On August 12

On this day in ...
... 30 B.C. (2,040 years ago today), the last head of the Ptolemaic dynasty that had ruled Egypt for the previous 2 decades, 30-something Cleopatra VII, died. Tradition -- reinforced by Shakespeare -- holds that she committed suicide by placing an asp to her breast. Recent research, however, suggests that she died from poison. Popular culture holds that her distress over the death of Roman lover Mark Anthony drove her to this measure -- but this BBC account suggests added, political reasons for her demise. (prior post) The site says of Cleopatra:

Whether she was as beautiful as was claimed, she was a highly intelligent woman and an astute politician, who brought prosperity and peace to a country that was bankrupt and split by civil war.

(Prior August 12 posts are here, here, and here.)

On this day

On March 27, ...
... 47 B.C., Cleopatra VII was put back in power in Egypt with the aid of Roman consul Julius Caesar. At age 17 she had become co-regent, along with the 10-year-old brother, on the death in 51 B.C. of their father. Cleopatra, depicted on the coin at left, committed suicide in 30 B.C.
... 1898 (110 years ago today), Russia obtained from China a 25-year lease for the fortress of Port Arthur in Manchuria, thus thwarting Japan's effort to obtain control over this "strongest position in eastenr Asia" by means of a treaty of cession that it and China had entered 3 years earlier. Within 6 years a battle at Port Arthur touched off the Russo-Japanese War, won by Japan in 1904.