The 30-Day Suicide: The Minute-by-Minute True Story of the Betrayal, Madness, and Final Cataclysm that Ended Cleopatra's Empire. (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798278212003)

You survived the fire that consumed Carthage. Now witness the final, fatal gamble of a queen.

The great power struggle of the ancient world culminated in Alexandria, in the final, desperate thirty days of the Ptolemaic Empire. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, and her Roman general, Mark Antony, believed their alliance could defy the ruthless ambition of Octavian. But after the catastrophic defeat at Actium, the two lovers were cornered, their world shrinking daily to the confines of the Egyptian capital.

Historian Robert Cain plunges into the psychological battlefield where love and power collided, reconstructing the agonizing final month from the palace walls to the mausoleum. Witness the devastating climax of history's most famous power couple:

• The World Shrinks: Antony's shame and collapse after abandoning his troops, while Cleopatra meticulously planned her own survival at any cost.

• The Final Bargain: Cleopatra's audacious, secret negotiations with Octavian, offering to sacrifice Antony to secure the Ptolemaic Dynasty.

• The Unraveling: The spectacular military and naval defections that shattered Antony's final hope, leaving him isolated and consumed by paranoia.

• The Iconic End: The dramatic ruse of the "poisoned pen", forcing Antony's desperate suicide, and Cleopatra's final, magnificent choice to deny Octavian his triumph.

THE 30-DAY SUICIDE reveals the tragic truth behind the iconic death of the last pharaoh, and the crucial political maneuvering that birthed the Roman Empire.

Book 2 in The Ancient Empire Downfall series.