Octavian told her he'd keep her alive, but that was all he said. When she heard rumors that she'd be taken to Rome, she was horrified —she didn't want to be paraded around as a prisoner. Once again, she prepared to take her own life, and this time, she was successful. She died in August, 30 BC, at the age of 39, alongside two of her servants.

Cleopatra was the first Ptolemaic ruler who learned to speak and write in Egyptian. For 300 years, her family spoke only Greek, so court documents, including the Rosetta stone, were bilingual—written in both in Greek and Egyptian. That means that for those 300 years, the person ruling the Egyptians didn’t even speak their language. The era of the Pharaohs was almost incomprehensibly long—the first dynasty of Egypt began in 3100 BC—over 5,000 years ago. The Great Pyramids at Giza were constructed between 2550 to 2490 BC. This means that Cleopatra lived closer to the time of the Moon landing than she did to the construction of the pyramids. Cleopatra entered her tomb and put her plan in motion. W. and D. Downey, Getty Images 43. Pre-Romeo & JulietAll those of you born on February 29 who only get to celebrate their birthday once every four years have her to thank. Sporting a size 73 bra, Chesty Morgan is clearly the biggest girl in movies. The Polish-born, Israeli-raised Ilona Wilczkowski brought a great deal from the Land of Milk and Honey (emphasis on the milk) to her cult movie appearances in Doris Wishman’s “Deadly Weapons” and “Double Agent 73,” where she played characters who asphyxiated men by smothering them with her breasts. Federico Fellini saw the surreal aspects to these supersized jobs and included her in his over-the-top “Casanova.” Alas, her scenes were cut from the final print, but the jettisoned footage has found a new life on YouTube (though we wonder if Chesty Morgan will ultimately sink YouTube’s bandwidth). The first three years of Cleopatra’s reign were tough. When Cleopatra took the throne, Egypt was already beset by a terrible drought—low Nile flooding meant that crops failed, trade suffered, people went hungry, and less money was made. Political unrest caused by the bad conditions made a coup against Cleopatra almost inevitable —but as always, she had an ace up her sleeve. Cleopatra’s arrival in Rome with her lover, Caesar, caused quite a stir. In addition to the affair setting tongues wagging, Cleopatra became a fashion and beauty icon amongst Roman women. She wore the hairstyle of her Greek ancestors, with her hair braided into a bun. Upon her arrival, this hairstyle was adopted by Roman women along with Cleopatra’s makeup and signature pearl jewelry.

Cleopatra not only spoke Greek and Egyptian. According to the historian Plutarch, she spoke at least nine languages —for a very practical reason. Her multilingual tongue meant that she could speak to generals and rulers of other countries without an interpreter, which would have given her an upper hand. An impressive move, and one that endeared herself to Mark Antony, who fancied himself to be an embodiment of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and revelry.Cleopatra, Mark Antony, and Octavian all spent nearly a year negotiating a plan amenable to all three, but Octavian grew frustrated by it all —after all, Cleopatra and Mark Antony had lost at the Battle of Actium. He finally decided to stop playing nice and invade Egypt. Following a handful of battles, Mark Antony's naval fleet surrendered to Octavian in August, 30 BC. When the Roman leader Octavian was offered a chance to name a month in his honor, he chose August, the month he defeated Cleopatra, instead of his September birth month, as his success was founded on her loss. He took the name Emperor Augustus, and he carried a statue of her through Rome's streets every August in triumph.