Asp – or ash? Climate historians link Cleopatra's demise to volcanic eruption

Study of ice-core records and Ancient Egyptian documents suggests environmental forces helped seal the last Ptolemaic ruler's fate in 30BC

The fall of Cleopatra's Egypt to Augustus, the first Roman emperor, is usually told as a melodramatic power struggle between elites on the world stage.

Cleopatra famously forged a doomed political alliance with the Roman general Mark Antony, who was also her lover. But when their combined forces were defeated at the battle of Actium, the pair killed themselves and Egypt became a province of the newly formed Roman empire.