Usor:Lesgles/Mors Cleopatrae

Roman painting from the House of Giuseppe II, Pompeii, early 1st century AD, most likely depicting Cleopatra VII, wearing her royal diadem, consuming poison in an act of suicide, while her son Caesarion, also wearing a royal diadem, stands behind herFormula:SfnpFormula:Sfnp

Mors Cleopatrae VII, ultimae Aegypti Ptolemaeicae reginae, die aut 10 aut 12 Augusti anno 30 a.E.V. Alexandriae, cum triginta novem annos nata esset. According to popular belief, Cleopatra committed suicide by allowing an asp (Egyptian cobra) to bite her. According to Greek and Roman historians, Cleopatra poisoned herself using either a toxic ointment or sharp implement such as a hairpin. Primary source accounts are derived mainly from the works of the ancient Roman historians Strabo, Plutarch, and Cassius Dio. Modern scholars debate the validity of ancient reports involving snakebites as the cause of death and if she was murdered or not. Some academics hypothesize that her Roman political rival Octavian forced her to commit suicide in the manner of her choosing. The location of Cleopatra's tomb is unknown. It was recorded that Octavian allowed for her and husband, the Roman politician and general Mark Antony, who stabbed himself with a sword, to be buried together properly.

Cleopatra's death effectively ended the final war of the Roman Republic between triumvirs Octavian and Antony, in which Cleopatra aligned herself with Antony, father to three of her children. Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt following their loss at the 31 BC Battle of Actium in Roman Greece, after which Octavian invaded Egypt and defeated their forces. Committing suicide allowed her to avoid the humiliation of being paraded as a prisoner in a Roman triumph celebrating the military victories of Octavian, who would become Rome's first emperor in 27 BC and be known as Augustus. Octavian had Cleopatra's son Caesarion (also known as Ptolemy XV), rival heir of Julius Caesar, killed in Egypt but spared her children with Antony and brought them to Rome. Cleopatra's death marked the end of the Hellenistic period and Ptolemaic rule of Egypt, as well as the beginning of Roman Egypt, which became a province of the Roman Empire.

The death of Cleopatra has been depicted in various works of art throughout history. These include the visual, literary, and performance arts, ranging from sculptures and paintings to poetry and plays, as well as modern films. Cleopatra featured prominently in the prose and poetry of ancient Latin literature. While surviving ancient Roman depictions of her death in visual arts are rare, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Modern works are numerous. Ancient Greco-Roman sculptures such as the Esquiline Venus and Sleeping Ariadne served as inspirations for later artworks portraying her death, universally involving the snakebite of an asp. Cleopatra's death has evoked themes of eroticism and sexuality, in works that include paintings, plays, and films, especially from the Victorian era. Modern works depicting Cleopatra's death include Neoclassical sculpture, Orientalist painting, and cinema.

Apud scriptores Romanos

Horatius:

[...] quae generosius
perire quaerens nec muliebriter
expavit ensem nec latentis
classe cita reparavit oras,
ausa et iacentem visere regiam
voltu sereno, fortis et asperas
tractare serpentes, ut atrum
corpore conbiberet venenum,
deliberata morte ferocior:
saevis Liburnis scilicet invidens
privata deduci superbo
non humilis mulier triumpho.

Statius:

[...] blando qua mersa veneno
Actias Ausonias fugit Cleopatra catenas.

Suetonius:

Et Antonium quidem seras condiciones pacis temptantem ad mortem adegit viditque mortuum. Cleopatrae, quam servatam triumpho magno opere cupiebat, etiam psyllos admovit, qui venenum ac virus exugerent, quod perisse morsu aspidis putabatur. Ambobus communem sepulturae honorem tribvit ac tumulum ab ipsis incohatum perfici iussit.

Solinus:

Plures diversæque aspidum species, verum dispares effectus ad nocendum: dipsas siti interficit, hypnale, quod somno necat, teste etiam Cleopatra, emitur ad mortem.

Bibliographia

Fontes interretiales

• "Cleopatra's tomb may have been found: Egypt's top archaeologist says the lost tomb of Mark Antony and Cleopatra may have been discovered.". SBS News. 24 February 2015 
• "Dig 'may reveal' Cleopatra's tomb". BBC News. 15 April 2009 
• "Cleopatra", The Walters Art Museum 
• "Inside a Dominican Archaeologist’s Drama-Filled Quest to Find Cleopatra’s Tomb". Remezcla.com. 24 April 2017 
• "Restorations of 19th century sculptures in Lille", The Art Tribune, 11 February 2016 
• "The Death of Cleopatra", Smithsonian American Art Museum 
• Grant, Michael; Badian, Ernst (28 July 2018), "Mark Antony, Roman triumvir", Encyclopaedia Britannica 
• Grout, James (1 April 2017), "The Death of Cleopatra", Encyclopaedia Romana (University of Chicago) 
• Maloney, William J. (2010), "The Death Of Cleopatra, A Medical Analysis Of The Theory Of Suicide By Naja Haje", Toxicology 1 (8) 
• Nuwer, Rachel (29 March 2013), "Maybe Cleopatra Didn't Commit Suicide: Her murder, one author thinks, was covered up behind a veil of propaganda and lies put forth by the Roman Empire", Smithsonian 
• Plutarch (1920), Plutarch's Lives, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University) 
• Rasmussen, Will (19 April 2009). "Archaeologists hunt for Cleopatra's tomb in Egypt" 

Fontes impressi   [[Categoria:Cleopatra VII]] [[Categoria:30 a.C.n.]] [[Categoria:Pages with unreviewed translations]]