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One of the long-held stories about the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra is that she arranged her own death by having a poisonous snake, or asp, smuggled into her quarters after she and her lover Mark Antony were defeated at the Battle of Actium. It is an image that can be found in paintings and literature across the centuries since Cleopatra’s death in the first century BCE. But is it really true? Egyptologist Joyce Tildesley considers the evidence.

Photo: Cleopatra with the asp (DeAgostini/Getty Images)