The Murder of Cleopatra Read online

  Published 2013 by Prometheus Books

  The Murder of Cleopatra: History’s Greatest Cold Case. Copyright © 2013 by Pat Brown. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a website without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Every attempt has been made to trace accurate ownership of copyrighted material in this book. Errors and omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions, provided that notification is sent to the publisher.

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  Cover design by Nicole Sommer-Lecht

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Brown, Pat, 1955-

  The murder of Cleopatra : history’s greatest cold case / by Pat Brown.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-1-61614-650-4 (pbk.)

  ISBN 978-1-61614-651-1 (ebook)

  1. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, d. 30 B.C. 2. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, d. 30 B.C.—Death and burial. 3. Queens—Egypt. 4. Egypt—Kings and rulers. 5. Egypt—History—332-30 B.C. I. Title.

  DT92.7.B78 2013

  932.021092--dc23

  2012040641

  Printed in the United States of America

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  NOTE TO THE READER

  PROLOGUE: THE MYTH OF CLEOPATRA’S DEATH

  Chapter 1: The Coldest Case

  Chapter 2: The Phantom Cobra

  Chapter 3: The Stage: Ancient Alexandria

  Chapter 4: The Making of the Queen:

  Part One—The Ancestors

  Chapter 5: The Making of the Queen:

  Part Two—The Macedonian Lineage

  Chapter 6: The Making of the Queen:

  Part Three—The Family

  Chapter 7: Cleopatra VII Becomes Queen

  Chapter 8: Julius Caesar

  Chapter 9: Mark Antony

  Chapter 10: Octavian

  Chapter 11: The Road to Actium:

  Part One—The Conflict

  Chapter 12: The Road to Actium:

  Part Two—The Partners

  Chapter 13: The Road to Actium:

  Part Three—The Preparations

  Chapter 14: Actium

  Chapter 15: Plan B—The First Attempt to Flee Egypt

  Chapter 16: Plan C—The Second Attempt to Flee Egypt

  Chapter 17: A Motive for the Murder of Cleopatra

  Chapter 18: The Unforeseen Murder of Antony

  Chapter 19: The Capture of Cleopatra

  Chapter 20: The Reconstruction

  Chapter 21: Octavian’s Triumph

  AFTERWORD: WHAT THIS NEW VIEW OF CLEOPATRA MEANS TO WORLD HISTORY

  Photo Insert

  NOTES

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  INDEX

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  This exploration of the life and death of Cleopatra VII has been one of the most fascinating adventures of my life, and, once I decided there was a story to tell, I knew I needed others along with me who wanted the ideas I developed to get out into the world. The journey started in 2003 with Discovery Channel and Atlantic Productions, and if they hadn’t selected me to analyze this part of history and be the host of The Mysterious Death of Cleopatra, this book likely would not have been written.

  Next I have to thank my wonderful and incredibly supportive literary agent, Claire Gerus, who believed in this book and fought to find a publisher who would believe in it is as well. She brought me to Steven L. Mitchell and Prometheus Books, who took this book on and brought it to fruition. I can’t thank Steven enough for choosing this story of Cleopatra for publication.

  Finally, I want to thank the people of Egypt for making my two trips so enjoyable, and, especially I want to thank Dr. Zahi Hawass, who oversees everything archeological in Egypt, who saw me without an appointment, and who set up my wonderful trip to Tapasoris Magna. And my utmost thanks to Dr. Said Gohary, whose hospitality and conversation along with his lovely wife, Dr. Jocelyn Gohary, made both my trips to Egypt so very special and helped me immensely in my understanding of ancient Egypt and the times in which Cleopatra lived.

  And, finally, my readers; thank you for having a mind that is open enough to read this new look at history and being willing to give Cleopatra the extra attention she has always deserved.

  —Pat Brown

  This book is an examination of the life and death of the last Egyptian pharaoh, Cleopatra VII, with an aim to uncover what really happened to Cleopatra and why. What is not contained in this study is a detailed and complete history of Rome and Egypt. If I endeavored to include such a thorough account of all the events of those days, this book would be a very large tome and it would defeat the purpose of this work, which is to focus on the most relevant issues leading to the queen’s demise. For this analysis of the death of Cleopatra, I have included the background information most pertinent to understanding Cleopatra and the Roman men in her life and the specific pieces of evidence that will illuminate what led to the final days of Alexandria. For more information about ancient times and the Roman and Egyptian world in which Cleopatra was born and died, I recommend Joyce Tyldesley’s Cleopatra and her other books on the queens of Egypt; Michael Grant’s Cleopatra; Anthony Everitt’s Augustus; Jean-Yves Empereur’s Alexandria Rediscovered; N. G. L. Hammonds’s The Genius of Alexander the Great; Adrian Goldsworthy’s Caesar; and Peter Green’s The Hellenistic Age. Any of Zahi Hawass’s books on Egypt and archeology or the books of Said and Joceyln Gohary on the Egyptian tombs and monuments will round out one’s understanding of the world of Egypt until the end of the Ptolemaic Dynasty at Cleopatra’s death in 30 BCE.

  When the sun rose over the city of Alexandria on the morning of August 12, 30 BCE, it did not shine down on the great Alexandria of Egypt, but the new Alexandria of the Roman Empire. The air was heavy with resignation and solemn respect for the passing of the queen and for the transfer of Alexandria into the hands of the Roman general Octavian. Cleopatra had provided a dignified conclusion to the great dynasty with her brave, if surprising, exit from the world.

  The story was simple, yet awe-inspiring. Octavian had been in the palace, and Cleopatra in her tomb with her two favorite handmaidens. Somehow, a cobra had been smuggled into the mausoleum hidden in a basket of figs. A soldier delivered a letter to Octavian in which Cleopatra explained that she was about to take her life with a request that her body be buried next to her beloved husband and Roman general, Mark Antony, who had already committed suicide a few days earlier, dying in the arms of his wife. Octavian immediately dispatched his men to the mausoleum to intervene and stop the queen from this rash course of action. However, by the time the soldiers arrived, Cleopatra was dead. Word was sent back to Octavian, “We were too late.”

  Unwilling to believe Cleopatra was truly dead, Octavian hurried to the mausoleum. He was stunned and angered by the sight of the motionless queen. This determined woman who had refused to yield at any time in her life, this enchantress who lured married Roman men into unfaithfulness and turned them against their countries, this queen who had refused to recognize his superiority in life, preferred death over submission to his sovereignty. He would now be unable t
o bring her back to Rome in shackles and parade her though the streets in his grand triumph—his final coup de grâce. Queen Cleopatra, the greatest prize in the entire world, had slipped out of his grasp.

  Hoping she was perhaps in a coma, the sleep that mimics death, Octavian desperately sent for the physician and for specialists in snake venom who might still find a way to save her. But the snake-venom experts had no remedies and the doctor pronounced her dead. All of this was witnessed by the soldiers, and after they left, Octavian met with his advisors.

  The story of Cleopatra’s death did not take long to spread beyond the compound, and soon the city was in mourning. Later that week, a wealthy friend of Cleopatra’s came to Octavian and gave him a large sum of money to maintain statues of the queen. Wishing to prove he was a moral leader who respected the sentiments of his new subjects, Octavian agreed.

  This is the account of Cleopatra’s death, a tale that has been dutifully retold for two thousand years. But the real story of how Octavian got away with the most perfect crime in history, the murder of Cleopatra, has never been uncovered until now.

  “I won’t be involved in any project just for the sake of it,” I told Atlantic Productions. The call had come in from London on my cell phone, which I tried to juggle as I shifted gears in an attempt to keep my car from sliding backward down an icy hill in the midst of a Midwestern snowstorm. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to any hotel on this trip; the storm was pretty bad and I was driving a BMW that should have been sitting in a garage.

  I was skeptical of the project. Yes, Cleopatra had always intrigued me as a child; the visuals of the scantily clad queen, a snake biting at her breast—these were powerful images that stayed in one’s mind. As I grew older, I would come across artists’ depictions of her death and wonder at the tawdriness of her final moments.

  I had questioned why any queen would purposely allow herself to be seen in such a manner, half-naked and sprawled out lasciviously on display. The cobra wrapped around her body always seemed a tad ridiculous. And I felt there were simpler, more effective ways to commit suicide that a rational person would more likely have chosen. Perhaps, I thought, Queen Cleopatra was simply the hysterical type, a queen by default rather than one of intelligence and strength. I had put her out of my mind until that day in Ohio.

  The project that Atlantic was calling about was part of the wave of television pitches that would pick a popular topic, find some issue to question or attack, whether or not there was really any valid reason to do so. Atlantic made quite a few Egyptian shows of this nature for Discovery Channel and now was probing the possibility of bringing up some new controversy about Cleopatra’s death.

  “I won’t be involved unless I can determine there is a legitimate reason to doubt that Cleopatra didn’t die by snake or didn’t commit suicide. I don’t make up stuff like a defense expert, just to get a payday.” The producers got my point but told me they wanted an answer as soon as possible—like, that day. Television folks have little patience.

  Looking at my map for the nearest, most populated location, I changed course and rolled into the nearest town with a large-enough bookstore, heading straight for the section on Egypt.

  I wasn’t expecting to come up with much, certainly not within the time frame given. I assumed I would read the very limited material by the early historians, skim some opinions of the modern-day historians, and call the network back with a “No, there is simply no evidence to determine anything; just a bunch of stories and conjecture.” End of project.

  But when I thumbed my way to the end of each Cleopatra book and read the story of her death, I became more and more intrigued. Not by the repetitive narration each historian seemed to parrot, but by the fact one basic story had been passed down through the centuries and had hardly been questioned by anyone, even experts in the field.

  The death of Cleopatra, though two thousand years old, is like any other cold case with a suspicious death scene. There is a body, there is a crime scene, and there are witnesses (even if they are only testifying to what they found after the deceased was discovered). Any good crime analyst knows that what one might think to be true on first glimpse may turn out to be completely incorrect when the evidence is analyzed.

  Scenes can be staged, family members might remove objects to cover up embarrassing facts or to ensure collecting insurance money, and the first people on the scene may disturb the evidence in their rush to help, or in their panic. Or they might be thieves simply taking advantage of the circumstances.

  All of these possibilities must be taken into account when attempting to determine what actually happened to the victim. And even this is not enough. An investigator must look into the behavioral history of the deceased and all the people and events connected with him or her. The culture and the actions of the inhabitants of his time and location must be considered as well.

  Finally, each aspect of the physical evidence must be factored in: the wounds, the position of the body, the time of death, the weapon, the location, the weather . . . every physical feature of the world encompassing the victim, and an assessment of how each feature might have affected the final moments of the victim’s life.

  The ancient crime scene of Cleopatra had to be treated in a like manner. One cannot simply accept the words of a few observers or “journalists” or politicians or later writers. What we think we know of a past event is often distorted, and unless we examine all the evidence to uncover the truth, the distortion will remain.

  I was shocked at the number of red flags that popped up from the pages of the historical accounts of the Egyptian queen’s final day. How was it that Cleopatra managed to smuggle a cobra into the tomb in a basket of figs? Why would the guards allow this food in and why would they be so careless in examining them? Why would Octavian, supposedly so adamant about taking Cleopatra to Rome for his triumph, be so lax about her imprisonment? Why would Cleopatra think it easier to hide a writhing snake in a basket of figs rather than slip poison inside one of the many figs? How did all three women end up dead from the venom? Wasn’t it unlikely that the snake cooperated in striking all three, releasing sufficient venom to kill each of them? Why was the snake no longer present at the crime scene? Was a brand-new tomb so poorly built that holes remained in the walls of the building? Why did the guards not look for the snake once they thought it had killed the women? Why were the wounds from the fangs of the snake not obvious? Why did the women not exhibit the symptoms of death by snake venom or even by poison? Why did the guards not see any of the women convulsing, vomiting, or holding their abdomens in agony? Why didn’t they see any swelling or paralysis of face or limbs or any foaming at the mouth?

  Now filled with questions, I began to work backward in the texts. Did the behaviors of Cleopatra and Octavian support a suicide? As a criminal profiler, one of the important tasks of analyzing crimes is reviewing the behavioral history of the players; no one acts outside of one’s own frame of thinking.

  With each step back in time from the end of Cleopatra’s life to the beginning, I discovered more and more evidence pointing to a radically different explanation of history than the ancients and Octavian wanted us to believe.

  I made the call back to England. “I’m in. Cleopatra was murdered.”

  My interest didn’t end with my work on the documentary The Mysterious Death of Cleopatra or my debunking of the death-by-snake theory or my assertion that Cleopatra was murdered. While I was in Egypt, Rome, and England working with Egyptologists, poison experts, archeologists, and historians of the ancient world, I began to piece together another, more credible story behind the death of Cleopatra.

  I believed Cleopatra was tortured.

  I believed Cleopatra was strangled.

  I believed Antony was murdered.

  I believed Cleopatra did not hide in her tomb with her treasure.

  I believed Cleopatra did not bargain with Octavian.

  I believed Cleopatra planned a brilliant military maneuver at Alex
andria, her Actium Two, which this time would not have been an escape strategy from a failed naval battle, but a faux naval battle to permit a successful escape from a dire military position that offered little hope of survival.

  I believed Cleopatra never loved Antony.

  I believed Cleopatra never loved Julius Caesar.

  I believed Cleopatra did not have Caesar’s son.

  I believed Cleopatra may have been one of the most brilliant, cold-blooded, iron-willed rulers in history and the truth about what really happened was hidden behind a veil of propaganda and lies set in motion by her murderer, Octavian, and the agenda of the Roman Empire.

  Now I had to prove it.

  The first place a criminal profiler goes when on a cold case is to the crime scene—or at least to where the crime scene had been. I traveled to Egypt in search of an archeological substitute for the tomb in which Cleopatra and her handmaidens supposedly committed suicide, and for the snake, the very kind of snake that could have struck down all three women in ruthless succession.

  Cairo is a city that never sleeps, at least not for the men who inhabit the coffee shops, smoking incessantly, chatting, playing Parcheesi, an enviable world for male camaraderie if it weren’t for the nearly 12 percent unemployment rate that allows for endless hours of leisure. The women of Egypt have certain constraints, but compared to the highly restrictive Muslim countries that surround them, they live in relative freedom. Head coverings are not required by law and in upscale areas of Cairo one can see Egyptian women sitting in cafés, hair cascading freely over their shoulders, tight jeans on their young bodies, arguing blithely with their male companions at their outdoor table, while both are smoking American cigarettes.

  I was new to Egypt and wanted to hide my blond hair. I preferred not be offensive to anyone and I wanted to dull any of the harassment that American and European tourists often experience, mostly from men trying to sell something. So, after settling my bags in my inexpensive hotel room (a four-floor walk-up with an iron-barred elevator in the lobby encased in so many layers of dust I didn’t even question the possibility that it was operable), I went shopping on the Talaat Harb, a spender’s mecca of fashionable apparel in the heart of Cairo. This was my second trip to Egypt, but instead of moving about with a “fixer” (the Egyptian manager who made sure the Discovery Channel production team and I got where we were going in comfort and safety), I was on my own. Without cameras tailing my every move, I was female, alone, unprotected, and with no celebrity attached to my appearance in public.