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Cleopatra never held an asp to her chest or to any other part of her body. That is just a myth about how she killed herself. She did commit suicide, but how she did it is unknown. The only thing known, is that snakebite was not the cause of her death.

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Q: Why did Cleopatra hold an asp to her chest?
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Continue Learning about General History

Did the asp bite Cleopatra on her breast?

yes


Did Cleopatra enter as a gladiator?

No. She poisoned herself with an asp.


Who ruled Egypt from 69 BC until 30 BC when she was bitten by a asp?

Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator, commonly known as just Cleopatra or Cleopatra VII.


Why did Cleopatra choose the asp as method to end her life?

Queen Cleopatra famously forced servants to commit suicide by means of a strychnine trees fruit seeds, which contain lethal levels of strychnine and brucine, in order to determine if it would be the best means for her own suicide. Upon seeing their agony (which included painful vomiting, facial contortions and convulsions) she opted for the apparently less horrific choice of the asp. (The asp was actually an ancient term for any number of poisonous snakes, but experts think it was probably the cobra that Cleopatra chose to end her life.)While it is true that Cleopatra did force slaves and prisoners of war to take various poisons to test their effects, she never would have chosen snakebite as a means of offing herself. The effects of a cobra/snake bite are in many cases worse than the strychnine poisons and lingering. Also remember that Cleopatra died quickly with a full stomach. It is thought that she killed herself by a combination of three poisons. The "death by an asp" is a myth, very conveniently perpetrated by Octavian himself.


How did Mark Antony and Cleopatra really die?

Octavian told a roomer to Marc Antony that Cleopatra died and then Marc Antony stabbed himself in the stomach with a sword and died.Then Cleopatra heard a bout his death and got biten by an asp (poisonus snake).