Ancients Behaving Badly (2009–…): Season 1, Episode 8 - Cleopatra - full transcript

NARRATOR: Cleopatra. Infamous queen
of Egypt, a woman known for her legendary

powers of seduction, who would

stop at nothing, even murder,

to get her own way.

The career of Cleopatra is

one of calculation, and in terms

of being calculating, she has to

be cold-blooded.

The dark side sometimes reveals itself.

Every source speaks of this

type of Cleopatra: a woman who



will stop at nothing until she

has destroyed everything that

Rome holds dear.

This is the legend of her life.

To find the truth that

underlies it, it's necessary to

peel back the layers to reveal

what's reality and what's just myth.

Investigators will put

Cleopatra's life under the

spotlight with a range of scientific tests.

They'll reveal how she murders

her whole family in her lust

for power, and a leading



forensics psychiatrist will put

Cleopatra on the couch to

explore her dark side, to

see how she stacks up against

other Ancients Behaving Badly.

Cleopatra: last queen of Egypt and
the greatest seductress of all time.

Driven by power and ambition,

her life was dominated by a

heady cocktail of sex and murder.

The ancient Roman sources

labeled her an Oriental hussy

and a whore queen.

Cleopatra is fascinating.
Since she was one of the few

women rulers in the ancient

world, I want to look to see how

she uses sex, power and

assassination to achieve her aims.

To get under Cleopatra's

skin, psychiatrist David

Mallott will examine her

behavior and then position her

on a unique Behaving Badly

Psychograph to reveal how she

compares to other tyrants from

history, like Julius Caesar,

Genghis Khan and Nero.

Cleopatra will stop at nothing to hold
on to power. She poisons her 13-year-old

brother in her bid for total

control of Egypt.

She has her younger sister

murdered in the sanctuary of a

temple, scandalizing the ancient world.

And she seduces the greatest

men in Rome in her lust for power.

But most of these nasty stories

about Cleopatra were written by the Romans.

They didn't much like her.

Cleopatra is represented
in the Roman sources as the

ultimate seductress, an evil

murderer, in their words, a

fatal monster: a woman who wants

to take over Rome and seduces

men so they will do anything for

her, contrary to law or nature.

To reveal the truth about Egypt's most
famous queen, you have to begin with her

childhood.

She's the daughter of Pharaoh

Ptolemy XII, well-educated and

groomed for power from birth.

Over their 300-year rule, her

family, the Ptolemys, have

transformed Egypt into a

cultural and economic

powerhouse, but it's come at a price.

There's a dark side to the Ptolemys too.

Family murders and incest have

been a fact of life throughout their reign.

It's no different now.

Cleopatra has two younger

brothers and two sisters.

They will jostle like mobsters

for power and control.

Every now and then, somebody gets whacked.

In 58 B.C., Cleopatra's father is forced to
flee Egypt to Rome after a rebellion that

had been started by his own

daughter, Cleopatra's half-sister.

He took Cleopatra, a girl of 11

at the time, with him to Rome.

Sticking with family

tradition, in quick succession

Cleopatra's sister has her

husband strangled, kills her

mother and takes over the throne of Egypt.

But she's not the only ruthless

Ptolemy, and soon it's payback time.

Cleopatra's father comes back

to Egypt, this time with an army

from Rome to help him retake

power, and one of the first

things he does is execute his

own daughter, the one who had

started the rebellion against him.

Cleopatra grows up in the

middle of this bloody family soap opera.

Cleopatra, at such a young age, is given
a very vivid picture of how to do family

politics.

You have to kill members of your

own family or risk being killed instead.

Cleopatra's witnessing of the

assassination of her own sister

has a profound psychologic effect on her.

She knows that life is cheap.

She knows that you accumulate

power at all costs, even if it

means killing your own family members.

That lesson sinks home, and

so does another one: If you

want to succeed, you need powerful friends.

Cleopatra is witnessing
firsthand Rome's military might,

and sees what it can do when

it's on your side.

This has a profound impact upon
her. She will never forget this the

rest of her life.

In 51 B.C., Cleopatra's father dies.

As the oldest male, Cleopatra's

young brother is crowned

monarch, and following an

ancient Egyptian tradition,

Cleopatra becomes his co-ruler.

She's 18; he's just 10.

The same ancient tradition

demands that they are

married... to each other.

According to Ptolemy

tradition, siblings must

intermarry to cement their

position on the throne, and this

is a long-standing pharaonic tradition.

But to us, it's perverse, it's revolting.

This is incest we're talking about.

It's not a match made in heaven.

True to form, the Ptolemys are

soon at each other's throats.

Within two years, relations

have broken down completely.

Cleopatra's brother/husband

mounts a coup, and Cleopatra is

thrown into exile.

There's no way Cleopatra

would give up Egypt or renounce the throne.

She's definitely running for her

life, but she's an ambitious

person, and the throne is her

birthright, so in exile she's

definitely looking for any

opportunity to return to Egypt.

To do that, she'll need

powerful assistants, and her

childhood experiences with her

father has taught her where to find them.

Although Egypt's rich harvests

and its strategic port at

Alexandria make it a very

wealthy country, it's

surrounded on all sides by the

power of Rome, the empire that

dominates the ancient world.

If Cleopatra can cozy up to

Roman interests in Egypt, then

the country is hers.

And Rome has recently gained a

new ruler: Julius Caesar.

He would make the perfect ally

for Cleopatra.

I think she saw Julius Caesar
as a vehicle to restore her to

power in the same way that the

forces earlier of Rome brought

her father back, using Roman resources.

Can she use the lesson learned from
her father to harness Rome's power and get

what she wants?

Caesar arrived on the shores

of Egypt on the 2nd of October, 48 B.C.

He was now the most powerful man

in the Roman Empire.

Cleopatra's experiences with her

father had taught her one thing:

that you needed Rome on your

side if you were going to be on

the throne of Egypt, and so

that's what Cleopatra did.

She went for a once-and-for-all

opportunity to get Caesar on her

side in her bid for the Egyptian throne.

Cleopatra's only chance of

re-taking Egypt is with

Caesar's support and the

firepower of his Roman legions.

What can an exiled queen with

few allies do to win the

backing of the most powerful

man in the ancient world and

secure her place as Queen of Egypt?

The answer is whatever it takes.

NARRATOR: Julius Caesar, the new ruler of
Rome, arrives in Egypt and finds himself in the

middle of a family feud.

Cleopatra and her

brother/husband are fighting

for control of the Egyptian throne.

Cleopatra has been exiled to

southern Egypt, far from the

capital, Alexandria.

She decides that if she can win

over Caesar and make a military

and political alliance with

him, she can wrest power from

her brother and become sole ruler.

She returns covertly to

Alexandria to meet Caesar, but

banished from power, Cleopatra

has only one asset to work with: herself.

This leaves her with just one

route to power: sex.

The story goes that Cleopatra
paid one of her servants to roll

her up in a carpet, carry her in

a boat across the river to the

palace of Alexandria and carry

her into Caesar's apartment.

There, as the carpet was unraveled, Cleopatra
literally revealed herself to Caesar.

That was how Cleopatra and

Caesar met for the first time in Egypt.

It's one of history's most

memorable first encounters.

The Roman sources luridly

describe it as a romantic

come-on by Cleopatra, but is it

really just a strategy for

romancing the most powerful man

in the world?

Would it really have worked out like that?

Paramedic Fred Galvan will use

a model to investigate this story.

He suspects that conditions in

the carpet were far from romantic.

We're going to be using a
thermometer to measure the

temperature inside the carpet

and see how this affects her

physiologically.

Cleopatra's carpet adventure happens in
October, 48 B.C. Temperatures at this time of

year average in the 70s, and

it's estimated her servants

carry her a distance of a half

a mile to Caesar's apartment.

Fred will recreate this journey

at a comparable daytime temperature.

Within 3 minutes, the temperature
inside the carpet's already rising rapidly.

We have a temperature reading

of 91 degrees Fahrenheit.

It will continue to climb, I

expect, as she remains in here

and body heat continues to build.

It's also a warm day.

He's concerned with the

effects of heat build-up on the

model's health.

Insulated by the carpet, a rise

in her body temperature of just

a couple of degrees can rapidly

become dangerous.

At that point we begin to tax

the body's ability to cool off,

especially since she is wrapped

in this carpet and is not able

to effectively use the air

circulating around her to cool

her off the way we normally would.

After approximately 20 minutes

of testing, we are now at 96,

97 degrees Fahrenheit.

It's going to get quite stifling

in there very soon.

As Fred suspected, the

temperature is rapidly

approaching dangerous levels.

WOMAN: It's getting really, really hot.

It's getting harder to breathe

steadily, and it feels like it's

closing in on me more and more.

FRED: Our temperature has now climbed to about
99 degrees, so at this point I would feel more

comfortable ending the experiment.

Oh, my God.

The test shows that Cleopatra

could possibly have stayed

inside the carpet long enough

to make it to Caesar's

apartment, but it would have

been a very unpleasant experience.

She's not putting herself

through all this for romance at all.

In reality, the whole carpet

story is part of an

all-or-nothing gamble for power.

The story of Cleopatra

unveiling herself in a carpet is

not just a romantic tale of two

lovers meeting.

Think about Cleopatra's position.

If she's discovered by her

brother, Ptolemy, she'll be killed.

If she doesn't get Caesar on her

side, she'll be killed.

She has one chance only: to get

Caesar on her side and to make

her bid for the throne of Egypt.

She's delivering herself as a weapon.

She knows Caesar has an eye for

skirt, and even though he's

supposed to be love-sated in his

50s, she is a young girl in the

prime of her life and she is

going to do her best to take Caesar.

For Cleopatra, it's sex or death.

Cleopatra doesn't care what she
puts herself through to seduce Caesar.

Egyptologist Gayle Gibson

believes she may also have used

subliminal sexual cues to get her man.

The Greeks and the
Romans, who would often have

light-colored eyes, use

something called atropine.

Comes from belladonna, and it makes
your pupil get very, very big and black.

That dilation is a sign of

desire, and it's what makes the

person you're looking at realize

you really want them.

And if that doesn't knock

Caesar out, other cosmetics can

also simulate sexual arousal.

These lip glosses of

Cleopatra in her time would have

been made of fat, with either an

ocher in them or a berry juice.

Lips are always important for

women because they look nice,

but for Cleopatra, they're even

more important.

Her lips have to be full and

rich and luscious, because after

all, in orgasm a woman's lips

swell up, and she wants to

always look sexy and orgasmic.

According to legend,

Cleopatra is a great beauty.

Seducing Caesar, a notorious

ladies man, should be easy.

But at the Archaeological

Museum of Nicopolis in Greece,

rare coins minted during

Cleopatra's reign reveal

something unexpected.

One of the key things
about coins like this is that they're

propaganda tools.

They're bumper stickers for the people they
portray because they're circulated all around

the Roman world.

In the ancient world, coins

are traditionally the most

accurate portraits of rulers,

and these coins reveal a surprise.

This is a coin of Cleopatra,

and it's quite realistic as to

the style of the times, and you

can see that despite the fact

that she's supposed to be a

beauty of legend, she actually

looks quite ugly.

This is backed up by the

Roman writer Plutarch, who

quite specifically says that

she is not a striking beauty.

Computer imaging now allows the
face of Cleopatra to be reconstructed.

As she and Caesar begin their steamy affair,
this is probably what Cleopatra actually looks

like.

So if she doesn't trap Caesar

with her looks, how does she

pull off one of history's great seductions?

It doesn't necessarily follow
that you have to be beautiful to

be good in bed.

And we know from ancient sources that it was her
personality, her ability to converse in multiple

languages simultaneously that

was her charm.

When she entered into a room,

people were talking and she

opened up her mouth, everyone

stopped, turned their heads to look at her.

So a magnetic personality,

great intellect, an ability to

use the physical characteristics

that she had all contribute to

making her an extraordinary,

extraordinary individual.

This is a story of seduction, not love.

For Caesar, Cleopatra

represents a legitimate ruler

that will support his interests in Egypt.

For Cleopatra, Caesar is a

route to gain the throne, and

she uses everything at her

disposal to get him.

What interests me is the
fact that she sees herself as the

equal to the most powerful man on Earth.

Cleopatra is very comfortable using
her sexuality to gain and keep power.

Now living with Caesar in Alexandria,
Cleopatra can settle the score with her

brother/husband.

Given their family history,

it's not going to be pretty.

Ptolemy is enraged to discover Cleopatra
with Caesar. For 3 months, he and his sister

Arsinoe lay siege to them

inside the city walls.

But taking on Caesar is a bad

move for the boy king.

In early 48 B.C. in the Battle of the Nile,
Roman legions overwhelm Ptolemy's forces.

Thousands flee and Ptolemy XIII

drowns trying to escape Caesar,

the weight of his golden armor

dragging him down.

With her brother dead, Arsinoe is
exiled to Ephesus, in modern-day Turkey.

Caesar wins the war and Cleopatra wins
Egypt. They embark on a victory voyage

down the Nile.

They're a May-December couple.

She's 18 and he's 52.

The status of the relationship
between Cleopatra and Caesar is unclear.

On the one hand, in the year

following their cruise down the

Nile, Cleopatra accompanies

Caesar back to Rome.

He installs her in a villa, he

puts a statue of her up in the

city; yet, on the other hand,

Caesar's also got his wife in Rome.

Half of Rome doesn't like Cleopatra.

A sister of the orator says all

evil comes from Alexandria.

And even Caesar never makes

mention of their relationship in

his official accounts of the war

in Alexandria.

The relationship, then, is never

an official one.

Cleopatra, though the mistress,

is left out on a limb.

Any other mistress might keep

a low profile, but not

Cleopatra the drama queen.

Nine months after first meeting

Caesar, she gives birth to a

son, and she doesn't hesitate

in telling everyone who the father is.

Caesar never officially

acknowledges paternity of the child.

Instead, Cleopatra is left to

do it with his name.

The child's name is Ptolemy XV,

Philopator Philometor Caesar,

and his nickname becomes

Caesarion: "Little Caesar."

With this, Cleopatra is

cementing her position and her

powerful role in Egypt.

She has a son who's the child,

supposedly, of the most powerful

man in the Roman world.

Cleopatra's malevolent

brother/husband is dead and

gone, one of her sisters is

dead, she has Julius Caesar in

her bed and Little Caesar on her lap.

After all her seduction, murder

and maneuvering, it's all

looking peachy for Cleopatra.

But violent Roman politics are

about to shatter her perfect world.

NARRATOR: March 15th, 44
B.C., Julius Caesar is assassinated.

Cleopatra's perfect world
comes crashing down around her.

It must have been very
difficult to be riding the crest

of an enormous wave that would

never break, basically, and then

to find all of a sudden the news

coming to you that the man on

whom you hung all of your hope,

your partner in life was

brutally cut down, as Caesar was

assassinated.

I'm sure that Cleopatra was absolutely
devastated, but she was quick to act.

And that action is typically brutal.

With Caesar gone, she is at

risk from any pretenders to the

crown of Egypt.

Her closest rival is her last

remaining brother, the

13-year-old Ptolemy XIV.

He's never seemed a threat to

her, yet not long after the

death of Caesar, he

mysteriously disappears from

the historical record.

Her younger brother,
Ptolemy XIV, disappears from the

Egyptian sources.

They give us no clue as to what

happened to him.

But if we turn to the Roman sources, the
historian called Josephus tells us that Cleopatra

might have had a hand in his

murder, and what's more,

Josephus also indicates that she

might have poisoned him.

It also seems to be part of an

emerging pattern of a great

attraction between Cleopatra and

poisoning people.

She's rumored to have practiced

on prisoners to find out which

was the most fast effective, and

even later in her life on her own servants.

More drama.

Could Cleopatra really have

poisoned her brother?

She has the motive, she

probably has the opportunity,

but does she have the means?

Only a toxicologist can answer that.

Cleopatra had many
poisons available to her.

She would have all the botanicals as well
as some of the famous metals, like arsenic,

so there's no question she would

have had easy access.

The first possibility is

rhododendron, a potent toxin

that flourished in Cleopatra's time.

But Dr. Erickson rules it out. >> It would take
a large amount of rhododendron to really do

something diabolical or to kill someone.

Much more likely is the plant

extract henbane.

Henbane is a very interesting plant.

Cleopatra would have had access

to this because the cosmetics

and makeup were very important for her.

It was part of her royalty, her

beauty, and many of the

cosmetics had poisons in them,

but it was a small enough amount

where it really didn't cause

total body poisoning.

If henbane got into the system,

you would start getting very agitated.

Then your heart starts getting

tachycardic, meaning a rapid heart rate.

Then you have a seizure and a

convulsion and, if it's a large

enough dose, you can cause death.

It's probably not a good way to

actually kill someone quickly.

So death by henbane is slow.

Far from ideal if you want to

get rid of someone fast.

That leaves aconite, an extract

of the highly toxic flower monkshood.

This is something that a

small amount can be very lethal.

The effects of aconite on the

body is quite demonstrable and

quite devastating.

The symptoms of aconite

poisoning are vomiting and

diarrhea, and the poison has a

rapidly lethal effect, by

causing massive heart, organ

and respiratory failure.

It's hard to detect.

You could put it in drink.

You could put it in food.

It is widely accessible.

It was very popular during the

times of Cleopatra.

This seems to be, although

there's no accurate writing

saying what she used on her

brother, but this would have

been a perfect choice.

The ancients refer to aconite as

the queen of all poisons.

What better choice for Cleopatra

than the queen of all poisons?

It would be a simple matter

for Cleopatra to slip a little

aconite to her brother, and

it's just the kind of thing she'd do.

She was a politically ambitious woman.

That was the dark side of her character.

Her paramount concern was her

own political survival, and her

brother was therefore expendable.

Cleopatra's psychological

profile isn't looking good.

Cleopatra's killing of a

close family relative (her

(brother) is clear evidence of

psychopathic behavior: killing

without guilt or remorse.

Cleopatra may have rid

herself of her brother, but

without Caesar, she's still vulnerable.

To retain her place as queen,

she needs a new alliance.

Sex and seduction has worked

for her before.

Why change a winning formula?

She zeroes in on 42-year-old

Mark Antony, who was one of

Caesar's top generals.

The Roman Empire is now split
between the west and the east,

and Mark Antony controls the

entire Eastern Empire.

Cleopatra, the sexual weapon,

has acquired a new target.

She wants to maintain a

strong relationship with the

Roman Empire to ensure her place

on the throne.

She will do whatever it takes to impress
Antony. >> Cleopatra pulls out all the

stops to extend her 10-year

rule as Queen of Egypt.

It's showtime on the Nile.

Their first meeting is legendary.
She's about 28 years old and in

the prime of her life.

Cleopatra creates a grand
spectacle. She arrives by boat.

The stern is covered in gold,

the oars are dipped in silver,

perfume is in the air and she is

dressed as Aphrodite.

When they do meet, sparks fly.

It's the beginning of a

legendary affair fueled by a

high-octane combination of sex and power.

With Cleopatra and Mark Antony,

everything is over-the-top.

Cleopatra and Mark Antony are

extremely competitive with one another.

Always trying to outdo the other.

And the story goes that, one

time, Cleopatra boasts to Mark

Antony: "I can spend 10 million

sesterces in one dinner."

That's like $100 million.

Now, Cleopatra owns 2 large

pearls, and she takes one pearl,

puts it in a glass of vinegar

where it dissolves, and she drinks it.

She's just consumed $100 million

in one glass.

Dissolving a pearl in vinegar

is one of the great legends of

Cleopatra's life, used by the

Romans to illustrate just how

decadent she is.

But can the Roman writers be trusted?

So now we're doing a
recreation of what we think may

have happened.

We're going to see if a pearl
does, in fact, dissolve in the vinegar.

Now we will take this modern

cultured pearl, and this is the big moment.

She drops it in.

One can see that there is a
reaction going on at the very

bottom and on the surface of the pearl.

Very slowly, carbon dioxide is

being generated, and when the

bubble grows large enough, we'll

see a lone bubble... There we

go... Up to the top.

Very slowly the surface of that

is being corroded as it

dissolves and reacts with the

acidic acid, and the carbon

dioxide bubbles come to the surface.

It works, but dissolving the
pearl is a painfully slow process.

So it can do nothing else, I

think, but lead us to doubt the

whole concept of being able to

dissolve a pearl to where one

would be able to drink it as a

neutral solution.

It's far too slow to fit the

story of a decadent trick

pulled off during a dinner party.

It appears the Roman writers

are just getting carried away

with their desire to demonize Cleopatra.

There's no doubt about it:

Cleopatra is a seductress.

Her life is extremely excessive.

But this story says more about

the Roman authors and their

attempts to write an engaging

anecdote than it does about

telling the truth.

But one thing they do get

right is that Cleopatra and

Antony embark on a passionate

affair, a relationship build on

a heady mix of power and sex

that will destroy them both.

NARRATOR: Cleopatra and Mark Antony
are the power couple of the ancient world.

It suits Cleopatra perfectly.

Cleopatra is a woman of drama.

She doesn't do anything on a small scale.

It is exactly the same thing she
does to Caesar, coming out of a

rug.

They are grandstanding to gain the attention
of the man she needs to be able to pull in on

her side.

Mark Antony becomes the great

love of Cleopatra's life.

There's this absolutely

unbelievable carnal bond between these two.

You talk about the greatest love

story in history, and it has to

be the intimacy of Cleopatra and

Mark Antony.

The electricity is just unbelievable.

But this relationship is

about more than just sex.

Cleopatra and Antony now

control territory in the east

which stretches from Armenia to Libya.

I would characterize

Cleopatra and Mark Antony's

relationship as one lust for

power, and the energy in the

bedroom spills out into the

political arena.

The combination of Antony's

Eastern Roman provinces and

Cleopatra's Egypt creates a

vast power base, but Cleopatra

makes sure that Egypt is hers alone.

The rear wall of the Temple

of Dendera is a giant billboard

proclaiming to the Egyptian

people that Cleopatra is the

sole ruler of their world, and

we know that because according

to Egyptian convention, the most

important figure is the figure

that is left-most as the

spectator faces the wall.

And here, on a monumental

colossal scale, we have

Cleopatra occupying that

left-hand-most position by herself.

This temple wall is 140-foot

billboard letting Egyptians

know who's in charge.

This idealized portrait of

Cleopatra not only portrays her

as unrealistically beautiful,

it also shows that she has

divine backing from the goddess Isis.

Isis, in the first century,

is the universal goddess.

She ensures cosmic harmony and

universal domination.

Cleopatra is her regent on

Earth. So Isis conveys to Cleopaa

universal sovereignty over the

mortal world over which

Cleopatra rules, and the two act

as together the Queen of Heaven

and the Queen of Earth.

From the brutal, uncertain

world of her childhood,

Cleopatra has created a

powerful and stable base from

which she rules Egypt.

This has been achieved by the

systematic elimination of her siblings.

Just one remains alive: her

younger sister, Arsinoe.

Cleopatra and Arsinoe were sisters, but they
were also dangerous rivals for the throne

of Egypt.

Throughout their lives they were

competing against one another

for the power that came with

being the pharaoh in Egypt.

While Arsinoe lives, Cleopatra's
position will never be secure.

This can only end one way.

41 B.C., Ephesus, Turkey.

Arsinoe lives in exile at a

religious site that guarantees

her protection by long tradition.

Cleopatra can't touch her.

But her lover can.

So Cleopatra demands a show of

love from Mark Antony: murder.

The protection of a religious

site means nothing to her.

It was here, on the steps of
the Temple of Artemis of Ephesus

that Mark Antony, the lover of

Cleopatra, came to murder

Arsinoe, Cleopatra's own

sister, on Cleopatra's orders.

In a crime that scandalized the whole of
Rome. >> And there is new evidence to

back up the story that

Cleopatra's sister really did die here.

Archaeologists believe that

they have found Arsinoe's tomb.

This tomb dates from the right

time, contained a noble woman's

body and is decorated with Egyptian motifs.

There was only one high-ranking

Egyptian in Ephesus at the time

the body was placed in this tomb.

Having murdered Arsinoe, Cleopatra had
defeated her final rival for the throne.

She was now sole ruler.

She had won the game of survival

in the Ptolemy dynasty.

And with Mark Antony at her

side, her future now looked secure.

Cleopatra slides farther down

the slope of criminal behavior.

When Cleopatra's brother
is murdered, perhaps it's just

political, but with the murder

of another close family

relative, her sister, to me as a

psychiatrist, we see a pattern

of clear psychopathic behavior.

But in Rome, Octavian, the leader of the
Western Empire, is raising discontent against

Cleopatra and Antony.

Antony, he says, is in the evil

queen's thrall.

Antony has gone native, an

unforgivable crime to the proud Romans.

War is inevitable.

Historian Mike Ibeji has come to Actium in
Greece, scene of the decisive naval battle in

this conflict.

Octavian has sold the conflict

to the Roman public as a war

between Rome and a dangerous

foreign threat: Cleopatra.

This is when Octavian cements

Cleopatra's reputation as

history's whore queen to validate his war.

The worse she sounds, the more

justified his war will be.

It's the perfect excuse for

Octavian to crush Cleopatra and

Antony and take total control himself.

War breaks out in 31 B.C.,
and Antony's wrong-footed right

from the start.

In a surprise move Octavian traps him

here, in the Bay of Actium.

Actium is on the western

shore of Greece, at the center

of two worlds.

To the west and east is Rome,

to the south, Egypt.

Whoever wins here unites the
two. >> There's a deadlock for weeks

and then Antony finally breaks

the deadlock by sailing out with

his warships for battle.

And his warships are much, much

bigger and heavier than

Octavian's, so Octavian's fleet

backs out into the open sea

where their speed and

maneuverability will give them

the advantage.

Octavian has taken the upper

hand, and he presses home his advantage.

The situation at Actium is now

desperate for Cleopatra and Antony.

Besieged and outmanned, they can't win.

In the heat of battle,

Cleopatra decides to save her own skin.

And the story goes that, as

the battle unfolds, Cleopatra,

she smashes through the center,

hoists her sails and sails hell

for leather for Egypt.

And Antony, poor, desperate sap, basically goes
running after her, leaving most of his navy in

the lurch.

It's not one of Cleopatra's

finer moments.

The Battle of Actium turns against her.

She abandons Mark Antony.

Her self-preservation trumps any

loyalty she has to her lover.

Losing the Battle of Actium

is a disaster.

It's the beginning of the end

for Cleopatra.

Octavian builds a huge temple

overlooking the bay to

celebrate his success.

He knows that Actium is a

turning point, and that he's on

the verge of taking control of

the entire empire.

Now he's just got to clear up

the mess, and the prize is his.

From this moment on, Cleopatra

and Antony are running for their lives.

And really I feel quite sorry

for Cleopatra, because she

never, ever really felt able to

operate as a woman within her own right.

She always felt she had to

attach herself to the next Roman

bigwig to come along, and of

course in the end she attached

herself to the wrong man and was

doomed to fall with him.

Cleopatra and Antony flee to Egypt and take
refuge behind the city walls of Alexandria.

It's just a matter of time

before Octavian catches up with them.

By 30 B.C., Octavian is at

the very gates of Alexandria.

Mark Antony commits suicide,

dying in the arms of Cleopatra.

She is said to weep like a woman

who has lost the most important

thing in her life.

Octavian is now likely to

drag Cleopatra back to Rome in

chains, parade her through the

streets and publicly execute her.

That's the Roman way with

high-ranking captives, and

there's no reason to suppose

it'll be any different for her.

Cleopatra's out of options.

It's time for her final move.

NARRATOR: Cleopatra survived 20 years as ruler
of Egypt, but at the age of 39, her luck has

finally run out.

Octavian enters Alexandria and

takes her prisoner.

For a woman used to taking

control of her own destiny,

there's only one decision left

to make: how she will die.

According to the Roman writers,

she dies as she lived: with a

huge, dramatic gesture.

They say she kills herself with

a lethal snake bite.

A knife would be just too easy.

But is it really true, or just another
tall tale, like dissolving the pearl?

A reptile expert will

investigate the story of Cleopatra's death.

Could Cleopatra turn a snake

into a weapon, or is that just

too James Bond?

In North Africa, two major

deadly snakes are available to

her: the viper and the cobra.

First, the African viper. >> BRY:
Vipers are usually ambush predators.

They have extremely fast strikes.

African vipers have an extremely
toxic venom that breaks down

tissues and causes necrosis of

the skin, which is kind of like

rotting of the tissues.

It can just totally wreck your vital
organs. Your blood doesn't clot, so you

can die from hemorrhaging of the brain.

Death by viper is slow and painful.

Not ideal.

Is the Egyptian cobra a better alternative?

The Egyptian cobra can

actually... In its venom glands,

that are right where his cheeks

are, right behind his eye, can

hold about 300 milligrams of venom.

And the L.D. 50, or the lethal

dose for a human is about 10 to

15, so this snake is capable of

killing around 30 people.

When a cobra bites a human, it

injects a neurotoxic venom which

attacks the nervous system.

There have been people known to

die from an Egyptian cobra

within minutes after being bitten.

If Cleopatra is going to die

by snake bite, a cobra is the

least unattractive alternative.

But she still has to get it to

bite her, and that's not as

easy as it seems.

Snakes attack only when provoked.

We're going to use this

artificial limb to annoy the

snake a little bit and touch it

and see how easy it is to get it

to bite this limb.

You really have to agitate the snake or get
it upset, or you have to pick it right up.

I'm applying a little more pressure now, and
you can see that it's actually flaring out

like a cobra normally does.

You can see the snake is now
latched on and is trying to inject venom.

Okay, if you look closely, you

can see the snake actually lost

a tooth in the process and you

can also see that there's some

venom on the hand there.

That is a deadly enough amount

of venom right there to kill a

few people, on the finger there.

Trying to provoke a snake to

bite her may not be the most

dignified end, but if she is

determined enough to kill

herself this way, it will probably work.

Cleopatra knows she's going to die.

She opts for a dramatic death by

snake bite.

To me, as a psychiatrist, this
shows theatricality as a central

aspect of her personality.

Cleopatra retained control of Egypt for
2 decades. She rose to power on the backs

of the sudden and nasty death

of her siblings, and she stayed

there using ruthless political

skill and her super weapon,

sex, to hold on to power.

She was flamboyant, smart and

very, very dangerous.

Where does such behavior put

Cleopatra on a psychopathic

scale of tyrants?

Much of her behavior is

goal-driven, like that of

Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan,

but there's a darker side.

Cleopatra shows significant

psychopathic behavior.

She kills her brother, she

orders the death of her sister,

in order to retain power.

This behavior moves her

towards more bloodthirsty

killers, like Caligula and Attila the Hun.

But that's just part of her profile.

She loves being center stage,

and stays there by putting on

grand spectacles, like being

rolled out of a carpet for

Caesar, her grand seduction of

Mark Antony, even her death by snake bite.

In this behavior, Cleopatra

exhibits signs of histrionic

personality disorder: a deep

psychological need to be

admired by large audiences.

Cleopatra scores high on a

histrionic personality scale.

Her theatricality, the costumes

of her as a goddess, sailing

down the Nile, even how she's

presented to Caesar in a rug,

her death via snake bite in a

very dramatic fashion, all speak

to this aspect of her personality.

So who in history has a

similar personality profile?

Cleopatra reminds me of

Catherine the Great, the ruler of Russia.

They're both women playing in a

man's world; they're both

charming and intelligent;

they're both quite theatrical;

and, when needed, they're both

cold-hearted and ruthless.

These personality traits made

Cleopatra one of history's great survivors.

Her methods may have been

nasty, but they worked.

What she couldn't know is that
she was doomed to be the last

Egyptian pharaoh.

After her death, Rome moved in.

Egypt became just a province of the empire.

The Egypt that Cleopatra fought

to control, a civilization

dating back thousands of years,

was gone forever.

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