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00:00Ancient Egypt, one of the greatest civilizations in history.
00:07But who or what killed its last pharaoh, Cleopatra?
00:12A verdict of suicide by snake bite has been accepted unchallenged for over 2,000 years.
00:19But can science uncover an entirely different explanation?
00:24A team of investigators will attempt to use modern techniques to crack the case.
00:30Did Cleopatra take her own life or was she murdered?
00:35Tonight, Unearthing Ancient Secrets investigates the mysterious death of Cleopatra.
01:00Cleopatra, pharaoh of Egypt, one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever seen, and lover of two of the most powerful men in ancient Rome, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
01:27But in 30 BC, her 20-year reign ended violently.
01:37Her plan to protect Egypt from the might of Rome in tatters.
01:42The grand-nephew of Julius Caesar, Octavian, had conquered her empire.
01:51Her lover, Mark Antony, was dead.
01:53And Octavian had imprisoned Cleopatra.
01:56She faced a terrible choice.
01:58Live and be humiliated by her Roman enemy, or take her own life and die with her dignity intact.
02:06History records her decision.
02:10She killed herself with a deadly snake.
02:13I think that the death of Cleopatra is probably her greatest moment.
02:26What a fabulous exit.
02:28But many experts and scholars think that there is much about the story of Cleopatra's death that doesn't add up.
02:38The idea that she would commit suicide just doesn't hold water.
02:42Could the story of Cleopatra's suicide be a 2,000-year-old cover-up?
02:47No Ptolemy has ever committed suicide.
02:50So what is the truth behind the myths surrounding Cleopatra's death?
03:00Did she really commit suicide? Or was it possibly a homicide?
03:05Pat Brown, one of America's leading criminal profilers, believes there may be more to the story.
03:13As a cold-case homicide investigator, I noticed this particular crime scene and said,
03:18This is very unusual.
03:20There seems something wrong with the way it is described she died.
03:24And I'm just not sure I quite believe it.
03:27For over a decade, Brown has profiled some of America's most notorious criminals,
03:33including the Washington Snipers.
03:38She wants to use this experience to do something she's never done before.
03:42Solve a 2,000-year-old case using modern forensic science.
03:51I've done cases that are 20 years old. I've done cases that are 30 years old.
03:55This one's a couple thousand years old.
03:57So I'd say this is about as cold a case as you're going to get.
04:00Brown and an international team of expert witnesses will investigate the case using all the techniques available to a modern crime unit.
04:18Using these scientific tools, they will uncover an incredible story of conspiracy, incest, and even murder.
04:26Pat Brown begins her investigation in Alexandria, the city Cleopatra ruled from over 2,000 years ago.
04:47For Brown, the city is more than Cleopatra's home. It's the crime scene.
04:53One of the most important things you do in any cold case is to go to that crime scene.
05:00Because if you don't go there, you don't even know what you're looking at.
05:03Cleopatra's Alexandria was one of the greatest cities in the ancient world.
05:08But today, virtually nothing remains of the city as she would have known it.
05:142,000 years of wars, earthquakes, and tidal waves means that the city's royal palaces and famous monuments have all disappeared into the huge natural harbor.
05:28Somewhere here are the remains of Cleopatra's palace and her mausoleum, the place where she died.
05:35Now, almost nothing is left of the ancient crime scene. The mausoleum is thought of as lost for good.
05:45Brown needs help to build a more accurate picture of the place where Cleopatra died.
05:55So she turns to a man who has spent a decade exploring the remains of Cleopatra's city.
06:01Underwater archaeologist Professor Jean-Yves Empereur.
06:04The continent line, the coastline is here. It's very different from what we see now.
06:14Today, Alexandria's coastline bears little resemblance to the city in Cleopatra's time.
06:21But Professor Empereur's research paints a picture of how the palace district might have looked.
06:27And most importantly, he is able to do something until recently thought impossible.
06:32He can identify the site of Cleopatra's mausoleum.
06:37So how far a distance would it be from the exact palace to the mausoleum, would you guess?
06:43Exactly, we don't know, but not far. It's hundreds of meters only.
06:48So we have a palace here, a mausoleum there.
06:51Yes.
06:53She could then easily get back and forth between the two of them.
06:55Oh yes, yes, of course.
06:57With Empereur's evidence, Brown decides to rebuild the place where Cleopatra died.
07:03She will draw on the details of Alexandria's ancient maps, archaeology, and modern underwater survey data.
07:11She sends the information to a team of computer graphics specialists.
07:15The team will create a 3D architectural model of Cleopatra's palace complex, including the mausoleum.
07:23I like to reconstruct all crime scenes because if I can't see the crime scene and see how it looked, I can't see what would have happened.
07:31While Brown waits for the reconstruction, the investigation takes her to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, built to commemorate one of the most famous academic institutions in history, the ancient library of Alexandria.
07:52Built by Cleopatra's dynasty, it was said to have held over 700,000 scrolls.
07:58It was one of the landmarks that made the city great.
08:04Brown has come here to enlist the help of one of Egypt's leading scholars and expert on Cleopatra's era, Professor Mostafa El Abadi.
08:14She wants to find out exactly what evidence she has to work with.
08:18Just as with a modern crime, the investigation will rely heavily on witnesses.
08:25Only in this case, their testimony is almost 2,000 years old.
08:29What is the actual first source we have that says anything about Cleopatra?
08:34Well, the sources are actually second-hand sources, even the ancient ones.
08:40Even the ancient ones?
08:41Even the ancient ones.
08:42Professor El Abadi's news is surprising.
08:45There is not one first-hand account of Cleopatra's death.
08:51Two accounts are considered reliable, those of Roman historians Dio Cassius and Plutarch.
08:58But even these were written a century after Cleopatra died.
09:02However, the two accounts do agree on certain things.
09:07Both say that Cleopatra was imprisoned inside her mausoleum on the day of her death.
09:12Plutarch goes on to describe the scene.
09:15When they opened the doors, they found Cleopatra lying dead upon a golden couch, dressed in her royal rose.
09:22Plutarch suggests that Cleopatra's means of killing herself was a poisonous snake, smuggled into her chamber in a basket of figs.
09:40Dio Cassius says the snake was concealed in a pitcher.
09:44Both describe an alternative scenario, that Cleopatra took poison.
09:48I found there were so many inconsistencies that I couldn't quite put my finger on if this happened or if that happened.
09:57Plutarch was a storyteller, in a sense.
10:00Do you then believe it's possible that he also took an artistic license in his writings?
10:05Possibly, yes. Yes, certainly, yes.
10:09From their research, Brown feels the suicide story is far less convincing than she had first thought.
10:14Her doubts are even echoed by Plutarch himself.
10:18For in his account, he acknowledges he doesn't know exactly how Cleopatra died.
10:24But the truth of the matter, no one knows.
10:28The truth of the matter, no one knows.
10:31Nobody knows.
10:33But for certain, we have no means of knowing how she died.
10:38Brown realizes that 2,000 years of history have been built on the shakiest of foundations, rumor and assumption.
10:49We really don't know what happened at the scene.
10:53So I'm going to have to go back and analyze what could have occurred at that scene, and does any of that make sense?
10:57For Pat Brown, the investigation is just beginning.
11:02While she examines archaeological evidence from Cleopatra's era, she considers all the options.
11:08If suicide is unlikely, exactly what, or who, killed Egypt's last pharaoh?
11:15Brown's profile will take her inside the mind of Cleopatra.
11:28If Cleopatra had committed suicide, she should fit certain psychological characteristics displayed by most suicide victims.
11:37People commit suicide when they can't stand being alive.
11:43When they are in such intolerable pain, they sometimes are continuing to live.
11:48Or if they believe that by dying they will gain something that they can't gain otherwise.
11:53The question is, is there anything in Cleopatra's story which fits either?
11:57In 69 BC, Cleopatra was born into a dynasty known as the Ptolemies.
12:08As a child, she enjoyed a remarkable education.
12:12It was said that she could speak seven languages, and was the only Ptolemy who could speak Egyptian as well as Greek.
12:20But there was more to being a Ptolemy than a good education.
12:22Being a Ptolemy meant Cleopatra would have had to fight for her right to the throne, for her very survival.
12:29It was kill or be killed.
12:31Cleopatra learned very, very well from her family.
12:35She learned that if people get in your way, you eliminate them.
12:38She's going to learn what works and what doesn't work.
12:40And if she wants to be a queen, she's going to have to take in all the methodologies that are going to make her a queen.
12:45But the ancient records reveal something else, that the Ptolemies had no family history of suicide.
12:55That I know of, no Ptolemy has ever committed suicide.
12:59Generally speaking, they don't die a peaceful death.
13:05There was no family history of committing suicide, even though there was a family history of murder.
13:09So this would have been out of character for her.
13:13Pat Brown is building a psychological profile of Cleopatra.
13:17It portrays a woman who would do anything to retain her power.
13:22At 18, she inherited the throne and became Pharaoh of Egypt.
13:27With the crown came marriage to her brother, but he wanted to rule alone and challenged Cleopatra's power.
13:33Soon after, he was found dead.
13:37Fearing her own assassination, Cleopatra sought the protection of the emerging Roman Empire.
13:44She became the lover of Julius Caesar.
13:48Soon after, she gave birth to his son.
13:52After Caesar's murder in 44 BC, Cleopatra seduced his confidant, Mark Antony.
13:58Together, they launched a bid to rule the Roman Empire and failed.
14:04From her experience in investigating modern crimes, Brown is beginning to believe that Cleopatra would never have simply given up.
14:12Looking at Cleopatra, one of the most important details is that she never quit fighting.
14:19She never gives up.
14:21It's not making a lot of sense to me that she would just kill herself at that moment.
14:25Just as she would in a modern case, Brown now wants to combine Cleopatra's psychological profile with evidence from the crime scene.
14:34Her graphics team has now finished the 3D reconstruction of ancient Alexandria.
14:38Brown is about to be able to visualize something that no one else has seen for 1700 years.
14:46Cleopatra's city is rising from its ocean grave.
14:51Based on historical research and archaeological evidence, Pat Brown now has the most accurate possible reconstruction of both Cleopatra's palace and the mausoleum where she died.
15:10Having concluded that Cleopatra is not the type of person to kill herself, I now have to prove it.
15:18Minute by minute, Brown now wants to recreate the events leading up to Cleopatra's death.
15:23When I reconstruct a crime scene, I'm looking to see how is it done?
15:27Is it possible for things to be done in this particular location?
15:30One should be able to reconstruct the crime scene and have it work.
15:34Brown returns to Plutarch's 2,000-year-old version of events to compare it against what she has already discovered.
15:44On the day of her death, Cleopatra was imprisoned in her mausoleum.
15:47On her orders, a deadly snake is smuggled into her runes.
15:55She sends a suicide note to her captor, Octavian, who has taken over her palace.
16:05Cleopatra allows the snake to bite her.
16:10Then her two handmaidens do the same.
16:17When they are discovered, the handmaidens are dying, Cleopatra already dead.
16:23Two tiny pinpricks are discovered on her arm.
16:27There's just some things that just jump out, red flags, we say.
16:31If you're constructing this crime in your mind, can you imagine three women trying to apply a snake to themselves,
16:35especially the handmaidens after they see their mistress drop to the floor?
16:38I mean, the likelihood of them wanting to grab the snake themselves is, you know, oh, it's a snake.
16:42And a poisonous one at that, people are frightened of snakes.
16:44But Brown still needs proof.
16:48In search of evidence, she travels to Cairo.
16:51She is arranged to meet a leading expert in snake venoms and ancient poisons, Professor David Worrell.
16:57He takes her to an area called Abu Rawash, referred to by Egyptians as the snake village.
17:04If the snake bite story is true, there are very few snakes which could have caused Cleopatra's death.
17:09This is the one to concentrate on. This is the best one, the top candidate, Egyptian cobra.
17:17This is Egypt's most impressive venomous snake. It's the largest, it has the most potent venom.
17:24The venom is neurotoxic.
17:26Which means what?
17:27Well, the toxins block the transmission of the nerve impulse.
17:31Okay.
17:32So there is a progressive paralysis.
17:36Once struck by the cobra, the venom would first have paralyzed the muscles of her eyes.
17:41Then it would have frozen the muscles in her chest and stomach.
17:45Finally, she would have suffocated and died.
17:47The ordeal would leave little physical evidence on the body.
17:52You would have fang marks.
17:54They're noticeable fang marks?
17:56Yes.
17:57Okay.
17:58They can be very tiny, even with a large snake.
18:01This description exactly matches the earliest account of Cleopatra's corpse.
18:06Plutarch just said, well, there were two marks but nothing else.
18:08Plutarch said there were two tiny marks.
18:11These descriptions did not suggest that there were any other changes at the site of the bite.
18:17Professor Worrell also believes that one cobra could deliver enough venom to kill all three victims, Cleopatra and her handmaidens.
18:27This amount of venom that we see here, would this be just, would just a fraction of it be in one bite?
18:32Yes, probably. It would only inject a few drops at each strike.
18:38So this is a lot of venom.
18:39But all the evidence now suggests that repeated strikes, even up to ten strikes in a row, can deliver lethal doses of venom.
18:53Professor Worrell's testimony initially seems to support the snake bite theory.
18:57But as Brown reviews the 3D reconstruction of the crime scene, she finds a detail which could challenge that theory once and for all.
19:08She notices that Cleopatra's mausoleum was very close to her palace where Octavian was staying.
19:15The mausoleum and the palace, they're just several hundred meters apart.
19:20It's a very short walk.
19:21Brown believes that with such a short distance between the two buildings, the suicide note which Cleopatra sent Octavian would have reached him within minutes.
19:32The alarm would have been raised and her body discovered almost immediately.
19:39That raises the question, how long would the venom from an Egyptian cobra take to kill Cleopatra?
19:45The most rapid evolution to death that I've experienced has been two hours, but shorter times than that have been reported.
19:58Could have been as short as 15 or 20 minutes, but much more likely it would have been a matter of few hours.
20:04History records that Cleopatra's handmaidens died seconds after Octavian's guards arrived.
20:11This suggests that all three women died within the shortest possible time frame.
20:18To Brown, this seems highly unlikely.
20:22If Cleopatra had sent over a note to Octavian, that guard would have been back there very quickly and he would have found Cleopatra alive.
20:30Brown's investigation seems to undermine history's version of Cleopatra's death.
20:35But before she dismisses 2,000 years of firmly held belief, Brown wants to understand one thing.
20:43How did the snakebite story come about in the first place?
20:48The magnificent Temple of Philae was built by Cleopatra's dynasty, the Ptolemies.
20:53Brown meets Professor Said Gohari, an expert on the Temple.
21:07He explains that Philae was dedicated to the goddess Isis.
21:11You see the figure of goddess Isis everywhere.
21:16For the ancient Egyptians, Isis was the universal mother goddess.
21:21But the walls of Philae hold a key piece of evidence which may help the investigation.
21:27Look at this very important relief here, showing Isis in the middle.
21:32And she is providing Egypt with water and the plantation, the whole seal being protected by the snake.
21:43Can you see the head of the snake?
21:45Right there.
21:47And this relief shows the connection and the relation between Cleopatra and Isis.
21:57The symbol of Isis was the Egyptian cobra.
22:00The snake adorned her headdress and symbolized kingship.
22:05And when Cleopatra was crowned, she did not only become the queen.
22:10To the ancient Egyptians, she also became the living embodiment of Isis herself.
22:21The ancient Egyptian world were dominated by gods.
22:25After 3,000 years, the kings were worshipped the same method like gods.
22:33And they considered themselves like gods.
22:36As soon as Cleopatra became pharaoh, countless images depicting her as Isis alongside the cobra would have been created.
22:44Did the snake bite story arise from a mistake?
22:48Did the historians misinterpret Cleopatra's association with the snake?
22:53I think one can certainly draw a parallel between the symbol of kingship and the death of Cleopatra.
22:58This very, very dangerous animal, the cobra, which is there to protect the queen of Egypt, is in fact, in the myth, the ultimate instrument of her death.
23:13For Pat Brown, something falls into place.
23:20She believes that the snake bite story is a myth, rather than a factual account, and thinks it has its origins in Cleopatra's association with Isis.
23:29But if she didn't commit suicide by snake bite, just how did Cleopatra die?
23:37Brown decides to investigate the alternative theory suggested by Plutarch, that Cleopatra committed suicide using poison.
23:47His account explains how she hid the poison from her captors.
23:50She carried poison about with her in a hollow comb, which she kept hidden in her hair.
24:00In search of proof for the poison theory, Brown turns again to Professor Worrell.
24:06He can identify which poisons would have been known and understood in Cleopatra's time.
24:12He takes her to a market in Cairo, where some of them can still be purchased today.
24:16The really interesting thing here is that in Cleopatra's time, a wide range of poisons were available and understood and were used.
24:25And she would understand them because she was very well educated and she had all the answers.
24:28I believe she was an experienced poisoner.
24:30I can see up there, there's the spotted hemlock.
24:33This is a plant poison.
24:35The active principle is conine.
24:37This is the poison which bumped off poor Socrates in 300 B.C., so it was very well known.
24:43And it would cause a slow but not too unpleasant death.
24:48You think the number one poison that Cleopatra might have used would have been the hemlocks?
24:54That would certainly be a very possible contender.
24:58To test this theory, Brown contacts one of the world's leading poison units.
25:04Based in New Zealand, toxicologist Dr. Leo Shep and his team are going to analyze hemlock.
25:10First, Dr. Shep makes a highly toxic concentrate from the leaves of the hemlock plant.
25:17He wants to determine exactly how much hemlock would have been needed to kill Cleopatra and her handmaidens.
25:25The comb may hold one to two mils of liquid.
25:30She would need 30 mils to kill herself and an additional 60 mils for her servants.
25:35It's highly unlikely that hemlock would have been responsible for her death.
25:41The comb story is clearly improbable.
25:43Now, Brown wants to know if it was even possible for hemlock to have killed Cleopatra in the few minutes between sending her suicide note and the guards finding her dead.
25:56The results suggest that the story just doesn't hold up to scientific scrutiny.
26:00That's interesting, but death is typically within hours of ingestion.
26:06So, it would have taken too long, there would have been signs on her body.
26:11That doesn't make sense. This whole suicide thing is just a logic.
26:14What's interesting about Cleopatra is that she doesn't fit the profile of those leaders who, when they lose, commit suicide.
26:24And she can go through losses and still persevere.
26:27She's a survivor.
26:29So, the idea that she would, in the face of a loss, commit suicide just doesn't hold water.
26:35The investigation so far seems to contradict the idea that Cleopatra committed suicide either by snake bite or poisoning.
26:44And Brown's experience on modern suicide cases is making her suspicious.
26:50She realizes there is one crucial clue which makes the theory implausible.
26:55The note.
26:59Accounts say that before her death, Cleopatra wrote a suicide note and sent it to her captor, Octavian.
27:06That's not what people do when they really want to commit suicide.
27:10People don't write suicide notes and give them to other people.
27:14They usually write the suicide note to leave them by their bodies.
27:19This revelation changes Brown's investigation into a murder inquiry.
27:24Right now I'm at the point where I do not believe it was possible, really, for Cleopatra to commit suicide.
27:30So that leaves us with one other conclusion, which would be homicide.
27:34Pat Brown is now on the hunt for Cleopatra's killer.
27:39I'm going to be looking for somebody who had the opportunity, the ability, and the motive to commit this crime against Cleopatra.
27:45And Brown already has a suspect in mind, Cleopatra's captor, Octavian.
27:55Well, I mean, only one person who controlled the crime scene.
27:58So I'd say Octavian looks like a very good suspect.
28:02For Brown, Octavian is the prime suspect in Cleopatra's suspicious death.
28:09Now she has to prove it.
28:12The grand-nephew of Julius Caesar, Octavian was named as his heir.
28:23He inherited Caesar's desire to transform Rome into a great empire under one all-powerful ruler, himself.
28:34His plan was to gain soul power.
28:39He wanted to gain all of the honors and positions that he was entitled to.
28:44There was one obstacle in Octavian's path, a man who shared his ambition to rule Rome alone.
28:50Mark Antony.
28:54After Caesar's death, Octavian controlled the western half of the Roman Empire, while Mark Antony ruled the eastern half.
29:09It was at this time, just as Caesar had before him, that he began a relationship with Cleopatra.
29:15Octavian used their liaison as a weapon, leading a vicious smear campaign against the couple.
29:22He used Mark Antony's relationship with Cleopatra to create an image of Mark Antony that was denigrating, that presented him as unmanned by this Egyptian whore.
29:35Octavian cannot attack Mark Antony, who is his rival, so he will attack Cleopatra and create a myth about her, which is everything that Rome hates.
29:46She uses sex to lure these poor men. She's a murderer, and they describe her as a prostitute.
29:53Finally, the confrontation escalated into a full-blown war. At stake was the chance to be the sole ruler of the empire.
30:06Octavian played a calculated game.
30:11When Octavian actually declares war, he chooses to declare war on Cleopatra.
30:20And in doing so, he turns this war into a war against a foreign queen, rather than into a war against another Roman general.
30:31Octavian won the war. His victory was devastating.
30:37When Egypt was conquered, Mark Antony committed suicide.
30:42Cleopatra was taken prisoner.
30:45Octavian finally had control of the entire empire.
30:51Pat Brown's psychological profile is beginning to take shape.
30:56He is a brilliant chess player. He's trying to eliminate her bit by bit.
31:00And when it comes down to the crime scene, the last days of Cleopatra's life, there he is.
31:04He's in Alexander. He's got control of the mausoleum.
31:08And now he's going to call the shots, and he's going to make happen what he wants to happen.
31:13But there's one thing which contradicts the idea that Octavian killed Cleopatra.
31:19The ancient sources say he wanted her alive.
31:23That he planned to humiliate her by displaying her in a triumphant procession through the streets of Rome.
31:28It was quite a common practice to take the vanquished kings of foreign countries and show them off in Rome.
31:39And if Octavian was planning on publicly humiliating Cleopatra, then he would have no motive for killing her.
31:46In search of clues, Pat Brown travels to Rome to try and find out more about Octavian's character.
31:53expert Dr. Lorianne Tuchet takes her to the site of the Roman Forum.
32:07Here, Octavian built a lavish temple to his chosen deity, Mars, God of War.
32:13We're coming up the steps of the Temple of Mars Ultor that was dedicated by Augustus to Mars the Avenger.
32:23So he's continuing the tradition of relating himself to the gods to give him that kind of power in front of the people.
32:31Absolutely.
32:34It's interesting that just after Octavian arrives in Rome, one of his first acts is to hold games.
32:40What happened, the games began, a comet appeared in the sky.
32:46And so Octavian could present this comet as Caesar, who indeed was a god.
32:53From that point on, he calls himself Diwi Filius, son of the divine.
32:59How lucky for him.
33:00He actually has to rewrite himself in the same way that he created, manufactured an image of Cleopatra.
33:10As what?
33:11Create himself as the savior of Rome.
33:15It's clear that if Mark Antony had won, we would have a very different vision of him.
33:21For Pat Brown, Octavian's obvious ability to manipulate his public image is suspicious.
33:29Is it possible that he also used spin to change the story of Cleopatra's death?
33:34Octavian is a master of propaganda.
33:37When the story of Cleopatra takes place, he's really only at the beginning of his career.
33:41So he has time, power, and the intelligence to build a whole world of myth, of propaganda.
33:51A key piece of evidence is Octavian's grandiose memoirs entitled The Accomplishments of the Divine Augustus.
34:00Some believe these memoirs influenced the work of Roman historians Plutarch and Dio Cassius.
34:06There's some suggestion that they are actually following the memoirs of Augustus.
34:12And so we have this possibility that they're presenting Augustus's own view, how he wants to see the suicide of Cleopatra portrayed.
34:25Perhaps Octavian himself had created the idea that he had wanted to take Cleopatra alive as another piece of propaganda.
34:33Could it be that he was just trying to cover his tracks?
34:38When one analyzes the issues, one sees a very odd thing that there are more reasons to want her dead than to want to drag her through the streets in this triumph.
34:48The best enemy is a dead enemy.
34:51And if Cleopatra lived to go to the triumph in Rome, who knows what would have happened.
34:57Octavian probably considered this very well and thought, it's not worth it.
35:00It's not worth it.
35:03Brown has discovered that Octavian had both the opportunity and an alibi for Cleopatra's murder.
35:09But did he have a motive for a cold-blooded killing?
35:13Everyone needs a reason to kill. They don't just do it.
35:17Even if what people call a motiveless crime is not motiveless, it's only we don't understand it.
35:21Pat Brown's investigation has now cast serious doubts on the accepted version of Cleopatra's death, suicide by snake bite.
35:33She's even dismissed the alternative theory of poisoning.
35:37She believes that Cleopatra was murdered and she's closing in on a possible killer, Octavian.
35:46Now Brown is hunting for the final piece of evidence.
35:50She wants to discover the motive.
35:52And here is Cleopatra to the left, wearing the crown of upper and lower Egypt.
36:07Alongside her, depicted as co-ruler, is her son Caesarian.
36:12It's a significant clue.
36:14Cleopatra is showing him here as the future king.
36:20She is trying to say that he will be able to rule the whole world.
36:26Brown believes Gohari has found the motive in Cleopatra's son Caesarian.
36:33He posed a serious threat to Octavian.
36:37As son of Julius Caesar, he had a claim to the thrones of both Egypt and Rome.
36:44She becomes co-ruler with Caesarian, setting him up to take his place as the rightful heir of Caesar.
36:52The child is the threat to Rome.
36:54I mean, Cleopatra is a threat in her own right.
36:57But the child is the biggest threat of all, because he is the direct descendant of Julius Caesar, who has no other children.
37:06Pat Brown believes that Octavian would have stopped at nothing to destroy Cleopatra and Caesarian.
37:12Looking at this depiction, I can really see why Cleopatra was such a threat.
37:17This wasn't a woman he could buy off easily. This wasn't a woman who was going to go away.
37:21This is a woman who saw herself and her son ruling over a huge empire, and she was always going to be a thorn in the side of Octavian.
37:28Caesarian's fate may in itself hint at Octavian's determination to rid himself of Cleopatra and her heirs.
37:41Just days before Octavian arrived in Alexandria, Cleopatra sent the 17-year-old Caesarian to Ethiopia, hoping to protect him.
37:50But after Cleopatra's death, Octavian had him hunted down and killed.
37:55It's interesting that our sources brush over the murder of Caesarian. It's not seen as an important issue.
38:05And again, I think we're dealing with Augustine propaganda, with his ability to rewrite history after the time.
38:14Finally, Cleopatra's demise is making sense to Brown.
38:23Drawing on all her evidence from the investigation, she has reconstructed what she believes to be a plausible account of Cleopatra's death.
38:31It is not history's version, but her own.
38:38Cleopatra, last pharaoh of Egypt, is imprisoned in her mausoleum following the fall of Alexandria to her rival, Octavian.
38:48Her lover, Marc Antony, is already dead.
38:53Octavian faced a very difficult choice.
38:55He could keep her alive and have this wonderful triumph, or he could kill her and eliminate the threat he had in his life and into his future.
39:06That was the true goal he was seeking, and therefore I believe he chose to murder Cleopatra rather than take her to Rome.
39:14So he sends his men to do the job for him.
39:21He's got total secrecy there, and he can control everything and make it look like a suicide.
39:27So he wanted to murder her, but he wanted to make sure that that murder was not attached to him.
39:33And then he could create a story to distance himself from that crime.
39:37He simply says, I wasn't there.
39:41This is a wonderful cover-up.
39:44Could Brown's theory be correct?
39:47Will the theory hold up under scrutiny?
39:52Nicole Jewick, an expert on the life and death of Cleopatra, has examined her case.
39:57Pat Brown's conclusions are certainly worthy of more attention.
40:07What she has done could inspire people like me and others to think again.
40:13Why not?
40:15I believe that certainly the story is not what is the accepted tale.
40:21Other experts agree, Brown has finally addressed the mysteries surrounding Cleopatra's death.
40:29She was not that woman that could be defeated easily.
40:34She always looked at the future.
40:38I think that she was killed in a different way.
40:44At last, Brown is satisfied that the case can be closed.
40:49It's been 2,000 years since Cleopatra's death, but I believe that it was a murder, and I believe we found the murderer.
41:03Cleopatra was 39 years old when she died.
41:07With her death, 3,000 years of Egyptian civilization came to an end.
41:12Octavian captured Egypt, and the once great nation became just another province of the vast Roman Empire.
41:23But Cleopatra may have ultimately won the war.
41:28The extraordinary stories of her life and death created a powerful myth, and her legacy is still remembered today.
41:35By using modern science and investigative techniques, it's possible that the myths surrounding her death have finally been dispelled.
41:47The psychological profile has painted a detailed picture, not only of a victim, but of one of the most extraordinary rulers the world has ever seen.
41:56The world has ever seen.
41:57The world has ever seen.