3731 AM · 30 BCE · world history
Cleopatra and the End of Independent Egypt
With Cleopatra's death the Ptolemaic dynasty ends, and Egypt becomes a Roman province.
The last of the Ptolemies held on to power by leaning on Rome and its leading men: first Caesar, then Antony. She was the only one of her dynasty to learn Egyptian, and she did business in several languages, but the outcome was being decided elsewhere. After the defeat at Actium, Octavian entered Alexandria, and Antony and Cleopatra took their own lives. Egypt passed directly to the victor and became Rome's granary, shipping grain to the capital. Three thousand years of independent Egyptian statehood ended there.