Camp Gagnon - The DEADLIEST Queen in Egyptian History

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

Today we dive into the history of Cleopatra VII—the queen who charmed Julius Caesar and famously seduced Mark Antony as the goddess Aphrodite. We track her ruthless political maneuvers, the brutal smear campaign against her, the massive Battle of Actium, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death and burial site. Welcome to HISTORY CAMP! 🏕️Shoutout to our sponsors: Flakes Visit https://byeflakes.com and use code 'CAMP' to get 20% off, a free scalp brush, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.👕🧢 SHOP CAMP MERCH HERE: http://camp-rd.com🎟️ 🎫 Comedy Tour Tickets Here: https://markgagnonlive.com🎩👽 Daily Dose Of History Here: https://www.dailytodayinhistory.comTimestamps:0:00 Creation of Alexandria + Pure Bloodline5:02 Cleopatra Marries Her Brother + Civil War7:57 Julius Caesar Takes Over + Cleopatra Seduces Caesar10:58 Embodying Goddess Isis13:17 The Divine Bloodline + Ides of March16:04 Cleopatra Seduces Marc Antony as Aphrodite18:06 Cleopatra? WOULD.19:40 Inimitable Livers + Kids Given Territories22:08 Octavians Smear Campaign + Battle of Actium25:01 Death of Cleopatra29:28 The Tomb of Cleopatra31:52 The Scholarly Thoughts#history #camping #podcast #historyfacts #mystery #ancient #war #culture #knowledge #education #information #campgagnon

One of the most famous women in Egyptian history wasn't even Egyptian. She was a Greek Macedonian who allegedly spoke nine languages and became the first Ptolemy in 300 years to learn Egyptian. She probably also wasn't the stunning beauty that Hollywood made her out to be. She was a ruthless political genius who declared herself the living God of ISIS. She smuggled herself inside a linen sack to meet Julius Caesar and convinced Mark Antony she was the reincarnation of the goddess Aphrodite. This is the story of Cleopatra, a Greek Macedonian queen who became the last pharaoh of Egypt. So, sit back, relax, and welcome to History Camp. What's up, people, and welcome back to History Camp.

My name is Mark Gagnon, and thank you for joining me in my tent where every single week we explore the most interesting, fascinating, controversial stories throughout all history, forever from all time, always. Yes, this is my attempt to understand everything that's ever happened on this big, beautiful blue planet we call Earth. And there's been lots of stuff going on, and I'm just trying to catch up. All right, I just got here. So there's a lot of stuff to get into, all right? And as always, I want to thank you for tuning in. The show is not possible without you, the lovely viewer at home that keeps the fire burning. It's also not possible without, my dear friend, Christos Paccadabodos.

How are you, pal? Doing great part. All right, Christos, we are talking about Cleopatra, all right? We don't have time to be delving into your personal details, okay? I know you had a big New Year's, all right? You're with a harem of women. You were in Ibiza on a yacht. Allegedly.

Allegedly. But people don't want to hear about that, all right? They want to hear about Cleopatra, the most famous Egyptian who was in a Egyptian. Yes. Now, a few things on this. Let me just start by saying, I'm not Egyptian. I wasn't raised Egyptian. I don't, I'm not a historian. This is just stuff that I researched, okay? So, feel free to drop a comment if you are an Egyptian historian. You want to correct the record. But we are diving into who this woman was and why she is so captivating and why we think we have a perception of her. You know what I mean? Like every year on Halloween, there's some girl that shows up to

the club dressed as Cleopatra, always a baddie. And you got to think, like, is that really what Cleopatra look like? Does she really have just like a bob and bangs? I doubt it, right? Probably not. Also, if you hear some chuckles in the background, I'm also joining my way. Dear pal David, Kepasa. What's up, dude? Thank you so much for joining us, guys. This is, this is going to be a fun one. Okay. Now, just off top, people are going to get pissed because I know there's some folks out there. They're like, no, Cleopatra, not only was she Egyptian, she was black. A lot of, this has been a thing that people say, I don't know the detail. All I can tell you is that most historians agree

that she was Greek Macedonian. You're welcome, Christos. She was a Greek woman. Just Greek. Is that just Greek? You don't even giving any credit to Macedon? Come on, dude. She was probably born in 69 BC.

Come on now. Into the Ptolemaic dynasty, basically the dynasty of Ptolemy, who was a Greek Macedonian royal and created this royal dynasty that basically ruled Egypt for three hundred years. Her ancestor, Ptolemy the first, was one of Alexander the Great's bodyguards and one of his highest generals. So Alexander the Great, if you don't know, we did a whole episode on him,

go check it out. He basically starts conquesting the world and just goes around everywhere, goes to Egypt, goes to Alexandria, right, creates, well, it's not Alexandria at the time, it's just a little beach. But then he turns it into Alexandria named after himself. And who does he put to run it, he puts his pal Ptolemy. So, Ptolemy has some kids, and down the line, we get Cleopatra. So when Alexander dies in 323, the entire, you know, the entire empire gets split up. But here's where it gets weird. For three centuries, the Ptolemy's ruled Egypt, but stayed completely separate from Egyptian culture, right? They spoke Greek, they worshipped Greek gods, and they married within their own bloodline to keep their families pure. Yes, they were linking with the

steps this is, if you will. And when they get married within their family, I mean, literally, like they're just marrying, like some people speculate, historians will speculate, that Cleopatra's parents were likely siblings, which was a pretty common practice in the Ptolemaic tradition. Because again, bloodlines are the most important thing that you can have specifically in the ancient world, oftentimes because they were descendants from gods, so to speak. And so you got to keep the godly blood internal. So that means Cleopatra's mom got stuck in a Egyptian washing machine and now we have Cleopatra. Her father is said to be Ptolemy the 12th and her mother, the historians are not exactly

sure who she was, but it is suspected that she is Cleopatra the fifth trifena, or trifina, as my dear pal Christos would correct me. Now, the Ptolemy's married their siblings because, again, they believed that they were divine, like Egyptian gods, right? Plus they kept, you know, keeps power concentrated and prevents foreign royal families from having influence. And if you know anything about, you know, ancient history, even today to an extent, you got to keep the people with power, you know, internal. But by Cleopatra's time, this inbreeding had created some issues.

Most of her recent ancestors had been weak and ineffective and, you know, barely spoke to their Egyptian subjects at all. And as a result, it creates this, you know, class system where the people that are being ruled kind of don't really respect or like the ruling family. But Cleopatra was different. She was the first Ptolemaic ruler in 300 years to actually learn Egyptian. It is said that she mastered Hebrew, Arabic, Ethiopian, and at least four other languages. More importantly, she understood something that her ancestors missed, that if you want to rule Egypt, you've got to get the Egyptians on your side. Otherwise, you're going to be facing a revolution.

So when Cleopatra is born, Egypt is technically independent, but basically just a client state of the Roman Empire. So, you know, it looks independent on paper, but in reality it depends on Rome for protection and also money and financing and survival in general. So when Cleopatra was a young woman, her father had been kicked out by his own people and he only got the throne back because Rome basically supported him and needed him to be in charge in order to continue pimping out the Egyptian economy. So growing up, she watched her father constantly get humiliated not only by people internally within Egypt and the courts within Alexandria, but also by Roman. politicians who just treated Egypt like an ATM. Like they were just

going in there jacking it. So Romans would show up and they'd want some loans and they'd want some exports and all the stuff that was growing in this very fertile part of the country and part of the world. And they basically threatened to do a regime change if they didn't get paid. It's not familiar?

This taught her two crucial lessons, right? First, Rome is the real power in the Mediterranean. And secondly, the only way to survive was to make you basically indispensable to the right Roman. So she understands the political game from a very early age. Then in 51 BC, she's about 18 years old, her father dies and leaves the throne to both Cleopatra and her 10-year-old brother, Ptolemy the 13th. And according to Egyptian tradition, they're supposed to get married to each other and rule this, you know, client state together. But despite the marriage,

Cleopatra has no intention of sharing power with this 10-year-old little brother, right, slash husband's brother. So within three years, she begins issuing decrees in her own name and just sidelining her brother entirely. And his court advisors, who were worried about being pushed out of power, rallied around this boy and framed Cleopatra as a threat to Egypt's stability. And this is like just the classic story with, you know, ancient empires is there's just constant battles for secession and constant battles for who's actually going to take over power. So shortly after, these political moves turned into open rebellion and backed by Alexandria's military and bureaucracy. Her brother's faction forced Cleopatra to leave Egypt, just fully flee,

and it triggered like a civil war, basically, right? Which if you're Ptolemy the 12th, you got to know you can't have two rulers. Like, that's just bad, just bad etiquette, right? You just pick one. And as a result, he didn't, he picks two. Immediately there's infighting, and a civil war breaks out. And this is where most people would have given up, but Cleopatra starts raising her own army in Syria. Yeah, she's preparing to basically fight her way back when something unexpected happens.

A man shows up in Alexandria, and that man is Julius Caesar. So, 48 BC, Julius Caesar is chasing his rival Pompey across the Mediterranean. And we did a whole episode on Julius Caesar or any kind of his beef with Pompey, you should check that out. We go over this story in detail, but just for a brief overview, Pompey is fleeing to Egypt, expecting to be given safety, but the advisors of Cleopatra's brother, Tommy the 13th, sees this as an opportunity.

In hopes of proving their loyalty to Caesar, they murder Pompey, and they present his head to Caesar as a gift. Now, you would expect Caesar to be pretty stoked on this, right? He's not. He's disgusted. Pompey was an enemy, but he was a good. also a Roman senator and in some ways a friend like a rival pal co-worker dude you know so having him murdered by foreigners is is an insult to Julius Caesar who's like yo I can handle my own biz

it's also an insult to like the Roman dignity like hey we can't have this basically a Roman colony like murdering our politicians so what does Caesar do he occupies Alexandria declares martial law and demands that Cleopatra and her brother settle the dispute in front of him, which, I mean, so funny if you're in Ptolemy's court, Ptolemy the 13th, and you're like, hey, we have a great idea. Julius Caesar's guys over here, Pompey, we're going to kill him, and Caesar's going to be stoked. And they just see this thing backfire, and they're like, oh, shit. Dude, we did not anticipate him losing it on us.

So this is where Cleopatra pulls off one of the greatest political moves in history, all right? She knows that she can't just like walk into the palace, right? Like her brothers, people control the city and will probably just kill her. Okay? Like if she shows up, all of a sudden, she's dead. And then Ptolemy the 13th is like, well, I guess I'm in charge. But she also knows that this is her chance to make a personal impression on one of the most powerful men in the Mediterranean, definitely in Rome. So she has herself smuggled into the palace wrapped up in a linen bag.

Yeah, think about that. She's literally betting her life that Caesar will be intrigued, rather than annoyed by this theatrical entrance. And it's high stakes, right? Because Caesar's one of these guys, it's hard to predict exactly what he's going to want. She might show up, pop out the bag, be like, surprise. And then he's like, what are you doing?

This is absurd and a mockery to what it means to be, you know, a Roman colony, you know, so we're going to kill you. But she ends up being right. Caesar is thought to be like 52 years old at this point and very experienced with basically every different type of political manipulation. But he's absolutely charmed. by this 21-year-old queen who has the audacity to smuggle herself into the palace to present herself and her case to why she's the rightful ruler and pharaoh of Egypt. So within, you know,

a day, they're friends, within a few hours, they're lovers, and within days, Caesar has decided that Cleopatra is going to rule all of Egypt and basically oust her brother. But this isn't just a romance, right? This is a mutual beneficial alliance. climate. Cleopatra needs Roman military support to secure the throne. Caesar needs Egypt's wealth and to fund his own political moves back in Rome, everybody wins, right? But once she isn't back in power, Cleopatra is something unprecedented. Not only is she like, hey, I'm the Pharaoh, I'm ruling everything. She, according to the records, declares herself the reincarnation of the goddess Isis. Yes, ISIS was the most popular goddess in Egypt associated with magic and motherhood and protection. And this does. a bunch of things. It's, you know, not only propaganda. It's a political strategy that solves all sorts of problems. First, it gives her legitimacy within the Egyptian priest class who never fully accepted this outside, you know, Greek, Macedonian, Ptolemaic rule. And this is something you see all throughout, you know, history, that you have the ruling priestly class that's

connected to the divine, then you have the monarchio class, the, you know, power hierarchy that controls like the day to day. And they're almost always at odds with each other. And so, as a result, you need to come up with some type of way to fuse both of them. I mean, Henry the 8th is a classic example, right? He's rule in England, but the Catholic Church has some sway, so he's like, you know what, start my own church. And this happens time and time again, and Cleopatra is no exception. Secondly, what this does is it sets up a narrative where opposing Cleopatra means you're literally opposing ISIS. You're opposing the gods themselves. And third, Isis worship was spreading throughout the Roman world. So by identifying herself with ISIS, not only is she positioned yourself

as a religious figure within Egypt, but also a religious figure throughout the entire Roman Empire. But she's also careful to present herself differently to different audiences. So to Egyptians, she was this living incarnation of ISIS, but to the Greeks, she's a queen, and to the Romans, she is a political ally. So with this one move, she kind of satisfies everyone all at once. But her religious dimension really becomes crucial

because Cleopatra genuinely seems to believe in her own divine status. So ancient sources describe, these elaborate religious ceremonies where she literally appears as ISIS, like dressed up in like this whole grand ritual with, you know, sacred regalia and these mystic rituals. And this takes us into the next chapter, this divine bloodline. So by 47 BC, Cleopatra gives birth to a son named Cesarian, which literally means just little Caesar, not like the pizza.

Like just like literally like Caesar, but little like, you know, like, what's like Chichiturito? That's a classic. What's like a little nickname for like a little Latino kid? Gordito. Gordito, the son of Gordo. But this is the Roman version. Now, one little side note. A lot of people think C-section, like C-Sycerian comes from Caesar.

Like there's a myth that's like, oh, Caesar was born C-section, so that's where C-Soran comes from. It's technically not the case that this is technically different. C-Syrian is spelled differently than C-Syrian section. But it comes from the Latin word to cut, which, you know, makes sense. You cut people out when you do a C-section. Just a little side note. Now, she claims that Caesar is the father, which now creates a massive storm in Roman politics, right?

Caesar already has political enemies in Rome who are suspicious of his relationships with this foreign queen. And if he acknowledges Cesarian as his son, he's essentially admitting that he placed Egyptian interests ahead of Roman ones. And if Cesarian is Caesar's true son, then Cleopatra has created her own heir who carries Roman power and divine Egyptian authority. which again, for the Ptolemy's, they haven't done in 300 years. They've always kept it within the Ptolemaic bloodline, but now she's just introduced this Roman dude, Caesar. Now, Caesar never officially acknowledges being Cesarian's father, but he also doesn't deny it, right?

He brings Cleopatra to Rome and places her in a villa across the river, where she basically lives openly kind of as his mistress. And this is scandalous, even by Roman standards, right? Roman wives were supposed to be modest and stay out of politics and just kind of raise the kids who were going to be a future, you know, princes and kings, and foreign queens were supposed to stay in their own country. So this crosses a bunch of lines. But here was Cleopatra, hosting dinner parties for Roman senators and commissioning statues of

herself as ISIS and just basically behaving like she runs Rome. Now, Roman writers describe her as arrogant and manipulative, but they also admit that she's incredibly intelligent and well-educated. She can discuss philosophy with Roman intellectuals and debate politics with senators and charm dinner guests with these crazy stories from a Egyptian history. What's up, guys? We're going to take a break real quick because we've got to have some real talk, all right? If you've ever brushed off white flakes from a black t-shirt, okay, that's not dry scalp or whatever you're telling yourself, right? That's dandruff. And

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Your black shirts are actually going to be black again. the itch on your scalp is gone. That's the Flake's promise. Now, let's get back to the show. Now, this situation becomes really difficult to maintain when Caesar's enemies start openly accusing him of planning to make himself king of Rome with Cleopatra as his queen.

And this leads to March 15th, 44 BC, better known as the aides of March. Caesar is assassinated in the Roman Senate, causing Cleopatra to then flee back to Egypt with her son Cesarian, but her position is now incredibly dangerous. dangerous, right? She's just lost this amazing alliance she had with the future emperor of Rome. Now, Caesar's death creates a power vacuum in Rome, and everyone knows Egypt is the prize that will

fund whoever wins coming out of this struggle for power. Now, after Caesar's death, the Roman world splits between Caesar's adopted son, Octavian, who later becomes Augustus Caesar, and Caesar's top general, Mark Antony. Remember that name. Antony gets control of the Eastern Mediterranean, which happens to also control Egypt, while Octavian takes control. While Octavian takes control of the Western world. That's like Italy, Spain, Gaul, aka France. And in 41 BC, Mark Antony summons Cleopatra to meet him in Tarsus to have a diplomatic meeting about Egypt and its future. And this is where Cleopatra stages her second legendary entrance. Again, Cleopatra was able to impress Julius Caesar showing up in the bag, popping out, what's good. So she's like, maybe I can do the same

thing with old Mark Anthony. So she sails to meet him dressed as Aphrodite. arriving on a gold barge with these massive purple sails and like these clouds of incense. And it's like this whole performance that is designed this specific way because Antony likes to present himself as the god Dionysus. Now, in the Greek faith and the Greek religion, these gods represent different forces. And Aphrodite, you probably know, is like the goddess of love or whatever. But it's more than that. She rules desire and attraction and persuasion and the loss of self through passion.

So when Aphrodite shows up in, you know, different myths, people stop thinking rationally and start acting on just pure emotional impulse. Dionysus, on the other hand, ruled intoxication and ecstasy, in theater, and chaos. He goes against the social order with wine and madness and, you know, the feelings of becoming something other than yourself. And together, they govern the same human experience, which is ultimately losing control and giving into impulse. So when Cleopatra appears as Aphrodite to meet Anthony, she's turning their alliance into, like this role play living myth that the ancient world that they lived in would have instantly recognized. And once again, it works. This is what's crazy. Anthony is just completely captivated, not just by the show, but just by Cleopatra herself. And again, this is where you get so many

the stories of her being like this beautiful seductress. People dispute this. Let's get a picture of old classic Cleopatra. This would be helpful right now. But again, ancient sources describe her as charismatic and intellectually brilliant, but they don't really refer to her as beautiful. Even Plutarch writes that Cleopatra's beauty alone wasn't extraordinary, which crazy diss, right? Probably didn't need to include that, but he did. But he did say that her intelligence and her voice and her conversational skills made her irresistible. I mean, so yeah, this is the Hollywood version that people see with the bangs. I mean, would.

But yeah, yeah, what's this one? That one, World History Encyclopedia. I mean, she's cute. That's a good-looking woman. She's cute, right? Now, imagine that woman, but also knows nine languages. It's kind of a military hawk. Yeah, it's like a beast, like knows how to manipulate people, like knows philosophy.

Six to a nine right there. Yeah, easily. Easily. Like, I mean... That's not even at six. That's a seven. Yes, yeah. But she's in Alexandria at 10.

She's an Alexandria. Also, Christo's 10. Also, a priestos 10. I mean, I'm just... A miles 15. Easily. Easily. So, again, you can see where the myth kind of comes from.

But again, she's not bad-looking. I think Plutarch's explanation is pretty good. It's not extraordinary. But she's a beast. Would? Absolutely. So within weeks, Anthony just abandons his planned military campaigns and follows Cleopatra back to Alexandria,

where he then spends the next year living in her palace, which, I mean, she's running. She's running the show. That's also got to be a metaphor for something. Right? He has all these plans and he's running the Eastern Roman Empire. All of a sudden he's like, oh, Alexandria seems nice. Yeah, let's just go.

Let's just do that. But now, once again, this isn't just romance. Okay, don't get caught up in that angle. It is a strategic alliance because once again, Cleopatra needs Roman protection to keep her in power. And Antony needs Egypt's wealth to compete with Octavian for control of the entirety of Rome. So once again, they're building a new power structure. You got Roman soldiers, Egyptian money, plus like this.

Greek, mystical God tradition thing that they're both kind of larping as. So for the next decade, Cleopatra and Mark Anthony build what amounts to like an alternative Roman empire based in Alexandria. But one of the craziest things that they create was something that they called the inimitable. Dude, that word is hard, bro. Inimitable livers. Now, this is basically like a drinking club centered around the Dionysian ideas of chaos while kind of also like mocking like the Roman Republic. And according to the stories,

there are some wild parties. According to one legend, Cleopatra once dissolved a pearl, literally like a pearl worth millions of dollars in vinegar and then drank it. Just basically win a bet about who could throw like the most expensive dinner party. So if she's just like bar dropping pearls and drinking them, she's like, yeah, this was a mill. Like this cocktail was easily like, like that's a that's a that's a lambo how much is a lambo two fifty k something a couple lambos is what i'm saying right and this isn't just for a good time obviously that was part of it but it's the same instincts for putting on this show that carries over into politics and that legend whether it happened or not we don't know spreads throughout the entire empire and then in 34 bc cleopatra

and mark antony hold what becomes known as the donations of alexandria this is a massive public ceremony where territories are assigned to their children. So remember Cusarian, he's proclaimed the king of kings. Cleopatra and Antony openly present themselves as rulers of Rome's eastern world. And this is essentially a declaration of war against Octavian. Now, Cleopatra and Anthony are claiming that their relationship isn't just a political alliance. It is a sacred marriage that restores the cosmic order between Dionysus and Aphrodite and then to the Egyptians, ISIS, and then, you know, all of this stuff that is basically disrupted by the assassination of Caesar. Meanwhile, back in Rome, Octavian is pushing his own propaganda campaign,

basically designed to destroy Cleopatra and her reputation. He couldn't openly attack and criticize Mark Antony because, you know, he was still a Roman citizen and a consul and very much involved in Roman politics. So instead, he targets Cleopatra, claiming that she's a foreign seductress that is trying to usurp the Roman empire and corrupt Roman values. Octavian's writers describe her as this sexually manipulative witch, who uses magic and exotic beauty to control Roman men in this attempt to, like, destroy Rome and conquer it with, you know, Egyptian Eastern tradition. Now, this propaganda campaign became so effective that it literally survives 2,000 years, and it is largely the basis for why people

think Cleopatra is just an absolute baddie with a fatty, you know what I mean? But the evidence kind of tells a different story, right? She's politically smart, but not really sexually manipulative in the way that Octavian and his writers set out to make her. Even Roman writers who disliked her, like Cicero, admitted that she was really intelligent and really well-educated.

So this seductive beauty thing is largely just a propaganda campaign by Octavian meant to hide the fact that Roman generals willingly allied with this powerful foreign queen. Now, in 32 BC, war between Octavian and the Antony Cleopatra Alliance was basically inevitable, right? So what does Octavian do? Time to go to war. But in this wild way, he only declares war on Cleopatra, not on Mark Antony. Now, this allows him to present the

conflict as Rome defending itself against this foreign outsider and this aggressive power and not a actual Roman civil war. Now, this battle occurs on September 2nd, 31 BC at Actium off the coast of Greece. Now, this is where things get super complicated because no one actually knows what happened. Okay, there's a few different stories. The traditional one is that Cleopatra suddenly fled in the middle of battle and Antony abandoned his own fleet to follow her and Octavian won a decisive victory without either of them at the helm of their armies. But modern historians are actually skeptical of this version, which again comes mainly from Octavian and his own propaganda. Other theories suggest that Anthony and Cleopatra realized that they are outnumbered and that they're

going to lose the battle and decide to basically retreat in order to fight another day. Or, that Antony and Cleopatra just lose the battle outright, but it was actually much closer than Octavian's writers claimed. Now, what's certain is that after Actium, Antony and Cleopatra retreat to Egypt while Octavian prepares a final invasion. So nearly after a year after the Battle of Actium, Cleopatra and Anthony remain in Alexandria, basically regrouping and attempt to negotiate peace or form a final battle or final moment of resistance. I mean, Cleopatra tries diplomacy and escape, and ancient sources even claim that she debated destroying her own treasure rather than letting Octavian have it. But Octavian, being a proper war general and madman, wants total victory. He wants it all. So he's already

planning to march Cleopatra through Rome in chains. Then August of 30 BC, Octavian's forces breach Alexandria's defenses. Mark Antony, believing that Cleopatra, has already committed to the died, takes his own life with his sword. But crazy twist, Cleopatra is still alive, barricaded in her own mausoleum. Now, when Octavian soldiers capture her, she realizes her fate. She's going to be taken to Rome, publicly humiliated, and then executed as a warning to any other potential rebels. Now, this is completely unacceptable for someone who literally told everyone and kind of believes that she's a living goddess. So around August 12th, 30 BC, Cleopatra commits

in her mausoleum, allegedly. Now, here is where the historical record gets murky. Apart from taking her life, there is another famous story about Cleopatra dying from an asp bite, basically like a small viper or an Egyptian cobra.

However, this story, once again, comes from Roman propaganda and not Egyptian sources outright. According to this version, she had poisonous snakes smuggled into her prison in a basket of figs, and basically committed so by allowing herself to be bitten. But modern toxicologists point out a problem with the story. Egyptian cobras are large snakes, way too big to hide in a fruit basket. And their bites

don't always kill, but when they do, death can take hours and oftentimes involves convulsions and swelling and very obvious external symptoms that someone just got bit. Now, Roman sources describe Cleopatra's death as peaceful with no visible marks on her body. So this suggests that she probably used a fast acting poison rather than a snake venom. But of course, you know, the theory still persists. This is why Cleopatra is often depicted as, you know, having snakes around her. There'll be a lot of sculptures with her, like holding snakes and stuff. So as a pharaoh, Cleopatra would have had access to exotic poisons from throughout the ancient world and Egyptian medical text described several substances that could have likely killed her really quickly with a relatively

peaceful death. Now, the story of the snake bite might actually be more symbolic and kind of serve of a few different symbolic ritual purposes as propaganda. So in Egyptian mythology, the cobra was associated with divine royal protection. So by claiming she died from a cobra bite, Cleopatra supporters could present her death as a transformation back into her divine form as ISIS. But here's an even more intriguing possibility. Some historians have supposed that Cleopatra might not have died at all. Yeah.

Yeah. Imagine this is a classic tale. This is Tupac. This is Epstein. Some historians proposed that Cleopatra might have faked her own death and escaped Egypt. First, Octavian never displayed Cleopatra's body publicly, which would have been pretty unusual for such an important victory. Literally, he claims basically all of Rome, and this woman was in the way, and he could have easily just showed her body publicly and been like, hey, we did it. Secondly, he immediately orders the execution of Cesarian and Anthony's eldest son, but allowed Cleopatra's other children to live.

live. If he wanted to eliminate all the threats to power, why would he have spared some of the children? And third, there are tiny references in later Roman sources to a woman resembling Cleopatra being seen in various parts of the empire years after her alleged death. Now, once again, this escape theory is difficult to prove, and it's not accepted by most modern historians, but it suggests that Cleopatra arranged a body double to be found in the mausoleum while she fled Egypt with loyalists who had basically prepared secret routes out of the country. Now, this would explain why Octavian was so quick to execute all the male heirs, but wasn't sure whether Cleopatra was really dead and needed to eliminate potential threats for future rebellions. Now, once again, historians doubt that she escaped, but there are some gaps in the records.

And those gaps lead directly to the next mystery, the lost tomb of Cleopatra. Now, whether Cleopatra died in Alexandria or vanished from historical records, one fact is certain that her tomb, to this day, has never been found. Some ancient writers say that Cleopatra was buried in a royal mausoleum that she built herself alongside Mark Antony and who stocked with all these treasures, while other sources suggest that this tomb was near or deliberately modeled after the tomb of Alexandria the Great. But Alexandria itself is the problem. Large portions of this ancient city are now underwater, and earthquakes over the years have caused sections of the coastline to just collapse into the Mediterranean. And what wasn't swallowed by the sea was buried under 2,000 years. years of continuous urban life, which basically make excavation nearly impossible. There's also a darker theory. It's possible that Octavian himself may have deliberately erased it. A burial site for Cleopatra would have been very symbolic. This would have been a place that people would rally around and remember that Rome didn't win so cleanly and she would have became almost a martyr for the Egyptian cause. So Octavian destroyed it and that would have been a final move, not just

killing her, but ultimately erasing her from history. Again, this is difficult to prove and no one knows for certain, and this is where the mystery lies, right? If Cleopatra's tomb were ever found, intact, looted, or even just identified, it wouldn't just be another archaeological discovery. It could essentially rewrite what we know about the last days of ancient Egypt and that very moment that Rome became an empire. Now, today, Cleopatra's story matters a lot because it shows how historical narratives can really be distorted by propaganda, right? For 2,000 years, one of the most accomplished rulers in ancient history has been remembered primarily as just this hot girl who took advantage of powerful men with them things. You know what I mean? But that's probably

far from the truth, right? The real Cleopatra was very cunning and ruthless. And when she needed to do what she needed to do to maintain power, she was able to do it. And through her skills politically, she was able to conquer and control so much of Egypt and even lead a quasi-rebellion against the Roman Emperor Octavian. And she really tried to preserve her country's independence during this massive period of historical change. And whether she succeeded partially or failed ultimately, it depends how you judge her goals. But there's no question that she was one of the most capable rulers of her era. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of Cleopatra. I mean, Kind of a batty, dude.

Like, that's sort of sick. So I might say the original batty. The original, right? The OG. I mean, there is something to be said, like, yeah, is it possible that she, like, would cozy up to powerful men in order to get power for herself? It's like, yeah, kind of, but also men controlled all the power. So, like, if she was able just to be like, hey, I'm the queen, you guys got to cozy up to me,

then it might be a different story. But, like, she needs Rome and the Roman emperor is going to be a dude. So inevitably, it's like, yeah, that's what she's going to have to do. It's also kind of a smart strategy for the Egyptians in a way. If I was telling me the 12th, I would have been like, hey, Cleopatra, you're in charge. Forget your brother. You run it. And get out there and make all these men fall in love with you and then create this crazy empire.

Kind of fire, right? It's also crazy. Did you know this? Cleopatra would have looked at the pyramids and been like, what are those things about? Wait, why? Because the pyramids were built, like, I've read the exact date. You can probably look it up specifically, but it's like 3,000 BC. Cleopatra was born in 69.

Cleopatra was born closer to the iPhone than she was to the pyramids. How crazy is that? Pyramids were built 2,600 BC to 2100 BC allegedly. So she's born in 69

and she's literally closer to us now than she was to the pyramids. So she'd be walking around and looking at the pyramids. What are those about? Whatever, why do they build those giant things? That's crazy.

Also, if I was her, I would have I would have gone into the pyramids. I would have just set up camp there. I don't know why no one did that. I mean, Alexandria is nice. Can we get a map of Alexandria? Can we get a photo of what it looked like? Because it is a beautiful town or a beautiful city, rather.

Current day or? Yeah, get current day. I want to go to Alexandria right now. It's beautiful. Like, if I lived in Egypt, I wouldn't be in Cairo. I'd be in Alexandria. 100%. I mean, I think she is a pretty formidable ruler.

And I think what she did is pretty admirable. if you look at like the scope of, you know, women ruling countries back in the day. I mean, look at this. This is gorgeous. Come on. Got a nice port town. Nice bridge.

Yeah, that was the whole reason why it was so lucrative. They had these deep ports and they had all these resources from Egypt. They were able to ship around the Mediterranean. I mean, it's fire. I'm a fan of Cleopatra. I got to say. I mean, is there anything you learned, Chris? No, but a lot of people do draw the parallels between Alexandria,

sorry, Cleopatra and DeNaris from Game of Thrones. Ooh. So she had a lot of power and then she got together with that big Hulk guy who's like another ruler allegedly.

Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. I wonder if it's based on that. Can you pull up a sculpture of Cleopatra? I want to see, because I've seen pictures or like sculptures of her at like the Met and she's got like a snake on her at all times

and it comes from that myth or that story rather that she killed herself with a snake. I mean, David, what did you learn about Cleopatra? You weren't listening? Come on, bro. Sorry, I was doing a lot more. Come on, dude.

I mean, this is humiliated. Here I am, giving my all. Trying to educate the people, and you're sitting here, just pearls a swine. I'm just looking for the grape of Nanking next time. Whoa. All right. I mean, I mean, that's, I mean, that's a, that's a, that's a, oh, that one right there.

Can you search Cleopatra with a snake? Oh, is that her as ISIS? Whoa. I mean, was she just out? Yeah, these are the ones that I've seen. So you can see her, she got that snake, she got that snake coiling around. I mean, but yeah, you can see why, like, symbolically,

that would have been important. I mean, what a crazy life, right? What an absolutely insane life. I mean, shout at Cleopatra. Oh, wow, that's an old one with her with the snake, with the, with the asp. Yeah. And I think the asp is the same thing you see on the top of, like, the pharaoh crown, right? So, like, the snake has such a symbolic meaning to the Egyptian people.

I mean, fascinating. What do you guys think? Drop a comment. I would love to know. What are your thoughts about Cleopatra? Is there anything I missed, anything I completely glossed over? Anything I got completely wrong. I read all the comments.

So be nice. Okay. YouTube, Spotify. I'll go through every which one. I have great news for it. If you like this episode and you like this channel, we got all sorts of different episodes on, you know, Greek history, Roman history, Egyptian history. You should check them out. Furthermore, if you like stuff like this, we have Religion Camp where we deep dive into all sorts of religious topics. And on top of that, we have Camp Gagnon. Yes, my namesake, Camp Gagnon.

And that's where I do long-form interviews with people way smarter than me that know everything and can actually explain stuff with professional expertise. And furthermore, we also do deep dives on all sorts of miscellaneous stuff from the occult to the CIA. to, you know, all sorts of wacky stuff in between. And if you just rock with the history stuff, that's cool as well. Make sure you give this channel a subscribe, drop a comment, it really helps us. And it keeps the fire burning. Anyway, I will see you all in the future to talk about the past. Peace.

What's up, people? We're going to take a break real quick because this episode is sponsored by me. Yes, Camp R&D. That is the merch. That is the threads that we'd be wearing around here at the campsite. And we got all sorts of cool stuff. My buddy Zach just cooked up a sick UFO collection. you can go check it out there at Camp R&D.

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More. How much? Five more? 10%. 10%. 10%. Final offer? You won't go higher.

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