Two thousand and fifty three years ago today, August 1st, in 30 B.C., Marc Antony committed suicide by falling on his own sword. He had suffered serious desertions among his troops the day before during the Battle of Alexandria, and, despite an early victory, the desertions proved too much and he was ultimately defeated. After returning to Alexandria, he received false information that his wife, Cleopatra VII, had already taken her own life.
After the grief stricken man had already stabbed himself he was told she wasn’t really dead, and he was taken to her where she was in hiding with her ladies in her mausoleum. The doors had been barred against intruders and the dying man had to be hauled up to her through an open window. He survived for only a few minutes after he reached her, and died in Cleopatra’s arms.
Cleopatra herself would take her own life eleven days later, and her three children with Antony taken to Rome to be raised by his third wife, Octavia Minor. With Cleopatra’s death, and the subsequent murder of her eldest son, Caesarion, Egypt became a Roman Province.
