The Battle of Actium illustrates Cleopatra’s poor decisions through her fleeing and how it led to the navy’s surrender. On September 2, 31 BCE the Egyptian and Roman navies battled in Actium, Greece. The sides fought hardly and eventually Cleopatra made the choice to flee along with Antonius and 60 Egyptian ships fled. The abandonment of the remaining navy gave Egypt no choice but to surrender. Cleopatra’s mistake of fleeing enabled the Romans to move to land and defeat the Egyptian land forces less than a week later (“Cleopatra Commits Suicide” 2010). The loss at Actium allowed the Roman forces to takeover Alexandria a year later. When Alexandria was taken, Cleopatra hid in a mausoleum. The game of hide and seek Cleopatra was playing caused …show more content…
Cleopatra’s death left Egypt without many options for a future as her children were too young. Cleopatra’s oldest son and co-monarch, Caesarian, was executed just a few days after Cleopatra’s death (“Cleopatra Commits Suicide” 2010). Cleopatra’s other children were too young to rule an empire, so after Cleopatra’s death, Rome annexed Egypt. Roman law replaced Egyptian law and a new Roman social hierarchy was set up (“Roman Egypt” 2016). Egypt was stable for a while, but after a few years chaos returned. Plagues, civil war, and invasions took over the daily life of the once great empire (“Roman Egypt” 2016). Egypt was fighting and battling just to stay alive until the end of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century. Even when the Roman Empire ended, the Egyptians stayed in the shackles that Cleopatra put them in. Egypt remained a part of the then Byzantine Empire for even longer until the Arabs conquered them (“Roman Egypt” 2016). The Ptolemaic Dynasty’s age was long gone, but due to Cleopatra’s mistakes, Egypt’s future was full of conflict and colonization. Cleopatra’s glory has been outshined by her failures and mistakes that led to the Ptolemaic Dynasty’s end through her neglect, angering of the Romans, and failure to combat Egyptian subordination to