The decadent Lagids'dynasty was especially interested in drugs and poisons meanwhile Alexandria became a prestigious center of learning and the first medical center of the ancient world. Scholars dedicated to toxicology would research in the famous Museion and the Hellenistic rulers of Alexandria and other kingdoms had court physicians specialized in pharmacology and venoms. As the last member of Ptolemaic Dynasty, Cleopatra VII inherited the throne and also the great inclination of Ptolemies towards medicine and science. In this city toxicological education seems to have had its most systematic development, and for Galen [1] "human and prompt executions' were made in Alexandria with the intervention of cobras". Attracted by the knowledge of venoms and poison, Cleopatra began to test them on condemned prisoners to see the different reactions produced in the body and found toxic limits. When she decided to commit suicide, the use of poison would make sense given the possibility to choose the best one to get a quick and relatively pain free death. Knowing that oral poisons would cause disturbances as painful spasms, nauseas, abdominal cramps and slow end, she presumably compared the major effects of venemous snakebites caused by the various species living in Egypt, specially three families: vipers, hydrophids and elapids. Cleopatra probably realized that viper bites generally produce violent local pain with inflammation, oedema, skin discoloration, pustules, vomiting and blood loss. With the cobra venom, hemotoxic or neurotoxic, instead, death could happen within half an hour, by respiratory failure and general paralysis without leaving any trace on the flesh, though. It has been said that Cleopatra used the cobra to kill herself because it would also make sense in terms of Egyptian mythology, being associated with the sacred uraeus worn by the pharaohs. However, there are several problems with this theory and some scholars recently argue it's more likely she would drank a cocktail of drugs or applied a toxic ointment, as Strabo suggested. Studying the different poisons and the snakes that she could have selected and the symptoms and consequences that they could produce in her body, we'll try to delve into her possible lucubrations and reflexions, weighing the difficulties in each case. Undoubtedly, the mysterious end of Cleopatra remains unsolved, offering a constant source of legends and theories. Keeping this in mind we will try to present the pros and cons of each of her possible decisions.

Abstract Two of Fulvia’s sons, Curio and Antyllus, died at Alexandria alongside Antonius and Cleopatra in 30 bce. Her other two sons flourished in reign of Augustus, as Octavian was then known. Claudius, almost an adult when his mother died, reached the praetorship. Iullus was just a toddler when Fulvia died. He became a close confidant of Augustus and was honored with a consulship in 10 bce. He committed suicide eight years later, after being accused of adultery with Augustus’s daughter. Fulvia’s nachleben in popular media (art, literature, and drama) is in keeping with her treatment by ancient sources: they focus on tales of her cruelty and greed, and they often allow her to be overshadowed by the more sexualized characters of her sister-in-law, Clodia, and her romantic successor, Cleopatra. Fulvia’s historical legacy is best seen in the precedents she set for the brazen women of Rome’s imperial house.

Ron M Brown Reaktion Books, £25/$29.95, pp 253 ISBN 1 86189 105 9 Rating: ![Graphic][1] ![Graphic][2] Reaktion publishes books integrating history and images. Brown's punningly titled volume both divides suicides into sinful and heroic, and also surveys their images in European art. In antiquity voluntary death was distinguished from self murder (Socrates, Sophonisba, Seneca) ordered by rulers, and from the deaths of brave fighters (Cato, Antony and Cleopatra) who killed themselves to avoid capture and degradation. Others in literature died because they had, or believed they had, lost their lover. Ovid's Pyramus thought Thisbe dead and killed himself. Thisbe did likewise. Shakespeare had Romeo and Juliet, and Ophelia. The instrument of death was important. Death from … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif [2]: /embed/inline-graphic-2.gif

that if she cheated him of her life, by suicide, her children would suffer, and she finally … no one knows', but Caesar believed she died by the asp, and in his victory proces- sion … should be honourably interred. *When Cleopatra died,' Plutarch concludes, 'she was forty years

Abstract When Antony and Cleopatra died by suicide in 30, Octavian executed their adult sons. Unusually, Octavia took charge of their surviving children. Octavia oversaw the education of the children of Antony by Fulvia, Cleopatra, and herself, as well as her three children from Marcellus. Evidence reveals her contact with contemporary philosophers, scholars, and poets; she helped develop the ideal of educated motherhood. Octavia also arranged their marriages. In contrast to the Triumviral trend that sealed peace agreements between enemies with marriages, under Augustus members of his extended family wed each other, closing off the imperial family. Octavia’s son Marcellus wed Augustus’s daughter Julia, for example. In turn, Octavia arranged the marriage of Cleopatra Selene and Juba II, who were set up at monarchs of Mauretania. Thus, Octavia’s traditional matronal skills in social networking led her to help construct an imperial family and an empire of elite families loyal to it.

Cleopatra till 44, when he died , probably by Cleopatra’s contriving. From then till her death in 30, her son, born in 47, and asserted by Cleopatra to

Cleopatra VII, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, died on either 10 or 12 August, 30 BC, in Alexandria, when she was 39 years old. According Cleopatra VII, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, died on either 10 or 12 August, 30 BC, in Alexandria, when she was 39 years old. According to popular belief, Cleopatra killed herself by allowing an asp (Egyptian cobra) to bite her, but according to the Roman-era writers Strabo, Plutarch, and Cassius Dio, Cleopatra poisoned herself using either a toxic ointment or by introducing th Cl…