Cleopatra: A Life

Cleopatra searches for allies, but finds she has few. Antony is in despair, dismissing his entourage and trying to live as a hermit before making his way back to the Alexandrian palace. Attempting to appease the Alexandrians, Antony and Cleopatra initiate a series of feasts and celebrate their children’s birthdays, but Octavian continues his pressure, demanding that Cleopatra murder Antony to keep her throne. Cleopatra builds a mausoleum next to a temple of Isis and heaps all of her treasure inside, threatening to destroy it if Octavian invades Egypt, holding him at bay for a time.

When Octavian does invade Alexandria, Cleopatra, recognizing Antony’s clear defeat, locks herself in her mausoleum, implying that she has killed herself, in order to “encourage Antony to kill himself” (273), as Antony had already promised to do to keep Cleopatra safe. Receiving the news that Cleopatra has died by suicide, Antony commands his servant to kill him, but the servant cannot bring himself to act, and kills himself instead. When Antony attempts to die by suicide, driving a sword through his torso, he is not immediately successful. Antony is brought to Cleopatra, where he dies in her arms.