historical otps ✧ mark antony & cleopatra
Caesar’s mistress, Cleopatra was accused of having been a party to his assassination plot. Matters came to such a head that Caesar’s successor and best friend Mark Antony, summoned Cleopatra to explain herself at his headquarters. She crossed the Mediterranean to see him. They fell in love at first sight.
Later, Antony accepted her invitation to visit her in Egypt. Despite all the threats, Antony and Cleopatra got married and were now openly together; and openly a team against Octavius, Antony’s rival for power in Rome. In 31 BC, he declared a war against Antony. The battle between the forces of Octavius and of Antony and Cleopatra took place at Actium, in Greece.
While fighting, Antony got false news of Cleopatra’s death. Shattered by the news of her death, he committed suicide by stabbing himself with his sword. When he found out that Cleopatra was still alive, his friends brought him to Cleopatra’s monument in which she was hiding, and he died in her arms. Octavius attempts to convince Cleopatra to surrender. She refuses. Cleopatra arranged for a small poisonous snake, an asp, to be smuggled into her quarters and applied the snake to her breast. A little later she was found dead.
Antony’s and Cleopatra’s deaths cleared the path for Octavius to become the first Roman Emperor. He ordered a public military funeral for them both and buried them together.
Friends, I owe more tears
To this dead man than you shall see me pay.I shall find time, Cassius, I shall find time.
