Isn’t it unfortunate that America’s self-indulgent celebrities, those empty-headed publicity hounds who constantly make headlines for all the wrong reasons, are not devotees of Cleopatra, who died on this date in 30 B.C.?
A quick refresher: Cleopatra became romantically involved with Gaius Julius Caesar and had a son by him. After Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. (“beware the Ides of March”) Cleopatra hooked up with Mark Antony (“friends, Romans, countrymen,” etc.).
Bad call. When Octavian (aka Augustus), Caesar’s legal heir, defeated Antony in a struggle for power, Antony killed himself. Cleopatra committed suicide as well, allegedly by allowing an asp to bite her.
Asps seem to be less fashionable in contemporary Hollywood than they were in ancient Alexandria. Perhaps the drunk, drugged and talentless celebrities of our era have an even greater sense of entitlement than Cleopatra did before her close encounter of the venomous kind. More’s the pity.
A quick refresher: Cleopatra became romantically involved with Gaius Julius Caesar and had a son by him. After Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. (“beware the Ides of March”) Cleopatra hooked up with Mark Antony (“friends, Romans, countrymen,” etc.).
Bad call. When Octavian (aka Augustus), Caesar’s legal heir, defeated Antony in a struggle for power, Antony killed himself. Cleopatra committed suicide as well, allegedly by allowing an asp to bite her.
Asps seem to be less fashionable in contemporary Hollywood than they were in ancient Alexandria. Perhaps the drunk, drugged and talentless celebrities of our era have an even greater sense of entitlement than Cleopatra did before her close encounter of the venomous kind. More’s the pity.
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