did Cleopatra really use the asp to kill her?

Question

becuase on a tv detective forensic show, they said that may have been unlikely that the snake could have killed her and her 2 friends/ servant girls.....That means at that momnet of her death, the snake had to bite her and the others all at the right time place .................what is the truth?


Did anyone else watch that show and what do you think?? Thanks

Answer 1

I haven't watched the show, but

Antony committed suicide, having been told Cleopatra was dead. According to the doctor Olympus (an eye-witness), he was brought to Cleopatra's tomb and died in her arms.
On November 30, Cleopatra also died by snakebite. The ancient sources generally agree that she had two asps hidden in a fig basket so as she was eating she would never know when she would die. Her two handmaidens died with her.

Answer 2

Britannica says "possibly", Wikipedia says "allegedly".

"When Octavian visited her, Cleopatra tried yet once again to captivate the leading Roman. She used all her arts; she failed. She knew, then, that Octavian intended that she and her children should adorn his triumph. Rather than be dragged through the city in which she had been borne as a queen, she killed herself, possibly by means of an asp, symbol of divine royalty. Octavian, on receiving her letter asking that she might be buried with Antony, sent messengers posthaste. "The messengers," Plutarch says, "came at full speed, and found the guards apprehensive of nothing; but on opening the doors they saw her stone dead, lying upon a bed of gold, set out in all her royal ornaments." "

"Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator", Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000

"It is said that Cleopatra took her own life on November 30, 30 BC, allegedly by means of an asp."

"Antony committed suicide, having been told Cleopatra was dead. According to the doctor Olympus (an eye-witness), he was brought to Cleopatra's tomb and died in her arms. A few days later, on November 30, Cleopatra also died by snakebite. The ancient sources generally agree that she had two asps hidden in a fig basket so as she was eating she would never know when she would die. Her two handmaidens died with her."

"Cleopatra VII" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra

Answer 3

I didn't see the show but I know that some historians think that it was either asp or poison. Remember that the Greeks used Hemlock either as punishment or suicide and she was Greek.
And even if she had chosen asp the two handmaiden could still drink poison.
The fact that she suicided is not contested. Romans were not known for their tenderness, her life could have finished very uglily and she knew it.

Answer 4

i did watch the show you are talking about.
I don't believe that she killed her self there wasn't enough venom from one snake and in the time it takes for the venom to affect all of them someone would have made it to Cleopatra from the suicide letter she wrote.
i don't think we can ever really know the truth but i do not think a women like her would have killed herself it took allot for her to get where she was.