Cleopatra - How Nobility Dies

The Hellenistic Age begins with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and ends in 30 BC, with the death of Cleopatra. Cleopatra: These years together have been the happiest of my life. Mark Antony: We lived, didn’t we. Cleopatra: We did. (HBO Rome) Courage is the virtue that holds up all other virtues. The Courage to Live and the Courage to Die. Dio remarks that Antony immediately wished for his own death: “He first asked one of the bystanders to slay him; but when the man drew his sword and slew himself, Antony wished to imitate his courage and so gave himself a wound and fell upon his face, causing the bystanders to believe that he was dead.“Plutarch instead notes that he rammed the sword into his stomach, but still did not immediately die of his wound. In reality, the wound had not killed him and he was hoisted into the mausoleum, where he later allegedly died at Cleopatra’s bosom, likely on the night of August 1. And what of Cleopatra’s own suicide? on August 10 or 12 of 30 BCE, Cleopatra took her own life. Dio notes (): “No one knows clearly in what way she perished, for the only marks on her body were slight pricks on the arm.“ Many Roman historians alleged that she died via the bite of an asp, though this was a later edition to the story. HBO Rome Tribute Cleopatra Mark Antony Tribute Rome