Toxicology and snakes in ptolemaic Egyptian dynasty: The suicide of Cleopatra

The decadent Lagids’dynasty was especially interested in drugs and poisons meanwhile Alexandria became a prestigious center of learning and the first medical center of the ancient world. Scholars dedicated to toxicology would research in the famous Museion and the Hellenistic rulers of Alexandria and other kingdoms had court physicians specialized in pharmacology and venoms. As the last member of Ptolemaic Dynasty, Cleopatra VII inherited the throne and also the great inclination of Ptolemies towards medicine and science. In this city toxicological education seems to have had its most systematic development, and for Galen [1] “human and prompt executions’ were made in Alexandria with the intervention of cobras”. Attracted by the knowledge of venoms and poison, Cleopatra began to test them on condemned prisoners to see the different reactions produced in the body and found toxic limits. When she decided to commit suicide, the use of poison would make sense given the possibility to choose the best one to get a quick and relatively pain free death. Knowing that oral poisons would cause disturbances as painful spasms, nauseas, abdominal cramps and slow end, she presumably compared the major effects of venemous snakebites caused by the various species living in Egypt, specially three families: vipers, hydrophids and elapids. Cleopatra probably realized that viper bites generally produce violent local pain with inflammation, oedema, skin discoloration, pustules, vomiting and blood loss. With the cobra venom, hemotoxic or neurotoxic, instead, death could happen within half an hour, by respiratory failure and general paralysis without leaving any trace on the flesh, though. It has been said that Cleopatra used the cobra to kill herself because it would also make sense in terms of Egyptian mythology, being associated with the sacred uraeus worn by the pharaohs. However, there are several problems with this theory and some scholars recently argue it’s more likely she would drank a cocktail of drugs or applied a toxic ointment, as Strabo suggested. Studying the different poisons and the snakes that she could have selected and the symptoms and consequences that they could produce in her body, we’ll try to delve into her possible lucubrations and reflexions, weighing the difficulties in each case. Undoubtedly, the mysterious end of Cleopatra remains unsolved, offering a constant source of legends and theories. Keeping this in mind we will try to present the pros and cons of each of her possible decisions.