Cleopatra has been poisoned… Again!
Posted On: Nov 30th, 2015 at 17:03
Egypt
Stunning news!
Cleopatra did not die of a snake bite!
Well actually this is not stunning news and neither is it news at all. Many writers at the time of Cleopatra’s death, and just after it, recorded death by snake bite which was taken from the original account of Strabo, who was not only alive at the time of her death but was also likely to have been in Alexandria. But Strabo also said that Cleopatra may have been poisoned – either by murder or self-inflicted, i.e. suicide.
The German historian Christophe Shaefer, in 2010, quite adequately provided evidence that Queen Cleopatra died of poison, the most likely culprit being a concoction of wolfsbane, opium and hemlock.
The only question is whether Cleopatra committed suicide or whether the poison was administered by the Romans, either through direct ingestion by force, or put into a food in which she then consumed.
Either way, the “academics at The University of Manchester” need to get with the programme and do something worthwhile instead of wasting public funds on already decided historical facts.
I think it’s most likely that Cleopatra committed suicide by ingesting poison since her lover, Mark Antony, had already stabbed himself with his own sword (ironically because he had been told a rumour that Cleopatra had already committed suicide) and was carried to her hiding place where he died in her arms.
There you go – I just gave you that deduction without wasting any public funds.
