythology, are the children of Ares (Mars) and Aphrodite (Venus).
1866: Jacinto Benavente is born
On August 12, 1866, Jacinto Benavente y MartÃnez was born in Galapagar (Madrid), a Spanish writer and playwright who, later, in 1922, would win the Nobel Prize for Literature, leaving us such important works as “Los intereses creados”, “Lessons of good love” or “The ill-loved”.