1. The death of Cleopatra has puzzled experts for centuries.
Legend has it that Cleopatra died in 30 B.C. using the painful method of suicide by a snake bite. However, several historians argue that the queen took her own life in a more conventional manner. Christopher Schaefer, a professor of ancient history at the University of Trier, told CNN that he is sure a snake was not to blame.
This German scholar argued that Cleopatra would not have chosen such an unreliable and torturous method to end her life. For one, an asp bite isn’t always fatal. And on the other hand, it can have gruesome effects, such as body paralysis. This supports Cassius Dio, a Roman historian who, two centuries after her death, wrote that Cleopatra had a “quiet and painless death.”