The death of Cleopatra VII, the last ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, occurred on either 10 or 12 August, 30 BC, in Alexandria, when she was 39 years old. Strabo, who provides the earliest historical account on the death, says Cleopatra committed suicide either by allowing an asp (Egyptian cobra) to bite her or by a toxic ointment, for example with a sharp implement such as a hairpin. Primary source accounts are derived mainly from the works of the ancient Roman historians Strabo, Plutarch, and Cassius Dio.