ALDERAMIN (Alpha Cephei). Though Cepheus (the King) is famed in mythology as father to Andromeda, it is far from being one of the sky’s more prominent ancient constellations, its brightest star, Alderamin, just barely second magnitude (2.44).
When a spy informed her that Octavian planned to move her and her children to Rome in three days, she prepared for suicide as she had no intentions of being paraded in a Roman triumph like her sister Arsinoe IV. It is unclear if Cleopatra’s suicide on 10 August 30 BC, at age 39, took place within the palace or her tomb. It is said she was accompanied by her servants Eiras and Charmion, who also took their own lives.