Then quick as lightning the queen drew a dagger which she had hidden in her dress, and would have stabbed herself had not Proculeius seized her hands, at the same time reproaching her for not trusting Cæsar to prove a generous foe.
He then took away the dagger, and shook her clothes lest she had hidden poison in them.
A few days later, Cæsar himself came to see the queen. She, grown wise since the visit of Proculeius, deceived him, making him believe that she had now no desire save to live. So artful was she that she told Cæsar that she had kept some of her treasures that she might have gifts to bestow on Livia his wife and on Octavia his sister, when she went to Rome. Then Cæsar left her, satisfied that she would yet adorn his triumph.
Now by the queen’s desire, a basket of figs was brought to her from the country.
The guards stopped the countryman who brought it to the gate of the mausoleum, asking to see the contents of his basket.
He, pushing aside the leaves that lay on the top, showed them the figs. The men admired their size, and bade him take them to the queen.
But at the foot of the basket, although the guards did not suspect it, there lay concealed under the fruit, an asp, whose bite was deadly poison.
When Cleopatra had the basket safe in her possession, she wrote to Cæsar to beg that she might be buried beside Antony. Then she bade her women array her in her royal robes and set her diadems upon her head.
And when this was done she lifted the asp from the basket and placed it upon her arm.
No sooner did the queen’s letter reach Cæsar, than he sent in great haste to the mausoleum, for he feared that Cleopatra had found a way to die, although she had neither poison nor a dagger in her possession.