Egyptian cobra in the context of "Uraeus"

Cleopatra VII, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, died on either 10 or 12 August, 30 BC, in Alexandria, when she was 39 years old. According to popular belief, Cleopatra killed herself by allowing an asp (Egyptian cobra) to bite her, but according to the Roman-era writers Strabo, Plutarch, and Cassius Dio, Cleopatra poisoned herself using either a toxic ointment or by introducing the poison with a sharp implement such as a hairpin. Modern scholars debate the validity of ancient reports involving snakebites as the cause of death and whether she was murdered. Some academics hypothesize that her Roman political rival Augustus (Octavian) forced her to kill herself in a manner of her choosing. The location of Cleopatra's tomb is unknown. It was recorded that Octavian allowed for her and her husband, the Roman politician and general Mark Antony, who stabbed himself with a sword, to be buried together properly.

Cleopatra's death effectively ended the final war of the Roman Republic between the remaining triumvirs Octavian and Antony, in which Cleopatra aligned herself with Antony, father to three of her children. Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt following their loss at the 31 BC Battle of Actium in Roman Greece, after which Octavian invaded Egypt and defeated their forces. Committing suicide allowed her to avoid the humiliation of being paraded as a prisoner in a Roman triumph celebrating the military victories of Octavian, who would become Rome's first emperor in 27 BC and be known as Augustus. Octavian, rival heir of Julius Caesar had Cleopatra's son Caesarion (also known as Ptolemy XV) killed in Egypt but spared her children with Antony and brought them to Rome. Cleopatra's death marked the end of the Hellenistic period and Ptolemaic rule of Egypt, as well as the beginning of Roman Egypt, which became a province of the Roman Empire.

Asp is the modern anglicisation of the word "aspis", which in antiquity referred to any one of several venomous snake species found in the Nile region. The specific epithet, aspis, is a Greek word that means "viper". It is believed that aspis referred to what is now known as the Egyptian cobra.

The pschent (/pskʰént/; Greek ψχέντ) was the double crown worn by rulers in ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians generally referred to it as Pa-sekhemty (pꜣ-sḫm.ty), the Two Powerful Ones, from which the Greek term is derived. It combined the White Hedjet Crown of Upper Egypt and the Red Deshret Crown of Lower Egypt.

The Pschent represented the pharaoh's power over all of unified Egypt. It bore two animal emblems: an Egyptian cobra, known as the uraeus, ready to strike, which symbolized the Lower Egyptian goddess Wadjet; and a vulture representing the Upper Egyptian tutelary goddess Nekhbet. These were fastened to the front of the Pschent and referred to as the Two Ladies.

Gombe State (Fula: 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤺𞤮𞤥𞥆𞤦𞤫 Lesdi Gommbe; Tangale: Kwambe) is a state in northeastern Nigeria, bordered to the north and northeast by the states of Borno in the vicinity of Gongola River and Lake Dadin Kowa and Yobe in the vicinity of Gongola River, to the south by Taraba State, to the southeast by Adamawa State, and to the west by Bauchi State. Gombe is the state capital of Gombe state and it was formed from a part of Bauchi State on 1 October 1996. Of the 36 states in Nigeria, Gombe is the 22nd largest in area and the 32nd most populous, with an estimated population of about 3.25 million as of 2016. The state bears a slogan "Jewel in the Savannah".

Geographically, the state is within the tropical West Sudanian savanna ecoregion. Important geographic features include the Gongola River — which flows through Gombe's north and east into Lake Dadin Kowa — and part of the Muri Mountains, a small range in the state's far south. Among the state's nature endowments are a number of snake species, including carpet viper, puff adder, and Egyptian cobra populations along with hippopotamus, Senegal parrot, and grey-headed kingfisher populations.