In 30 BCE, Egypt fell to Rome. Mark Antony and Cleopatra were defeated, and Alexandria—capital of the Hellenistic world—passed into Roman hands. The Republic was effectively over. One man now stood above all others. That man was Octavian, the future Augustus. Soon after entering Alexandria, Octavian requested to be taken to the Soma (or Sema)—the monumental mausoleum that held the preserved body of Alexander the Great. Ancient historians, including Suetonius, record what happened next. Octavian