 Tepasaurus magna is about 31 miles outside of the city of Alexandria in Egypt. For close to 2,000 years now, mankind has been searching for the famous tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Many people believe that we will now find the famous tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony here at Tepasaurus magna. However, some believe that their tomb might unfortunately be under water. Now, it's not only important for us to find their tomb so we can find it for history's sake, but because if we can pull their bodies out, there's one question that we can have answered. And that is how Cleopatra actually died. But before we go any further, you know what to do. Hit that subscribe button and give us a like. Again, also a special shout out to our producer Tiffany Monroe. She is a rakey healer and teacher here in Atlanta. If you would like to get in contact with her, if you're looking for an alternative way of healing, her email address is in the description box below. Even if you live out of state or out of the country, please go ahead and contact her and I'm sure she can set something up with you. Welcome to esoteric Atlanta. My name is Bryce and today we're going to be talking about the last queen of Egypt. Guys, this story has everything. We've got blood. We've got romance. We have insane amounts of incest. We know that royal families always interbreed with each other, but usually it's like first cousins and that in itself is gross. But with Cleopatra's family, it was brothers and sisters marrying brothers and sisters. Cleopatra the 7th was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 69 BC. She was born into the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt. Her ancestor, the original Ptolemae the 1st, was a general for Alexander the Great. So yes, that means that Cleopatra and the whole Ptolemaic dynasty was Greek. Now in 323 BC, Ptolemae the 1st took over Egypt after again Alexander the Great died. Now Alexander did not leave a will to bequeath his land. And because Ptolemae was one of his beloved generals, he inherited by default Egypt. And it is with Ptolemae the 1st that we look down throughout the years, all the way to Cleopatra the 7th, that we see just a line of incest to keep the kingdom of Egypt within this one family's grip. Now Cleopatra, the famous queen, Cleopatra was again Cleopatra the 7th. As you'll see in the story, the name Cleopatra and Ptolemae are the big names within this family. Now Cleopatra came into the Ptolemae kingdom and dynasty through Alexander the Great, because that was the name of Alexander the Great's little sister. And in fact, we don't really know for sure who Cleopatra's mother was. We know again her father was Ptolemae the 12th. We believe her mother was Cleopatra the 5th. I don't know who Cleopatra the 6th was, but we know our famous Cleopatra again was the 7th. In 58 BC, Ptolemae the 12th had to flee Egypt. He fled Egypt with his 11-year-old daughter, Cleopatra, because he had made his 11-year-old daughter, Cleopatra, his co-ruler. This is common in Egyptian history that there are always co-rulers. Ptolemae the 12th and Cleopatra had to flee because of Cleopatra's older sister, Baranis. You see, Baranis had their mother and Baranis's husband murdered. And then Baranis created a rebellion against her father, Ptolemae the 12th, in order to gain the power of the Egyptian dynasty. But as any good pharaoh, any good ruler, Ptolemae the 12th was not going to take this lying down. Yes, he did flee to the Roman Empire with Cleopatra, but he wasn't there for long. He struck up a deal with the Roman Empire to use them as an ally to go back into Egypt to take over from his daughter, Baranis. Here we see a relationship with the Roman Empire that would be a story woven throughout Cleopatra's whole life. As soon as Ptolemae the 12th and Cleopatra, along with the Roman Empire, got back into Egypt, they then sacked Egypt. They took Baranis captive. Now, most of you probably think a father with a rebellious daughter would then just love his daughter and keep her at arm's length and make sure she gets some help. Well, that's not how they do it in the Ptolemae dynasty. Because Baranis had waged war, or I guess we could say treason against her own father, her own father had her executed. An 11-year-old Cleopatra watched the whole thing go down. Talk about some crazy PTSD. Now, in 51 BC, a few years later, Ptolemae the 12th died. He bequeathed his kingdom to both Cleopatra, who was 18 at the time, and had been his co-ruler and her little brother, who was 10 at the time, and he would become Ptolemae the 13th. Now, being co-rulers didn't mean that these siblings inherited an estate that they were going to divide and keep. This meant that they would have to get married. Growing up in the Ptolemae dynasty meant that at a very young age, Cleopatra learned that in order to survive in this family, she was going to have to be ruthless. Well, after her father's death and her and her little brother became co-married co-rulers, brother, husband, sister, wife kind of business, things began to fall apart. They did not get along. In two years into their screwed up marriage and co-rulership, brother, husband, Ptolemae the 13th throws a coup against his sister, wife, Cleopatra the 7th, and exiles her into Southern Egypt. This doesn't mean that Cleopatra is going to be able to just live out her life in Southern Egypt. No, this means that her life now, day by day, is constantly being threatened. And being a savvy and savage woman, Cleopatra paid attention to her brother. It seems that Ptolemae the 13th made a huge mistake because he ended up killing a Roman by the name of Pompeii. Now this made Julius Caesar, who was now the new ruler of Rome, angry. Cleopatra saw this as her opportunity to sack her little brother, husband, co-ruler. Because of the death of Pompeii, Julius Caesar then came down to Egypt to confront Ptolemae the 13th, who again, remember, is a child still. This also was a life-or-death situation for Cleopatra. If she could not get Julius Caesar on her side, she knew her days were numbered. And so the famous story goes that Cleopatra got back up into Alexandria and she rolled herself up into a carpet and had her servants carry the carpet a half a mile into Julius Caesar's apartment. They then rolled out the carpet for Julius Caesar as a gift from Cleopatra and boom, out she popped. Now in my research for this story, I did find a science experiment where they experimented with the conditions of Egypt at that time to see if it would have been physically possible for a woman to be wrapped in a carpet and carried half a mile into a palace. And yes, it would have been possible. However, by the time that Cleopatra got to Julius Caesar's apartment, she would have been covered in sweat. Needless to say, though, in those days the level of hygiene was probably not what we have today. So I don't think Julius Caesar minded too much. Now for a long time, people believed that it was Cleopatra that seduced Julius Caesar. After all, this was like a 20-year-old girl and this is a 52-year-old man. But a lot of historians are starting to see this story a little bit differently. Many historians believe that Cleopatra's goal in hiding in the carpet and popping out wasn't necessarily to seduce Julius Caesar but rather a plea for help. Julius Caesar was a known womanizer in the Roman Empire. He had lots of mistresses. So even though all this time we've been taught that it was Cleopatra who seduced him in order to save her life, the stories change now. People are considering the possibility that Cleopatra went to Julius Caesar literally just to beg for help. And it was he who lusted after her. And since her back was against the wall, it was literally sex or death. And so the affair with Julius Caesar began. Now when Cleopatra's brother-husband Ptolemy XIII found out about this affair, he of course was pissed off. It's kind of weird though, right? Like it's just so gross thinking about siblings being married that I don't think you would be super pissed off if your sister wife was having an affair with someone who wasn't related to her. But whatever, different times, right? So in 48 BC Julius Caesar attacks Ptolemy's army. Now again, Alexandria is on the coast. It's right up there at the top of Egypt. The battle was heated up on the water and Ptolemy the 13th in all of his heavy jewelry and his little boy body ended up falling overboard and drowning. Yes, that is the official story. His own jewelry drowned him. Now even though at this time Cleopatra was actively involved in an affair with Julius Caesar after brother-husband Ptolemy the 13th died, because of the Egyptian law, she then had to marry her other brother, her younger brother, another brother-husband Ptolemy the 14th. So now Cleopatra is co-ruling with Ptolemy the 14th. However, she ends up going back to the Roman Empire with her lover Julius Caesar. At this time, she gets pregnant with Julius Caesar's child. She ends up naming her baby Ptolemy the 15th Caesar. Now for Cleopatra to be in Rome and the Roman Empire, this was not necessarily a good thing because the Romans did not like the Egyptians. They saw Cleopatra as the enemy. They saw Julius Caesar, their ruler, as sleeping with the enemy. Now, yes, Julius Caesar, as I said, he was a womanizer. He had a lot of mistresses, but most of the kings of our globe have had many mistresses. However, the fact that one of his mistresses was an Egyptian princess really pissed the public off. And in fact, Julius Caesar apparently built statues in homage to Cleopatra and got her her own villa. Now the Roman people started to defend Julius Caesar's wife. Again, he had had mistresses before that didn't bother the public. What bothered the public this time was that his favorite mistress was Egyptian. This was the start of Julius Caesar's downfall. We all know the famous story of Julius Caesar being murdered. And something to note that's different from the Roman Empire and the Egyptian Empire. You know, we see, we talk about on this channel a lot this idea of divine right that these rulers feel like that they are better than the public and they have been given divine right by God. Well, the Egyptian pharaohs, the Ptolemaic dynasty believed this as well. And in fact, Cleopatra believed that she was the incarnation of the Egyptian goddess Isis. Now the Roman Empire was different. They didn't believe that their rulers were divine. Their system was more like our system today, where they were put in and out of power and voted in and out. So there's this already this different mindset within the two communities, the two kingdoms, on who these people really are. Now again, not only was Julius Caesar's affair with Cleopatra the beginning of the end for Julius Caesar, after the birth of Ptolemy 15 Caesar, their child, her other brother, husband Ptolemy the 14th, got very, very upset and started to threaten Cleopatra. But then Cleopatra's life is completely turned upside down when in 484 Julius Caesar is assassinated. And being the strong and ruthless woman that she was, she acted quickly. It is believed that Cleopatra was the one who had her brother, husband, Ptolemy the 14th, murdered through poison. You see the makeup that the Egyptians wore back then had poison in them. So she had access to plants that could kill humans. And there was a legend that she used to experiment with poison on prisoners in the Roman Empire and her servants. Little psychopathic, if you ask me. But anyway, after she figured out the right concoction, she had her brother, husband, Ptolemy the 14th murdered. At this point, she was able to then make herself and her son Ptolemy the 15th Caesar co rulers of Egypt. She could now return back to Egypt. And even though Cleopatra had made her baby her co ruler, according to Egyptian law, that's what had to happen. It is clear by art that we see in Egypt that Cleopatra saw herself as the divine holding ruler of Egypt. After Julius Caesar was famously murdered, and Cleopatra made her way back to her kingdom of Egypt, the Roman Empire became somewhat divided. Octavia was kind of ruling the western part of the Roman Empire and Mark Antony was going to ruling the eastern part of the Roman Empire. You see, 42 year old Mark Antony was one of Caesar's top generals. And when he went back down to Egypt, Cleopatra, now at the age of 28, made a grand entry. I actually do believe that Mark Antony and Cleopatra really had a very passionate love for one another. It is said in some accounts that the first time Mark Antony met Cleopatra was when she was 11 years old, and her father brought her into exile into the Roman Empire. Many accounts say that Mark Antony fell in love with her immediately at that moment. It was a little gross because she was 11, but again, different times, and at least they're not related. So when we back to that grand entry, you see Cleopatra decked out her boat, like made this boat this elaborate beautiful jewels and everything, and went down the Nile, and apparently she herself was dressed as Aphrodite, another goddess. Cleopatra definitely did not lack in the dramatic department. It is often said that Cleopatra was over the top with everything, including her relationship with Mark Antony. I definitely believe that in today's standards, Mark Antony and Cleopatra would be labeled as a power couple from some tabloid. I don't know, maybe they did have tabloids back there, and we just don't know, but I definitely see that with them. They are now a power couple. Well, Mark Antony and Cleopatra did get married. Finally, Cleopatra is able to marry someone that is not her brother. However, there's still one more threat to Cleopatra's reign over Egypt, and that is her little sister, Arsenaway. Now Arsenaway, she had done some things herself, even though she was very young at this time. She tried to have some people murdered. I mean, this is a freaking crazy family. She definitely had dabbled in some mischief and scandal herself, but at this point, Arsenaway was in exile at a temple in Turkey. This was the Temple of Artemis, and we have found a burial on the Temple of Artemis that looks like it is a burial of royalty. So we do believe that we have found Arsenaway's grave. Now, she went into exile in this temple so her sister couldn't hurt her. She knew her sister was effing crazy, the whole family is, and so I guess Arsenaway, at a very young age, realized in order to save her ass, she needed to go hide in this temple, although it didn't really work. Because in a relationship like Mark Antony's and Cleopatra's, where there is a lot of passion, then there can also be a lot of manipulation. Cleopatra knew that as long as Arsenaway was still alive, regardless of whether she was in hiding or not, her life, her son's life and her kingdom were a threat. So she knew she couldn't go to the temple to murder her sister, so she sent Mark Antony to do it. Andy did. He killed for Cleopatra. I don't think my boyfriend would murder for me. I would hope not. That's going to be some serious female power if you can get a man to murder your sister, your sister who's hanging out in a freaking temple in exile. I mean, seriously, this family, this freaking family, I bet you thought your family had issues. I don't think anybody's family has the issues that the Dala Maze have had. But anyway, back to the story. So now all the siblings have been killed. The boulder sister was murdered by her father. Got her head chopped off because she tried to take over her father's kingdom. And then brother husband number one was killed in battle because of his jewelry. Brother husband number two was poisoned. And now sister is been murdered in a temple. And again, Cleopatra has appointed herself and her young son, Ptolemy 15th Caesar as the co-rulers of Egypt. She's got the love of her life, Mark Antony, and they are now married. However, it was against the law, the Roman law for a Roman to marry the enemy. And Goodall Octavia, who was controlling the western side of the Roman Empire, was freaking pissed because his buddy, his general buddy under Julius Caesar, had married the freaking enemy. I know that might feel weird for us today, because as I said, I acknowledge, I do believe that Mark Antony and Cleopatra really did love each other. However, I can definitely see how this marriage could have been seen as treason, like you're selling out your country to another country. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? People still do this today. Again, it's called treason. So Octavia wasn't going to take this lightly. And in fact, he invaded, he went, he took his ships and he declared war on Mark Antony. And of course, Cleopatra. So after Mark Antony had gone native with Cleopatra, Octavia defeated him in the Battle of Actum near Greece. After Mark Antony was defeated by Octavia, he hauled ass back to Alexandria. During the threat of incoming disaster, Cleopatra sent her young son, Ptolemy 15 Caesar, to a small town in the south of the Red Sea into exile. And Cleopatra then waited for Mark Antony to return. When Mark Antony got back to Alexandria, things got even worse. His troops deserted him and went to go fight for Octavia. It's not really clear what happened after this. A lot of people say that Mark Antony was under the impression that Cleopatra had perhaps abandoned him. I don't believe she had, but that's what he thought had happened. His troops were gone, his wife is gone, everything is slipping away. He knows he will probably be killed. And so he takes matters into his own hands and he kills himself. With Cleopatra now left alone in Alexandria, it is said that she too committed suicide. The story goes that she took a venomous snake and had the snake bite her breast to kill her. Although we're not sure that that story is accurate. Many people believe it would have taken a really long time for the snake venom to work. Here's what people think really happened. Cleopatra is a savvy and ruthless queen. She's a Ptolemy. When she knew that Antony was dead, she'd already sent her son into exile. She knew Antony's troops had abandoned her and Octavia, with the might of the Roman Empire, was coming for her. She did what only she knew she could do. She tried to seduce Octavia. Although it didn't work, Octavia was not cast under her spell. I guess his hatred for her and for the Egyptian Empire was mightier than any man's lust for a woman. It is said in that moment, Octavia murdered Cleopatra. Now of course, we have no idea which story is the true story. Did Cleopatra kill herself using the venom of a snake? A very romantic story told throughout the ages? Or was she murdered by Octavia in a failed attempt to do what she did best and seduce him? We will only know the answer to that question when we are able to find her tomb. Now Mark Antony and Cleopatra were buried together. Appropriately, the lovers were buried together. And I do have to note that soon after his mother was dead, Ptolemy the 15th Caesar was lured back to Alexandria to speak with Octavia. Now Ptolemy the 15th Caesar was the single ruler of Egypt at a young age. Now unfortunately, by being in a young age, he probably was a little naive. When he got back to Alexandria, Octavia had him killed as well. Now in the first century, Plutarch wrote about Cleopatra. He said that Cleopatra and Mark Antony were buried very elaborately near the Temple of Isis. People do think that there is a possibility that Mark Antony was cremated, however many historians think that might not be true. So when they go looking for the tomb of Cleopatra, they're looking for two bodies in a burial tomb that would represent that of royalty. And once it's found, many questions will be answered. But until then, Cleopatra will remain one of the most powerful queens in our history. Her relationship with Mark Antony will go down as one of the best love stories of all time. At Cleopatra's death and at her son's death, Egypt then became a province of the Roman Empire. In fact, as I said in the beginning, she was the last queen of Egypt and the end of the Ptolemy reign. All right, thank you so much for sitting through that story. Do you think we'll ever find the tomb? Do you think the tomb is findable or do you think it is underwater with so much of ancient Alexandria? Again, thank you so much to Josh McKay for doing our music. If you would like to purchase our opening song, the link is below. If you want to help us support this channel, there's a link to our Patreon page. And if you would like to subscribe to Todd Broderick's band, The Flying Mystics, also a link below. All right, guys, I hope you have a wonderful day and I will talk to you soon. Bye.