In his
Parallel Lives biography of Mark Antony,
Plutarch noted that
Augustus Caesar "had a decree made, declaring war on Cleopatra, and depriving Antony of the authority which he had let a woman exercise in his place. Caesar added that [Antony] had drunk potions that had bereaved him of his senses, and that the generals they would have to fight with would be Mardion the
eunuch, Potheinus, Iras, Cleopatra's
hairdressing girl, and Charmion, who were Antony's chief state-councillors." Plutarch later described the scene after Cleopatra's
suicide: The messengers came at full speed, and found the guards apprehensive of nothing; but on opening the doors, they saw her stone-dead, lying upon a bed of gold, set out in all her royal ornaments. Iras, one of her women, lay dying at her feet, and Charmion, just ready to fall, scarce able to hold up her head, was adjusting her mistress's
diadem. And when one that came in said angrily, "Was this well done of your lady, Charmion?" "Extremely well," she answered, "and as became the descendant of so many kings"; and as she said this, she fell down dead by the bedside. ==Shakespeare==