Actium | DeadlyCurious

The Coroner’s Report July 25, 2026 · Actium, Ambracian Gulf, Greece

The Battle of Actium in 31 BC, the Sea Fight That Ended the Roman Republic and Doomed Cleopatra

On 2 September 31 BC, off western Greece, the fleets of Octavian and of Antony and Cleopatra met at Actium. Cleopatra's squadron broke out mid-battle and Antony followed her, abandoning his fleet and army — which surrendered. Within a year both were dead in Alexandria, Egypt was a Roman province, and Octavian was on his way to becoming Augustus.

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The Coroner’s Report June 27, 2026 · Royal Palace, Alexandria

The Last Ptolemaic Queen of Egypt Who Killed Herself at Alexandria in August 30 BCE With Either an Asp or a Mixture of Hemlock, Aconitum, and Opium

Cleopatra VII killed herself at Alexandria on approximately 10 August 30 BCE, eleven days after her partner Mark Antony's suicide and three weeks after the city's fall to Octavian. The conventional account of the Egyptian cobra concealed in a basket of figs is first attested by Plutarch a century later. A 2010 reanalysis by Christoph Schaefer argued for a self-administered poison mixture as the more plausible cause of death.

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