Cleopatra

The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. queen of Egypt, was the last ruler in the Ptolemaic dynasty, which held power in Egypt from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE until the death of Cleopatra in 30 BCE. The Egyptian ruler referred to as Cleopatra was Cleopatra VII, daughter of Ptolemy XII, one of Alexander the Great’s Macedonian generals. The identity of Cleopatra’s mother is not known for certain. She may have been the daughter of Ptolemy XII and his first wife, Cleopatra V. Cleopatra V disappears from the historical record sometime before 68 BCE, however, and it is unclear whether this disappearance occurred before or after Cleopatra’s birth in 69 BCE. It is possible that Cleopatra’s mother may have been a concubine of Ptolemy XII (who himself was the son of Ptolemy IX and a concubine). The third option is that Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy XII’s second wife (name unknown). This wife was the mother of Ptolemy XII’s three youngest children, Arsinoe IV, Ptolemy XIII, and Ptolemy XIV. The Ptolemies ruled in Egypt as pharaohs and adopted the iconography and customs of the Egyptian pharaohs: many portraits of the Ptolemies show them in the style in which pharaohs were depicted and carrying pharaonic attributes; by the second generation of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the family engaged in brother-sister marriage, based on their belief that the pharaohs practiced sibling marriage. Cleopatra VII. . Alabaster portrait head at the temple of Taposiris Magna, which was built during the reign of King Ptolemy II (282–246 BCE), west of Alexandria, Egypt. Not much is known of Cleopatra’s early life, but in the royal family both boys and girls were educated, as women might rule alongside their male counterparts as pharaohs. Plutarch tells us that Cleopatra was the first of the Ptolemies to learn the Egyptian language and that she spoke a total of seven languages. She also would have learned math, astronomy, music, rhetoric, and Greek literature. In 51 BCE, when Ptolemy XII died, Cleopatra, then aged eighteen, took the throne, ruling with her brother (or more probably half brother) Ptolemy XIII. Because Ptolemy XIII was ten years old when their rule began, Cleopatra was the dominant partner in the relationship. Three advisers at the royal court, Achillas, Theodotus, and Pothinus, saw the young king as easily influenced and used him to further their own agenda. While Cleopatra was positively disposed toward the Romans, who had helped her father regain his throne, the advisers and Ptolemy XIII under their influence favored a more independent Egypt. By 48 BCE Ptolemy XIII and his advisers had succeeded in driving Cleopatra beyond Egypt’s borders. While she was amassing an army in Syria to attempt to regain her throne, Pompey was approaching Egypt, in retreat after losing the battle of Pharsalus to Julius Caesar. Based on his friendly relationship with Ptolemy XII, who had made him a ceremonial guardian of Ptolemy XIII, Pompey expected a favorable reception in Egypt. Instead, on Theodotus’s advice, Ptolemy XIII decided not to risk supporting the man whom Caesar was poised to defeat and thus to arouse Caesar’s ire. Pompey was executed and his head presented to Caesar when the latter arrived in pursuit. Rebelling against Caesar’s decree, Achillas launched an attack on Caesar’s army, which became known as the Alexandrian War. The conflict lasted four months, during which time Arsinoe joined Achillas’s forces. Achillas then persuaded Caesar to send Ptolemy XIII to him, claiming that if Ptolemy wished them to surrender they would. Caesar agreed and Achillas used Ptolemy to rally the troops against Caesar. In the course of the renewed fighting, Ptolemy XIII fell from a boat and drowned in the Nile. With Ptolemy XIII dead, Caesar assigned Cleopatra to rule with Ptolemy XIV, then aged twelve. Cyprus was placed under their control and Caesar brought Arsinoe to Rome and displayed her in