Keeping her appointment with Mark Antony in Tarsus, Cleopatra arrives in a golden barge, dressed as the goddess of love – and he proves susceptible

Cleopatra persuades Mark Antony to execute her sister Arsinoe, thus removing her last potential rival in the Egyptian royal family

Mark Antony spends the winter with Cleopatra in Alexandria

Cleopatra gives birth to twins and calls them Alexander and Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra, accompanied by their three-year-old twins, marry in Antioch

Cleopatra gives birth to another son of Mark Antony's and calls him Ptolemy Philadelphus

In a spectacular cerermony known as the Donations of Alexandria, Mark Antony distributes the eastern Roman territories between Cleopatra, her eldest son (Caesarion) and his own three children

Octavian defeats the forces of Antony and Cleopatra (both are at sea with their fleets) in a battle off the Greek coast at Actium

Octavian arrives in Egypt with an army, and holds Cleopatra a prisoner in her palace in Alexandria

Hearing that Cleopatra is dead (false news, as it turns out), Mark Antony commits suicide in Alexandria

Cleopatra commits suicide, applying a poisonous asp to her breast,

The Egyptians declare Caesarion to be their pharaoh, but it is not long before he is executed by Octavian - bringing to an end the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt

Octavian annexes Egypt as a Roman territory and takes back to Rome the vast treasures of the Egyptian pharaohs

With the annexation of Egypt, the entire Mediterranean falls under Roman control

When Octavian's Egyptian hoard reaches Rome, the standard rate of interest falls from 12% to 4%

Octavian is given the life-long title of Augustus by the senate in Rome, becoming in effect the first Roman emperor