CLEOPATRA

CLEOPATRA (69-30 B.C.), Queen of Egypt, a woman distinguished for her beauty, her charms, and her amours; first fascinated Cæsar, to whom she bore a son, and whom she accompanied to Rome, and after Cæsar's death took Mark Antony captive, on whose fall and suicide at Actium she killed herself by applying an asp to her arm, to escape the shame of being taken to Rome to grace the triumph of the victor.