Cleopatra is one of the notable women in history who has not been erased from history books, but she has been scandalized from the very beginning, or rather: from the last day of her life. The myth of her suicide by means of poisonous snakes has prevailed throughout the centuries and has inspired innumerable novels, plays, operas and operettas as well as films from the time of silent movies onward and there are always these snakes at the end.

In this chapter the history of Cleopatra is presented backwards in time. It begins with the grand movie Cleopatra from 1963 with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the leading roles. The production of this exceptionally expensive film turned out to be more scandalous than the spectacular picture on the screen. But the snakes were there despite the fact that there were no such poisonous vipers in Egypt at the time.

These snakes are also a prominent feature in Shakespeare’s play Antony and Cleopatra from 1606. After numerous intrigues and warfare during the first three acts, the remaining acts deal with the death of Marc Antony and the suicide of Cleopatra and her maids. Shakespeare’s Cleopatra appears quite unsympathetic and seems to deserve her untimely death. The dialogue follows closely Plutarch’s biography of Marc Antony, so the next section deals with his story of the Roman general.

Plutarch wrote his biography approximately 130 years after the death of Marc Antony and Cleopatra. His portrait of the Egyptian Queen is full of respect for this knowledgeable and attractive woman, who spoke nine languages and was an outstanding partner in conversations as well as in negotiations with the Roman Empire. Her love affairs with Caesar, with whom she had a son, and Marc Antony, to whom she bore three children, are described from a personal as well as from a political perspective. Plutarch knows of the rumour that Cleopatra was killed by snakes, but he has serious doubts about the truth of such gossip.

The last section presents the sources that today’s historians have collected about the ‘real’ Cleopatra, who died in the year 30 BC. She is portrayed as the successful Queen of Egypt who fell victim to the internal power struggle between competing Roman leaders. The snakes and Cleopatra’s suicide remain a politically staged, scandalous lie.