Cleopatra
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Ptolemy XV Caesarion[note 2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Co-rulers | See list
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Born | Cleopatra V Tryphaena)[note 4] |
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Cleopatra VII |
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Cleopatra VII Philopator (
In 58 BC, Cleopatra presumably accompanied her father,
In the
Cleopatra's legacy survives in ancient and modern
Etymology
The Latinized form
Biography
Background

Ptolemaic
Roman interventionism in Egypt predated the
Early childhood
Cleopatra VII was born in early 69 BC to the ruling
Reign and exile of Ptolemy XII

In 65 BC the
In 58 BC the Romans
The Roman financiers of Ptolemy XII remained determined to restore him to power.
Gabinius was put on trial in Rome for abusing his authority, for which he was acquitted, but his second trial for accepting bribes led to his exile, from which he was recalled seven years later in 48 BC by Caesar.[75][76] Crassus replaced him as governor of Syria and extended his provincial command to Egypt, but he was killed by the Parthians at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC.[75][77] Ptolemy XII had Berenice IV and her wealthy supporters executed, seizing their properties.[78][79][80] He allowed Gabinius's largely Germanic and Gallic Roman garrison, the Gabiniani, to harass people in the streets of Alexandria and installed his longtime Roman financier Rabirius as his chief financial officer.[78][81][82][note 22] Within a year Rabirius was placed under protective custody and sent back to Rome after his life was endangered for draining Egypt of its resources.[83][84][80][note 23] Despite these problems, Ptolemy XII created a will designating Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII as his joint heirs, oversaw major construction projects such as the Temple of Edfu and a temple at Dendera, and stabilized the economy.[85][84][86][note 24] On 31 May 52 BC, Cleopatra was made a regent of Ptolemy XII, as indicated by an inscription in the Temple of Hathor at Dendera.[87][88][89][note 25] Rabirius was unable to collect the entirety of Ptolemy XII's debt by the time of the latter's death, and so it was passed on to his successors Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII.[83][76]
Accession to the throne

Ptolemy XII died sometime before 22 March 51 BC, when Cleopatra, in her first act as queen, began her voyage to
In 50 BC
By 29 August 51 BC, official documents started listing Cleopatra as the sole ruler, evidence that she had rejected her brother Ptolemy XIII as a co-ruler.
Despite Cleopatra's rejection of him, Ptolemy XIII still retained powerful allies, notably the eunuch
Assassination of Pompey

In the summer of 49 BC, Cleopatra and
In Greece, Caesar and Pompey's forces engaged each other at the decisive
Relationship with Julius Caesar
Ptolemy XIII arrived at Alexandria at the head of his army, in clear defiance of Caesar's demand that he disband and leave his army before his arrival.[127][128] Cleopatra initially sent emissaries to Caesar, but upon allegedly hearing that Caesar was inclined to having affairs with royal women, she came to Alexandria to see him personally.[127][129][128] Historian Cassius Dio records that she did so without informing her brother, dressed in an attractive manner, and charmed Caesar with her wit.[127][130][131] Plutarch provides an entirely different and perhaps mythical account that alleges she was bound inside a bed sack to be smuggled into the palace to meet Caesar.[127][132][133][note 33]

When Ptolemy XIII realized that his sister was in the palace consorting directly with Caesar, he attempted to rouse the populace of Alexandria into a riot, but he was arrested by Caesar, who used his oratorical skills to calm the frenzied crowd.[134][135][136] Caesar then brought Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII before the assembly of Alexandria, where Caesar revealed the written will of Ptolemy XII—previously possessed by Pompey—naming Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII as his joint heirs.[137][135][129][note 34] Caesar then attempted to arrange for the other two siblings, Arsinoe IV and Ptolemy XIV, to rule together over Cyprus, thus removing potential rival claimants to the Egyptian throne while also appeasing the Ptolemaic subjects still bitter over the loss of Cyprus to the Romans in 58 BC.[138][135][139][note 34]
Judging that this agreement favored Cleopatra over Ptolemy XIII and that the latter's army of 20,000, including the Gabiniani, could most likely defeat Caesar's army of 4,000 unsupported troops, Potheinos decided to have Achillas lead their forces to Alexandria to attack both Caesar and Cleopatra.[138][135][140][note 35] After Caesar managed to execute Potheinos, Arsinoe IV joined forces with Achillas and was declared queen, but soon afterward had her tutor Ganymedes kill Achillas and take his position as commander of her army.[141][142][143][note 36] Ganymedes then tricked Caesar into requesting the presence of the erstwhile captive Ptolemy XIII as a negotiator, only to have him join the army of Arsinoe IV.[141][144][145] The resulting siege of the palace, with Caesar and Cleopatra trapped together inside, lasted into the following year of 47 BC.[146][126][147][note 37]
Sometime between January and March of 47 BC, Caesar's reinforcements arrived, including those led by
Caesar's term as consul had expired at the end of 48 BC.[151] However, Antony, an officer of his, helped to secure Caesar's appointment as dictator lasting for a year, until October 47 BC, providing Caesar with the legal authority to settle the dynastic dispute in Egypt.[151] Wary of repeating the mistake of Cleopatra's sister Berenice IV in having a female monarch as sole ruler, Caesar appointed Cleopatra's 12-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIV, as joint ruler with the 22-year-old Cleopatra in a nominal sibling marriage, but Cleopatra continued living privately with Caesar.[157][126][148][note 40] The exact date at which Cyprus was returned to her control is not known, although she had a governor there by 42 BC.[158][148]

Caesar is alleged to have joined Cleopatra for a cruise of the Nile and sightseeing of
Caesar departed from Egypt around April 47 BC, allegedly to confront Pharnaces II of Pontus, the son of Mithridates VI of Pontus, who was stirring up trouble for Rome in Anatolia.[165] It is possible that Caesar, married to the prominent Roman woman Calpurnia, also wanted to avoid being seen together with Cleopatra when she bore him their son.[165][159] He left three legions in Egypt, later increased to four, under the command of the freedman Rufio, to secure Cleopatra's tenuous position, but also perhaps to keep her activities in check.[165][166][167]
Caesarion, Cleopatra's alleged child with Caesar, was born 23 June 47 BC and was originally named "Pharaoh Caesar", as preserved on a stele at the Serapeum of Saqqara.[168][126][169][note 41] Perhaps owing to his still childless marriage with Calpurnia, Caesar remained publicly silent about Caesarion (but perhaps accepted his parentage in private).[170][note 42] Cleopatra, on the other hand, made repeated official declarations about Caesarion's parentage, naming Caesar as the father.[170][171][172]

Cleopatra and her nominal joint ruler Ptolemy XIV visited Rome sometime in late 46 BC, presumably without Caesarion, and were given lodging in Caesar's villa within the
Cleopatra's presence in Rome most likely had an effect on the events at the
Cleopatra in the Liberators' civil war
Octavian, Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate in 43 BC, in which they were each elected for five-year terms to restore order in the Republic and bring Caesar's assassins to justice.[195][196] Cleopatra received messages from both Gaius Cassius Longinus, one of Caesar's assassins, and Publius Cornelius Dolabella, proconsul of Syria and Caesarian loyalist, requesting military aid.[195] She decided to write Cassius an excuse that her kingdom faced too many internal problems, while sending the four legions left by Caesar in Egypt to Dolabella.[195][197] However, these troops were captured by Cassius in Palestine.[195][197] While Serapion, Cleopatra's governor of Cyprus, defected to Cassius and provided him with ships, Cleopatra took her own fleet to Greece to personally assist Octavian and Antony, but her ships were heavily damaged in a Mediterranean storm and she arrived too late to aid in the fighting.[195][198] By the autumn of 42 BC, Antony had defeated the forces of Caesar's assassins at the Battle of Philippi in Greece, leading to the suicide of Cassius and Brutus.[195][199]
By the end of 42 BC, Octavian had gained control over much of
Relationship with Mark Antony
Cleopatra invited Antony to come to Egypt before departing from Tarsos, which led Antony to visit Alexandria by November 41 BC.
Cleopatra carefully chose Antony as her partner for producing further heirs, as he was deemed to be the most powerful Roman figure following Caesar's demise.[215] With his powers as a triumvir, Antony also had the broad authority to restore former Ptolemaic lands, which were currently in Roman hands, to Cleopatra.[216][217] While it is clear that both Cilicia and Cyprus were under Cleopatra's control by 19 November 38 BC, the transfer probably occurred earlier in the winter of 41–40 BC, during her time spent with Antony.[216]
By the spring of 40 BC, Antony left Egypt due to troubles in Syria, where his governor Lucius Decidius Saxa was killed and his army taken by Quintus Labienus, a former officer under Cassius who now served the Parthian Empire.[218] Cleopatra provided Antony with 200 ships for his campaign and as payment for her newly acquired territories.[218] She would not see Antony again until 37 BC, but she maintained correspondence, and evidence suggests she kept a spy in his camp.[218] By the end of 40 BC, Cleopatra had given birth to twins, a boy named Alexander Helios and a girl named Cleopatra Selene II, both of whom Antony acknowledged as his children.[219][220] Helios (the Sun) and Selene (the Moon) were symbolic of a new era of societal rejuvenation,[221] as well as an indication that Cleopatra hoped Antony would repeat the exploits of Alexander the Great by conquering the Parthians.[211]
Mark Antony's Parthian campaign in the east was disrupted by the events of the
In December 40 BC Cleopatra received Herod in Alexandria as an unexpected guest and refugee who fled a turbulent situation in
Relations between Antony and Cleopatra perhaps soured when he not only married Octavia, but also sired her two children, Antonia the Elder in 39 BC and Antonia Minor in 36 BC, and moved his headquarters to Athens.[233] However, Cleopatra's position in Egypt was secure.[211] Her rival Herod was occupied with civil war in Judea that required heavy Roman military assistance, but received none from Cleopatra.[233] Since the authority of Antony and Octavian as triumvirs had expired on 1 January 37 BC, Octavia arranged for a meeting at Tarentum, where the triumvirate was officially extended to 33 BC.[234] With two legions granted by Octavian and a thousand soldiers lent by Octavia, Antony traveled to Antioch, where he made preparations for war against the Parthians.[235]
Antony summoned Cleopatra to Antioch to discuss pressing issues, such as Herod's kingdom and financial support for his Parthian campaign.[235][236] Cleopatra brought her now three-year-old twins to Antioch, where Antony saw them for the first time and where they probably first received their surnames Helios and Selene as part of Antony and Cleopatra's ambitious plans for the future.[237][238] In order to stabilize the east, Antony not only enlarged Cleopatra's domain,[236] he also established new ruling dynasties and client rulers who would be loyal to him, yet would ultimately outlast him.[239][217][note 48]
In this arrangement Cleopatra gained significant former Ptolemaic territories in the Levant, including nearly all of
Antony's enlargement of the Ptolemaic realm by relinquishing directly controlled Roman territory was exploited by his rival Octavian, who tapped into the public sentiment in Rome against the empowerment of a foreign queen at the expense of their Republic.
In 36 BC, Cleopatra accompanied Antony to the Euphrates in his journey toward invading the Parthian Empire.[248] She then returned to Egypt, perhaps due to her advanced state of pregnancy.[249] By the summer of 36 BC, she had given birth to Ptolemy Philadelphus, her second son with Antony.[249][236]
Donations of Alexandria
As Antony prepared for another Parthian expedition in 35 BC, this time aimed at their ally
Dellius was sent as Antony's envoy to Artavasdes II in 34 BC to negotiate a potential
In an event held at the
In late 34 BC, Antony and Octavian engaged in a heated war of propaganda that would last for years.
A
Battle of Actium
In a speech to the Roman Senate on the first day of his consulship on 1 January 33 BC, Octavian accused Antony of attempting to subvert Roman freedoms and territorial integrity as a slave to his Oriental queen.[279] Before Antony and Octavian's joint imperium expired on 31 December 33 BC, Antony declared Caesarion as the true heir of Caesar in an attempt to undermine Octavian.[279] In 32 BC, the Antonian loyalists Gaius Sosius and Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus became consuls. The former gave a fiery speech condemning Octavian, now a private citizen without public office, and introduced pieces of legislation against him.[278][280] During the next senatorial session, Octavian entered the Senate house with armed guards and levied his own accusations against the consuls.[278][281] Intimidated by this act, the consuls and over 200 senators still in support of Antony fled Rome the next day to join the side of Antony.[278][281][282]
Antony and Cleopatra traveled together to Ephesus in 32 BC, where she provided him with 200 of the 800 naval ships he was able to acquire.[278] Ahenobarbus, wary of having Octavian's propaganda confirmed to the public, attempted to persuade Antony to have Cleopatra excluded from the campaign against Octavian.[283][284] Publius Canidius Crassus made the counterargument that Cleopatra was funding the war effort and was a competent monarch.[283][284] Cleopatra refused Antony's requests that she return to Egypt, judging that by blocking Octavian in Greece she could more easily defend Egypt.[283][284] Cleopatra's insistence that she be involved in the battle for Greece led to the defections of prominent Romans, such as Ahenobarbus and Lucius Munatius Plancus.[283][281]
During the spring of 32 BC Antony and Cleopatra traveled to Athens, where she persuaded Antony to send Octavia an official declaration of divorce.[283][281][267] This encouraged Plancus to advise Octavian that he should seize Antony's will, invested with the Vestal Virgins.[283][281][269] Although a violation of sacred and legal rights, Octavian forcefully acquired the document from the Temple of Vesta, and it became a useful tool in the propaganda war against Antony and Cleopatra.[283][269] Octavian highlighted parts of the will, such as Caesarion being named heir to Caesar, that the Donations of Alexandria were legal, that Antony should be buried alongside Cleopatra in Egypt instead of Rome, and that Alexandria would be made the new capital of the Roman Republic.[285][281][269] In a show of loyalty to Rome, Octavian decided to begin construction of his own mausoleum at the Campus Martius.[281] Octavian's legal standing was also improved by being elected consul in 31 BC.[281] With Antony's will made public, Octavian had his casus belli, and Rome declared war on Cleopatra,[285][286][287] not Antony.[note 54] The legal argument for war was based less on Cleopatra's territorial acquisitions, with former Roman territories ruled by her children with Antony, and more on the fact that she was providing military support to a private citizen now that Antony's triumviral authority had expired.[288]

Antony and Cleopatra had a larger fleet than Octavian, but the crews of Antony and Cleopatra's navy were not all well-trained, some of them perhaps from merchant vessels, whereas Octavian had a fully professional force.
Cleopatra and Antony had the support of various allied kings, but Cleopatra had already been in conflict with Herod, and an earthquake in Judea provided him with an excuse to be absent from the campaign.
On 2 September 31 BC the naval forces of Octavian, led by
Downfall and death
While Octavian occupied Athens, Antony and Cleopatra landed at
Cleopatra perhaps started to view Antony as a liability by the late summer of 31 BC, when she prepared to leave Egypt to her son Caesarion.[307] Cleopatra planned to relinquish her throne to him, take her fleet from the Mediterranean into the Red Sea, and then set sail to a foreign port, perhaps in India, where she could spend time recuperating.[307][305] However, these plans were ultimately abandoned when Malichus I, as advised by Octavian's governor of Syria, Quintus Didius, managed to burn Cleopatra's fleet in revenge for his losses in a war with Herod that Cleopatra had largely initiated.[307][305] Cleopatra had no other option but to stay in Egypt and negotiate with Octavian.[307] Although most likely later pro-Octavian propaganda, it was reported that at this time Cleopatra started testing the strengths of various poisons on prisoners and even her own servants.[308]

Cleopatra had Caesarion enter into the ranks of the
After lengthy negotiations that ultimately produced no results, Octavian set out to invade Egypt in the spring of 30 BC,[312] stopping at Ptolemais in Phoenicia, where his new ally Herod provided his army with fresh supplies.[313] Octavian moved south and swiftly took Pelousion, while Cornelius Gallus, marching eastward from Cyrene, defeated Antony's forces near Paraitonion.[314][315] Octavian advanced quickly to Alexandria, but Antony returned and won a small victory over Octavian's tired troops outside the city's hippodrome.[314][315] However, on 1 August 30 BC, Antony's naval fleet surrendered to Octavian, followed by Antony's cavalry.[314][296][316] Cleopatra hid herself in her tomb with her close attendants and sent a message to Antony that she had committed suicide.[314][317][318] In despair, Antony responded to this by stabbing himself in the stomach and taking his own life at age 53.[314][296][305] According to Plutarch, he was still dying when brought to Cleopatra at her tomb, telling her he had died honorably and that she could trust Octavian's companion Gaius Proculeius over anyone else in his entourage.[314][319][320] It was Proculeius, however, who infiltrated her tomb using a ladder and detained the queen, denying her the ability to burn herself with her treasures.[321][322] Cleopatra was then allowed to embalm and bury Antony within her tomb before she was escorted to the palace.[321][305]

Octavian entered Alexandria, occupied the palace, and seized Cleopatra's three youngest children.
Cleopatra decided in her last moments to send Caesarion away to Upper Egypt, perhaps with plans to flee to