Cleopatra - Death by Snake - Extra History - #4

alexandria fall 34 bce the city gathers at the gymnasium watching the gold and silver stage seated on the lower level are four young people cleopatra's children with caesar and antony they sit on golden thrones with even the two-year-old in royal attire and on the top level dressed as isis and osiris sit cleopatra and antony anthony wearing a crown of ivy and a golden robe stands and makes a series of proclamations as roman triumvir antony names cleopatra the queen of not only egypt but of cyprus libya and syria and recognizes caesarean as caesar's son and gives him the deified title king of kings then he gifts an enormous amount of land to his children with cleopatra stating where each will rule and the crowd roars with approval after the ceremony anthony sends his proclamations to rome requesting senatorial approval and then he and cleopatra commission new coins to commemorate the event which will be known as the donations of alexandria the couple's purpose with this very public showing is to establish a new mediterranean dynasty that will rule for centuries though it would last only five years [Music] the donations of alexandria represented anthony and cleopatra's crossing the rubicon moment after years of uneasy peace with octavian the couple was ready to lay their claim to the mediterranean world anthony's letter to the senate represented not just a request for recognition but really a pitch to the leaders of rome hi we're powerful we're rich and we've set up a line of succession that includes caesar's own flesh and blood son so come on ditch octavian and come join us the problem with this pitch of course was that he made it from alexandria and not rome because while alexandria may have been where the best parties happened rome was definitely still the place for business plus the senate had a lot of problems with anthony and cleopatra's proposition from the senate's perspective it was cleopatra who was calling the shots and had antony under her spell why else would he treat his devoted roman wife octavia so poorly why else would he give so much territory which included some roman provinces over to egypt why else would he officially recognize cesarean as caesar's son challenging the legitimacy of octavian's inheritance these roman senators wanted a traditional roman leader not whatever this was it was an opening which octavian exploited masterfully he marshaled an effective propaganda campaign back in rome targeted not at antony but cleopatra for despite the stories of anthony's extravagant lifestyle and misdeeds in the east he'd been politically active longer than young octavian and still had long-term supporters amongst the senate plus after experiencing a civil war with caesar versus pompey and then another civil war after caesar's assassination rome just wasn't up for another military campaign between two roman leaders but what about a war between rome and a femme fatale egyptian queen who practiced sorcery sounds great to us octavian's propaganda played up how cleopatra seduced antony leading this once great roman leader down a path of vice and self-destruction and in this way it was actually octavian who was fighting to save antony not destroy a rival to roman leadership this wasn't a civil war no this was a rescue mission told you this octavian guy was clever this propaganda also portrayed cleopatra using magic to steal the minds and hearts of rome's greatest men and octavian pressed the idea that a victory for egypt would most assuredly see cleopatra and not antony ruling rome and that the roman people would be made to worship egyptian gods events came to a head in 32 bce the official reign of the antony and octavian triumvirate was over and it was now time to decide a new leadership structure hundreds of roman senators left to join antony in egypt while octavian consolidated power in rome anthony also severed his last remaining connections to his rival divorcing octavia that spring octavian however learned that anthony had drawn up a controversial will and left the document at the temple of vesta so he broke into the temple and seized it and then read the document aloud to the remaining members of the senate though he didn't let anyone else read the will which of course is only slightly suspicious the will included further grants to anthony and cleopatra's children cesarean and a request that upon his death anthony's body should be buried in alexandria and not rome this document real or not left little doubt in rome that anthony intended to turn alexandria into the center of the empire and based on that the remaining members of the senate gave octavian permission to strip anthony of his official powers and raise an army to face egypt meanwhile anthony and cleopatra traveled to athens where they collected their forces and also partied real hard while they waited for the final confrontation september 2nd 31 bce actium greece and we finally arrived at the final battle of the roman republic whoever wins here will go on to create an empire that will dominate the mediterranean world for the next four centuries in the western corner we have octavian representing rome and if you listen to his propaganda traditional roman values and in the eastern corner we have anthony and cleopatra fighting for a hybrid style of roman and hellenistic traditions let's get ready to toga [Applause] the fate of the mediterranean world is fittingly decided on the mediterranean sea octavian's forces are a collection of troops from italy and roman provinces while antony and cleopatra's forces feature soldiers from egypt asia minor greece and in a nod to cleopatra's roots macedonia and many of the couple's ships are outfitted with gold and silver as though expecting a triumphal parade anthony leads from the front line while cleopatra and her fleet are close behind coiled like a snake ready to strike at the enemy's weak spot the pharaoh has insisted on joining the battle for it's a battle that could see her family crowned rulers of the known world antony and octavian ships engage at close quarters attempting to ram into each other they come alongside and a brutal hand-to-hand combat roils across decks then cleopatra's fleet rose forward presumably to assist anthony's beleaguered forces but as her fleet travels through the maelstrom for reasons that remain obscure and we'll definitely be discussing in our lives episode the egyptian ships drop their sails and set off toward egypt anthony sees cleopatra fleeing and directs his flagship to follow while octavian overtakes the remainder of anthony's fleet and destroys it for the next year anthony and cleopatra will continue fighting octavian's forces in egypt but actium sealed their fate the couple lost nearly all of their allies and those that were left couldn't hold back the tide for centuries roman generals had done the bidding of ptolemaic leaders invading egypt taking alexandria and restoring a monarch now octavian entered egypt to destroy the ancient dynasty once and for all on august 1st 30 bce octavian's army overwhelmed anthony's remaining forces outside the capital and as octavian's troops marched into the city cleopatra fled to her partially constructed mausoleum and sealed herself inside surrounded by her servants and personal treasure mentally shattered from fighting and hearing rumors that cleopatra was dead mark anthony attempted suicide but he failed to fall on his sword properly which left him gravely wounded and when cleopatra learned what anthony had done she immediately had him sent to her but because servants had already sealed her in the mausoleum anthony had to be lifted through a window before being brought to rest and true to his nature even at the last he took a swig of wine and died in cleopatra's arms and amidst her anguish cleopatra was left to deal with this mess alone octavian had said that he desperately wanted cleopatra to live because he wanted to maintain stability in egypt but she knew that was a lie what he really wanted was to parade cleopatra as a captive during his triumph in rome in fact cleopatra's own sister had been forced to march in such chains through rome as part of julius caesar's triumph in 46 bce she'd been humiliated screamed at and demeaned and traditionally roman prisoners of war were strangled at the end of such a walk though that time caesar had spared the woman's life would cleopatra be so lucky she'd spent her whole life besting rome's leaders and she wasn't about to let history remember her as a conquered woman she returned to her palace under the gaze of octavian soldiers to plot her next move and so on august 12 30 bce as octavian soldiers stood watch over cleopatra to prevent her from attempting suicide the last pharaoh of egypt put her final plan into motion she convinced octavian's guards to allow her back into the mausoleum to perform a ritual over anthony's body afterward she bathed dressed in her finest regalia and had one last extravagant meal during which she wrote a letter to octavian telling him to bury her alongside anthony she sent the letter and then called for dessert a basket of figs and upon its arrival she opened the basket to reveal not only figs but an asp placed there by an ally which she quickly pressed to her arm and allowed it to strike her two ladies in waiting did the same and by the time the guards realized what had happened the three were already gone the last pharaoh of egypt was dead but her story wouldn't die with her so tune in next week as cleopatra's immortality achievement gets officially unlocked legendary thanks to ahmed ziad turk alicia bramble casey muscha dominic valenciana gunner clovis kyle murgatroyd and o reals one for helping to make this show possible [Music] you

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Views: 292,461

Rating: 4.9112449 out of 5

Keywords: extra credits, extra history, extra credits history, cleopatra, octavian, mark antony, ancient egypt, ancient egyptian history, home learning, high school history, the real cleopatra, cleopatra history, egyptian history, ancient egypt history

Id: i_Teuv7-LN8

Length: 10min 31sec (631 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 17 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/HorkerLordTusk]

I just can’t watch extra history anymore. No one working on it is taking it seriously. The old videos weren’t without comedy, but it’s not the same as the humor used now. And I haven’t found the words to describe exactly how it’s different- I just don’t have the time to analyze it now, but I know that it is different. Like older videos never had off key singing (as in the third century crisis series) or something as goofy as the snek meme in the thumbnail, as in this video.

Is this an unpopular opinion? Anyone else have thoughts on this?