Did Cleopatra Have Any Pets?

By Staff WriterLast Updated April 10, 2020

Contemporary accounts of Cleopatra do not mention any pets she may have owned. Her life has been heavily mythologized, and some legends claim that she possessed a pet leopard named Arrow, but there is no evidence of this in ancient sources.

Cleopatra was born circa 69 B.C. into the Ptolemaic dynasty. She first became embroiled in Roman politics when Julius Caesar captured the Egyptian capital and made himself intermediary in a dynastic dispute. Cleopatra became Caesar’s lover and later became the lover of Mark Antony. Roman sources claim that Cleopatra eventually committed suicide by holding an asp to her breast. Her life inspired a Shakespearean play and an Oscar-winning film starring Elizabeth Taylor.